Quick Look: Zen Pinball 2 (PS4)

Looking forward to this

Pinball Arcade gonna have Black Knight 2000. GET HYPE!

Aren't Jeff's expectations for a pinball game are too high?

@alexandersheen: How so? I agree with him, most of these seem too lifeless because of the lack of sound cues, but there's still some really neat ideas here.

Anyways, good QL!

Would anyone without a pinball table in their house care about a little bit of inauthenticity?

Uuuhhhhh... so, where is the first QL they're talking about?

Probably the same place where Naughty Bear and Blood on the Sand QLs are.

Even the staff have a case of Ghost Quick Look...

I thought the 'Epic Quest' table was a license of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. I don't know if thats just generic fantasy tropes though.

A bit of inauthenticity is no bad thing, certainly in table design. But playing on the Pinball Arcade tables, then jumping onto a Zen/Pinball FX table, you really feel the difference. The general play feels more anemic.

Mostly it's the ball weight (and I guess table noise stuff) Jeff was talking about.

Downloaded the free table. It was a nice distraction. But it is no Pinball Fantasies on the Amiga.

@alexandersheen said:

It's not just inauthenticity though. It would be like a good fps game with terrible sound design, or a driving game where the cars feel weightless. I don't own a pinball machine but I find the lack of constant noise weird.

I came for the pinball but stayed for the Star Wars EU talk. Interesting stuff, even if I don't agree that is all deserves to go in the bin like they do

Did anyone else just have a difficult time following what was happening onscreen?

Pinball Arcade or nothin' for me.

Gonna say yes. I don't own a table but certainly can tell the difference between the completely off-putting physics on the ball are compared to Pinball Arcade. The sound kind of stinks too, although it doesn't bother me as much as others. If there were no other options I'd probably play it occasionally, but with TPA available I feel zero urge to get very deep into Zen/FX.

Definitely like the leaderboard/friends integration better on this game, though. TPA really needs to work on that, but I doubt it's coming.

@szlifier said:

Here are the other Quick Looks (under Pinball FX2): http://www.giantbomb.com/pinball-fx2/3030-32513/videos/

Its easy to bag on the EU stuff because most of it is garbage. But some of it has leaked into the movies proper. I.E. Courscant was from Zahn.

@alexandersheen: I have never owned a pinball machine (I would probably get killed trying to do anything with it, pinball machines are fucking dangerous if you do not know what you're doing), and haven't really played a pinball machine in about 10 years. And I say that yeah, a lot of people would probably notice. It's not that it's not authentic, who gives a shit about that when they're not trying to emulate real tables, but it's that the lack of sound cues have always made the tables these guys make sound so incredibly lifeless. Like here with those Star Wars tables, there's just some random voice clips and a few sound cues here and there when you hit something, but other times there's not.

I also agree with Jeff in that these guys could easily go way further into the extremes with this. But at least get a new sound designer first...

I think the deal is that these boards aren't designed by the old masters of the industry in designing gameplay systems for pins. Pinball Arcade is indeed a simulation of the originals but this is rough, appreciate the idea of original arcade'y pinball action like the Pinball Dreams Dreams of too many years ago but it's hard to watch being a pin-nut playing it since an age where I had to stand on a chair to see the table properly.

Everybody should download the free PS4 The Pinball Arcade (comes with Arabian Nights for a free table) and give that one a shot. That version is a bunch better off than the Xbox Live version that was given a QL in 2012.

A pinball table with RPG/adventure elements? That shouldn't happen.

Thanks, Odama.

I want to go on Jar Jars Ball Adventure.

@thunderslash: Seriously? Day 1 buy.

I really enjoy listening to Jeff elucidate the points of Pinball and Video-game Pinball. I know just enough to understand, but found it interesting that he also says Zen Pinball for PS4 did not go far enough. I wonder if the synch with real Pinball feedback would still be an issue. Probably so, to still keep it as a pinball even if not one that can be remotely re-created in real form.

What does Timothy Zahn think of Zen Pinball Arcade 2?

Fun, too.

I like Brad's committed me to talking nonsense. They held open auditions for the two lead roles on the new Star Wars, the idea of Disney making a film with Harrison Ford as a lead is laughable anyway- the man can barely talk and is never sober.

As for Zen Pinball; this game is so bland.

I have quite a few tables for the PS4 version of ZP2. TPA is nice, and the ball is heavier and plays more realistically, but I have a barcade right near me with a handful of those tables anyway (and TPA doesn't have enough of the old Gottlieb tables that I like, at least not yet).

ZP2 gives me a lighter ball and tables that can't exist in real life, which I like. The effects and weird table designs are definitely novel. It isn't as realistic, but I can still practice my table skills like ball control while getting a slightly different experience.

I don't have a problem with the audio cues in ZP2. The music works well enough for me. However, I do like those pinball noises, but they only matter to me when I'm actually playing a pinball machine in real life. Just my preference.

@alexandersheen: Absolutely, the same guy that put Divekick in the top 10 games of the year is complaining about the lack of features in a pinball game.

i thought we were done crying about game of the year

I forgot you can import your tables from the PS3 version. Gotta do that right now. I agree the tables need more sound effects, but it's still quite fun.

Am I crazy for thinking that the pilot on the screenshot looks a bit like Chevy Chase?

I actually love most of the Zen Pinball Marvel Tables. I agree with Jeff that many of them are very silent. Not until this quick look did I realize that my favorite table, Fantastic Four, was also the one most filled with sound effects for each hit, and now I'm wondering if that's why I like it most.

That was definitely a Fear & Loathing reference.

Jeff talking positively about Carrie Fisher greatly pleased me.

Thanks to this, I went back and played some more Pinball Arcade. Theater of Magic is a hell of a table.

I just read the Thrawn Trilogy last week for the first time. That was an excellent series of books.

I know a Quick Look for a pinball game is a weird place to ask, but can someone actually suggest good EU Star Wars books? I've heard Karen Traviss did some interesting things with Mandalorians.

Kirby's Pinball Land for the GB was amazing. When I was a kid my whole family planned the game competing for high scores. We had two copies of the damn thing. I would love a Kirby's pinball Land 2

And I really enjoy Pinball Arcade. I got to play a lot of the classic table there for the first time and some of them hold up really well. Way more into that then original tables.

Yeah, it's gonna be part of their Season 3 pack.

The Rebel Alliance half actually reminds me more of sports radio host Jim Rome.

@paulunga: I'd heavily recommend the Darth Bane trilogy. It helps a little if you've played KOTOR 1, but not necessary.

@szlifier: Check under Pinball FX2 not Zen Pinball 2. They are the same game just one is the Sony version and one is the Microsoft version. Their previous quicklooks were on PC or Xbox so they are listed under Pinball FX2. You'll note they are literally the same game though.

@alwaysbebombing said:

I've never really understood pinball.

@mctaters: I love KOTOR. After reading up on it just now this seems perfect, since the books are by the senior writer of the game. Thanks for the suggestion!

The fact that Abrams wants to throw out most of the pointless, quasi-canonical, one step above fanfic SW:EU nonsense is probably the most refreshing thing I've heard about the new Star Wars stuff.

Having the old cast be the main characters in the new Star Wars movie makes sense - if they're going to be in it at all, they have to be major characters, or most people would feel cheated.

But, crucially, there's a difference between being a major character who drives things forward in a plot sense, and being a major character who's actually doing all the heavy lifting and action and romance and shit. All the old people would be the former.

And, as the movies go on, the focus gradually shifts from the former group to the latter group, until the latter group becomes the dominant one, and the old cast don't have to be main characters anymore, and the torch can be handed off to a new generation who by this point hopefully aren't terrible, and then Luke sacrifices himself and becomes a Jedi ghost who can make cameos in future movies without leaving his living room if they really want him to, like Leonard Nimoy in Into Darkness.

See? It might work.

"might"

That voice acting is terrible but that X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter aspect in that table is really fucking cool.

hard balls flying everywhere. all you need to know.