I decided to rate all the games I’ve played and think I know well... after starting at the top of my own personal favourites, I decided to plunge to the bottom, where lies the dreaded Dr Who

Sorry if this grates with fans of this game, but I truly dislike this game in every aspect... I gave one a good session in my home once, but it drove me nuts... the artwork, the sounds, the gameplay, the dots... I had to get it out for my own sanity! So I honestly rated it as terrible in every aspect... funnily enough, however, the ratings system still awarded it a 2.5 out of 10...

I don’t mind, but I was just a bit surprised that it got anything... and the overall rating didn't actually reflect my feelings towards this game...

In a way it’s nice to know that even when a game gets such a bad rating, Pinside still gives it 25%

I suppose it does have a board set and playfield hardware that could help fix other games, which is where, I guess, that comes from... or is there another reason?

Again, apologies to fans of this game... I know you're out there!

But I selected 'terrible' for every aspect... if I go back and change them, I can only make things better

The point is that with all aspects at terrible, the game still gets 2.5/10... just seemed odd... I notice when all aspects are set to 'Excellent', the game gets a 10 rating (as you'd expect), so I'd have thought with all at 'Terrible' the game would then get zero...

Ha ha ha

I kind of feel bad about hating it... but we can't help what we hate... or love... I do love LOTS of other games to make up for it though

Dude: My DW got taken off my hands very shortly after it being in my hands... and my sanity almost instanty returned to normal afterwards!

You're both lucky and unlucky there... lucky to have a g/f that likes pinball... and well, you know what the unlucky part is

I guess it's because no-one dislakes any pin as much as I dislike DW I don't know what's worse, that of SF2!

Funny thing is, I beat it's ass... that was another thing, it was too easy!! I did think about the time expander as being possibly the only good thig about the game, and initially I did give a higher than terrible rating for 'toys and gimmicks'... but when I saw my final rating came out at around 2.7, I didn't think that that reflected my true feelings of the game... surely the time expander not being terribe can't be over a quater of the machines worth... so I went back to change it to terribe to bring the rating down to what reflected my true feelings overall... that's when I realised that 2.5 was the minimum...

Darlek head... don't like darleks, just an ugly piece of plastic on top in a small fish bowl IMO...

Cabinet art may be bright, but I don't like the colours and find it ugly... A strpped cab of just bare wood would be more attractive!

As for what drives me to want a rating less than 2.5... well, just about everything... except possibly the time expander

The best thing about this machine is that I know for sure that I'd never want one again, and that's always a nice thing to realise 'cos I know I'll not need to concern myself with the trouble of owning it (finding space etc). The 2nd best thing is the knowledge that other people like it, and so it'll be easy to move on

I probably watched too much Dr Who as a kid and thought the rubber masks abd darleks were just silly and failed to frighten me in the slightest... the opening music was excellent though!! (I even have this on 12"!).

Well, I did have the game in my house for around 6 months, and just didn't like the game at all... there's a lot of hype about it for sure, and I'm not anti-hype (love MM to bits!!), but I just didn't get what the hype was about with this game... If it came out at around 4, it was only because my true feelings made it that way...

Zacc's a very appealing to me for some reason, especially Farfalla, but I do love many many games from many manufacturers... I do have more positive feelings than negative... or I wouldn't allow pinball to dominate my life so much...

As I said in my initial post of this topic, I knew my opinion of DW would grate with some, and I do apologise for it... And seeing your av... (I've just realised what it is!), then this apology goes a lot to you

Fair enough... I may go back and change my ratings a bit... The music, by the way, is excellent because of the bass sounds and excellent quality of the 80s synthasized noise... blasted out of the Hi-Fi it's excellent... hearing it on that machine, however, is far from the same... I certainly wouldn't play the game to hear the music, I'd just put the 12" on

On the subject of numbers not coming out what you'd expect, this 'subject' was raised in another post on ratings called 'ratings conundrum', I do like to be fair, and I do respect ratings, which is why I'm raising these things... some advice given on this other post was that if, after rating a game, the ratings number doesn't feel right for your overall view of the game, go back and change something to bring it more in line... so after rating the time expander 'decent' and seeing my overall rating at over 25%, I thought that this didn't reflect my overall feeling... which is why I turned it down... that's when I realised that 25% is the minimum, and to be honest, this game gets an overall 20% from me... I do understand why pinside set a bottom point on ratings (to stop trolls messing things up), but a lower level of 25% seems a bit high to me... 10% would be better I think... The less you like a game, the more this 25% boost has effect on your rating...

I admit the DW probably does have some good features, but my feelings for the game are dominated by the artwork, theme and sounds... and to be honest, the lower boost of 25% brings the game to an overall ratings level that exceeds my overall feelings for it...

There is also a side of me that like the underdog, so my dragging this game down is actually making me like it a bit more

You may have a valid point there phrmtek, it was a LONG time ago when I had the game set up, and to be honest, I struggle now to remember the strategy... I do remember making the right ramp to get the playfield multiplier up and kind of being trapped in a loop with that middle left flipper... and the annoying phrase it would say every time I made the shot... but as for the actual playing strategy, I don't remember where I got on it... so I admit that my phrase 'I beat it's ass, it was too easy' may have been a little hasty... more accurate would have been 'I had the feeling I was beating it's ass, but it was so long ago and I was so repulsed by the artwork and sounds that I couldn't stand playing it for long enough, so I'm not sure that I got sufficiently into the gameplay and rule set to really get to the point of beating it's ass...' I do remember some annoying sound at some point when killing a Darlek... it was so bad that I would prefer not to make the shot! I guess I should have played it with the sound off!

So, I officially retreact and apologise for my statement 'I beat it's ass' and would like to replace it with that above

For those who are interetsted, I have amended my ways and have gone back and re-rated both TAF and DW to be more fair... trying not to be influenced by the terrible artwork and sounds (applies to DW only) and trying not to be influenced by the lower rating threshold of 25%... I suppose I did enjoy TAF a bit while is was in the house, but as soon as Baywatch was put next to it, the TAF never got played!! It was then I realised I wasn't a Bally/Williams snob as I thought I was