Would this help?

[BennyJackdaw]

A few weeks ago I decided to download Pinball Arcade Underground for my Kindle, and I loved it. Twenty-Two tables, loved most of the tabled, and yet... I wanted more. So a few days ago, I bought Pinball Arcade for the XBox 360, and I bought Champion Pub and Whirlwind, two tables that weren't on my Kindle. And I was actually planning...

On at the very least buying the season 1 tables that are on my tablet and the rest of season 2, and may possibly buy season 3 and the five season 4 tables that were released. I want to know, if I were to buy all these tables, would that help in deciding whether to release the rest of season 4?

 

[Heretic]

I wouldn't hold your breath but apparently it's still on the cards for now I suggest you just enjoy what you got, and welcome to the forum

 

[Blkthorne]

I would say it would be better to have TPA on Steam if you really want something better than Kindle, consoles are so far behind, especially with the 360 and ps3 atm, can even use your 360/ps controller to play on the pc.

 

[BennyJackdaw]

I dunno, my computer's not great, and I feel there's a certain charm to playing on a console. Plus, on Steam it's currently 16 GBs, which is about half or so of my computer's space.

 

[dave950lam]

What's your specs, Benny? My 'puter is from 2013, with a slightly newer GPU which lets me play TPA on most tables with no problems. Just don't go overboard on the resolution, I tone it down to preserve FPS (my monitor is 1280x1024) and heavily-lighted tables like CV, TOTAN and FH get chuggy.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Plus you can always plug your 360 controller in to your PC so it would feel just like playing on a console.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

As for space... hard drives are cheap. A 500Gb HDD is going to be... of the top of my head... $50? Storage solved.

 

[Heretic]

Well considering it's only got 32 gig overall storage it's either really old or a chrome book or netbook, so wouldn't be able to run steam tpa very well(I've got it running okayish on intel 4000 with custom settings) I've seen a huge trend to skip desktops these days when a tablet or netbook can cover the web and light office work, as I'm sure most of you have heh. Still tpa is still a fair investment for all tables so 360 may not suit you in the future

 

[BennyJackdaw]

There's one more reason, though. When playing vids, I generally like to sit down in either a bed or a recliner. My computer is set to a standing station, and while I have a chair for it, it's a very uncomfortable one. Even if I got a better chair, it'd still cut into my legs.

My final reason is that I'm not sure how much interest I have. Do I need hundreds of tables, or will three and half season's worth be enough. I'm not sure.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

There's one more reason, though. When playing vids, I generally like to sit down in either a bed or a recliner. My computer is set to a standing station, and while I have a chair for it, it's a very uncomfortable one. Even if I got a better chair, it'd still cut into my legs.

My final reason is that I'm not sure how much interest I have. Do I need hundreds of tables, or will three and half season's worth be enough. I'm not sure.

You can get wireless X360 / XONE / PS3 / PS4 controllers to work with a PC. Very easily in some cases. X360 / XONE controllers are natively supported by Win10.

 

[BennyJackdaw]

You can get wireless X360 / XONE / PS3 / PS4 controllers to work with a PC. Very easily in some cases. X360 / XONE controllers are natively supported by Win10.

I'm still only using Windows 7.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I'm still only using Windows 7.

Not a problem. Win7 is quite happy with an X360 controller, I was using it on Win7 before I upgraded.

 

[BennyJackdaw]

Honestly...

I'd just plain rather play on the 360 for now. Maybe in the not-too distant future I'll give the PC version a try, but I don't know if I'm set on it. I do know that the pro PC tables are more expensive than the XBox 360 packs, but the non-pro versions are cheaper. What exactly does the pro version get you?

 

[Blkthorne]

Honestly...

I'd just plain rather play on the 360 for now. Maybe in the not-too distant future I'll give the PC version a try, but I don't know if I'm set on it. I do know that the pro PC tables are more expensive than the XBox 360 packs, but the non-pro versions are cheaper. What exactly does the pro version get you?

Pro version gives you operator's menu, table explore and IFPA pro tips pretty much.

 

[Heretic]

Basically as your so on the fence about another platform, really just enjoy your life ntial investment, in the future as others have said pc is still here and you can have a perfectly console like experience with some effort, you've plenty of content for any sane man anyway heh*drools*

 

[steven120566]

Honestly...

I'd just plain rather play on the 360 for now. Maybe in the not-too distant future I'll give the PC version a try, but I don't know if I'm set on it. I do know that the pro PC tables are more expensive than the XBox 360 packs, but the non-pro versions are cheaper. What exactly does the pro version get you?

I have finally migrated from Wii U and 360 to xbox one. The support and content for XB one, while still not as up to date as Steam, is pretty good for a console. At least from what I had. I am hopeful to invest in xbone for the forseeable future and certainly hope TPA remains solid on the current consoles from Microsoft and Sony. I love the steam version, but that platform is not quite the same as a console for me either.

If you ever get on xbone, send me a friend request. LOL, I could always use more on my list, as I really only play pinball. No much of a gamer outside of pin.

Xbox gamertag: MC Hannie B

 

[xZOMBIEx]

Unfortunately Farsight is no longer supporting last gen consoles. This was even after over 2 or maybe even 3 years of saying there was going to be a "huge update" for Xbox 360 and that it would get mostly caught up, I think like up to Season 5 or 6... And still nothing since the last update and release like over 4 years ago or so...

What was even more infuriating was that they ended up adding new tables for PS3, I think they got up to Season 6, but when they released season 6 they finally admitted and said that was the least season that would be released on last gen consoles or should just say PS3 as 360 didn't get any new ones since Starship Troopers, I think that was the last one to come out...

However, the only good thing about PBA on last gen consoles and in particular 360 as I have all the tables on that system, I don't have them on PS3, but I do have them on PS4. But the few things the 360 has over current gen versions is that the lighting on the tables are WAAAYYY BETTER, the physics are somewhat better on some or most tables, and the camera view is kind of better on some tables as well...

On current gen consoles, the lighting has gotten completely messed up, majority of the tables are too dark and when you try to adjust the sliders and increase the brightness, it doesn't really help at all or it gets to bright that the colors start blending/bleeding and it just doesn't look right... And it's not like it gets bright, it like increases the color and not the brightness or it increases the color way more and just barely increases the brightness or contrast....

The physics used to be good, but they weren't and tweaked them to make tables "more challenging" however by doing that, all they did was make the ball more bouncy and lighter... It literally feels like a bouncy rubber ball that you get out of those gumball machines... And when they decided to adjust the physics that didn't wipe the leaderboards or start a new one... So the super high scores that were obtained on the so called easier and more predictable settings and physics are still the and now it's pretty much impossible to beat them because the tables are harder now and can't get in a pattern or rely on certain patterns, shots, bounces, etc.... Even though on actual real tables, they can be played with predictable shots, bounces, and able to get patterns...

For example the T2 table you could get into orbit loop pattern where you just shoot the ball up the right orbit and it comes around to land on the left flipper and able to get another shot in time to count it as a combo and just keep going... If you look up older videos on YouTube for how to score high on that table you'll see the pattern and there's another one with multiball as well... However on PS4 you can't really do that anymore because when the ball comes back around it bounces harder off the flipper and it is harder to figure out if you need to have the left flipper up after the first bounce off it or if you let it back down after it first bounces off of it and let it come down and bounce off the right flipper onto the left flipper and then you raise it again to catch it...

While it's fine they wanted to make them harder and more challenging, it's just that they should have wiped the leaderboards or archived them and then start a brand new one... Also since they are supposed to try and emulate a real table, then it shouldn't be as bouncy or unpredictable as they made it, there should be predictability to them, that's what these pro players use and practice, they know if they hit the ball at certain spot on the floor as it comes down after they caught it, it will go a certain angle or up a ramp they were aiming for and in the case of the T2 table, doing orbit loops is a legit tournament tactic and while it might not be the most exciting thing to watch or do, it's still a legit tactic...

And it's the same in Twilight Zone, there was a predictable pattern you could get into to get multiple "In the zone" modes which is the wizard mode for that table and that is much harder to do because of how the ball will shoot out of that slot machine and how it bounces off the right flipper. ..

But speaking of the T2 table, the camera view on the 360 is the best view. We used to have the same view on PS4 as well.... Until they changed it for whatever reasons and now it's horrible... It's harder to aim and shoot the ball when it's loaded in the cannon...

So like everyone has said, PBA on PC is the best way to go if you can... The graphics and lighting is waaaaaaaayyyy better and the best on PC, even on mobile devices it looks better than on current gen consoles... I'm not sure how the physics or camera views are on PC, but I'm sure they are better than on current gen consoles...

It basically comes down to the fact that the version of PBA on current gen consoles is a Frankenstein version of the game as it was ported from last gen consoles and I'm sure they ported some of the PC coding as well because last gen consoles didn't have sliders to adjust the lighting. Only the PC did and if it was the DX11 version... and i'm sure they had to do some original coding as well...

That's the only thing it can be due to all the issues on PS4 and XB1. Everytime they update/patch the game, even if it's adding new tables, something ALWAYS messes up somewhere else. The lighting used to be fine before and it looked great, but they released a patch late 2016 that added another slider to adjust the bulb brightness and that completely messed up the lighting and made everything darker and it took over a year for them to semi fix it and while it's a little better than what it was before, it's just been the same or as good as it used to be before that one update... They released other patches to fix certain things and in the process it messed up the plunger on Twilight Zone to where you can't even see the plunger rod, so when you launch the ball you can't tell or know how far back you are and the sound for one of the Elvira tables got broken cause she sounds like a chipmunk now and all the other sounds are higher pitched as well...

If you only have last gen consoles then the PS3 will have more tables than the 360 and I think even the PS3 looks better than PS4... But if you plan on upgrading to a PS4 or XB1, then I would go with Zen's Pinball FX3 because they just got the license for the Williams and Bally's tables. So they are now going to be making digital version of real life tables...

Their first batch of Williams tables comes out on the 9th I think is what they announced for the release date and it has Fish Tales for free for everyone and the pack will be Medieval Madness, Junk Yard, and High Speed 2 The Getaway (I think that's what it's called) and those look absolutely amazing and already leaps and bounds better than anything Farsight has done... Plus they have better physics... The one thing people like to try and use on if Zen or Farsight is better physics wise is that it's easier to nudge the table on Farsight and can do it more before tilting the table.... On Zen's tables it's a lot more sensitive and can only nudge it 2 times before it tilts you.. You can nudge more, but you have to wait for the warning or warnings to expire before you can nudge again and what I've always pointed out is that it's not that easy to nudge a table in real life and it's extremely easier to get a tilt on a real table versus the digital versions... So if anything, Zen's nudge mechanic is closer to real life than Farsight's...

Most of the popular tables on PBA are Williams/Bally's tables and pretty much all of them will come to Zens Pinball FX3 as well as ones that never came out digitally before...

My PS4 went down for about a month and I just got it repaired and got it back a couple of weeks ago and during that time I played PBA on our 360, so I'm very refreshed on how it looks and plays on 360 and PS4... So i'm not just going by what I remember before I upgraded to PS4 which was 2 years ago... It was very recent that I played on 360 again and I definitely prefer that over the PS4 version...

Oh and one thing if you are thinking of upgrading and getting into Zen's Pinball FX... You can transfer your tables for free to a new console as long as it's the same manufacturer... So any Pinball FX Tables that you get on 360, you can transfer them to XB1 for free or PS3 to PS4. Unfortunately you can't cross transfer for free, so 360 to PS4 or PS3 to XB1.... You CAN'T do that with Pinball Arcade on any platform... All the tables you have on 360 would have to be purchased again on XB1 or whatever console you upgrade to...

Sorry for the long post, lol...