Because I like supporting my company and the premise seemed interesting, I've been playing Til Morning's Light on iPad. So far it hasn't disappointed. It feels a lot like a Resident Evil game, but obviously without the zombies and shooting them in the face. It's more in the puzzles and the setting, which is surprisingly creepy and mature at times. Overall the game is pretty easy and the puzzles are repetitive, but the main character and her dealing with the situation is enough to keep me going.
Played a mean game of pinball this weekend. I paid for three games on a Wizard of Oz themed machine. I took the first go and lost all my balls almost immediately, Laura took a turn and did a little better. The third game was on me again and I nailed it, got the ball to go through all the mechanical parts, and got it up one shoot three times and when that happens you get to play with three balls at once!
By the time I was done the score was so high that it awarded me a free game which I gave to Laura.
The Wizard of Oz pinball is an amazing machine. For the past several years, the pinball world was down to a single company putting out shitty machines w/ no competition. Wizard of Oz was the debut machine for a new company, Jersey Jack Pinball. I know some of the guys working there, so I may be a little biased, but they do an amazing job. They sell $8,000 high-end designs intended really only for rich people's basements. Their second game, The Hobbit, is about to come out, and looks equally good.
Name one other pinball game that had the time mechanic, or a non-number-of-balls based system, or one that gave you a physical reward for doing well.
Yeah, because being weird is what makes a pinball game good? Every pinball machine has unique gimmick. That's what makes pinball pinball. Fun House has a talking head. Whirlwind has spinning discs in the table. Addams Family has the secret moving bookcase and electric chair. Twilight Zone has a working gumball machine inside the table. Some have side flippers, secret areas, holograms, bingo boards, baseball fields, magnets, curved surfaces, intentional tilting mechanisms, the list goes on and on and on.
It's actually somewhat hard to find a pinball machine that doesn't have a weird quirk to it. Even Superman, the most boring and straightforward pinball machine, has a weird little ramp on the left that doubles back.
If you look at rankings of pinball machines by pinball enthusiasts, Safe Cracker is ranked, but is never considered among the greatest.
I was about to say Attack from Mars, then clicked your link, and it is number 3. I feel vindicated.
The Jersey Jack WOz machine is number 20, but a large number of recent Stern releases are up there (and higher). I wonder if it is a "cult of the new" situation, or if my impression that Stern had been mailing it in once they had a monopoly was false.
I was about to say Attack from Mars, then clicked your link, and it is number 3. I feel vindicated.
The Jersey Jack WOz machine is number 20, but a large number of recent Stern releases are up there (and higher). I wonder if it is a "cult of the new" situation, or if my impression that Stern had been mailing it in once they had a monopoly was false.
One of my favorites is Williams' Blast Off! It has a rocket launch gimmick on the back glass. And 1960's space race era artwork
But how many people have played this thing? How many people have played it enough to rate it? Even amongst people who are first and foremost pinball geeks above all other geekeries have even pulled the plunger on one of these?
Meanwhile the newer machines are much more widely available. New machines being produced are rare nowadays. When one appears, every pinball geek will get it.
There's also the fact that pinball technology advanced so much over time. How you can expect Legend of Zelda to get a high rating in the face of Ocarina of Time? Newer machines are better in pretty much every way that matters for the actual game. Better flipper action, smoother ramps, more precise table angle, reliable and consistent scoring, more complex objectives, etc.
Allow me to enlighten you on a small group of guys I know, The Arcade Hunters. They are connected with the pinball and aracde game scene to a degree that is awesome
If you want hardcore pinball convention experience PAPA is where to go. They are open twice a year and have multiple airplane hangars worth of pinball to play.
I wonder if we could talk to the Pinball guy and do a thing in Wildwood.
He won't let you video or take photos. If we could work something out with him and be in there on the off-season for a day, we could go down the line playing the hell out of all the machines and reviewing them.
I wonder if we could talk to the Pinball guy and do a thing in Wildwood.
He won't let you video or take photos. If we could work something out with him and be in there on the off-season for a day, we could go down the line playing the hell out of all the machines and reviewing them.
That would make one heck of a video.
Hell just setting up an interview would be a good episode.
I wonder if we could talk to the Pinball guy and do a thing in Wildwood.
He won't let you video or take photos. If we could work something out with him and be in there on the off-season for a day, we could go down the line playing the hell out of all the machines and reviewing them.
That would make one heck of a video.
The Wildwood guy has a ridiculous collection, but like 90% of it is in storage. His place is way too small to show it all off. And wait.... what? You aren't allowed to take pictures inside? Much better off going to Silverball Museum. That guy would let you do anything you wanted.
you can probably take video or photos if you asked and let me know why you were doing so.
He just got pissed with all the people coming to just take pictures of that guy on Hoarders and not pop a 5 dollar bill in his lap to help with the arcade.
That may be the only arcade museum I've ever heard of that doesn't charge a flat fee for admission. That'll solve your problem right there, buddy. Charge $10 a head and put everything on freeplay.
That may be the only arcade museum I've ever heard of that doesn't charge a flat fee for admission. That'll solve your problem right there, buddy. Charge $10 a head and put everything on freeplay.
I actually talked to him about this.
One of the big problems he was having when he set that up (it was that way orginally) was when a machine broke people wouldn't tell him and would move on to the next. So he'd have a lot of broken machines and not know about it. Also people were bitching because they wanted to look at the machines but didn't want to pay. So he was being made into a bad guy.
Been playing the hell out of Lethal League. Quick matches, directly competitive, simple to learn and teach, decently high skill cap, and above all, the game generates hype among the people playing and watching. Just came back from a con, and we had a crowd of people around this game yelling and screaming around this machine pretty much constantly.
I started Divinity: Original Sin last night. So far, It's a really great turn-based D&D style RPG. What makes it awesome though, is that you can play it co-op with someone else. My friend and I both bought a copy during the recent Steam sale and it's just so much fun playing through the game with him, instead of just using AI controlled party members. We were in a fight last night against a bunch of orcs and were strategizing and I told him I had a poison-cloud grenade, which I used, and then he cast a fireball spell which made the gas cloud explode. It's really great how you can actually manipulate the environment like that in combat.
Just a warning. There is Enhanced Edition of Divinity: Original Sin coming in the future. New features, improvements and apparently even changes parts of the story and free for all who own D:OS.
So, while the game is good and enjoyable, you might want to see and wait for the Enhanced Edition. That's what I'm doing.
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is a completely separate game: not an update to Divinity: Original Sin. Both games will remain available on PC and Mac, and it is important to note that they are totally different entities, so if you've already bought Original Sin you'll see separate listings for Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition in your Steam Library.
Ah okay, but honestly, it might be worth getting a couple hours into or just reading up a lot because all these CRPGs basically require that you realize your shortcomings a couple hours in and make better characters.
Comments
The gameplay can be frustrating but at the same time cool looking and funny. Like watching a silhouette play.
By the time I was done the score was so high that it awarded me a free game which I gave to Laura.
It's too bad it was in an arcade a hundred of miles away from me. I'll see if I find it again locally.
It's actually somewhat hard to find a pinball machine that doesn't have a weird quirk to it. Even Superman, the most boring and straightforward pinball machine, has a weird little ramp on the left that doubles back.
If you look at rankings of pinball machines by pinball enthusiasts, Safe Cracker is ranked, but is never considered among the greatest.
http://www.ipdb.org/lists.cgi?anonymously=true&list=top300
https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100
How many pinball machines do you even have enough experience with to be making these kinds of statements?
The Jersey Jack WOz machine is number 20, but a large number of recent Stern releases are up there (and higher). I wonder if it is a "cult of the new" situation, or if my impression that Stern had been mailing it in once they had a monopoly was false.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=320
But how many people have played this thing? How many people have played it enough to rate it? Even amongst people who are first and foremost pinball geeks above all other geekeries have even pulled the plunger on one of these?
Meanwhile the newer machines are much more widely available. New machines being produced are rare nowadays. When one appears, every pinball geek will get it.
There's also the fact that pinball technology advanced so much over time. How you can expect Legend of Zelda to get a high rating in the face of Ocarina of Time? Newer machines are better in pretty much every way that matters for the actual game. Better flipper action, smoother ramps, more precise table angle, reliable and consistent scoring, more complex objectives, etc.
If you want hardcore pinball convention experience PAPA is where to go. They are open twice a year and have multiple airplane hangars worth of pinball to play.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1381
But you may also be interested in these three:
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2579
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2803
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=438
He won't let you video or take photos. If we could work something out with him and be in there on the off-season for a day, we could go down the line playing the hell out of all the machines and reviewing them.
That would make one heck of a video.
He just got pissed with all the people coming to just take pictures of that guy on Hoarders and not pop a 5 dollar bill in his lap to help with the arcade.
One of the big problems he was having when he set that up (it was that way orginally) was when a machine broke people wouldn't tell him and would move on to the next. So he'd have a lot of broken machines and not know about it. Also people were bitching because they wanted to look at the machines but didn't want to pay. So he was being made into a bad guy.
So, while the game is good and enjoyable, you might want to see and wait for the Enhanced Edition. That's what I'm doing.
From https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/1229909