Recent reviews by Breeze42

I am a big fan of the Zaccaria recreactions of their real world tables, not generally so much of their "fantasy" tables, this em+ series however I think is quite good so far, that's not to say every table is great, but overall good value & a big thumbs up from me :)

I am a big fan of the Zaccaria recreactions of their real world tables, not generally so much of their "fantasy" tables, this em+ series however I think is quite good so far, that's not to say every table is great, but overall good value & a big thumbs up from me :)

I am a big fan of the Zaccaria recreactions of their real world tables, not generally so much of their "fantasy" tables, this retro series however I think is quite good, that's not to say every table is great, but overall very good value, & a big thumbs up from me :)

A fun diversion from traditional pinball, & just like a good zombie movie, it should not be taken too seriously, just enjoy it for the fun entertainment that it is :)

Speaking from the perspective of portrait mode only, a downside is the numbers, hearts etc are too large, obscuring a fair bit of gameplay, be better if they were much smaller, maybe even a bit transparent would help a little.

Other than that, I think this is a good value variant that's been put together well, I like being able to trigger the other weapons to take out zombies, it's a surprisingly unique table.

For both performance & gameplay, most all of my review for Pinball FX applies to Pinball M as well, I like how zen does pinball https://steamcommunity.com/id/Breeze42/recommended/2328760/

Most of my review for FX3 still applies to this new version, I like how zen does pinball https://steamcommunity.com/id/Breeze42/recommended/442120/

At the time of writing there are already 26 tables that are not available in fx3, I absolutely recommend buying at least those 26, & any subsequent new releases, this is currently the best, active pinball sim available, no pinball collection is complete without it.

Many of the negative reviews are part of a trolling campaign, rather than honest assessment of the game itself.

The performance of the new engine badly needs further optimisation, it is currently very taxing on the system, for what is a significant, but not huge, improvement in visual fidelity (43" 4k screen in portrait/pinball mode), if you're using a smaller screen in landscape, you may struggle to notice much visual improvement over pfx3.

For most people, I don't think that improvement on its own is enough to warrant buying tables that you already own, but I like to support the few pinball sims that are available, so for that reason, I will, over time, be buying them all.

If you are looking at buying some tables that you already own in fx3, just be sure to choose the "legacy bundle" option, for a 50% discount, & keep an eye out for the regular sales for a bigger discount. Edit: I have completed my collection using that strategy & paid on average $1 (USD) per table, a fair & reasonable deal.

As for my experience with graphics settings, after a year of tweaking here & there to arrive at what works best for my system, I have maxed my settings out as I normally would, which results in some flipper lag, then adjusted the "Render scale" setting down until lag is eliminated.

For most of the beta I didn't achieve better than 70%, currently my default is 90%, most tables most of the time are fine at 100%, but sometimes, during busy multiballs, I have detected a little lag, making 90% a safe default, hopefully they will continue to improve it further.

No matter what I try, I cannot use ray tracing without also having flipper lag, even lowering other graphics settings way down does not eliminate that lag, the only option is to leave it turned off.

Currently I only play bought tables in classic mode, so this review does not cover the various game modes, pinball pass, etc.

CYA on the leaderboards :)

EDIT July '23: A recent update seems to have solved "most" of my performance issues, I'm now on max settings + ray tracing, working great, looking great, & without noticeable lag. still very taxing on the system though, even just idling in the menu will have the fans busy, that's annoying :|

EDIT Nov '23: Having just upgraded to current gen hardware (i5-13400F, rtx 4070) I no longer have any performance issues, even running a 43" 4k 120hz screen in portrait/pinball mode. It's performing beautifully at max settings inc. ray tracing, temps are staying low, fans remain quiet, very cool 8)

Please note: I'm using a WMR headset, which is not officially supported, though same goes for most of SteamVR, of which most work fine regardless.


The GOOD:
WooHoo, 2 new Zen Studios designed tables, it's been a long while, and they're very good tables, very much looking forward to their release in the new PinballFX so I can play them in my preferred format, meanwhile I am/will have a lot of fun playing them here :)

Leaving visual fidelity aside for the moment, the adaption of the other 6 tables for VR seems good as well, it's nice to finally have some more VR tables, & design wise, they don't disappoint.

The career/challenge mode seems to be structured fairly well, I'm finding it fun rather than grindy, thankfully, as you must play that mode if you wish to level up the force powers for arcade mode, it does seem pretty good so far.

Total immersion mode is also very cool, nothing more than a novelty really, not good for playing a serious game, but an interesting and fun diversion.

The fan cave, collectables etc are good and fun enough for the trivial add-ons that they are, the jukebox is a nice touch, as are the characters etc lurking near the machine same as in fx2 vr, very cool, and overall the in game audio is good and immersive as well.

Despite the below negatives, I still think this is a good value purchase for pinball fans and star wars fans, especially if you're both :)


The BAD:
Not only can I not remap the controls for my pinball controller, very sad :(, the VR controllers don't work either, thankfully the xbox controller does, and it does work well, but a disappointing compromise nonetheless.

Probably the least-polished package I recall zen releasing, no serious show stopper bugs for me, but a bit of beta-type glitching here and there, particularly with table centering, hopefully we'll see a few more updates pretty quickly.


The UGLY:
Nothing wrong with the visuals in the fan cave, that's all great, but the gameplay we're here for is bewilderingly sub-standard, the visual fidelity is substantially lower than the 4.5 year old Pinball FX2 VR, what the!? :(


In Conclusion:
Taking the above flaws into account, this is still very good and still a lot of fun to be had, but the visual quality of the tables will be very disappointing for those who were very reasonably expecting it to be equal to, or better than, FX2 VR, I can understand why it is a deal breaker for some, I agree it is an inadequate effort.

If you're not particularly after the star wars theme, if you're just looking for "a" good VR pinball package, imo Pinball FX2 VR still remains the best choice, easily.

I'm just a casual player of racing games, so this is not an experts review, & I haven't tried online multiplayer, so there is no comment on those functions.

I really enjoyed the demo derby dlc for grid2, though there's not much of it, so I went looking for something much the same, but a complete game, the genre seems to suit me well, basically a combat racer, but without the complications & frustrations of weapons, bombs etc.

This fit the description perfectly, much better than I expected to find, & with so much official content, & then you have the steam workshop content as well, this game just keeps on giving, very cool, & great value :)

I find it very satisfying no matter the result of the races, some of my DNFs have been more fun than the average win, lol, for someone that likes but is not very good at racing games, it's great, highly entertaining & highly recommended.

Running at max settings on a 38" (3840x1600) screen, it looks & plays great, very sharp, crisp & responsive, high quality work, I'm impressed.

The audio fx are really good as well, & I didn't mind the music at first either, it suits the game, but now that I am racking up the hours, I prefer to play without it.

Career mode is pretty good, though many of the races are shorter than I prefer, so once complete I've gone back to custom events, I doubt I will revisit career mode any time soon, not unless they add some more.

Edit: There's a great community guide to the cars and customisations, also often a good way to find out the real car the game models are based upon, big props to the authors - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=565730071

Very good, I like this one a lot.

There are many positive reviews here, & they're right, nothing more that I can add really, please check them out, they have it well covered.

Buy > play > enjoy :)

Yes I would rather they had the original voices etc, but it is a long way from a deal breaker, the Back to the Future table is my current fave out of the 250+ tables I have here on steam, it's awesome, enuf sed :)