Williams Volume 3 *OFFICIAL* Game play thread

[shutyertrap]

It's here! Williams Volume 3 featuring Theatre of Magic, Champion Pub, and Safe Cracker

Sound off below on what you think after having actually played them. The looks, the feel, the enhanced graphics, the Zen and arcade physics. If you've played it on a mobile device, please keep it to the game itself, not the interface/currency/upgrade madness.

 

[shutyertrap]

I've had the chance to spend a few days with these in early access. We did a whole BlahCade podcast about the release just the other day where most of my thoughts can be found. That being said, here's the quick version...

The enhanced graphics Zen did for Safe Cracker and Champion Pub are amazing. I absolutely will be playing with them activated from here on out. Theatre of Magic on the other hand, I prefer no enhancements. Why? Glowing flipper bats + occasional glowing ball is just too much for me and messes up my shot timing. Also during Tiger Saw multiball the balls go completely transparent, which looks cool as hell and ramps up the difficulty, but since there's absolutely no reward for playing like that other than really short ball times, why would you play with it like that? Also the animations are nice, but don't really add much to the wow factor like on the other 2 tables.

Whether you are playing Zen physics or the new Williams physics, they are so much better on these particular tables than in TPA. ToM has always been a bit of a mess for aiming while at the same time being super easy to run up scores. Now the ball goes where you want it to. The arcade physics in particular though ramp up the difficulty in such a manner that now when you reach the replay score, you actually feel a sense of accomplishment. For Champion Pub the key difference is no more cheap outlane drains on the right side. Safe Cracker? That ball is squirrelly as hell in arcade mode.

Speaking of SC, there's been questions about the tokens. Here's the deal...as you win 'em, they collect on the glass of the apron by the lockbar. If you leave the game, play a different table, whatever, those tokens remain. I've yet to get a duplicate either so far. A DMD right at the beginning (after having earned your first token) asks if you want to play a regular game, assault the vault, or clear the tokens. So there should be no more frustration in collecting them.

The animations for the boxer in Champion Pub are wonderous. It's a shame they didn't make it so he changes faces depending on who you are fighting, but that's just a missed opportunity for an otherwise genius bit of Zen enhancement. I've not gotten through all the fighters yet myself, but notably absent seems to be Dan Under. If anybody fights him, please comment. Otherwise we need to question Zen as to what happened to him.

I have no idea what has been censored this go around, so console peeps, let's hear it! I guess I could turn on 'family mode' for PC, but why would I?

So I know there are those out there that see no reason to double dip on these, but if you've done an A/B test between this in arcade mode and TPA and can't see or feel the difference, then I don't know what to tell you. Even the audio is way better, especially with Safe Cracker.

See you all on the leaderboards!

 

[Citizen]

TOM is night and day. So nice playing with a ball that has actual speed and a pf that actually has lighting. Just something as simple as shooting combos is so satisfying now that it requires actual skill and that the ball zips through the loops and ramps at breakneck speed.

Anyone who wants to a finally have a proper digital TOM experience should definitely double dip on this one.

 

[wolfson]

WOW gob smacked , all the tables are great TOM beautiful , CP how good is the lighting , knocked me for a six , SC, looks like it`s proper size . Zen are getting better and better . next tables I want to see an all out attack on animations . THANK YOU ZEN !!!!!
































9

 

[wolfson]

wtf did I do , bloody boofhead

 

[vikingerik]

I've not gotten through all the fighters yet myself, but notably absent seems to be Dan Under. If anybody fights him, please comment. Otherwise we need to question Zen as to what happened to him.

There's supposed to be a semi-randomized set of fighters that you get each game (there's more than 5, either 9 or 10 exist in total.) TPA starts every game from a preset randomization state so it's always the same, but the machine isn't supposed to be like that. Unless Zen removed him on purpose for some reason, or is using the same idea of preset randomization, he should show up eventually.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I did find Dan Unda eventually when playing the Ultimate Challenge, but I never get him as the very first fighter for some reason.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

There's supposed to be a semi-randomized set of fighters that you get each game (there's more than 5, either 9 or 10 exist in total.) TPA starts every game from a preset randomization state so it's always the same, but the machine isn't supposed to be like that. Unless Zen removed him on purpose for some reason, or is using the same idea of preset randomization, he should show up eventually.

TPA has its initial ROM state but as long as you keep the table open it will maintain fighter stats, so after your first game you'll start seeing different fighters based on your rank and their win-loss records.

FX3 resets the ROM state every time you start a new game, so you'll probably always see the same fighters.

 

[Fungi]

The tables play so different, I don't even think of these as double-dipping. The lack of cheap right outlane drains on CP is worth the price alone.

 

[zmcvay]

TPA has its initial ROM state but as long as you keep the table open it will maintain fighter stats, so after your first game you'll start seeing different fighters based on your rank and their win-loss records.

FX3 resets the ROM state every time you start a new game, so you'll probably always see the same fighters.

I wonder how much trouble it would be for Zen to cheat this by just having a few different ROM states to either start the game with randomly, or in the case of something like Safe Cracker, have specific states with the number of collected VAULT letters remembered. Something that did surprise me though, it did look like Champion Pub remembered my speed bag high score from an earlier game.

 

[shutyertrap]

I think FX3 does remember things like ‘loop champion’ from Getaway, so it would follow that it would also remember speed bag or jump rope stats. I agree that remembering table states would be ideal, as there are a few tales like EBD that you’d want that for. Have it always start fresh in ‘tournament’ mode, let us toggle in options if we want the table state to carry over for all other modes. Otherwise we’ll always get the same order of fighters, the same judges in CV, etc.

 

[MBeeching]

All three are outstanding, if this pack can't convert TPA's most defensive and ardent fans I doubt anything will. Theatre of Magic is one my favourite cabs and Zen's version is pretty incredible. The Classic Arcade and Tournament physics on that table are superb, they feel instinctive and more refined.

 

[Klopek]

I really like the enhancements in ToM generally but the near invisible balls in Tiger Saw multiball are not welcome. I've got nothing against adding a cool effect, like the petrol-esque captive balls or the purple glow but 'invisible' - why?

 

[shutyertrap]

All three are outstanding, if this pack can't convert TPA's most defensive and ardent fans I doubt anything will. Theatre of Magic is one my favourite cabs and Zen's version is pretty incredible. The Classic Arcade and Tournament physics on that table are superb, they feel instinctive and more refined.

I think there’s a combination of things going on here. All 3 of these tables in TPA were way easier than they should have been. They are still easy in Zen mode, but there’s a bite to them, a little extra something something without any of the cheap shots that nagged previously. The enhancements on CP and SC...I mean that board game was never all that much to look at, while now it’s amusing. If this is Zen starting to cut loose with those, I think we’re in for a treat here on out.

 

[shutyertrap]

I really like the enhancements in ToM generally but the near invisible balls in Tiger Saw multiball are not welcome. I've got nothing against adding a cool effect, like the petrol-esque captive balls or the purple glow but 'invisible' - why?

Agreed. Looks cool but serves no purpose. If there was a reward for playing that way, sure, but there isn’t so why would I punish myself?

 

[Klopek]

Props to Zen for making the tables retain your enhancement/original display preference too. No more tapping 'B' every time I start a classic game to get the enhancements turned on. Hopefully this will be retro fitted to the other tables, as I just tried Fish Tales and it still resets there.

I've had a few GPU driver, OS patches and motherboard firmware upgrades since I played last but it's also possible that the game performance has been improved. This system was not even beginning to be strained hitting 120fps but I previously noticed that the framerate would skit around in the 118-120 range constantly and occasionally this was visible. This now seems to have been resolved as it's a 120fps solid lock (including on Fish Tales, which was the most demanding table in the first pack).

 

[shutyertrap]

So did the tables get delayed for Switch again or something?

The tweet Zen sent out mentioned all the platforms, so I don't know. It also says it's available for mobile, but I'm not seeing the new tables on my iOS game. Hopefully by the end of day it will have populated across all systems.

 

[Citizen]

I bought and DLed it on Switch at 4 AM, so it's definitely on Switch.

 

[iamoneagain]

For the Switch, when I tried to buy from within the game I didn’t find the new pack. I had to search directly in the online store under the download content for pinball fx3.

 

[iamoneagain]

I only played for less than 30 min on the switch in handheld mode and could already tell these tables are much better than TPA version. I hated Safecracker before and what little I played seems fun. Theater was fun in TBA but way too easy. This felt more challenging. And CP always seemed off to me in TPA as far as look of center and overall feel. This is big improvement. I’ll get a better idea once I play at home docked with vertical monitor.