What I’m Playing Right Now #08

Super C for the NES might be delayed until tomorrow. That’s because we’re starting work on Camp Bloodbrook right now. The first of two installments of Vice Versus related to Camp Bloodbrook will hit today or tomorrow at The Pinball Chick. In my household, dueling is one of the biggest attractions to pinball for us. We’re not just playing pinball, but trying to defeat each-other. Angela especially puts a LOT of stock in pinball as a competitive sport. “It’s not just about how a table shoots, but how fun it is to watch people besides myself shoot the table.” So, we’re spinning off that discussion into its own feature at the Pinball Chick. So, what AM I playing?

First impressions on Camp Bloodbrook: Yep, it’s a Dolby pin. Lots of amazing shots, but no consideration for how demoralizing houseballs are. I’m going to guess what happens in the above clip was unintentional. I’m also going to guess that Zen Studios is over the “normal physics.” Much like Xena: Warrior Princess, Camp Bloodbrook’s “normal physics” games are atrocious, but I really think this is a whole new level of atrocious. The bounces are so weird and random. The speed is. The gravity itself is. The ball is so floaty and its reaction to solid surfaces is so unnatural. So, how about this, Zen Studios: instead of this ridiculous two physics system you have, how about dump one and focus all efforts on the other? Because having to develop tables for two completely different forms of physics, IE reality itself is unreasonable. It feels like tables are always compromised by one physics or the other.

Can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp.

“Normal” physics have no value anymore except sucking resources that could be spent optimizing one version of the table. You can’t even say normal physics acts as a trainer for novice players. What is it training, exactly? Because the physics are so different that the angles themselves change based on the physics. Muscle memory that works on one set of physics doesn’t on the other. Normal physics seems completely detached from reality, and it’s certainly not the easy mode. Not when “normal physics” has completely baseless rejections on ramps to the degree it does. Realistic physics, depending on the table, are killing it. Maybe your designers will be able to bring out tables faster, with less need for patchwork, if there’s only one universal set of physics. Maybe it’ll also eliminate the expectation that new tables won’t fully work as intended until patches arrive well after the fact. With that note, Princess Bride was patched today as well, so our final ratings for that should be hitting soon as well.

UPDATE: Only the “realistic physics” have the straight down the drain problem with the locker seen above. We’re likely to vote that Camp Bloodbrook is OUT OF ORDER until this is fixed. On the other hand, I became the Xbox World Champion of Classic – Normal Physics. #2 all time at the time, but it’s already fallen to #3. Still champion of Xbox though.