|
Written by Don Lee
|
|
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 |
 Fastlane Pinball was designed to bring all the fast-paced action of
pinball machines to your personal computer. There have been other PC
pinball games but most suffered from bad physics, terrible table design
or other problems. I took a look at Fastlane Pinball because the
packaging caught my attention and the screenshots looked promising.
Here is what I discovered about Fastlane Pinball.
Silverball Action
Upon launching Fastlane Pinball, I first tried to go into the game’s options to see what was configurable. Unfortunately, I found that there was very little I could change other than sound volume and network view while the only in-game configuring I could do was just change the table view. Okay, I can deal with not having a lot to tweak if the game play could be as true to real pinball as possible.
Now starting on the first table, I first noticed all of the nice looking graphics. The table design does look as impressive as it does on the packaging. When I launched the first ball, the game play appeared to be a little choppy. With the system requirements not being too intensive, I thought maybe the programs I had running in the background could be affecting the game. I closed out of everything and relaunched Fastlane Pinball. Immediately, I noticed a big difference in the game as the action seemed to become more fluid. The default table viewing is to follow the ball movements but I quickly changed that to a fixed view by pressing the backspace button.
The table design is good and appears just as you would expect any pinball game but the action seems strange at times. The ball plays as if it is a lot heavier than it appears. The bumpers have a dead reaction to the ball and the flippers seem a little too weak. I always noticed the picture in a picture feature where a display of the ball’s action will automatically appear in the corner of your screen. This is kind of distracting when you’re trying to focus on the table action. Even with all of these issues, the overall table play is good. Fortunately, the table missions aren’t too difficult that you won’t be able to accomplish the feats.
Some of the table missions include Subway Blowout, Multiball, Park the Car, Jailbreak, Monorail Maze, Casino, Car Crash and Combo Shots. You can also take a break by playing some of the mini games available such as Pizza Packing, Hit the Slots and Highway Chase.
You can either play a single player game or you can play up to four players in a turn based environment. There is a bonus arcade shooter that you will need to unlock to gain access. There is also network play available.
The Final Word
Fastlane Pinball is a good value game but there are some issues. While some may enjoy the multiple viewing angles, I found that the game play became sluggish and very difficult to follow the ball with the screen constantly in motion. Luckily, you can set the viewing angle to a fixed position. With the game’s fixed default view, I would have liked a way to change the angle from there to be more top down as a fixed view. Flipper settings would be useful too since I felt the strength of the flippers were a bit too weak to make certain shots.
The table designs were pretty good and the missions were relatively easy to accomplish. The mini games were actually pretty good as I really enjoyed Pizza Packing. When you achieve a high score, you can store it locally on your PC. If you want to see how you match up with other Fastlane Pinballers, you can also post your high score to the Fastlane Pinball website.
To ensure that you get the best, fluid game play in Fastlane Pinball, you should not have any other programs running in the background. Even on my 2.1GHz PC, the game play stuttered a bit when I had a couple of programs opened during play. Stuttering is not good when timing is as important as it is in pinball. Knowing when to nudge the table and choosing the right angle to shoot the ball are crucial. The game effects offers some nice eye candy but there was no way to turn them off to improve the game play.
If you’re looking to get your pinball fix without having to scour the local bars and arcades with a pocket full of quarters, then you should take a look at Fastlane Pinball by Merscom. Fastlane Pinball does offer a lot of features and extras at an affordable price of $9.99. Fastlane Pinball earns 3.5 stars out of 5.
System Requirements
69MB hard drive space
1GHz or more CPU
128MB RAM
32MB DirectX 9 compatible
Windows 2000/XP compatible
You can play with either a keyboard or gamepad
You can visit the game’s official website at http://www.fastlanepinball.com
About Merscom
Merscom LLC is a publisher of PC and console games. Founded in 1999 by video game veterans with over a decade of experience working with the industry's leading developers and publishers, Merscom produces fun, easy to pick up and play entertainment products for gamers of all ages. For more information visit www.merscom.com
|
