Zen Pinball 2 for PS3 and PS Vita

[Rafie]

Well said laughing_lunatic and Shutyertrap!! I definitely didn't want to start any wars. I just wanted to point out that I believe both companies has something to offer the pinball fans, whether its authenticity or fantasy. Either way they are both good and I love them both. I just stated what I enjoy more. Trust me. Before ZP2 drop, I was all over TPA. Hahaha Gorgar has been challenging me. Although I have the wizard goals done on the 360 side, its proving to be tough for me on the PS3. This time I actually get a trophy for completing the goals. I actually just want to break 1,000,000. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't. When I finally broke a million on BH, I was excited. Now that I think about it, I'm about to go try again. Now I have to complete this 3 times. One for PS3, Vita, and the 360. Imagine doing that one BH wizard goal for getting 500,000 points over and over again. I've only been successful on the Vita. So close...then I fail on other platforms. LOL

Thanks again for your input guys. I definitely respect it.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Sorry if I came across a bit harsh in my impressions of Zen 2.....I really do respect what Zen is doing, even if it's not my cup of tea. As laughing_lunatic alluded to, I kind of think of it as the difference between a racing sim and an arcade racing game, or the difference between NBA 2K and NBA Jam. I always enjoy realism/simulation games more, but others prefer the arcade style of games and I respect that.....and some people love both! I'm just thankful that we have both options available to choose from, even if I personally only play one, because everyone has their own personal tastes and preferences.

 

[laughing_lunatic]

Also the other thing for me is that I find my gaming sessions on TPA to be very intense. I'm not casually playing when I load TPA. I'm playing to get a score I can be proud of and that often takes me to an elevated level of focus and concentration which can be exhausting. It's a shame, but a part of my character, that since I became reasonably good on some of the tables in TPA, I rarely play for "fun" anymore. I enjoy playing, mind you, of course I do, I love playing, but it's a serious business. The most "fun" I have on TPA is on a new table, just throwing a ball around to get used to the table's nuances and physics. But after that, I play to score as high as I can. Every drain hurts.

ZP2 is just plain fun. Nothing matters particularly. I've never broken a controller playing PFX2, ZP or ZP2. I can't say that for TPA

 

[shutyertrap]

ZP2 is just plain fun. Nothing matters particularly. I've never broken a controller playing PFX2, ZP or ZP2. I can't say that for TPA

I got into an all out battle for high score with a PS3 'friend' over Blade. I'd beat their score by a million, then they'd beat mine, and we went back and forth for a week. Finally I said screw it, and I concentrated on all the other Marvel tables and skunked all their scores and THEN went back to Blade. That pretty much ended our competition!

I like how all your 'friends' add into your pro score. Makes it a healthy 'team' competition. Wouldn't mind seeing that in TPA.

 

[spoonman]

I got into an all out battle for high score with a PS3 'friend' over Blade. I'd beat their score by a million, then they'd beat mine, and we went back and forth for a week. Finally I said screw it, and I concentrated on all the other Marvel tables and skunked all their scores and THEN went back to Blade. That pretty much ended our competition!

I like how all your 'friends' add into your pro score. Makes it a healthy 'team' competition. Wouldn't mind seeing that in TPA.

Zen Pinball has just become way more fun for me since they fixed the flippers in ZP2. It almost seemed to me with ZP1 that they lacked frames to the animation. Now it seems much smoother.
I'm not sure how else to explain that.

I do still prefer TPA for the realism, but ZEN is very fun and there's always room for more pinball (and JELLO).

I hope that both companies will continue to learn and compete for our cash because it all adds up to more value for us.
I question weather Zen had planned to give away all of tables to Vita owner's who already owned the PS3 version if Farsight hadn't done it. Who knows though.

There is no doubt in my mind that Zen Studios is the clear winner with presentation and options. I hope Farsight hires an employee that can polish the hell out of that area!
I'd love to see TPA have options to play our own music while playing a table. Have online tournaments with voice, and even video chat. Or real time pinball scores pop up in the corner while your playing.
I was playing ZP2 last night and saw a notice pop up that my friend just beat my score by 10k. So I jumped on and regained my high score. I love that type of stuff. It's the closest thing to what we had
while playing in the arcade with our friends back in the day.

Oh and the 3D Stereoscopic video option on Zen Pinball 2 is mind blowing! It gives you incredible table depth. I'd love to have that on TPA some day as well.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

Anyone noticed a different ball physics in Zen 2 (ps3) compared to Pinball Fx 2 (360)? Played them both today and couldn't find a difference.

 

[laughing_lunatic]

I did a quick comparison (who am I kidding with "quick"..? I was up till a quarter of 2 tuesday night/wed morning)... and they feel very similar indeed. If anything, the ball may feel a little weightier on ZP2, particularly on Fear Itself during the ball launch, but it's really splitting hairs.

 

[Jim O'Brien]

I'm a fan of both games Pinball Arcade (since the disc days on PS2) and Zen Pinball 2 (since PSN on PS3) and as much as I really like Arcade for their dedication to preserving real world tables I think they could learn a few things from their competitive pinball counterpart. When Arcade was released I was real disappointed to find that they did not offer online multiplayer, and it isn't a question about using the real roms either because Visual Pinball has had that feature for years using online IP sharing. Before Pinball Arcade came out I'd always tell my Zen friends during online play that Farsight would blow anything away that Zen had done if it had that all important online feature.

There are other things that Zen does well such as the ability to see in game challenges for friends scores on screen during gameplay and the ability to access the operators menu (Farsight has said it is a game breaker, but once again it can be done with VP using the real roms). Still for the life of me I can't figure out why Pinball Arcade only lets you see the rule sheet before you start a game and not while you are in an active game where it would serve best for novice players.