While visiting the Touch Arcade site I stumbled upon an article where they were talking about a partnership between Zen Studios and Bethesda Softworks in order to produce what was announced as Bethesda Pinball.
Judging from Zen's tendency to produce a series of pinballs based on a theme we can easily surmise that there will be more than one pinballs based on Bethesda's games collection. And we are talking here about one of the most prestigious such collections, with Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein and many others. I find the idea great and I just hope that the pinballs will not be over-animated like the Star Wars ones. I checked the twitter page of Zen and found the following picture with the Bethesda pinball label:
So we can safely expect Skyrim, Fallout and Doom to be part of the Bethesda pinball collection.
I know, I am nagging again. But after going back to the Mac to give another chance at Eight Ball Deluxe I was irritated by the start-up artefact of Pinball Arcade. This is not something new. It has existed for ages but apparently nobody at FarSight cares about this. When you start the game you are greeted by a screen that contains graphic junk which depends on what you were doing just before. Here is an example.
Obviously it does not exist on iOS. Apparently the teams who work for fixed and mobile Apple devices are not the same. (Rumour has it that there is only one Mac programmer at any given time at FarSight and that, moreover, the person is changing frequently). So we are stuck with this hideous artefact to say nothing of the menu for the selection of a table, where you have to scroll and scroll in order to reach the game, in particular one where the initial letter is at the middle of the alphabet. No wonder I usually play Addams Family or Big Shot.
I am following the state of iOS games on Touch Arcade, which is a not so bad site although I feel that they are not totally impartial in their appreciations. Still, when it comes to pinballs the site is a disaster. (Come on guys. You know which is the best site for pinball news. You are just reading it). To the Touch Arcade people if something has flippers (and sometimes even if it doesn't) it is a pinball. Despite these misgivings TA is a site that I follow every day and from time to time I find there something worth reporting.
This time they were reporting on a new game, branded as pinball, Pinout.
It is essentially an infinite runner (well, not really infinite since there is a time limit, but one which can be extended though time bonuses). The idea is that you shoot your ball with the help of flippers higher and higher through a succession of tables, by following the proper ramps. When time runs out the game stops and you get a final score.
I played the game a number of times and, although it is not a pinball it is still a nice casual game. The Tron-like graphics are pleasant to the eye and the overall physics is not bad. As you progress the game becomes more and more difficult but once you reach a check-point you have the possibility to start from there (although this requires an in-app purchase). From time to time you can obtain bonuses which allow you to freeze the time or slow-down the motion. There is even a video mode, admittedly a rather simple one, but still, it is there.
The game is free (and you definitely do not need the in-app in order to enjoy it) so do not hesitate to give it a try.
It is becoming a tradition. FarSight is celebrating Halloween with a special "terror"-themed table. Last year we had the excellent Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the year before Ghostbusters, which was a dressing up of Haunted House but still a nice table, and the year before that, Class of 1812 another nice table. This year's table BoneBusters
is unfortunately a let down. I find the table uninteresting with gaudy colours which make the choice of the proper "visible" ball very difficult. Usually I do like older pinballs and BoneBusters is a table from the 80s but in this case I could not get hooked. The only moment I had real fun was when I managed to get a screen capture with the ball right in the eye-orbit of the skull ;-))
