After getting some more time in on Hobbit on location, my opinion is cemented:

The Hobbit is one of the most impressive pinball machines ever built...and one of the weakest pinball games.

What's the difference? You don't play a machine, you play a game, and after a half-dozen location games, I have no idea what the "game" to Hobbit is.

Absolutely. Six plays (plus another dozen over the years at various shows) were more than enough to show me where the creators priorities are.

This "early code" has lots of video clips and motion graphics and wonderful sound, but there is no game to be found. There are no clear goals and no callouts that guide the player. I get it, your "teeth are sword-zahs", but what am I shooting for??

The screen looks absolutely stunning, but as a gameplay HUD it's a huge step backwards from the modern "show me what I need then get out of the way" philosophy video games have been using for the last decade. Its very busy and needs a lot of simplifying and priotitizing of information to support a fast-action game.

The Hobbit as a platform is just awesome...now they need to make it do something fun.