Posted August 12, 2010
First, I would say, if you are at all prone to motion sickness in games, pass this one by. ALL of the camera modes follow the ball in style so reminiscent of the motion on a boat I was feeling nauseous five minutes into my first table.
Of the three tables included in this collection, the race-themed machine is by far the best, the war and train-themed tables are not good by any measure.
The main problem with the design of these tables is that they don't seem familiar with how real pinball works. The "special modes" as the manual calls them, are almost impossible to figure out while you are playing - the tables don't follow the convention of flashing valid shots for you.
Both the war and train tables are absolutely filled with dead spots. You'll find yourself repeatedly going for a shot, and hitting the large expanses of dead areas that just send the ball back down the middle or into the outlanes.
The graphics are nice, although the full-color LCD doesn't have the level of interesting animations that you would find in a monocolored LCD from the mid 90s. The physics are decent, the ball feels real, if a bit light.
The sound effects are very, very bad. If you own this game, listen to the default sound effect when the ball hits a wall or dead spot. It sounds to me like a corrupted sound effect. It's horribly inaccurate, and can really take you out of the game once you realize it's there. There was practically no attempt to emulate the sounds you would hear on a real table.
Finally, the "Ladies of Pure Pinball 2.0" are pretty insulting, and don't even appear on the actual tables.
Of the three tables included in this collection, the race-themed machine is by far the best, the war and train-themed tables are not good by any measure.
The main problem with the design of these tables is that they don't seem familiar with how real pinball works. The "special modes" as the manual calls them, are almost impossible to figure out while you are playing - the tables don't follow the convention of flashing valid shots for you.
Both the war and train tables are absolutely filled with dead spots. You'll find yourself repeatedly going for a shot, and hitting the large expanses of dead areas that just send the ball back down the middle or into the outlanes.
The graphics are nice, although the full-color LCD doesn't have the level of interesting animations that you would find in a monocolored LCD from the mid 90s. The physics are decent, the ball feels real, if a bit light.
The sound effects are very, very bad. If you own this game, listen to the default sound effect when the ball hits a wall or dead spot. It sounds to me like a corrupted sound effect. It's horribly inaccurate, and can really take you out of the game once you realize it's there. There was practically no attempt to emulate the sounds you would hear on a real table.
Finally, the "Ladies of Pure Pinball 2.0" are pretty insulting, and don't even appear on the actual tables.
