Requests/suggestion for next xbla update?

[lettuce]

Well the XBLA version of The Pinball Arcade has finally landed on XBLA, and whilst theres a few things im a bit disappointed by its still a really good pinball simulator that can only get better over time. In keeping with this train of thought, what would you like to see improved in future updates (just features/Improvements/Bug Fixes here please no table DLC suggestions)?. I would like in no particular order:

Upgraded Playfield and overal textures - They just dont seem to be as High Res as they could have been or as i was hoping. I was hoping i would be able to read every bit of text on the PF, but at the moment you cannot.
Authentic DMD look - The DMD on the 360 version looks worse than it does on the iPad version it just looks incredibly blocky atm, i think they just kept it the same resolution as the Tables and Mobile devices hence the blockness of it
Ambient Lighting - The latest promotion vids had greatly improved ambient lighting on the tables from previous videos FS release, but playing the xbox 360 version this seems to be completely missing. Hopefully this will be added
Custom Camera Angles - Have the option to move the camera into any position you desire and lock it there.
Scoring Notification - Implement a friends score notification when your close to beating a friends highscore on a table, just like Pinball FX2/Zen Pinball does

 

[PinMike8666]

Here are my main pros and cons with this release:

Pros:

Looks at least par with the Williams Xbox 360 and PS3 releases

Physics are an improvement over the previous collections

Leaderboards much better than the initial disc releases

While a couple tables have appeared on previous collections (Black Hole and Tales of the Arabian Nights), both are improved under this DLC release

With exception to the plunger camera, I like the other cameras

Cons:

The plunger camera needs work; I'm fine with the other camera settings, but the plunger is a little too zoomed and I wish there were more options for this segment

The lighting and graphical overhauls that were shown in their Facebook page isn't present; they should have waited to unveil those

The user interface will become a chore once there are more than 10 tables in this game

I like the plunger on the other tables; however, Tales of the Arabian Nights feels a little on the sensitive side.

Speaking of Tales of the Arabian Nights, I think the skill shot view before the plunger camera should be eliminated; the Dot-Matrix-Display explains it well enough

No online mulitplayer; they did say this will eventually be implemented


Like I said in my recent Facebook post, I think FarSight should hire more staff members to help polish this game at a quicker rate; 6 staff members isn't ideal for a huge project like this. I also agreed with John Popadiuk about bringing more pinball staff as consultants.

 

[Brandon Debes]

I think FarSight should hire more staff members to help polish this game at a quicker rate; 6 staff members isn't ideal for a huge project like this. I also agreed with John Popadiuk about bringing more pinball staff as consultants.

That would be great if they can afford it. The UI on the XBLA version is kinda embarrassing. It looks like a straight port of a smartphone interface; all the buttons are huuuuge. It seems natural to assume that the core FarSight team are focused on the actual pinball emulation (i.e. god's work), which is obviously the most important aspect by far. But if they could swing bringing on an extra dude just to do interface and other polish tasks around that emulation it would be a tremendous gain, I think. And yeah, you'd like to think the FarSight guys are more than open to suggestions from any designers of the Popadiuk/Lawlor/Ritchie caliber who are interested in talking to them. Where did John say that, and what did he mean specifically?

 

[PinMike8666]

Here's John Popadiuk's recent Facebook wall quote (this is under The Pinball Arcade's recent announcement):

maybe they will hire some of use folks who made the real games...as consultants to do the final tweaks....??

 

[Sir Dvorak]

There's one thing that I'd love to see implemented: ability to move camera vertically during gameplay so I can actually see the backglass. Backglass can only be seen for a few seconds before the ball is launched and I think we are really missing out on a huge part of the experience.
It has been done in Future Pinball and I think it works really well. Also, KISS PINBALL!!!

 

[Extrema22]

The user interface will become a chore once there are more than 10 tables in this game

I agree, the same can be said for the mobile versions. Imagine having 30 tables or more, it would become extremely annoying to go through all those to find the one you want to play!

 

[alexk3954]

I think I found a bug. I got the believe it or not scoop lit twice and it awarded add a ball both times during atlantis. However, no balls were added to my game...

 

[jkonami]

The first thing that I noticed were that some of the textures were pretty low quality - the playfields themselves generally looked good, but some things that stood out for me were the backboard on Black Hole, and the front end (where the plunger) is on Theater of Magic. I also noticed some z-fighting on the Black Hole Plunger. I really want this to be the best pinball simulator made, and I think you guys have the right amount of love for these games, I'd love to see some higher quality textures. Just my 2 cents! I'm sure the 360 is plenty capable of handling better texture maps but just in case this is one of the reasons I am holding out for a PC/Steam release - I just really want to get the best quality possible and I'd like to hope that the PC version will be your baseline for the other platforms.

 

[Jimmy Gambrill]

New User Interface. This one is absolutely horrible and will only get worse over time. And like Lettuce, and many others on FB have noted, we want to see score notifications like Zen has- weekly,all time, and your friend's scores, popping up on your screen when you are about to beat them. I cannot stress enough how important this feature is. it is just a simple thing to do and is extremely satisfying for the player.