Is the PS4 upgrade worth it?

[PeacemakerPIN]

Ok, so I actually played The Pinball Arcade on the PS4, the free TOTAN Pro edition and some of the demos for other tables, and wow the sound is bad. Coming from the PS3 version the sound quality on the PS4 version is just not acceptable! It seems to happen on all the tables too, not just Season 1 and 2. I tried F-14 on the latest Season, 5, and the sound glitches were present. The best way I can describe them is a tick noise before the audio plays. It's truly awful. I can't believe this passed QA and that it hasn't been patched yet. The PS4 version has been out for 2 plus years. The lighting effects are nice but with the current audio it's not enough to put the PS4 version over the PS3 version for me. Also the table inserts don't seem to be a higher resolution than the PS3 version, even with Season 3 and beyond. I figure they are the same as the PS3 throughout the Seasons. I did notice the skull head on T2 looking better on the PS4 version and a reflection on the metal base of Big Shot but these things are very minor. The PS4 version has three things that are better than the PS3 version, first is the fact that you can demo the tables, that's great. Second is that the actual music for the tables you haven't bought plays in the menus. Third is the enhanced lighting. Still the horrible sound outweighs all the pros in my opinion. Yes the controller is nice with the L2 and R2 triggers but I don't have a problem with the DS3.

In a word I'd say the PS4 version is disappointing. The overall better experience is the PS3 version. Nothing takes me out of the experience more than the messed up audio of the PS4 version. Yes the PS3 doesn't have the lighting of the PS4 but I never noticed that while playing, I do notice the atrocious audio of the PS4 though. For me the PS4 version takes one step forward while taking many backward. It could be better than the PS3 version with a patch to fix the audio and upgrade the textures but two plus years out that seems unlikely.

I wonder if they will ever fix the visual bugs (Transparent Rectangles of DOOM) on Cirque Voltaire that was first introduced with the Mega Patch. (That was in 2014!) It's especially annoying because I love the look and sound of the table before the patch when I demoed it, but after I bought it and the subsequent patch, it became a visual and audio mess with bugs. At least the PC and Xbox One versions of the table look like it's supposed to look. Roadshow and High Speed 2 also have these visual glitches. And yeah, absolutely do not play F-14 with headphones until the audio gets patched. You will regret it.

Here is Cirque Voltaire before the first Mega Patch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HJ0aq8PBm4

And spoonman's recent video of Cirque Voltaire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzk3Wrh5f4


You can see the transparent rectangles screwing up the yellow flashing bulbs.

Also here's the PC version. You can have more reflections on the table and the ball if your hardware can handle it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNHmgsurNKI

 

[Tann]

I'm still a bit letdown that they removed the pinball table glass reflections from TPA. Going back to playing William's Pinball Arcade I feel it added yet another level of realism to make it feel like you are playing an actual pinball machine.

+1.

I really like too the "Glass" option in PHOF (both Gottlieb & Williams). It adds a lot of visual realism. Too bad it has been removed in TPA.

Also here's the PC version. You can have more reflections on the table and the ball if your hardware can handle it.

Oh yeah, I didn't know the same ball reflection was available on PC. It's the same than in PS3 version.

 

[gameaddict4life]

No that's not the same reflection as the PS3. It appears to be a static refection under the ball that doesn't change. The balls on the PS3 still look the best!

 

[gameaddict4life]

I've noticed a strange rectangular light reflection on the TOTAN machine on PS4. It moves around when adjusting the plunger cam on the front of the machine. Very strange.

 

[spoonman]

I wish Farsight would chime in on some of these concerns.
We seriously need a mega patch on the PS4.

I think a lot more people would start buying more tables on the PS4 if it were more polished.

Some things I'd like to see in the Mega Patch:

Fixed sound (scratchy, glitchy, low quality sounds fixed)

Lighting on par with DX11

3.0 Flipper Physics on all tables (currently only on Big Shot & Xenon). Needed to do Drop Catches, Live Passes, and more realistic play.

Better pinball reflection on table

Fix table specific bugs (texture rectangle glitches)


Possible features added, such as:

Stereoscopic 3D (was very nice when added to the PS3)

Trophy support on as many tables of Season 2 as possible.*…
*How does Zen Pinball still have the ability to continue to add trophies past what was believed to be the limit?

Friend filter in leaderboards (I'm not really sure why this was ever removed in the first place, but it's extremely useful IMO)

Pinball table glass reflections from Williams Pinball Hall of Fame & Gottlieb Collections (I know this is not likely)

An option to have the flipper sounds come out of the Dual Shock 4 controller speaker. Maybe have the LED change color from table to table to match the table. I.E. change to yellow for Taxi and red for Gorgar.

Remove or reposition (Pinball Arcade) box watermark logo on PS4 Video Share function which currently covers up 25% of the DMD.

There is more obviously.

 

[gameaddict4life]

This is just my opinion but from what I gather it seems that the relationship between Farsight and Sony isn't that great. Seems a lot of things don't pass inspection and whatnot. I would think Zen has a better relationship. It could just be for whatever reason it's harder to program for the Vita and PS4 with the kind of coding Farsight uses. At any rate PC and mobile seem to be the sweet spot for them.

I think the PS3 is still the best console option but maybe Xbox One is?

 

[PeacemakerPIN]

This is just my opinion but from what I gather it seems that the relationship between Farsight and Sony isn't that great. Seems a lot of things don't pass inspection and whatnot. I would think Zen has a better relationship. It could just be for whatever reason it's harder to program for the Vita and PS4 with the kind of coding Farsight uses. At any rate PC and mobile seem to be the sweet spot for them.

I think the PS3 is still the best console option but maybe Xbox One is?

Xbox One version also has it's fair share of bugs. But from what I see, less obvious visual bugs (Like how can you miss those obvious visual bugs in testing? lol). Who knows, one patch could potentially screw up alot of good code.

The funniest and quickest patch I've seen on PS4 was making all tables free. It was fun for a day or so, but it didn't solve any table glitch problems.

 

[gameaddict4life]

Yeah I read that on here somewhere. Oops! Haha.

 

[spoonman]

This is just my opinion but from what I gather it seems that the relationship between Farsight and Sony isn't that great. Seems a lot of things don't pass inspection and whatnot. I would think Zen has a better relationship. It could just be for whatever reason it's harder to program for the Vita and PS4 with the kind of coding Farsight uses. At any rate PC and mobile seem to be the sweet spot for them.

I think the PS3 is still the best console option but maybe Xbox One is?

Pinball Arcade has been featured on the PSN Blog many times over the years. Sony even proudly listed Pinball Arcade as one of the PS4's launch titles as well. I don't think there is any bad blood between them. I just think Sony is strict about there being too many bugs in their games ans Farsight has rushed a few releases with bugs on occasions.

Mobile market has always been their main source of income and therefore gets the greatest amount of focus.
I'd like to see them make more improvements on the PS4 version, and think it would increase sales if they were to make it better. Hopefully some day...