IGN PS4 and PC review of TPA

[DrainoBraino]

But, But ... People want more DMDs and modern Stern's,

They say that with their voice, but their heart wants the oldies.

Now that we're on the subject, who needs flippers?? True pinball has no flippers. Bring on Baffle Ball!

 

[netizen]

They say that with their voice, but their heart wants the oldies.

Now that we're on the subject, who needs flippers?? True pinball has no flippers. Bring on Baffle Ball!

and a couple pachinko games to cover all the bases

 

[Tann]

A comparison between dark and bright room settings would have been useful.

Because some tables look so weird... (EATPM, MM -big dark area in the center-). BoP looks "flat" and lacks contrast (far better on PS3!)

On the other side, ToTAN, ToM, and BH are stunning.

PS4 version has some appeal for sure... but not as much as I expected.

EDIT: same disappointment than Spoonman related to the overall presentation: still the same clunky (mobile) menu.

 

[SilverBalls]

9/10 is great news and well deserved.

I agree that more Vintage tables would be good.

 

[Deltaechoe]

Just so you guys know, since this is a DX9 game it should be compatible with a popular video enhancement mod called ENBSeries. With the proper tweaks you can make the lighting very similar to the PS4 version

 

[Bowflex]

A 9.0 from IGN is pretty major. That's not given out very often, usually for the big-budget franchises like GTA or God of War. That score should get them sales.

 

[kimkom]

Good news about the IGN review.

Quite honestly though, I'm extremely disappointed by how this is looking. The lighting looks very poor, flat and undefined, in my opinion. Rather than sharp points of light, I see large blurry areas of what look like omni lights dotted around. Reflections are almost completely absent and the ball itself looks dull, lacking in shine and in shade most of the time. Textures and shaders look almost identical to current versions, with no improvement to transparent plastics.

I am pleased with how portrait mode is progressing on the PC, but now I really fear for the graphic quality we'll see in the future.

 

[goo_back]

A 9.0 from IGN is pretty major. That's not given out very often, usually for the big-budget franchises like GTA or God of War. That score should get them sales.

They've given out like eight 9.0's this month. Not frowning on the review or anything, but IGN is pretty liberal with high marks.

 

[LanceBoyle]

The game itself looks quite good, but I will admit, and this also goes towards the PC version, I don't really like how some of the tables still use lower-quality samples for the music and sounds. Doesn't really match, especially when you have two tables from the same era having really different sound quality.

Now, if they'll re-record all of the samples, I dunno, but it is a slight negative in terms of audiovisual presentation.

 

[Daniel Osborne]

i've linked that review onto the ps4 and next gen threads on both the bordersdown forum and avforums.
i've done this before with the xbox version,i suppose i looked a bit daft a few months down the line, but this time it's different !!! theatre of magic looked amazing, as did black hole !

 

[Daniel Osborne]

it's a pretty poor quality video , wait til you see it in the flesh, it WILL look better. and no improvement to plastics? did you not see TOTAN ?

 

[smbhax]

The lighting looks very poor, flat and undefined, in my opinion. Rather than sharp points of light, I see large blurry areas of what look like omni lights dotted around.

Yeah, they don't seem to have cast shadows, either pre-rendered or dynamic, so that's how it's gonna be, I guess. I do suspect the actual contrast will be a bit better when you see this in person vs a compressed video.

Reflections are almost completely absent

If they stick with their previous stance, the ball will be the only reflective thing, which is sort of understandable, but they also won't even have simple specular highlights on wireforms and so forth, and their absence was bizarre even on previous gen systems. It shouldn't be hard to do, so maybe they'll figure it out some time, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

the ball itself looks dull, lacking in shine and in shade most of the time.

Not sure I'm seeing what you mean here, if you watch it in 720 the reflection on the ball is quite sharp. The actual lighting on it will be fuzzy of course since that's how the dynamic lighting is, ie your first point.

 

[brakel]

Good news about the IGN review.

Quite honestly though, I'm extremely disappointed by how this is looking. The lighting looks very poor, flat and undefined, in my opinion. Rather than sharp points of light, I see large blurry areas of what look like omni lights dotted around. Reflections are almost completely absent and the ball itself looks dull, lacking in shine and in shade most of the time. Textures and shaders look almost identical to current versions, with no improvement to transparent plastics.

I am pleased with how portrait mode is progressing on the PC, but now I really fear for the graphic quality we'll see in the future.

When I played the PS4 version I thought the plastics looked much improved. They keep improving the lighting and you don't notice the extra bloom so much when you're busy playing rather than just watching. The bloom is way toned down from the first "spotlight" videos that we saw!

 

[smbhax]

Also, check out the PSNation video from today, the lighting contrast is much better: http://www.twitch.tv/psnation/b/481274212

EDIT: Hm looks like the wireforms might even have a bit of shine to them after all.

 

[starck]

The game itself looks quite good, but I will admit, and this also goes towards the PC version, I don't really like how some of the tables still use lower-quality samples for the music and sounds. Doesn't really match, especially when you have two tables from the same era having really different sound quality.

Now, if they'll re-record all of the samples, I dunno, but it is a slight negative in terms of audiovisual presentation.

^^ THIS. Agreed. They should NOT be using the old samples from PS3. They're worse than the original ROMs sound quality. The original samples on most tables actually sound very good. They need to up the audio portion of the game now. It's sorely lacking.

Using high quality samples, and not the same low-quality ones we currently have, would make me more interested. Until then, meh. They made the graphics better. Great. Now do the second half of the audiovisual portion of the game...the audio!

 

[kimkom]

Yeah, they don't seem to have cast shadows, either pre-rendered or dynamic, so that's how it's gonna be, I guess. I do suspect the actual contrast will be a bit better when you see this in person vs a compressed video.

So we have a new 'lighting' system that doesn't cast shadows. To me, I'm not seeing a lighting system, but a clever use of heavily saturated coloured overlays. It's a shame, as at the very least some pre-rendered shadows or AO would add a lot more depth. It all just looks off to me. For instance, what's going on with the large circular 'shadow' in the centre of the MM playfield?

If they stick with their previous stance, the ball will be the only reflective thing, which is sort of understandable, but they also won't even have simple specular highlights on wireforms and so forth, and their absence was bizarre even on previous gen systems. It shouldn't be hard to do, so maybe they'll figure it out some time, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Looks like there may be a little more reflection on certain details after all, we'll see. I'm looking forward to seeing how this looks on PC. Hopefully by that time, higher resolution textures will be available.

Not sure I'm seeing what you mean here, if you watch it in 720 the reflection on the ball is quite sharp. The actual lighting on it will be fuzzy of course since that's how the dynamic lighting is, ie your first point.

I think the specular on the ball looks very dull and unnatural within large areas of play, often looking very grey compared to surrounding 'lights'.

On the whole, I just hope that the overall look will be sharpened up, and there isn't as much use of large blobs of colour and bloom.

 

[Sumez]

They pronounced Gottlieb "Gottlib." : P

How else would you pronounce it?

 

[Bonzo]

Gottleep?

 

[Sumez]

Isn't that practically the same, only said a tad slower? :|

 

[Bonzo]

I like a good guitar riff, ships hate reefs... ;P