Här kommer en recension till er som inte brukar hålla till på RGP nu slår väll Sonar ihjäl mig om sidan kraschar :-) om det tar för mycket plats kan du ta bort den.
Two Grumpy Old Men And The YB Experience Review T3
Welcome to the second ever Grumpy Old Men review! As before, this is a
combo post. If you respond, you will receive multiple responses from
multiple people. Because a two person combo post just isn't enough,
Korn and I welcome Yancy Blaylock to the review! So expect not one, nor
two but three opinions in one handy post!
"The movie starts in 2 minutes..."
Disclaimer, for future Googlers: When we saw T3, the movie had not yet
been released, so any direct tie-ins with the movie don't make a whole
heck of a lot of sense. So please bear with.
"The movie starts in 1 minute..."
Second disclaimer: This is a very early prototype (the first to be
exact!) so things can and will change. You may not read this review
three months down the line and argue that "the game does that"!
Everything is true as of RIGHT NOW. Tomorrow is a different day.
So an animal, an animal pretending to be a vegetable, and a mexican
jumping bean sneak into a movie theater...
The game is on test at the Barrington AMC 30 theater in Barrington, IL.
"And now.... on with the show!"
(Korn) First things first, let's start with the cabinet. It's
BEAUTIFUL! Wait, uh, no it isn't.
(Yancy) It's boring. It's just a giant logo and the raised metal
texture. The colors of the cabinet are the least offensive of any part
of the machine. At the end of the day, though, I really don't care what
the cabinet looks like (But I'm going to bitch about it anyway!)
(Wolffy) Well now the cabinet, while boring and lacking the coolness to
the T2 cabinet, it is just as pixelated as the TSPP cabinet. This
tecnique is good for now, but when its time for the game to go to the
second hand market, touch up is going to be painful.
(Korn) There's really no _art_ to speak of, unless you count
typesetting a font in really large type. How AFM! To make matters
doubly worse, the metal pattern on the side of the cabinet really does
NOT lend itself well to the pixelated printing process. (kind of looks
like someone played a game of darts with paint tips.)
(Yancy) It did a good job holding the legs on.
(Korn) Yeah, it did just as well holding up the backbox!
(big announer guy) We'd say something about the head, but the game
already has two, so let's just move right along to the backglass(es)...
(Korn) The backglass is really a multi layer sandwich.
(Yancy) Hmmmm.... sandwiches!
(Korn) At the front, you have a translite with a large clear window in
it. The window reveals the backbox toy (cannon), and five targets with
inserts. Behind that is another translite (or possibly piece of
plastic) that serves as the background for all of the rim rockin' cannon
action! (tm)
(Wolffy) The only thing I find bad about the translite is that there's
too much red, which doesn't go with the cabinet which is predominently
dark blue. So the translite REALLY stands out kinda more than you want
it to. On the plus side, this highlights the RPG area nicely, which I
think is a cool addition.
(Yancy) The translite art has basically no composition and is just a
collection of movie screen captures arranged randomly around the RPGRGP
hole.
(Wolffy) Yeah, it suspiciously looks like someone at Stern bought a
copy of Photoshop!
(Big announcer guy (who is this anyway?)) The backglass toy...
(Korn) That toy is cool. Word.
(Wolffy) I love the toy. I have fun playing with the toy.
(Korn) Word!
(Wolffy) The only downside to the toy is it's a "dumb" version of the
cannon from Black Rose, T2, T3, whatever. It's dumb because it has no
idea of a home position, or even when a ball is loaded in it. The
software turns the motor on to have it spin during the duration of the
mode and every trigger pull fires the kicker, even if it isn't loaded.
Outside of having to wait for it to load itself properly, I had fun
playing this mode.
(Korn) I had a lot of fun playing with the cannon. It's a simple
design which should hold up reasonably well on location due simply to
the lack of major parts in it. Imagine if someone took the ferris wheel
from Cyclone or Maverick, loaded a kickback plunger into it, and then
put it under player control. That's the cannon in T3. Not much to
break, outside
of the actual motor itself.
(Yancy) The cannon is fun the first two or three times until you master
the aim, and it gets boring pretty quickly afterwards. It's kind of
lame that this is one of the requirements to acheive wizard mode,
because I found myself wanting to bypass the mode completely. I do
think that casual players will think the cannon is really cool and cause
them to drop more quarters in the game.
(Big announcer guy) The playfield...
(Big announcer guy) A quick run through the shot layout: (starting in
lower left, going clockwise...)
(Wolffy) It has a kick back in the right outlane.
(Korn) The game has a kickback above the left (NOT RIGHT, WOLFFY!!)
outlane. There's the Steve Ritchie 3-bank of standup targets
immediately above the left slingshot. Next up is the big outer orbit on
the left side, which conveniently doesn't always orbit (game
controlled).
Then comes the target.
(Yancy) I don't even know what that target does.
(Wolffy) it's a mystery target.
(Yancy) It sure is!!
(Wolffy) No, it actually has a question mark in front of it.
(Korn) OK, you described the player, what's the target do?
... Next up is the left (A) ramp. This ramp feeds the left flipper via
a wireform.
(Yancy) Then there's the blue plastic nub of death.
(Korn) Don't do it so long.
Movin' right along, we have the lock lane. This feeds a sinkhole in the
back of the playfield, similar to No Fear's lock lane. Halfway up the
lane is a game controlled drop target. The lane terminates right under
uh, the terminator! (surprise! Didn't see that one coming, did ya??)
At twelve o'clock, you have the RED lane captive ball assembly. Little
curvey lane with a standup at the end of it.
Next to the captive ball, you have the center (B) and right (C) ramps.
The B ramp hitails it to the back of the playfield and crosses over
(funhouse style) to feed the left flipper. The C ramp does an immediate
U turn and returns to the right flipper.
Big right orbit is next. Vroomavroomvroom!
Completing the directly accessable shots is the set of three standup
targets above the slingshot. (These light the RGP mode.)
Finally, there's the right outlane that Wolffy SWEARS should have a
kickback.
(Big announcer guy) Hey, what about the flippers?
(Yancy) I've played other Sterns right out of the box, and while the
difference may not be night and day, but they're much more like Williams
flippers.
(Wolffy) I had a hard time telling a difference between these and the
flippers on my Williams (WPC) games.
(Korn) When we played the game, it had less than 150 plays on it. So I
don't think any opinion I have on the flippers is going to be valid.
They felt good, but Stern flippers when they're brand new don't feel bad
to me. After a few hundred games, though, anything is possible. So the
jury is still out for me on the flippers.
(Wolffy) Let me dive right in about how the game actually plays. If
you've ever seen T2, you're well on your way to understanding this one.
The main difference (which I feel makes this cooler) is you now have
objectives to reach to make the final mode.
(Korn) It's really like playing an early 1990's machine, in that the
game is, more-or-less modeless. There's not really any kind of, say, a
"Move Your Car" mode.
(Yancy) RED is a mode, and multiball is a mode. It just doesn't have
the "box o modes" that many other recent games have.
(Wolffy) Take everything with T2, and now add in a twist of AFM. The
main thing you have to do is keep hiting ramps and orbits again until
you complete each step of inserts prior to each shot. Completing each
one of these gets you one step closer to the wizard mode. To help you
out each shot has the white "shoot this" arrow insert in front of it.
If you still
don't get it, you'll be told to "Shoot here, and here".
(Korn) I wound up having the most success (strategy-wise) when I
decided to use the exact same strategy I use to play T2. Namely, pound
the left-right-left-right-left-right ramp combo until you smash through
(surprise!) Payback time, and then stuff balls in the lock to
get multiball.
(Korn) It's kind of weird the amount of stuff that seems almost
directly lifted from T2, for better or for worse. The "MILLION"
animation, for example, is almost directly from T2, except this time it
has a lightning bolt through it. Similarly, both playfields have large
rectangular inserts (THAT YOU CAN READ THIS TIME, MEAN SOMETHING AND ARE
LEGIBLE!!), just like T2.
(Yancy) the only thing missing from T2 is a big chrome terminator head
on the playfield. OH, WAIT!! I guess if it ain't broke...
(Korn) Unfortunately, the trend of the playfield objects not really
doing anything with the ball continues from TSPP into T3.
(Wolffy) This time it doesn't bother me.
(Korn) Well, this time we have not just one giant head that doesn't
interact with the ball, we have two! In T2, you stuff the ball down the
head's neck, and then it shoots the ball out its ear and into the
cannon. In T3, the ball just doesn't DO anything with either of the
heads. It doesn't make sense to me to use the playfield real estate and
then not really _do_ anything with it.
(Wolffy) You're not wasting playfield space this time, because they're
elevated and shots flow underneath them.
(Korn) OK, that's fair. Still, it'd be cool to see Arnie barfing steel
or something like that.
(Yancy) I don't mind that the heads don't react with the ball on either
recent game. To me, it's just less toys to break on location.
(Wolffy) That's nice but I want to say that I really enjoyed the ramps
in this game. Not only does the solid steel look really cool and go
well with the Terminator genre, but I found that they had a smoothness
to them.
(Yancy) Wolffy must have used up all of the smoothness, because the
ramps felt pretty clunky to me.
(Korn) I like the steel ramps. The ramps are constructed out of three
pieces; two walls and a floor. The walls have tabs that are bent under
and then spot welded to the floor. I like the idea, but I'm a little
concerned as to how well these ramps will hold up on location. The
construction looks JUST LIKE ramps from The Shadow, and while these held
up for a while, the welds eventually break. So it's kind of a damned if
you do, damned if you don't scenario. They're better than straight
plastic ramps, but by how much is yet to be seen.
(Wolffy) the next most important thing would be the lock shot, because
you're going to want to hit it often, and then some more. And then for
the hell of it, just a few more times. Not only is it really cool that
if the ball rolls past the lock target (but not in the sink hole) the
game spots the lock, but that drop target is going to be your friend if
you ever start multiball, since this is the one and only shot that's
important in the entire multiball round. Three shots to the drop target
each award jackpots and also light super jackpot.
(Yancy) And where's that super jackpot shot?
(Korn) The coin slot??
(Wolffy) Yeah, that's right, the drop target lane. However, you _need_
the super jackpot as it's one of the things you need to accomplish to
get to the wizard mode. Oh, by the way, a jackpot is a whopping one
million, and a super jackpot is a mind blowing five million.
(Yancy) And no other shots on the playfield appear to incriment either
jackpot.
(Korn) That could simply be because it's pre-production software.
(Korn) The lock/jackpot/super jackpot shot is, to put it simply,
designed for beginners.
(Yancy) it would be nice to see the jackpot move around a bit to add
some variety to the multi ball mode.
(Wolffy) That would be adjustment A43, "make jackpot a bitch".
(Korn) Comes right after adjustment A42, "turn off TSPP monkey stupid
replay reflexing"
(Yancy) The multiball strategy is to cradle two balls on the left
flipper, wear out the lock lane with ball three on the right flipper
then repeat second step until you fall asleep.
(Wolffy) Damn dude, you're harsh!
(Korn) One thing I gotta talk about is the RED mode. It's a little
stupid lighting effect with a really simple sound effect, but whatever,
it's _cool_. It really highlights the game's abundance of red flashers.
(Wolffy) You wanna tell them how to get RED?
(Yancy) It's when you play with your blue nubs too much.
(Korn) Pound the captive ball to spell R-E-D to start the mode. Again
not hard, just something to do.
(Yancy) It is Sometimes not hard to drain from hitting the captive
ball, since it shoots SDTM.
(Korn) I didn't have that experience at all with the captive ball
(CHS). Maybe because I always went for RED from the left side; I could
see it going SDTM from the right.
(Wolffy) I'll throw out what the rules to red are.
(korn) OK, then we'll not have to write them.
(Wolffy) In front of each shot, you'll have a flashing lightning bolt
insert. You need to hit each one of these. There is a short timeframe
to do it in, however if you hit the kickback targets or the captive
ball, it adds two seconds to the time. If you complete RED, you get a
weapon upgrade.
(Yancy) I've seen the captive ball award four and five seconds and I
don't know what other amount. And if you collect one weapon (call
1-800-COLLECT), the shots re-light and you can collect another weapon as
long as time remains.
(Korn) There was a strange mode I kept hitting where there was a video
mode going on while the ball was still live on the playfield. I could
never bring myself to actually look at the DMD while this was happening,
so we'll have to go on YB's description of what happens...
(Yancy) A terminator walks out across the DMD in front of your score,
and the game tells you to grab the gun and fire.
(Korn) So I grabbed the gun and started pumping it like...
(Yancy) So you have to shoot the terminator five or six times, and
you're awarded a 1M quick-draw.
(Korn) This is NOT the video mode. I'd also like it if SOMEONE ELSE
would get the damn mode so that I could finally see the DMD animation on
this one!!
(Yancy) Subsequent quickdraws appear to incriment 250K. By the way,
this is probably my favorite mode in the game. I have no idea why, maybe
it's the danger of being forced to take your hand off the right flipper
button for a few seconds.
(Korn) Speaking of DMDs, the stupid ridiculous second DMD is gone...
yay!!!
(Wolffy) I second that. Real games can deal with one DMD.
(Yancy) Damn dude, you're harsh!
(Korn) Unlike T2, the playfeld artwork color scheme doesn't seem to make
any sense. While T2's blue and silver scheme made sense in light of the
movie, T3's orange scheme doesn't realy make sense unless the film is
set on the sun.
(Wolffy) I can deal with the color scheme no problem, because it really
blends in nicely with the choice of insert colors. However, what kills
the entire playfield is the photoshop "guru" that had to mess with the
pinball artist's design.
(Yancy) Amen. Preach on, brother!
(Korn) If you don't like Alec Baldwn's head staring back at you in
Shadow, you're not gonna like where Arnie's head landed on the
playfield.
(Wolffy) [stands up, takes a deep breath, and gets ready to address the
nation] I said this before, Stern has to stop this pinball by committee
approach they've taken with these past two machines. In the case of T3,
let the pinball artist do his job. In the case of Sharkey's, Janet Lee
is a real person whose image was integrated into the playfield, so much
so that it flowed with the theme of the game. In this case, the
embedding of real images just absolutely kills the entire playfield. In
fact, this is the one and only complaint that I have that will kill any
chance of me giving this game the perfect 10. Stern has got to fix the
art before this playfield goes to production!
(Yancy) Yeah, INSTANT CLASSIC!... but seriously, the playfield is
atrocious. The only elements of the art that aren't revolting are those
which are copied straight out of T2 (mainly the style and arrangement of
some inserts).
(Korn) Come on, this is not Dirty Harry! While I'm not a big fan of the
playfield art, it's not _that_ bad.
(Yancy) No, it's worse. I'll take even the worst line art (mentioned
above) over grainy, blurry monochromatic screen captures photoshopped on
top of a gaudy color graident.
(Korn) Damn dude, you're harsh!
(Wolffy) For the hell of it, I dumped my photo of the playfield into
Photoshop and removed that damn image of Arnold. Major improvement!
The emptiness of the space flows better than the current image.
(Yancy) Just in case you feared not every color in the rainbow would
appear on this playfield, take a look at the plastics and back panel
sticker. Teal/turquoise plastics on top of a purple to orange fade, with
yelow flippers? Yikes. And then there's the lime green back panel
sticker... I mean, I was expecting The Creature to jump out of it! The
otherwise cool red flashers look out of place flanked by the sticker.
Okay, I'll shut up now before the keyboard is wrestled out of my hands.
(Wolffy) Good, let's move on to the the game's sounds and speech.
(Korn) It's a Whitestar. You've heard it before, you know what it
sounds like quality wise and it is pretty much the same deal here.
However, the actual use of sounds is light years ahead of The South Park
Pinball Party!
(Yancy) Damn dude, you're harsh!
(Korn) No, seriously! TSPP couldn't shut up. Every damn switch...
(Yancy and Wolffy) HAVE A PICKLED EGG!
(Korn) Yeah in TSPP the speech was used as a diagnostic tool to make
sure every switch was working. T3 on the other hand does a much, MUCH
better job and feels like a Williams game using its speech.
(Wolffy) That's true. The verbal clues actually deal with a pinball
machine and are informative to the game play.
(Korn) They strike a good balance and don't go all Cue Ball Wizard on us
("You really need that ramp".) They are appropriate but not
overbearing.
(Wolffy) That's true! Especially the two times when Korn was ready to
plunge the ball and Arnold yelled out "You're Worthless!" This game
really has this quote, but I think it was meant to be used after a bad
ball or a mode where you don't score anything.
(Korn) In my defense, I followed Yancy and I think the quote was meant
for him.
(Wolffy) I'm also glad to hear the Terminator theme music used during
the multiball start animation.
(Yancy) I don't have anything to say about the music/speech that the
Grumpy Old Men didn't cover; it's there, it does the job.
(Wolffy) On to the dots. They ROCK!
(Korn) Word.
(Yancy) Word.
(Wolffy) Sentence. Once you lock the ball, there is a very cool effect
with the ball teleporting into the battle field. The multiball start
animation is even better. I don't want to spoil it, but this here is
the best damn multiball start animation I have seen from Stern. Hats
off to the dots programmer!
(Yancy) I'd like to move on to talk about the overall feel of the game.
In a word, clunky. There is flow with the abundance of ramps and orbits
but there's a lot more steel on the game than rubber. It seems like
every shot you hit (or don't hit, in my case) just lacks bounce and
reduces the amount of ball action in the game. I especially notice this
on the lane
divider [in/outlane] post. I know it's a Steve thing, but I just don't
like it.
(Wolffy) I don't feel the same clunkiness. The game has an excellent
flow where each shot sets you up for the next... now if I could only
make them!
(Korn) The game has a reasonable amount of flow. It is not overly
dripping with flow like No Fear and Shadow, but is pretty decent in that
regard. You can stand on the T2 left-right ramp mega combo all day.
(Yancy) Back to the clunk, I also don't care for the blue plastic ramp
spacers (blue nubs) I'd much rather see posts with rubbers on them.
(Wolffy) Well there is plenty of space to add the posts. But the nubs
didn't cause me any grief.
(Wolffy) Word.
(Wolffy) But hey let me take time to segway into the closing comments.
After playing this game I have to say that I had fun and look forward to
playing it again. T3 has things that need improvement, but only one
really affects my enjoyment of the game. Since the number of
complaints are so minimal, I think I will be daring to say this _is_ the
best Stern game and tops my favorite Stern list! 8 out of 10!
(Yancy) This game is not Stern's best, and certainly not Steve Ritchie's
best, but I will continue to put quarters in it and think the general
public will as well. I'm a little disappointed that Steve hasn't shown
anything I didn't already see in T2 and No Fear, but
these days a designer's primary job is not to revolutionize pinball but
to sell machines. I give it an x out of y.
(Korn) Over all I think T3 is a good, solid game. After talking to
Steve Ritchie about the game, his focus is not advanced pinball players,
but Joe Sixpack who walks up to this game in a bar.
(Yancy) Word.
(Korn) Shut the hell up! Anyway as I was saying, with that in mind this
is a solid design. I think this will haul in a lot of money in a bar or
at most locations. It is newbie friendly, and just doesn't leave you
with the "this game just screwed me" effect from The South Park Pinball
Party. However, I can not see many of these being bought for home use
for the same reason ToM makes a bad home use pin; it's just not deep
enough. But I could see myself playing it a lot on location.
(Wolffy, Korn, and Yancy) FYI - We all welcome the ball saver back to
pinball!:-)
/Flippy
