New review time -- as I drop some coin into the Pinball FX version of the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball table. It's a great table, that's mostly flawlessly recreated.
New review time, as I take on the Godzilla vs Kong pinball pack for Pinball FX on the Nintendo Switch. I'm a noted Godzilla fiend, so this will easily win me over, right?
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Pinball FX is a pinball simulator, and is a sequel to Pinball FX3.
Bit of an odd game to be reviewing, but it's literally the only thing I played yesterday, and is my only review option.
Pinball FX uses the razor business model of giving the game away for free, and selling the tables as DLC.
Over time I'd collected quite a few tables in Pinball FX3 (14 hours playtime), but I'd specifically downloaded it for one specific table - The Getaway: High Speed II.
This pinball table is a core memory for me. I spent countless hours and dollars playing the real-world version of The Getaway. Any arcade I entered (or still enter!), I will scan for this machine. Given that it was released in 1992, I'm usually disappointed.
When Pinball FX3 presented the opportunity to be able to play it again, whenever I wanted, I jumped on the opportunity. For what it is, it's great. It's not the same though.
In 2021 the dev team behind Zen Studios announced that they were going to reboot the Pinball FX series in Unreal Engine 4 (with a now-expired exclusivity deal with the Epic Store), and that all future tables would be released on Pinball FX, not Pinball FX3.
Of course, existing tables that were purchased for FX3 do not transfer to Pinball FX, meaning if you want to play your tables in FX, buy them all again, sunshine.
However, they've since made concessions, and you can buy a "bundle" for any owned DLC that provides the FX version of the table at 50% off.
For the Black Friday sales, they heavily discounted all of the DLC, which meant that I was able to upgrade my Getaway table for $2.64.
As for Pinball FX itself? It's good. The interface is a lot cleaner that FX3. The flippers seem feel a little bit... off, but I need to investigate more.
However, what it DOES do properly is ultrawide portrait mode, which was broken in FX3.
Playing Pinball FX3 on a QHD monitor in portrait mode was a revelation (thank you again, @atomicpoet), but it was miserable on an ultrawide in portrait mode.
Pinball FX, however? Being able to see the whole playfield AND part of the cabinet brings a whole new sense of immersion, and enjoyment, and feels as close as I'll get to owning The Getaway (real table? AUD$5500) which makes that $2.64 worth it.
The thing which takes the edge off is the seemingly ever-present microtransactions built into the game. They don't seem to be necessary, and I'll likely continue to ignore them.
Even so, I'm more than happy to declare Pinball FX: