Sorry for the lack of focus of the review, just writing this up as I go.

Pinball has always been part of our gaming culture. It's technically the grandfather of all modern video games, mechanical pinball was the first arcade game. They've been around longer then any video arcade game. They're an important part of not just gaming culture, but the entertainment industry, right up there with any other fine art. And if you think about it, the amazing effort put into every specific machine is extraordinary. Just imagine putting all those little gears and lights and gizmos together, so someone can slap some flippers around to get a high score.

Anyways, enough about my praise of the pinball machine and onto the review. Farsight has done an excellent job recreating over 40 pinball tables (to date) and releasing them in virtual form. There has been other attempts at true 3d virtual pinball recreations, mostly those PS2 games, but the amount of tables to choose from was small, and the graphics, quite poor. They were poor representations of the tables. Now, why should the casual game be interested in this? Because simply put, the pinball experience is something unique to it. If you have not already tried a pinball table before, a *REAL* one, not something like Pinball FX, then you should defintely download the demo and try out the free table of the week. It's a real treat to see everything about the IRL machine recreated in minute detail. The lights the ramps the targets the animitronics, the dialogue, the dot matrix displays, and the charm of even the older mechanical machines are all recreated virtually.

Like I've said, you've got over 40 tables to choose from, with another 20 tables planned for release in 2014. Let me go over how the game isn't really free to play, but more like an actual paid game. You can buy individual tables for 4.99 each. Some of the tables are surely worth it, you've got legendary classics like Medieval Madness, Terminator 2, and quirky and rare tables like Cactus Canyon, and Going Nuts. You've got tables from all eras, old electro mechanical pins like Genie, and some of the more early released 1980s efforts by Balley like Black Knight and Class of 1812, both of which I highly reccomend, picking them up via the season 1 pack. The season packs cost 29.99 and come with 20 tables each. You're only paying for a few dollars per table, but if you want you can pick up individual tables of the more popular ones like T2 and Medieval Madness for 5 dollars each. I do not reccomend picking up the Pro pack, for 2 extra dollars you get a small change to the ini file and the option to access to the operator menu. Which also invalidates your score.

Comparsions to Pinball FX2 can and will be made. Pinball FX is notably cheaper.. you can get Humble Bundle keys which contain 2/3 of the tables for a dollar. But a majority of the tables are Marvel liscenced virtual pins made only for the game. And a lot of them don't have very fun goals. Take a look at Farsights virtual repesentation of Funhouse on Pinball Arcade, which came out in 1990, side by side with Zen Studio's newest lisceneced table from Marvel, Dr. Strange and you'll see the difference. Funhouse is 20 years older and 20 times more fun. This is because the table's featured in Pinball Arcade are much better designed, have more satisfying rewards, and have a snappier pace.

Virtual pinball in itself is a niche, but a niche defintely worth trying out. It's actually quite accessable, unlike most games that are niche - rougelikes for example. I would reccomend anyone with a passing interest to try out the game (Dont think its free to play, its defintely not, but they provide one fully functional table every month.) If you've played a pinball machine in your life, and you enjoyed it, download this game and give it a try.

Sorry for the lack of focus of the review, just writing this up as I go. Pinball has always been part of our gaming culture. It's technically the grandfather of all modern video games, mechanical pinball was the first arcade game. They've been around longer then any video arcade game. They're an important part of not just gaming culture, but the entertainment industry, right up there with any other fine art. And if you think about it, the amazing effort put into every specific machine is extraordinary. Just imagine putting all those little gears and lights and gizmos together, so someone can slap some flippers around to get a high score. Anyways, enough about my praise of the pinball machine and onto the review. Farsight has done an excellent job recreating over 40 pinball tables (to date) and releasing them in virtual form. There has been other attempts at true 3d virtual pinball recreations, mostly those PS2 games, but the amount of tables to choose from was small, and the graphics, quite poor. They were poor representations of the tables. Now, why should the casual game be interested in this? Because simply put, the pinball experience is something unique to it. If you have not already tried a pinball table before, a *REAL* one, not something like Pinball FX, then you should defintely download the demo and try out the free table of the week. It's a real treat to see everything about the IRL machine recreated in minute detail. The lights the ramps the targets the animitronics, the dialogue, the dot matrix displays, and the charm of even the older mechanical machines are all recreated virtually. Like I've said, you've got over 40 tables to choose from, with another 20 tables planned for release in 2014. Let me go over how the game isn't really free to play, but more like an actual paid game. You can buy individual tables for 4.99 each. Some of the tables are surely worth it, you've got legendary classics like Medieval Madness, Terminator 2, and quirky and rare tables like Cactus Canyon, and Going Nuts. You've got tables from all eras, old electro mechanical pins like Genie, and some of the more early released 1980s efforts by Balley like Black Knight and Class of 1812, both of which I highly reccomend, picking them up via the season 1 pack. The season packs cost 29.99 and come with 20 tables each. You're only paying for a few dollars per table, but if you want you can pick up individual tables of the more popular ones like T2 and Medieval Madness for 5 dollars each. I do not reccomend picking up the Pro pack, for 2 extra dollars you get a small change to the ini file and the option to access to the operator menu. Which also invalidates your score. Comparsions to Pinball FX2 can and will be made. Pinball FX is notably cheaper.. you can get Humble Bundle keys which contain 2/3 of the tables for a dollar. But a majority of the tables are Marvel liscenced virtual pins made only for the game. And a lot of them don't have very fun goals. Take a look at Farsights virtual repesentation of Funhouse on Pinball Arcade, which came out in 1990, side by side with Zen Studio's newest lisceneced table from Marvel, Dr. Strange and you'll see the difference. Funhouse is 20 years older and 20 times more fun. This is because the table's featured in Pinball Arcade are much better designed, have more satisfying rewards, and have a snappier pace. Virtual pinball in itself is a niche, but a niche defintely worth trying out. It's actually quite accessable, unlike most games that are niche - rougelikes for example. I would reccomend anyone with a passing interest to try out the game (Dont think its free to play, its defintely not, but they provide one fully functional table every month.) If you've played a pinball machine in your life, and you enjoyed it, download this game and give it a try.