Bug PS3 Version 2.0.3 Bugs & Feedback

[grashopper]

Still no reply from Farside? WTF?

Yeah ... No comment feels like bad news.
How hard would it be to say we are working on it

 

[Ruz-El]

Basically I guess it works like this:

Table pack comes out

Wait 3 months so that the tables work as they should after numerous patches.?

That's how it went with Black Hole right? that's the example set? Ridiculous. I love the game, but it's getting hard to support...

 

[Tabe]

The ability to post offline scores to the Leaderboards hasn't been added yet.

Thanks for the reply. I thought I'd seen something - perhaps it was on the Android version or something - that said this was already implemented.

It's not a HUGE deal that this isn't implemented but it's also a pretty simple thing to do and should have been included from the get-go.

Tabe

 

[spoonman]

Is a one else having trouble getting the Special Monster Bash Wizard Goal to unlock?

I've hit it twice now, in two different outlanes and it hasn't unlocked for me!
Unless I'm missing something in the instructions. Special is lit and I go through the correct outlane and..... Nothing.

 

[Squid]

I finally got that goal to register during single-ball play. Somehow, it seems to be bugged if you get the Special during a multi-ball.

 

[BonzoGonzo]

yeah, i think so too... altough i play mb on xbox360, i got the special at least five times during multiball and it didn't register... in single play however, all was good

 

[spoonman]

I finally got that goal to register during single-ball play. Somehow, it seems to be bugged if you get the Special during a multi-ball.

That sucks. I only ever seem to get Special during multiball in that game.
Hope they can fix it.

 

[spoonman]

It seems like many of the Wizard goals (and probably standard goals) are messed up in 2.0.3. I had to hit the 4 way ball in Funhouse twice to get it.
I hit the Special Wizard Goal in Monster Bash about 5 times now and none have registered, and a couple of the CFTBL Wizard goals are not registering.

I really hope they address this since it's hard enough to hit some of these the first time.

Can you imagine how homicidal someone might become if they FINALLY get to Atlantis on Ripley's after playing it for months on end only to have the game ignore their Wizard goal achievement?!?

I don't even want to think about that.

 

[Ruz-El]

So the game continues to be broken with no word on fixes?

 

[Tabe]

It seems like many of the Wizard goals (and probably standard goals) are messed up in 2.0.3. I had to hit the 4 way ball in Funhouse twice to get it.
I hit the Special Wizard Goal in Monster Bash about 5 times now and none have registered, and a couple of the CFTBL Wizard goals are not registering.

I deleted my save so I had to redo all the standard goals in Funhouse. There's 5 goals total, right? Well, I had to complete those 5 goals a combined *13* times to get them to all register. Every single one took at least two completions to register.

Tabe

 

[spoonman]

I deleted my save so I had to redo all the standard goals in Funhouse. There's 5 goals total, right? Well, I had to complete those 5 goals a combined *13* times to get them to all register. Every single one took at least two completions to register.

Tabe

I hope fixing the Wizard Goals is a priority for Farsight. It's really frustrating to get some of these (Ripley's, MM, CV) and to have them not count makes you want to
give up on playing them when it happens.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Well, I finally bought a PS3 for the light-gun rail shooters (my daughter and I love these games) and of course to get an early glimpse of The Pinball Arcade DLC Tables well before they hit the Xbox 360 (my platform of choice for TPA). Here are my quick impressions of the PS3 version:

First off, I have zero flipper lag on the PS3 (something I was worried about) and the two stage flippers work great as long as you use the L2 and R2 trigger buttons. I personally can't wait to use the two stage flippers on the Xbox 360, but I do agree with the majority of people asking for an option to toggle the two stage flippers on/off as I believe most casual pinball players wouldn't understand how to use this feature properly right off the bat and would end up not enjoying the tables that use this feature. Also, trying to use the two stage flippers with the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons is a chore and doesn't feel natural. That said, the PS3 controller design is as bad as I remember it on the PS1 and PS2. The triggers are horribly designed with my fingers constantly slipping off them, especially during multi-ball, where as the Xbox 360 triggers are well designed and feel more natural to use with the two stage flippers. The left analog stick on the PS3 controller is too far to the right which makes it sort of a chore to nudge, where as the Xbox 360 controller has the left analog stick on the far left which makes nudging feel more natural.

Black Hole : The lighting on this table looks great on the PS3 and plays pretty much the same as the Xbox 360 version. The only thing I saw was that the clear tube the ball returns to the upper playfield through was not transparent and had a weird texture overlay.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! : The lighting on this table looks great as well and the table plays great. The only problems I have with this table are the muddy looking transparency of the red ramps (which look great on the Xbox 360 version) and the white flashers seem to have a green tint to them when they flash. By the way, I want to thank Jason for removing the static reflections that used to be on both sides of the inside cabinet walls. The table looks much better without them.

Tales of the Arabian Nights : The lighting on this table looks astonishing (I wish the clear ramps on the Xbox 360 version looked as good as the PS3 version). This table plays great and have seen no problems with this table as of yet.

Theatre of Magic : Another table where the lighting looks great and plays very well. The only two problems I have with this table are the greenish yellow flippers which should be white and the green reflections around the edges of the Tiger Saw blade.

Medieval Madness : This table was sort of a disappointment as the lighting looks okay, but the playfield seems to lack color and looks nowhere near as good as the Xbox 360 version. Also, the red flashers flash white instead of red which is really distracting. The table plays as good as the Xbox 360 version, but both still have the flipper gap issue (which is not a problem for me, but is for many others).

The Machine : Bride of Pin•Bot : The lighting is great on this table and plays very well. The only thing I had a problem with was the oversaturation of the white lights around the rotating head.

Cirqus Voltaire : Another table where the overall lighting (with the exception of the neon light) is lacking and playfield itself lacks color and does not look as good as the Xbox 360 version. This table plays roughly the same as the Xbox 360 version and the DMD on the playfield doesn't have the vertical screen tearing issue that the Xbox 360 version has (FarSight, please fix this on the Xbox 360).

Funhouse : The lighting is great on this table and is pretty much on par with the Xbox 360 version visually and play-wise. No problems with this table that I can see at the moment.

Gorgar : The lighting looks great on this table and is on par with the Xbox 360 play-wise.

Monster Bash : The lighting looks great on this table and it play just as good as its Xbox 360 counterpart. The only gripe I have with this table is that, once again, the red flashers flash white instead of red.

Black Knight : The lighting and playfield artwork (which looks low res on some parts) are a bit over-saturated and need some work, but this table is not nearly as bad as many have made it out to be. This table still plays great and the two stage flippers work well. Also, the moving background on the Table Select Screen is low res and very pixelated.

Creature from the Black Lagoon : The lighting looks great except the playfield artwork looks a bit washed out, but not to the degree of Medieval Madness and Cirqus Voltaire. This table does play very well though.

As for the ball itself, it looks likes its made of mercury instead of steel and needs a little work to look more like the steel ball on the Xbox 360 version.

Also, the overall sound (mechanical and ROM) needs to be bumped up as I had to turn up the volume to hear the table as well as I do on the Xbox 360 at a lower volume level.

Last, but certainly not least, the DMD needs to be brightened up some and a bit more saturated with orange.

Overall, I still think the Xbox 360 version is the best iteration of The Pinball Arcade (at the moment at least...PC?) and is my preferred version. I just hope FarSight can work through the roadblocks they're currently facing with getting DLC released on the Xbox 360.

 

[smbhax]

One thing I just remembered on my own new-ish PS3 that may help with some of the "oversaturation" issues is going into the PS3 XMB's "Settings > Display Settings" menu and switching RGB Full Range (HDMI) from the default "Limited" to "Full"--assuming your display supports the full 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 RGB color range, which I would think it would if it's anything other than ancient, but I'm no expert on TVs. Anyway I finally remembered to do that and suddenly the light and shadow on all the tables is much richer...and Netflix looks way better too of course.

 

[PiN WiZ]

One thing I just remembered on my own new-ish PS3 that may help with some of the "oversaturation" issues is going into the PS3 XMB's "Settings > Display Settings" menu and switching RGB Full Range (HDMI) from the default "Limited" to "Full"--assuming your display supports the full 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 RGB color range, which I would think it would if it's anything other than ancient, but I'm no expert on TVs. Anyway I finally remembered to do that and suddenly the light and shadow on all the tables is much richer...and Netflix looks way better too of course.

Thanks for the tip smbhax, changing the HDMI setting to Full Range took care of some of the saturation issues on a few tables. Gorgar now looks like it does on the Xbox 360 and Black Knight doesn't look as over-saturated as it did initially. However, the white lights around the rotating head on TM:BOP still look over-saturated to me.

 

[Sinistar]

One thing I just remembered on my own new-ish PS3 that may help with some of the "oversaturation" issues is going into the PS3 XMB's "Settings > Display Settings" menu and switching RGB Full Range (HDMI) from the default "Limited" to "Full"--assuming your display supports the full 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 RGB color range, which I would think it would if it's anything other than ancient, but I'm no expert on TVs. Anyway I finally remembered to do that and suddenly the light and shadow on all the tables is much richer...and Netflix looks way better too of course.

I wish I could +1 rep you here , because that is a very nice tip.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Well, I finally bought a PS3 for the light-gun rail shooters (my daughter and I love these games) and of course to get an early glimpse of The Pinball Arcade DLC Tables well before they hit the Xbox 360 (my platform of choice for TPA). Here are my quick impressions of the PS3 version:

First off, I have zero flipper lag on the PS3 (something I was worried about) and the two stage flippers work great as long as you use the L2 and R2 trigger buttons. I personally can't wait to use the two stage flippers on the Xbox 360, but I do agree with the majority of people asking for an option to toggle the two stage flippers on/off as I believe most casual pinball players wouldn't understand how to use this feature properly right off the bat and would end up not enjoying the tables that use this feature. Also, trying to use the two stage flippers with the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons is a chore and doesn't feel natural. That said, the PS3 controller design is as bad as I remember it on the PS1 and PS2. The triggers are horribly designed with my fingers constantly slipping off them, especially during multi-ball, where as the Xbox 360 triggers are well designed and feel more natural to use with the two stage flippers. The left analog stick on the PS3 controller is too far to the right which makes it sort of a chore to nudge, where as the Xbox 360 controller has the left analog stick on the far left which makes nudging feel more natural.

.....

Overall, I still think the Xbox 360 version is the best iteration of The Pinball Arcade (at the moment at least...PC?) and is my preferred version. I just hope FarSight can work through the roadblocks they're currently facing with getting DLC released on the Xbox 360.

Good to hear, PW. Congrats on the purchase, man.

Just curious why you think the 360 version is better? Is it just the controller? I have both versions too, and I do like the 360 controller better as well, but I think the tables look quite a bit better in general on the PS3.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Good to hear, PW. Congrats on the purchase, man.

Just curious why you think the 360 version is better? Is it just the controller? I have both versions too, and I do like the 360 controller better as well, but I think the tables look quite a bit better in general on the PS3.

First a foremost, the Xbox 360 controller (the triggers in particular) are better suited for playing pinball than the PS3 controller. Also, with the exception of TOTAN, TOM and possibly RBION (sans the muddy looking ramps), the tables on the Xbox 360 just look cleaner and are more vibrant in color, especially on Medieval Madness and Cirqus Voltaire. The overall feel of the way the tables play on the Xbox 360 is closer to the real tables than the PS3 version as well IMO. Visually and gameplay wise, The Pinball Arcade feels more complete on the Xbox 360 and draws me into the table (almost as much as playing on a real table does sans the physical connection) unlike the PS3 version which makes me feel like I'm just playing video pinball.

 

[Jeff Strong]

First a foremost, the Xbox 360 controller (the triggers in particular) are better suited for playing pinball than the PS3 controller. Also, with the exception of TOTAN, TOM and possibly RBION (sans the muddy looking ramps), the tables on the Xbox 360 just look cleaner and are more vibrant in color, especially on Medieval Madness and Cirqus Voltaire. The overall feel of the way the tables play on the Xbox 360 is closer to the real tables than the PS3 version as well IMO. Visually and gameplay wise, The Pinball Arcade feels more complete on the Xbox 360 and draws me into the table (almost as much as playing on a real table does sans the physical connection) unlike the PS3 version which makes me feel like I'm just playing video pinball.

Interesting. I really haven't noticed many gameplay differences, except for bugs that haven't been fixed on the 360, but I think the physics are very similar, if not identical.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Interesting. I really haven't noticed many gameplay differences.

FarSight really needs to look into bumping up the overall sound (mechanical and ROM) of the PS3 version as that's one of the main things on the Xbox 360 that draws you into the table as you're playing. Simply turning up the volume on the PS3 version does not produce the engulfing sound the Xbox 360 version does.

 

[starck]

These are interesting impressions; and much appreciated from someone who seems to play the real tables relatively frequently. Thanks for writing this up.

FarSight really needs to look into bumping up the overall sound (mechanical and ROM) of the PS3 version as that's one of the main things on the Xbox 360 that draws you into the table as you're playing. Simply turning up the volume on the PS3 version does not produce the engulfing sound the Xbox 360 version does.

Agreed! For me though, it's not just 'volume' though. It's overall sound quality on most tables. Most tables sound distorted or compressed. Monster Bash sounds pretty nice though.

( It's also interesting to me how some tables (from the same era even) will have varying sound quality in TPA, despite the fact that the original ROM files for those tables will sound equally, and remarkably, very, very good. MM is just one good example.)


I really hope someone over at FS is reading this...I know they have a list of things to do, but, the bottom line is-
Sound draws you in to play JUST as much as visuals do. I find myself playing the tables that sound better/have better sound emulation. I'm totally with you on this point- I'm glad you mentione this!