(Topic ID: 106410)
Linked Games
The Hobbit
Jersey Jack, 2016
Topic Gallery
Toronto, ON
Detroit, MI
Looks like a big flasher in the top of the head between the speakers. Old backglass. Cool new user interface!
Quoted from Pimp77:Looks like a big flasher in the top of the head between the speakers.
It's actually a camera with facial recognition software (with a focal point that adjusts for differences in people's height). After the first ball of a game is plunged the camera takes a pic of the player's face and superimposes it on one of the characters displayed on the screen in the backbox (before launching the ball you get to choose whether you want to be pictured as an elf or a dwarf or an orc).
Or maybe it is a remote drive-thru order window linked to the McDonald's down the street?
Quoted from littlecammi:Or maybe it is a remote drive-thru order window linked to the McDonald's down the street?
Would you like fries with that?
Quoted from Pinchroma:Would you like fries with that?
It's Everquest 2 /pizza all over again. 
Breda, Holland
.
Quoted from twinmice:Well it looks like someone played it, i wonder if they could at least describe it or even tell us if smaug is decent looking?
maybe he is being sarcastic? 
Quoted from Pinchroma:As Jack speaks if anyone needs clarity let me know. Should i start a new thread? Hobbit Q/A?
Yes please. I will moderate out the troll crap if you take the time to do it.
Quoted from Pinchroma:As Jack speaks if anyone needs clarity let me know. Should i start a new thread? Hobbit Q/A?
Yes please
Quoted from TigerLaw:Yes please. I will moderate out the troll crap if you take the time to do it.
JJP Expo presentation happening now. Live feed available here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jguynes
Quoted from BoozeMarlin:JJP Expo presentation happening now. Live feed available here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jguynes
Awesome -- can someone live there ASK to get the lights dropped -- so we at home can see the projector screen too?
300 of us watching -- bad ass!
-mof
i am so swapping my thle over to smse
We can't see CRAP at home. The big screen is just a big white blur. We need those lights dimmed to have a chance (me thinks)
-mof
Quoted from HunchbackHodler:here you go
Thanks these picts make it look better, even Smaug looks ok. I just cannot get over that effin book.......seriously does anyone know if it does anything? it blocks the whole back right side near the pops and just looks like an eye sore. Also how do the pop up targets look in person?
Also someone get video of this game up ASAP, I want to see it in action.
First reaction, based on the pics alone the game looks good but visually doesn't seem to come together well. You have what looks like a random dragon that doesn't convincely look like it is apart of the landscape of the game, a horse shoe looking ramp in the center and a book which hides the entire river that the barrels are floating down. The book to me looks like a useless item on the playfield and I'm sure will be the first thing to be replaced with a mod. The color of the targets below the book just don't seem to balance well with the rest of the game either.
The drop targets are interesting but I don't get overly excited about shooting drop targets as a large part of the game, which, seem to take up a good portion of the playfield and I am assuming plays a large part of the game. Talking heads have also been done before.
I do think the LCD screen, sound and modes will bring a lot of value to the game.
Also I have read many of the sculpt comments and I really feel the sculpts look slightly above average but not anything I would brag about.
Overall, at first glance, the game looks good but I think WoZ and TBL look better. I think WoZ and TBL have more innovation in their game as well. With TH it looks like a lot of targets and shots. Maybe that type of game just doesn't do it for me. The game looks flat, the toys don't blend in well or in the case of the book don't lend anything to the game. I feel the theme could have been better represented. There really isn't anything that pops for me when I look at the table.
I do have a Hobbit Pre-Order. I do feel it's going to be a good game but there is a lot of other things I can spend 8K on. I'm hoping some videos will raise my level of excitement of the game. I could be completely wrong about how I feel about it after playing it.
Quoted from mattsmith:First reaction, based on the pics alone the game looks good but visually doesn't seem to come together well. You have what looks like a random dragon that doesn't convincely look like it is apart of the landscape of the game, a horse shoe looking ramp in the center and a book which hides the entire river that the barrels are floating down. The book to me looks like a useless item on the playfield and I'm sure will be the first thing to be replaced with a mod. The color of the targets below the book just don't seem to balance well with the rest of the game either.
The drop targets are interesting but I don't get overly excited about shooting drop targets as a large part of the game, which, seem to take up a good portion of the playfield and I am assuming plays a large part of the game. Talking heads have also been done before.
I do think the LCD screen, sound and modes will bring a lot of value to the game.
Also I have read many of the sculpt comments and I really feel the sculpts look slightly above average but not anything I would brag about.
Overall, at first glance, the game looks good but I think WoZ and TBL look better. I think WoZ and TBL have more innovation in their game as well. With TH it looks like a lot of targets and shots. Maybe that type of game just doesn't do it for me. The game looks flat, the toys don't blend in well or in the case of the book don't lend anything to the game. I feel the theme could have been better represented. There really isn't anything that pops for me when I look at the table.
I do have a Hobbit Pre-Order. I do feel it's going to be a good game but there is a lot of other things I can spend 8K on. I'm hoping some videos will raise my level of excitement of the game. I could be completely wrong about how I feel about it after playing it.
Hobbit looks like it was done on a much cheaper budget than WoZ. Look at the Hobbit pics I posted above and then look at this:
Maybe it's mostly a difference in art direction, whereas The Hobbit has none. Why did Joe Balcer and Greg Freres leave the company? because their departure is noticeable. And Balcer, the designer of this game, left in the middle of the production - that's not a good sign.
On a smaller note, an interactive map on the apron, which, some spoke of, would have been a nice touch. Very cheap to have put in a few lights and help you play along the travels of the story of the game rules. If they were designed around that type of gameplay progression.
I think JJP should go back and treat this as a prototype and give it 1 or 2 more months development to bring the game up a notch. I wouldn't mind waiting.
Quoted from mof:SO PLEASED to see all the drops. My interest in the game just went up 2 points.
-mof
I DO like that too! Drop targets rock and the unique 4 pop-ups behavior is cool too (regardless of what they look like.) Game play itself looks to be cool! Detail in the toys (and true mechanical action) may be lacking ... but the rules, flow, and game play look to be solid. There is good and bad.
LCD looks like a huge leap ahead from the boxy WOZ screen. We need to see video to see how the random over sized book and super-hyped smaug toy interact.
OK, here's what I think (mere opinions based on viewing of preliminary pictures):
Also concerned about the book. So many cool things in these movies: the werebear, the rock giant things, huge talking eagles, even the round door at Bag End and yet they decided to go with a book that appears to do nothing?
Sincerely hope the interactive apron is still coming, that was a great idea, but I don't see any lighting on the apron here.
Smaug talking and moving is good but I really hope that he does something else. I find it strange that the licensor would have objected to Smaug swallowing or being hit by pinballs because it doesn't happen in the movie when clearly the orcs, goblins, spiders and wargs are not bashed by pinballs in the film either.
It appears that the main toy in the machine is not quite as good as Rudy. It talks, sure, but it's eyes don't move and it doesn't seem to interact with the ball. I hope I'm missing something.
Again, all initial impressions, probably wrong...
any speculation on what the two magnets at the top of the PF do? in one of the pics of the underside i saw two magnets under the the crossover ramp at the top of the pf. it also looks like a second divertor to the upper left of smaug.
i still feel this is still an early mock-up just done for the expo, and i think we will see lots of "attention to detail" prior to the game starting production.
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