Williams Pinball Universal Monsters™ Pack on October 29!

[Scared Stiff]

I doubt that they'll ever change Pinball FX3's age rating on the consoles as they have been targeting the game as family fun from the get-go.

This what strikes me as strange and rather stupid about our culture nowadays. These original tables with their original racy graphics and sounds were in thousands of arcades, amusement parks, miniature golf courses etc. with little kids playing them...no problem. Now all of a sudden it’s a problem.

One of the first pinballs I ever played was at at a miniature golf arcade. It was...wait for it.....Playboy of all things. And I was underage, and there was no brown wrapper around it or seperate room for it. LOL

 

[Citizen]

Real pinball machines weren't ESRB rated and social media wasn't around to tell everyone what to be mad about, so outrage over little Timmys being corrupted by pinball was relegated to isolated incidents of soccer moms noticing something that offended them, which probably didn't happen often because most parents aren't going to pay much attention to their kid playing a pinball machine (although I'm sure some little Timmys did get in trouble for playing Playboy).

That said, I also think some of you are confusing "people having a problem now" with "staying within the confines of the ESRB ratings."

People largely don't give any more of a damn now than they did in the 80s and 90s. But again, the tables weren't being submitted for ratings then. Zen picked a rating they want to stay within for FX3, and unfortunately it's lower than how the ESRB sees the original, unmodified versions of these tables.

 

[gameaddict4life]

Why doesn't Zen just recreate a mature table and resubmit for an M rating with the ESRB? This is where combining these recreations with the original stuff becomes a problem. Disney and the like don't want to be associated with that so it won't happen. That's why we need a separate game.

 

[Citizen]

M would be unnecessary. T would cover them. And they probably don't want to do it because it's a pain in the ass to resubmit to the ESRB, and then they'd also have to do the work of splitting one game into two for Steam, Switch, PS4 and XBO, and they'd STILL be dealing with Disney when it comes time to ask for, you know, Indiana Jones.

They should have made Williams Pinball separate to begin with. But, you know, hindsight and all. If you had asked me a year ago if I wanted a separate app, I'd have said no, not knowing what we do now.

I don't think Disney is actually even holding them back from the T rating, to be honest. Disney is a convenient scapegoat and I do know Disney is nuts about FAMILY FRIENDLY ONLY (syt has shared personal industry experience on this), but keep in mind that the mobile version is rated T. If they were afraid of pissing Disney off with a T rating, they wouldn't have let that happen.

 

[zmcvay]

This what strikes me as strange and rather stupid about our culture nowadays. These original tables with their original racy graphics and sounds were in thousands of arcades, amusement parks, miniature golf courses etc. with little kids playing them...no problem. Now all of a sudden it’s a problem.

Depends where you were I suppose. Grew up in Pearl City, HI late 70’s, early 80’s, and the arcades I can remember with pinball almost always had them separated in a different area/room, usually the darkened one with lifted smoking restrictions. Pinball was mostly looked at as a more teenage/adult thing and separated from the more brightly lit family sections with the arcade games and skeeball. Main reason I never really started playing pinball until college.

 

[skyway73]

I feel a bit out of touch asking but am I right in thinking there are new physics in the 2 tables released Tuesday? Or is it that they will have the same physics as the last pack?
Thanks

 

[gameaddict4life]

I have heard from somewhere that the flipper physics were tweaked for this new release. So after this release there will be three different physics versions: the "basic" physics for Volumes 1-3 then the first version of the flipper physics for Volume 4 and finally Version 2.0 of the flipper physics for this Universal release.

 

[gameaddict4life]

At some point it would be nice if the same physics were applied to all the tables but then we run into the leaderboard death threat issue and of course the cost to Zen for diminishing returns. Let's be honest, the majority of their sales are going to come upon release. Sure there will be some more with a sale but does it really pay off for Zen to apply the new physics to all the tables and even put in missing stuff (like songs) after the sale? Probably not. I guess we just have to take what we can get and be happy. That is until the 4K re-remasters come out!

 

[gameaddict4life]

BTW, I'm really enjoying Zen's remake of Theater of Magic. I don't think I played Farsight's version that much but Zen's version is really drawing me in. I just keep going back to that table on Arcade physics. I think the only Zen table that I've beaten the wizard mode on is Party Zone. I've only beaten a couple of Farsight's tables too. Pinball is hard.

 

[TFHFony]

Why doesn't Zen just recreate a mature table and resubmit for an M rating with the ESRB? This is where combining these recreations with the original stuff becomes a problem. Disney and the like don't want to be associated with that so it won't happen. That's why we need a separate game.

Disney shouldn't be an issue, or they wouldn't have been able to allow switching off the family mode on Steam either.
For me... I'm actually done with the censorship and the fact is not doing anything to solve this issue. I've decided that Williams Pack 4 was the last set of ZEN tables I have bought (And I bought all available tables on WiiU and on PS4). Unless ZEN gets their ass moving and find a solution for this issue.

 

[Cloda]

BTW, I'm really enjoying Zen's remake of Theater of Magic. I don't think I played Farsight's version that much but Zen's version is really drawing me in. I just keep going back to that table on Arcade physics. I think the only Zen table that I've beaten the wizard mode on is Party Zone. I've only beaten a couple of Farsight's tables too. Pinball is hard.

I love ToM. It actually has a more approachable wizard mode compared to something like Medieval Madness in that you only have to start the illusions and not complete them to progress. You have to get Midnight Madness, spell Theatre, and start the multi-ball as well, but you can do two of those, increase your multiplier for big scores, get extra balls (3x Vanish, Advance Clock to 6pm) just by focussing on the left orbit. Advancing the clock towards Midnight Madness is faster, but more risky, if you shoot the right orbit, but the ball often counts toward advancing the clock if you shoot the left orbit.

 

[zmcvay]

Disney shouldn't be an issue, or they wouldn't have been able to allow switching off the family mode on Steam either.

Why? The issue is that, supposedly, Disney (or other licencors) don't want their properties on a platform with an ESRB rating higher that E10+. Suggestive themes, alchohol and tobacco use, gambling and "crude humor" all require a T rating. Of the platforms you mentioned, Steam is the only one that doesn't require an ESRB rating (and indeed FX3 doesn't have one on the Steam store).

Regardless of how well Williams may or may not be doing for them, take a look at a list of Zen's tables, and see how much of their output would vanish if Disney pulled the licence. The issue is more with the ESRB itself, and I can completely understand how Zen feels trapped by the situation. Disney may not be dictating what Zen needs to do to their Williams tables, but they are playing it safe because they don't want to find out after the fact something is a problem.

Edit: I don't bother with Williams on mobile due to the inability to just purchase tables, but just looked it up and it is interesting that they have a separate app there for Williams that at least on ios is rated 17+. I assume the reason they haven't spun off a separate app on consoles is costs or other issues that come with multiple submissions. If this does get solved for consoles, I think that's the only way it's going to happen.

 

[wilbers]

I feel a bit out of touch asking but am I right in thinking there are new physics in the 2 tables released Tuesday? Or is it that they will have the same physics as the last pack?
Thanks

The physics in Williams pack 4 are the new physics, and the same physics will be in the Universal Monsters pack. What isn't happening yet is that Williams packs 1-3 aren't getting the new physics yet (although should do sometime).

 

[Cloda]

The physics in Williams pack 4 are the new physics, and the same physics will be in the Universal Monsters pack. What isn't happening yet is that Williams packs 1-3 aren't getting the new physics yet (although should do sometime).

That is true, but Deep has also refined the physics more on Volume 5 along with attempt to give the ball more of a weighted feel. They took Spacies Arcade's Marble physics demonstration and critique to heart (even mentioned it during their table showcase stream last Thursday).

It looks great if you look at Pinballwiz45b's Twitch stream playing the tables (also last thursday) and I can't wait to play it!

 

[skyway73]

That is true, but Deep has also refined the physics more on Volume 5 along with attempt to give the ball more of a weighted feel. They took Spacies Arcade's Marble physics demonstration and critique to heart (even mentioned it during their table showcase stream last Thursday).

It looks great if you look at Pinballwiz45b's Twitch stream playing the tables (also last thursday) and I can't wait to play it!

Thanks Cloda, I'm looking forward to trying them today!

 

[wolfson]

loving them , Zen just keep the high standard , well done . only table I would love sometime next year which is an Olympic year , is TAXI PLEASE

 

[djb5f1]

Really hoping Zen goes back to releasing their own original tables. Those remain my favorites. Hopefully a tie-in with the new Star Wars movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the classic Williams tables too but I already own them on TPA. I do prefer Zen’s physics (ball is too floaty on TPA) and the ability to do the challenges and unlock mastery pictures.

I agree Taxi would be a good choice if they continue down this path of re-releasing TPA tables.

 

[suffocater]

I have forgotten what a pixelmess this game is with maxed out graphics option on 1080x1920. Especially the flippers seem not to care about antialiasing. Is there a way to downsample from 4k?

On the pack itself: Physics mean nothing, I still don't like Cftbl. Monster Bash is still one of my favourites.

 

[jrolson]

Public Service Announcement:

Due to an unfortunate technical error, PS4 US will release November 5. We are very sorry about this, usually we work very hard to release all platforms on the same day.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Unfortunate choice of wording there. “Usually we work hard.” But this week we just said screw it. PS4 can wait.