I thought so too initially but I was so wrong. I just finished working up a F ing sweat! LMS 1.53.jpgLMS 1.53.jpgTWD champ 1.53.jpg

I used to hate the fact that 3 shots (on the pro, no drop target on Woodbury) all led to time in the pops which seemed interminable and disrupted the momentum of the game.
Now that I understand the rules and am following more of a strategy rather than just bashing away, I find that time in the pops a bit of a relief from the intensity - it gives you a well needed breather before the next onslaught comes, if you will. Of course it doesn't last long, you have to be back on your guard as the ball exits the pops and sails towards the centre drain....

I used to hate the fact that 3 shots (on the pro, no drop target on Woodbury) all led to time in the pops which seemed interminable and disrupted the momentum of the game.
Now that I understand the rules and am following more of a strategy rather than just bashing away, I find that time in the pops a bit of a relief from the intensity - it gives you a well needed breather before the next onslaught comes, if you will. Of course it doesn't last long, you have to be back on your guard as the ball exits the pops and sails towards the centre drain....

Keep playing and you will get hooked. We have MET Premium ACDC Luci and TWD LE all HUO. The walking dead is definitely the most played pin by all of us and all our friends that have pinball machines. Closely followed by X - Men LE. Our friends that do not have pinball machines all go to ACDC, MET and Transformers and love them! We are having our own pinfest this coming week end!

The hand drawn playfield amd backglass artwork on Met blows those other two photoshopped games out of the water. Add in voice calls from the actual band, metal ramps, hammer, snake, Sparky, the light show, the flow....no contest.

My thoughts exactly too.

I am fortunate to own all 3 of those awesome titles. They each have deep rules and offer a variety of fun and rewarding shots. IMO these are 3 of the best Sterns ever made and will likely never leave my collection. If I had to make a choice, Slight edge goes to MET premium as the toys (hammer, snake and Sparky) are a blast; and the game is not as punishing for missed shots. Again, these are all fantastic pins.

When I play MET, I don't feel like there is anything unbalanced or missing. Unfortunately I don't get the same feeling from ACDC. I'm slowly leaning towards letting Luci go. I still need to play TWD.

Rob

acdc is good, a little overwhelming on the rules and forces you to listen to songs you may not like.

TWD is phenomenal and I'm buying and building one up over next few mos- however it has an over reliance on right flipper (blood bath/features light mode).

the balance of met is unmatched, it's easy for rookies to hit sparky, hard to master, the toys are a blast, it's fast and flowy, rules ensure you always have a shot regardless of flipper and there's simply no replacement for crank it up, only things close are Tron SOS, IM Jericho. met is my fav by a wide margin. I could go on and on.

TWD fights (with IM/SM) for a distant second. yes I know you can use left flipper to hit walker and bank into the drops- it's generally unreliable in my experience.

MET sounds like a game I'd like, might drop Ac/dc for it. I've played it but don't really have a feel for it.

Get TWD, play it for a few hundred plays, discover all the nuances and then report back.

No offense to anybody, entitled to your opinions, but I value the ones of people a bit more that own all 3 or 2 of the 3. There is nothing like owning it, standing the test of time, to fully appreciate it or not. And all the bias is removed from the equation.

Sold ACDC. Kept Met. Plan to add TWD next month.

Sold ACDC, have MET, planning on getting SM next, VE or not.

Don't forget there is still more to come from ACDC.

I'd sell my ACDC long before my Metallica, that's for sure.

Here's my thought for you: given the way you appreciate the atmosphere of TWD, if you can snag a Met Premium I'd go that route.

The Pro plays just fine, but the atmosphere on the Prem/LE is just a notch above. The dynamic GI effects, the color changing inserts, the hammer, (cross is cool but whatever), and I really think that the moving snake mouth is one of the more underrated toys in recent pinball. It's just really cool. It's a shot that changes between a scoop and a standup. And visually lets you know when it's ready. Love glancing up during multiball and seeing that I missed getting the last pick target hit and have add a ball ready at the snake because it's gaping jaws are waiting for my ball.

(Hmm, that last bit might have come out wrong.)

Don't forget there is still more to come from Metallica.

And more to come from twd lol

Is there really more code coming from met and acdc?

I'm in the process of picking up a Road Case Premium. Its a good game but to me it will always be a few pegs below ACDC. No game out there gives you the risk reward potential on each ball that ACDC does.

And more to come from Wrestlemania.

ACDC yes....Not sue about Metallica outside cleaning up some on the End of Line Wizard mode.

AC/DC still has cannon mode inserts that don't do anything unless I'm not up to date on the state of the game.

Well ive never seen that mode on met lol

Owned all three. Sold Met. Sold TWD. Still have ACDC.

But just because I sold them doesn't mean I didn't like them. TWD & Met are great, great games. I only have so much room and money.

I've never played AC/DC, but I don't think anyone would go wrong with MET or TWD. I've played MET several time and it's a very well rounded game, definitely a top 25 game in my opinion. I own TWD and it's out of this world. The ramps are very unusual and actually a turn off due to bricked shots for the first 5-10 games, however it's as addictive as IM, but in a longer ball time game and 5 times deeper code. I think over time, this one will rise through the rankings into the top 10 as more people play the latest code. MET is still solid though, so you can't go wrong there either. Borg has really done some home run derby with these two, not to mention IM and Tron. I own 3 of the 4 and would love to own all 4 some day.

, as you being a TWD pro owner who sold back in May, I can't say this holds significant weight. This was before the big jump to 1.41 code, plus newer. Just sayin.

Lucky guy to have owned all three.

I totally agree with that. And I get why some people truly love that. But for me, while I dig risk reward, it's not the be all end all of pinball for me. It's just one facet of the experience. And Metallica has, for me, a better overall experience.

And if you like risk reward IMHO nothing in AC/DC tops the fun of Crank It Up. Building up a jackpot and getting double scoring going before cashing in is AC/DC like, but the mood and atmosphere and fun of the shots is just better to me.

Don't get me wrong, I have an ACDC Premium too, and when I get some free time I want to work on a mod for it. Great pin. But not my favorite.

Crank it ups are the thing that saved Metallica cause outside of S&D (which you don't want to cash in if you are going for multiple CIU's). The rest of the game is quite boring and wood choppy as its sole purpose is really to get yourself back to the next CIU mode.

Also not everybody is as good a player as you...what the hell was your high score on MET?

Im not a highly ranked played. Ive put up 850mil on my old LE but thats probably the best I've ever done. And after that game I had no desire to press start right away.

But, how do you know? The only person that knows for sure is Lyman.

Rob

Lol...after a year or so my high score is 230 mil..

Sad but true ... and usually you get Justice for All or Blackened during MB without even recognizing it. I once had 148 mio for Blackened without caring at all about this mode just by keeping the MBs running. MET is a good table, but (my very personal point of view) no keeper. MET has at this time the best show out there (light and toys).

One more comment - I like those metal ramps, but if I go for EoL, I will totally ignore them. You work on the toys to set a MB up and then "nearly" any shot will give progression to the CIU, if the MB plays well. Actually you can take the ramps out of the game and it doesn't change very much... Only if you want to go for the combo EB, they are use ful. The right ramp/fuel combo can also give some nice points... still for me... MET is a B title.

TWD... oh I really wanted to like this table, but I failed... go for the drops, get blood bath running and you will play an "endless" MB. Super for a comeback on a last ball, but I don't like this for some reason. In the meantime Lyman really improved the code, but somehow this title is lost for me.

AC/DC - man - I was so disappointed! What a useless mini playfield, what a super simple layout... boring, boring, boring! And on top of it... it looks like... plus what the he** - this band plastic animation

BUT after several code updates and LUCI being shipped - best machine in terms of NOT boring gameplay. There is no game out there (again my very personal point of view) that is so much fun during anytime of a game. Lot of options, risk/reward - I love it. Even though it looks like an old school outdated machine beside a MET with its brilliant bright light show.. AC/DC is my clear number one regarding Stern pinball machines.

Really? I heard Lyman saying this (also for Tron)... but that was approx. 18 months ago, so I was not sure, if this is still valid, since there is so much work to do for the current titles.

this.

plus if you're going to say met is wood choppy then you need to be realistic and acknowledge that all pinball is wood choppy. plunge ball, flip ball, nudge to save, flip ball, smack to save, catch ball, flip ball, start mode/mb... etc

anybody good enough to put up 850 on met is probably gonna be bored by every game in existence today, regardless of the settings/EBs/tilt employed.

Metallica pre was the my first nib pin(ca 2,5 years ago). I got AC/DC a couple of months later. On paper Metallica is the clear winner.

It has everything. Better music than ac/dc, better layout, much better art, the coolest mini wizard modes in the history of pinball, etc.

Strangely enough, I got really tired of Metallica after ca 1 year and sold it, while ac/dc is still here and still feels fresh.

This has surprised me. Maybe it is because of all the troubles I had with my Metallica. The repairs were endless (this continued with the next owner and he sold it after 6 months)

Maybe part of it is also that I waited months and months before crank it up was coded in (let's face it, the game was not that great before that) and the code was mostly all there on ac/dc when I bought it.
Another problem for me with Metallica was that I found myself almost never shooting for the ramps if I did not need to and that is no fun, is it? Just imagine ac/dc with no fun ramps

Still a great game. I have the deepest respect for those who think Metallica is the best Stern game. Killer layout, killer rules.
I might pick up a pro down the line, sometime in the future (would surely miss the lights and spinners of the premium, though. The rest of the pre features I can live without.) I have a feeling that I just need some time away from it to appreciate it more

Really looking forward to getting TWD premium(along with GOT Pro) in a couple of days to see how it fares, compered to Metallica and ac/dc.
I had no interest in TWD at all for many months but as usual, like those other 2 games, Lyman just needed some extra time to make it shine.

I read this right after my own post Couldn't agree more regarding the ramps on Metallica

PS! Let me know if you ever get tired of that Frontier you have in your great collection

AC/DC I own both Pro and Premium, Met I owned both LE and Pro, recently sold LE. TWD coming in Jan, and I HOPE it is better than both of these, because if it is, then it would have to be the lay down, absolute, take it to the bank best Stern to date.

AC/DC, I have gone back to playing it a lot, after quite some time playing Met to death, and I am enjoying the hell out of the Pro. It is fking brutal. It doesn't have the kick back of say, War Machine in IM, but the three way bank round trip around the stand ups, man that is fast. I swear that ball is back on your flipper as fast or faster than anything IM throws up, and then you have the code depth behind it. The sheer variation in the ways you can tackle AC/DC keeps it fresh. And I think that if I could be bothered changing up the music then that would totally clear any staleness that it might be accumulating. Best thing about the premium is the bell, by a mile. That is one satisfying shot. I'm over the lower PF and never go there. I know I should and I do if I want to grab points with the no-count-down-on the-PF-multiplier thing, but do I miss it on the pro? Nope. I do have a Helen decal over Angus though, biiiig difference.

I can't argue the wood choppy comments about Met. It's true, you gotta hit a lot of stuff, over and over again. But I tell you what, Fellowship multiball anyone? Balrog, ramp, balrog, ramp, balrog, ramp, are we there yet? Plenty of games can suffer from this at some point. And true, without CIU to save it, it would probably be a dud, and actually was for a long time before the update. I lived through that, with Met sitting idle for months. I couldn't play it. But, it DOES have CIU now, and that DOES save it. And there is something about the way that the wood chopping has been executed that keeps it moving. LJ breaks it up, FUEL breaks it up, shot insert completions break it up. Even though I gotta hit that captive ball a billion freaking times, by the time I have, I've also done a whole lot of other stuff.

AC/DC rewrote the book on risk/reward. Met was saved with the injection of the CIU risk/reward. It would be no surprise to me that TWD is the final, great third act of the story that is the resurgence of modern pinball as brought to you by LFS Jr. If TWD takes everything that makes AC/DC and Met as good as they are and uses that experience to reach a new level of intensity (and it should, by the simple fact that it does come AFTER them and should learn from them) then whether or not personal tastes call it "better" unanimously, you should at least be looking at something of a pinnacle in the current cycle.

Nice comparison...here's hoping you're correct about the evolution.

That's what I did. Just added TWD Premium over the weekend. AC/DC was fun, but didn't get the wow factor from it. Playing it was more of a chore, than fun.

I think all 3 are great games but that TWD and MET have the most interesting rules. I owned ACDC for a few years and after a while I found the ruleset boring. There isn't a single mode on the game where you have to hit shots in sequence to complete a mode unlike the other two games. All of the modes on ACDC surround hitting the same shot over and over again. Sure there's crazy scoring rules behind each song but its not something a majority of players think of or notice while playing.

MET has similar modes as well but the CIU modes offer shot progression and the Sparky toy is simply more fun and interactive then the bell in ACDC in my opinion. I prefer shot progression based games so that's a big reason why I sold ACDC. Still a great game and has some awesome music in in. ACDC could be even better had code updates been released to expand rules of the mini playfield, implement cannon modes and actually make the devil horn inserts do something. The game was supposed to have more code updates from what I remember reading but in classic Stern fashion management likely moved Lyman on to other projects...

I just wish Walking Dead had the original voices from the show.
I know the license issue is not Sterns fault, but I think it would have made that pin so much better.
Plus as new tv seasons come out, Stern could have updated the voices with new call outs.

Thank goodness for the great people on the forum for helping fix this

The ColorDMD is a huge bonus for Metallica. I have no doubt that AC/DC and TWD will get the CDMD treatment eventually, but right now MET has the best CDMD in existence, except for maybe TSPP.

lol Yeah we can only hope ACDC gets a color DMD treatment someday soon.

Agree. That's one of the games biggest issues. Had the game had the original voices / character assets (on playfield / in code) and the premium / LE a more interactive toy in the prison toy I think the game would easily be in the top 20. As far as theme integration goes MET win's easily. It's the only game out of the 3 to feature custom call outs by the individuals tied to the theme. ACDC is next as Steve Ritchie added a nice touch doing the call-outs, it's still a bummer that the actual band members were not involved. Then there's TWD with the random southern accent guy...yeah, enough said. Thankfully owners can replace the audio.

Well said. I've noticed this same logic brought up in a few other threads about Lyman's genius but I think you've said it best here.

Wish they would clean up the coffin multi-ball sequence. When the final ball locks, it says "casket" but on dmd says coffin multi-ball. Never understood why it just says "casket" only and not multi-ball too. Seems odd everytime I achieve it. Other then that, after 1 1/2 years owning, it still great game.

Bink will be heartbroken until she finds out it's for Luci... Yeah, that's yours in the picture. =)

She's been asking for an AC/DC machine ever since the first time she played the one at Pincrossing. Even to the point of me teasing her one time about getting a bunk bed with AC/DC underneath, to which she expressed horror: "No! What if the bed breaks?" We were playing again the other night and I asked her what she liked about it so much and she finally admitted the truth.

"It's really fun but I just love the girl on it."

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