Well, I guess I can call myself lucky I didn't buy any of the tables that didn't make it into FX3. To be fair, I think getting these same licenses yet again for new a version, is an incredible feet. I don't think people appreciate or know how tough it can be to acquire these licenses AND give the products away for free. Then again, I probably wouldn't be intersted, if I was offered to buy the same tables again, which I have in FX2 already. They did remove Pinball FX2 from the store, but if you have it already, you can still download and play FX2 and all the tables you bought. Works for me, leaderboards work too.

EDIT: there's a bug right now, which might cause some tables to display as locked, which you actually own. A restart should fix it.

Graphics upgrade
The engine received a significant overhaul. Lots of dynamic lights, The ball now actually receives lighting and shadowing from the environmant and so does everything else on the table that's moving. Looks veeeeery different and realistic now. Very noticeable on the Ghost Rider table with all the fires and stuff.
Some of you might want to turn the graphics down though. As cool as it looks, all these moving shadows and lighting effects might make the table look... cluttered. It's not a problem for me, but I know people who prefer visual clarity over the cool-factor. Rest assured, turning gfx down helps with that.

Campaign, challenges, tutorials
There's also a little campaign and challenges now. If you were ever afraid of pinball because of how "competitive" and frustrating it can get sometimes, now's your chance to actually learn the tricks pros use. Some of these tricks even I didn't know about e.g.: the nudge pass - in other pinball games I never had to use it, or it was not the correct way to pass the ball onto the other flipper.

New game modes
These come with the challenges. E.g. Earn as much score as you can in 5 minutes, or with only a single ball, or try and survive for as long as you can. It's not much different in playstyle, but it adds a little bit to the game.

Online tournaments on the fly
You can join them and even dynamically create them at the push of a button. They come in different game modes as well.

Cross-play
Leaderboards are unified across platforms (if I understood this correctly). As Steam users we can play against both PS4 and XBOne players.

It's pinball
with cool effects, cool tables, interesting missions. It's not a massive step from Pinball FX2, but it's still a little bit of evolution. They are trying to create a AAA pinball game and evolve the genre a bit by mixing in new gamemodes and special abilities (wizard powers) and stuff.

YouTube/Streamer friendly
There's a setting in-game which toggles the licensed muscic on/off for e.g. Star Wars tables. It is off by default, so everyone else might want to turn this on to get the nostalgic music from the movies.

Wizard powers
There's now passives and abilities which you can level up through playing, which give you an edge in playing. Some examples are:

• active ability that slows time for timing precision shots
  
• active, let's you rewind a couple seconds to fix a mistake you made
  
• passive, gives extra score for just letting the ball travel
  
• passive, extends ball save times
  
• passive, bonus score for scoring in multiball

Now I wouldn't really have a problem with these, if it wasn't for the fact that you have toacquire and level them up separately for each table. This is massively stupid. If I didn't play the same amount on some table as someone else, I won't get a bonus for e.g landing a skillshot, because he has the same ability on a higher level. Thankfully, you can turn all this garbage off by playing in classic mode. It has its own leaderboards as well. I wouldn't be bothered if you couldn't level them up and scale the bonus they give, but you can.

I can definitively see why they were added. They are trying to give new players a little bit of edge, make it easier for them. Attract a wider audience. Pinball might have been big about 20 years ago, but times change.

Physics, cabinet support
Don't get me wrong, this is actually some of the most advanced ball physics I've seen in a pinball game. It even simulates ball spin and everything. However, on some tables it is set up to be... too floaty? (looking at you, Avengers table - by far the worst table in this game) It's not a problem with the physics engine, it's a problem with how the table is set up. It's like they have different gravity or different incline set for every table, or the ramps' incline is weird. Luckily, you can change mechanics in the table itself (flipper stiffness, power, springs etc.) using cabinet support, but if you play that way, your table won't be eligible for the leaderboards (which is a good thing, people could cheat with this). You need to request a Cabinet key from the devs (they pass it no problem). I'm guessing they use the key to identify how some people fix various issues with some tables.

Ranked ladder
There's leagues now. You can do "matchups", where you challenge someone else's score in a league (rank tier). If you beat the score, you get league points. If you are in the TOP 20% by the end of the season (week), you progress into the next tier. It's a bit weird. You get to choose between 3 opponents (easy, medium, hard). You get more points for beating harder ones. As you can imagine it will get a bit grindy - you will have to keep beating the opponents (usually around the same score) to gather the league points to stay in the top 20%. You can stay up there by simply beating the easy opponent over and over again and grinding those league points. However, I imagine there will come a tier, where the median score will be so high, that you won't even be able to beat the easy opponent. If you do have the skill to beat it, it will still be a grind though, because a lot of other people will be able to beat it as well and you gotta stay in the top 20% of the tier.

To top it off, Wizard powers are enabled in this league mode. It's pretty BS. As far as I'm concerned, classic table leaderboards are the way to go for now, if you want to get competitive. Leagues are a good start though. Hopefully they will change it later, to eliminate the grind aspect of it.

P.S. to devs: isn't the chick doing the explaining kinda... out of place? You need a mascot.

Well, I guess I can call myself lucky I didn't buy any of the tables that didn't make it into FX3. To be fair, I think getting these same licenses yet again for new a version, is an incredible feet. I don't think people appreciate or know how tough it can be to acquire these licenses AND give the products away for free. Then again, I probably wouldn't be intersted, if I was offered to buy the same tables again, which I have in FX2 already. They did remove Pinball FX2 from the store, but if you have it already, you can still download and play FX2 and all the tables you bought. Works for me, leaderboards work too. EDIT: there's a bug right now, which might cause some tables to display as locked, which you actually own. A restart should fix it. [h1]The Good:[/h1] [b]Graphics upgrade[/b] The engine received a significant overhaul. Lots of dynamic lights, The ball now actually receives lighting and shadowing from the environmant and so does everything else on the table that's moving. Looks veeeeery different and realistic now. Very noticeable on the Ghost Rider table with all the fires and stuff. Some of you might want to turn the graphics down though. As cool as it looks, all these moving shadows and lighting effects might make the table look... cluttered. It's not a problem for me, but I know people who prefer visual clarity over the cool-factor. Rest assured, turning gfx down helps with that. [b]Campaign, challenges, tutorials[/b] There's also a little campaign and challenges now. If you were ever afraid of pinball because of how "competitive" and frustrating it can get sometimes, now's your chance to actually learn the tricks pros use. Some of these tricks even I didn't know about e.g.: the nudge pass - in other pinball games I never had to use it, or it was not the correct way to pass the ball onto the other flipper. [b]New game modes[/b] These come with the challenges. E.g. Earn as much score as you can in 5 minutes, or with only a single ball, or try and survive for as long as you can. It's not much different in playstyle, but it adds a little bit to the game. [b]Online tournaments on the fly[/b] You can join them and even dynamically create them at the push of a button. They come in different game modes as well. [b]Cross-play[/b] Leaderboards are unified across platforms (if I understood this correctly). As Steam users we can play against both PS4 and XBOne players. [b]It's pinball[/b] with cool effects, cool tables, interesting missions. It's not a massive step from Pinball FX2, but it's still a little bit of evolution. They are trying to create a AAA pinball game and evolve the genre a bit by mixing in new gamemodes and special abilities (wizard powers) and stuff. [b]YouTube/Streamer friendly[/b] There's a setting in-game which toggles the licensed muscic on/off for e.g. Star Wars tables. It is off by default, so everyone else might want to turn this on to get the nostalgic music from the movies. [h1]Mixed bag:[/h1] [b]Wizard powers[/b] There's now passives and abilities which you can level up through playing, which give you an edge in playing. Some examples are: [list] [*] active ability that slows time for timing precision shots [*] active, let's you rewind a couple seconds to fix a mistake you made [*] passive, gives extra score for just letting the ball travel [*] passive, extends ball save times [*] passive, bonus score for scoring in multiball [/list] Now I wouldn't really have a problem with these, if it wasn't for the fact that you have toacquire and level them up separately for each table. This is massively stupid. If I didn't play the same amount on some table as someone else, I won't get a bonus for e.g landing a skillshot, because he has the same ability on a higher level. Thankfully, you can turn all this garbage off by playing in [b]classic[/b] mode. It has its own leaderboards as well. I wouldn't be bothered if you couldn't level them up and scale the bonus they give, but you can. I can definitively see why they were added. They are trying to give new players a little bit of edge, make it easier for them. Attract a wider audience. Pinball might have been big about 20 years ago, but times change. [b]Physics, cabinet support[/b] Don't get me wrong, this is actually some of the most advanced ball physics I've seen in a pinball game. It even simulates ball spin and everything. However, on some tables it is set up to be... too floaty? (looking at you, Avengers table - by far the worst table in this game) It's not a problem with the physics engine, it's a problem with how the table is set up. It's like they have different gravity or different incline set for every table, or the ramps' incline is weird. Luckily, you can change mechanics in the table itself (flipper stiffness, power, springs etc.) using cabinet support, but if you play that way, your table won't be eligible for the leaderboards (which is a good thing, people could cheat with this). You need to request a Cabinet key from the devs (they pass it no problem). I'm guessing they use the key to identify how some people fix various issues with some tables. [b]Ranked ladder[/b] There's leagues now. You can do "matchups", where you challenge someone else's score in a league (rank tier). If you beat the score, you get league points. If you are in the TOP 20% by the end of the season (week), you progress into the next tier. It's a bit weird. You get to choose between 3 opponents (easy, medium, hard). You get more points for beating harder ones. As you can imagine it will get a bit grindy - you will have to keep beating the opponents (usually around the same score) to gather the league points to stay in the top 20%. You can stay up there by simply beating the easy opponent over and over again and grinding those league points. However, I imagine there will come a tier, where the median score will be so high, that you won't even be able to beat the easy opponent. If you do have the skill to beat it, it will still be a grind though, because a lot of other people will be able to beat it as well and you gotta stay in the top 20% of the tier. To top it off, Wizard powers are enabled in this league mode. It's pretty BS. As far as I'm concerned, classic table leaderboards are the way to go for now, if you want to get competitive. Leagues are a good start though. Hopefully they will change it later, to eliminate the grind aspect of it. [i]P.S. to devs: isn't the chick doing the explaining kinda... out of place? You need a mascot.[/i]