Play The PS4 Version Today ! (In Select Locations)

[smbhax]

I believe one of the reasons Pinball FX/Zen got so big is because they were there so close to the launch of the original 360 and PS3.

The PS3 launched in 2006. Zen Pinball didn't come out on PS3 until 2009.

Also, can you quantify "got so big"? Not that it necessarily means anything in terms of sales figures, but the official forum for their entire studio has less than half the posts of this one fan forum.

 

[brakel]

The PS3 launched in 2006. Zen Pinball didn't come out on PS3 until 2009.

Also, can you quantify "got so big"? Not that it necessarily means anything in terms of sales figures, but the official forum for their entire studio has less than half the posts of this one fan forum.

In my experience official forums are usually not nearly as popular as fan forums. Mark apparently has access to a lot of confidential sales figures but he's not allowed to tell us his sources of even acknowledge our questions.

 

[Sumez]

Also, can you quantify "got so big"? Not that it necessarily means anything in terms of sales figures, but the official forum for their entire studio has less than half the posts of this one fan forum.

I don't have any figures, but I hear people namedropping Zen a lot more than TPA, for some reason. They seem to have a great hold of people who aren't really into real-life pinball. Even my girlfriend recommended it to me on my phone, and she has absolutely no interest in pinball, so I have no idea how she heard of it.

I guess you could compare the number of people on their leaderboards.

 

[DodgeRodge]

Gamasutra does monthly analysis of leaderboards on Xbox Live Arcade, they include Pinball FX numbers:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Ryan...rcade_Sales_Analysis_in_Short_August_2013.php

You could dig out the analysis from the month when TPA was launched and compare this number to the month when when Pinball FX was launched. But I am too lazy for this, also it would only reflect Xbox Live arcade numbers.

 

[Mark W**a]

Check out avforums though, ps4 games thread - Pinball arcade not mentioned anywhere.

Never heard of AVForums.

In my experience official forums are usually not nearly as popular as fan forums. Mark apparently has access to a lot of confidential sales figures but he's not allowed to tell us his sources of even acknowledge our questions.

Sarcasm , ahh love it.

Pinball FX has been around forever and it's doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it has a strong following, canvass , and sells a lot of tables.

It doesn't take insider information either it takes uhh , a brain and glancing at the Xbox live arcade most popular, where it has been a fixture for 6 years or so.

The PS3 launched in 2006. Zen Pinball didn't come out on PS3 until 2009.

Also, can you quantify "got so big"? Not that it necessarily means anything in terms of sales figures, but the official forum for their entire studio has less than half the posts of this one fan forum.

I don't have a ps 3 I was just assuming. Pinball FX has been on Xbox since 07 and that's a part of why if is popular .

 

[Daniel Osborne]

It's a European thing mark. Not American.

 

[brakel]

Never heard of AVForums.

He might be talking about AVS Forum http://www.avsforum.com. But there's been a fair amount of talk about TPA for the PS4 there so maybe he's talking about something else.

 

[Worf]

No, there's AV Forums as well - not to be confused with the AVS Forums. AV Forums is a UK site, while AVS is a bit more American centric, and bigger. They cover similar topcs. I believe the two actually reference each other and there's more than a few members of both.

 

[smbhax]

Re: the Zen being "big" thing, another semi-indirect point of comparison we have is Google Play stats: both Zen and TPA have "1,000,000+" downloads there; Zen has 12K reviews and 20K G+ votes, while TPA has 16K and 40K, respectively. But I'm not sure I'd call even TPA "big"--these will always be niche-ish games.

 

[Daniel Osborne]

Bang on the money Worf.

 

[brakel]

No, there's AV Forums as well - not to be confused with the AVS Forums. AV Forums is a UK site, while AVS is a bit more American centric, and bigger. They cover similar topcs. I believe the two actually reference each other and there's more than a few members of both.

Ah. I sit corrected. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Mark W**a]

Quick Hands On!

The lighting in Cirqus Voiltaire, in my opinion, is fantastic. Is it over the top? Yes. Does the bloom wash out inserts? Yes, but hopefully that will be addressed. It's clearly an old build, but what I can say is that the overall look is very impressive. New animations on the pop bumpers look perfect, the code is much enhanced over 360 and PS3 in terms of bugs, and overall I came away very satisfied. The way light's pulsate and reflect off the ball is very impressive. Speaking of which ball reflections are on another level to 360 and PS3 versions. I didn't think that that was a big deal but seeing it in person it really does impress.

Textures are placeholders. Especially the DMD. It's very low resolution, not sure what happened there. The regular DMD looks fine and an improvement over last gen. The slowdown issues uhh, yeah it slows down when it zooms in, turn off the event/scrolling and it's fine but, surely this is a build issue? Then again, Knack runs like **** maybe it really is the two underclocked laptop CPU's ducktaped together holding things back? Guess we'll know in a few weeks.

Speaking of the console itself. Bigger than I imagined. I LOVE the look of the machine. Very Tron, as my buddy would say. The controller itself is a massive improvement over the PS3, but not quite as good as the Xbox 360. When you hold the controller with fingers on the main triggers, it feels perfect. Where the screwed up is the bumpers, or R1 R2 whatever you call them. I like how they are bigger than triggers on 360, but they aren't high up enough on the pad. So in other words, if you want to play pinball arcade with bumpers like I like to do, you have to change your hand placement on the controller to a less comfortable one. I pretended I was playing an FPS, and yeah touching them in general is unnatural unlike on a 360 pad. Overall though, a minor gripe and I think it's a great controller.

Knack runs like ****. Like, what the? The enviroments and Knack himself do not look impressive at all. Looks completely like a current gen title, complete with low resolution shadows that shimmer, and bland textures. What the? The enemies however, DO look next gen, they have a very pretty Pixar look to them. Overall, this title must have been rushed because there is no excuse for such a **** framerate in a game of this graphic fidelity.

However all this is forgiven because, Knack is FUN. I really, really enjoyed it. I will be buying it for my launch system. Just not something I'm going to be throwing in to impress people graphically. Maybe they were counting on a 2.0 GHZ CPU boost to sort out the framerate? It's VERY choppy, but then again, maybe it's cause I switched from 30 minutes with Pinball Arcade straight to Knack.

The other games on demo were laughably bad. I didn't even bother with them. No idea why the demo unit is so bare bones. Where was Killzone Shadows Fall? Where's Battlefield 4? Where's NBA 2K13? Does Sony want to sell this system or not? Lol.

Overall. The system just feels very solid. I love everything about it but I need to see Killzone in front of my face before I say next gen is truly here. Based off Knack and Pinball Arcade, which isn't fair but hey that's what they had on demo, I'd say next gen itself is a bit of a let down. Yeah it's a good boost off current gen, but not the kind of boost you'd expect after 8 years. I mean 8 years is the time between Dreamcast and Super Nintendo launches. You'd expect a quantum leap not this small boost. I don't know how to feel about that. Are we in some alternate reality where technology has stopped progressing, where society has stopped moving forward. Idk. Dammit just show me Killzone so I can be wowed.

 

[Mark W**a]

Oh POSITIVELY ZERO INPUT LAG fellas so rest easy on that front.

I also want to say. God, resolution is so overrated. Knack is 1080P and image-quality wise it looks no different than 360 games upscaled to be dead honest. I'd much , MUCH rather it were 900P or even 720P with a rock-solid 60FPS. #FrameRateIsKing

 

[ER777]

Oh POSITIVELY ZERO INPUT LAG fellas so rest easy on that front.

I also want to say. God, resolution is so overrated. Knack is 1080P and image-quality wise it looks no different than 360 games upscaled to be dead honest. I'd much , MUCH rather it were 900P or even 720P with a rock-solid 60FPS. #FrameRateIsKing

You should go stand in front of a 4K tv for a little while. Frame rate is very important but resolution is far from overrated.


Edit: Before I confuse anyone, I'm not saying PS4 supports 4K.

 

[Sumez]

Still, 60 FPS should be a higher priority than a high resolution.

 

[Jan Duin]

Based off Knack and Pinball Arcade, which isn't fair but hey that's what they had on demo, I'd say next gen itself is a bit of a let down. Yeah it's a good boost off current gen, but not the kind of boost you'd expect after 8 years. I mean 8 years is the time between Dreamcast and Super Nintendo launches. You'd expect a quantum leap not this small boost. I don't know how to feel about that. Are we in some alternate reality where technology has stopped progressing, where society has stopped moving forward. Idk. Dammit just show me Killzone so I can be wowed.

It will take years before games appear which take full advantage of the new hardware, as was the case with any new-gen console.

 

[utblick]

Tested TPA on PS4 today, really like it.
But I agree with Mark on the BAD placement of the left thumbstick, for me it's a real dealbreaker!
I really tried to like it, changed the grip for my left hand, but couldn't get the hand in a relaxed position (as when I play on Xbox 360). So my plan right now is to stick with PC/Steam..

 

[Dumpstar]

It will take years before games appear which take full advantage of the new hardware, as was the case with any new-gen console.

Agreed. It takes time for the console base to develop to a point that it's worth investing money into taking advantage of the new hardware. At the moment it's best to focus on the previous generation of consoles as that's where the money is.

 

[brakel]

Tested TPA on PS4 today, really like it.
But I agree with Mark on the BAD placement of the left thumbstick, for me it's a real dealbreaker!
I really tried to like it, changed the grip for my left hand, but couldn't get the hand in a relaxed position (as when I play on Xbox 360). So my plan right now is to stick with PC/Steam..

That's the same reason why I sold my 360 because I just couldn't get used to the left thumb stick placement. It felt too weird to have offset sticks, so I understand. I think there was a manufacturer selling PS3 controllers with a 360 style layout. It wouldn't surprise me if someone did the same for the PS4 for the 360 converts. I would have kept my 360 if I could have found a controller in a PS3 style layout.

 

[Mark W**a]

That's the same reason why I sold my 360 because I just couldn't get used to the left thumb stick placement. It felt too weird to have offset sticks, so I understand. I think there was a manufacturer selling PS3 controllers with a 360 style layout. It wouldn't surprise me if someone did the same for the PS4 for the 360 converts. I would have kept my 360 if I could have found a controller in a PS3 style layout.

You guys both misread me (or maybe I mistyped :-/) what I was talking about was actually the R1/L1 triggers, not the sticks. I actually found the sticks to be amazing, a massive improvement from those old 90's sticks on the PS3 pads and the linear placement does not bother me at all. Overall I love the controller and I don't think that should be a deal breaker for anyone: 360 or Xbox One converters will come, surely, just like on PS3/360.