Well, not anytime soon, but in couple of weeks.

Slimmer on the outside, fatter on the inside!

Sony announced that there will be new 250GB version of PS3 available for the purchase starting November 3rd, 2009. The price will be $350, which is about $50 more than the 120GB version.

With recent sales spike on PS3, Sony is pushing it really aggressively. Will Sony do a catch up or even exceed the rival’s sales figure?

What? More Gran Turismo 5 screenshots?

This time though, it’s not something that you’ll see often; Gran Turismo 5 screenshots of cars crashing into each other. Oh, the humanity!

Whether they’re crashing or racing, it looks fantastic.

Looks like Gran Turismo 5 will be one of the most realistic looking racing game to date.

Hwaaachaaa!

That’s the best kung-fu impression I can do in writing. I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard kung-fu flick fan, but I do enjoy them occasionally. And like others, the kung-fu genre has gotten its share of video game incarnations. Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao is one of them, albeit not the most successful one.

Invincible Tiger is an Arcade title by Namco Bandai Games America for the X360 and PS3. Like any quality kung-fu flick from the 70s, the story is fairly linear: There’s an ancient artifact known as the Star of Destiny that gives its user control over an army of immortal warriors, and the Evil Overlord has come to claim it. It is up to the former Legendary Warrior, Han Tao to recover the Star of Destiny from the Evil Overlord.

The gameplay is your basic 2D brawler. You have the punch, kick and jump buttons for your basic maneuvers. With a combination of the punch and kick buttons you can string three hit combos. Pressing the () button allows you to interact with glowing objects, which I’ll explain later.

There’s no side-scrolling in Invincible Tiger; all of the action takes place in a single area. Theses areas are fairly large with multiple tiers. For example, the first stage puts you in front of an old chinese house. You can fight on the ground, the second floor balcony, or you can take your brawl on to the roof a la Croughing Tiger. The glowing objects I mentioned earlier can be vines hanging down, or doors you can go into to access another tier. You can also pick up barrels, pots, and somtimes weapons that enemies have dropped. Once you have cleared the area of all the enemies, you move onto a boss.

As you fight off hordes of thugs, thieves and ninjas, your Yin Yang gauge fills up. The circular gauge can fill up in two different ways; the white bar fills up with offensive actions like attacking, and the black bar fills up with defensive maneuvers, like dodging, or even getting hit. This gauge does a couple of different things. You can use it to heal yourself when you’ve taken damage by meditating. Or, you can fill it up to unleash Hyperstate, where Han’s attacks do more damage with speed increase. The more balanced your gauge is, the longer your hyperstate lasts (hence the Yin Yang).  This gauge also serves yet another purpose. If you keep the gauge filled, it acts as a point multiplier. Speaking of points, you get different multipliers for meeting different requirements, such as varying you attacks, keeping your Yin Yang meter balanced, and killing as many enemies as possible without taking a hit.

This game also provides a multiplayer mode both offline and online, where you can team up with a friend (or stanger) to take on the Evil Overlord and his goons. In a co-op game, you have separate health bars, but share the same lives and the same Yin Yang gauge, calling for some stratgey and planning.

So, first the good. It’s well presented. The backgrounds look cool and are very reminiscent of a kung-fu flick, with barrels and pots that the hero can use to wreck havoc or make his escape. You seen vertical lines run across the screen at times that really recreate the feel of an old flick. A cool visual feature the title offers is the ability to set 3D settings. Through the Main and Pause menus you can choose from two different 3D settings: Anaglyph 3D that functions on all TVs and Digital 3D that requires a compatible TV and possibly an emitter. This definitely adds to the visual experience.

However, no matter how sweet a game looks, unless it has a good story or plays really well, it’s just NOT enjoyable. Obviously, the storyline is a falls a bit short in carrying the game through. So it’s gotta be in the gameplay. Unfortunately, the gameplay in Invincible Tiger doesn’t quite cut it either. But its not the concepts that I mentioned earlier that fall short; it’s the execution.

The biggest issue I had with this title is the controls. They feel really sloppy. In the initial stages, the waves of enemies are smaller, and don’t provide too much of a problem. But as you progress, enemies become tougher and more in number, and that’s when you really start to have out-of-body experiences. Here’s what I mean: Like any good ol’ hardcore beat-em ups, enemies try to trap you between them. And like any hardcore beat-em up character, Han has a combo that attacks both sides. But that attack only comes out on the third strike of a combo. As I’m pressing the right combination of buttons, Han is sometimes caught in an animation (or sometimes he’s just standing there), and the first input doesn’t register. So while I’m trying to do one combo, Han starts doing another combo, the result of which is him being beaten silly. After awhile, you just start to give up on strategically using combos, and just mashing. This can get old pretty quick. After a bout an hour or two of gameplay, the action just started getting repetitive, and frustrating.

But the boss fights are another story. You actually need to strategically dodge and attack at the right moments to inflict damage. There are a total of five bosses in the game, and each challenge you with a unique strategy that you must employ to defeat them. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get frustrating at times. But the frustration doesn’t get in the way of the fun and satisfaction you gain from defeating the boss.

Now let me set it straight that I love beat-em up games. I really do. Even though I get seriously frustrated at times, it all seems worth it at the end. But with Invincible Tiger, the satisfaction didn’t quite even out with the frustration. The game looks great and has some great sound effects. But the gameplay gets repetitive quick, and the sloppy controls result in a lot of frustration. The online co-op capabilities are pretty sweet, but again, you encounter the same issues you would in single player.

If you’re a die hard kung-fu junkie and want a video game fix, or you like that drop of frustration in your beat-em ups, this game may suit you well. This game had a lot of potential, but could not quite tap into it all in its execution.

Our Score: 6.5 /10

Great potential, not so great execution.

*Although I did write about multiplayer co-op, I was not able to play it. I didnt’ have anybody to play it with on my console, and after about 45 min in a lobby, I decided to give up. We’ll update the article as soon as I get some multiplayer actions.

We thought Gran Turismo 5 would resemble the reality of cars and racing, but not this real.

We usually tone the quality down (jpg 85 which is still higher than most other gaming websites) for screenshots to speed up your download time, but these screenshots are in such high quality that we bumped it up almost to the max. So even if there’s waiting time, just relax and enjoy the extra seconds of download time. It’ll be worth it.

Such high quality we can easily trick people to think that these are actual photos, not video game graphic.

Gran Turismo 5 will be available at early 2010 exclusively for PS3 .

I know it’s a bit late, but I just had to squeeze this in. Demon’s Souls, an award-winning action RPG for the PS3 is now available in North America!

This game looks awesome! Many have claimed it to be the best RPG this year, and you’ll see why when you look at some of the features and the innovation that’s been put into this game.

For those of you not familiar with this game, it’s basically an action RPG game. The story goes that the last king of Boletaria, King Allant the XII, in his thirst for might, awakened a long forgotten evil: the Old One. Now hordes of demons have overtaken Boletaria, plunging the once prosperous kingdom into darkness and fog. Summoned by a mysterious maiden in black, you must make your way into Boletaria and become the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness. Sounds like fun!

As I mentioned above, the game incorporates a lot of innovative ideas, espeically in its online features. One little feature not mentioned in the list below, which I thought was cool was the fact that as you’re playing along, you can see the ghosts of those players who are currently in the same area as you are. I thought that was pretty cool. But enough from me, check out the key features list:

• Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge – In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you’ll slice, smash, shoot, and ensorcel some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face the impossible and win?
• Groundbreaking online capabilities – Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade another player’s game to wreak havoc. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.
• Freeform and flexible – The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
• You act, the world reacts – The World Tendency system changes the aggressiveness of monsters and the rewards for killing them based on players’ actions. Different events and NPCs may be triggered, as well.

If you’re into hardcore gaming and RPGs (ooh! me! me!) this looks like a good one to check out.

The Saboteur, an action/adventure game based on Nazi-occupied 1940s Paris, just showed off a new screenshot. I use the word show off because it looks fantastic. Um.. One of the pictures might contain an animated partial nudity so make sure you’re alone over whatever the legal age you are to see the animated partial nudity.

And the feature list interests us even more.

• Live the resistance in an open-world Paris – Fight and sabotage your way through a uniquely stylized open-world 1940s Paris – from the top of the Eiffel Tower, to the riverbanks of the Seine, the cathedral of Notre Dame or the prestigious Champs-Élysées.
• Be the Saboteur –Use a broad range of weapons and explosives to perform your blockbuster sabotage as you single-handedly hunt-down your enemies to dismantle and destroy the Nazi occupation.
• Use the rooftops – This version of Paris was designed to leverage the unique abilities of The Saboteur. Being a Saboteur is all about surprise attacks and Paris’ rooftops are the perfect path for your secret operations. Anything that looks like you can climb it, you can – even the Eiffel Tower.
• Will to Fight – The Saboteur introduces an innovative new feature that is both an iconic visual style, and a compelling gameplay element. See and feel Paris change around you as you progress through the game. Go from a dark and oppressed black and white policed state, to a bright and inspired world where the citizens fight back.
• Hijack any vehicle – Sean is a racecar driver and a daredevil by nature. From high performance racecars to military vehicles, as the Saboteur

The title will be released for PS3, Xbox360 and PC, and will be available on late 2009/early 2010. You can also visit the official website for more upcoming info.

In a recent official blog entry, Tatsuya Minami, President and CEO of Paltinum Games, anounced that they will not be developing the PS3 port of Bayonetta, and will be handing if off to SEGA, and Platinum games will be “giving them advice… and overseeing the progress”.

As some of you dedicated readers may remember, our guest writer Andrew wrote an aticle about Bayonetta for our E3 coverage back in July, and I think it was pretty obvious how overly excited he and the rest of GamersRoute was about this title.

Of course, those with Xbox 360s have nothing to worry about. But for those of us who have PS3s, this news doesn’t make me feel too comfortable, especially with a line like this:

We feel the best way to evaluate this [the differences] is by actually playing the game for yourself and coming to your own conclusions.

I can’t help but feel that what’s really being said is this: “Yeah, the game is not gonna be the same. And we’re not actually a part of the PS3 port. But we’ll just go ahead with this plan and let you deal with it.”

I guess we won’t know till it comes out. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for all of us Bayonetta-wantin’ PS3 owners out there.

No wonder they looked so happy at PAX 2009.
With Sony’s new PS3 Slim + price cut, they’ve seen a 1,000% increase in sales so far.

According to gameindustry.biz, they have found that the uplift from week 36 on week 35 is plus 999%. Sony had a similar experience in sales increase with the PS2 Slim (week 44 for PS2) announcement, though it stopped at 310%.

Some people thought it was too late for Sony to be back in the race, but things look a bit different now.

We would like to thank skippycue from ZEN Studios forum to allowing us post this Trophy Guide:

I’ve been asked by many people to create a guide for ZEN Pinball since I’m one of the few with 100% trophies for the game. I’m new to guide creation, but I’ll give it my best shot. I’m happy to add or change stuff based on feedback so feel free to post any suggestions you may have.

Warning: All of the silvers take at least an hour of gameplay to achieve when you finally get the trophies… This game is not for the weak of heart or mind! Patience is the biggest requirement for this game, closely followed by skill! You’ve been warned… proceed at your own discretion.

Terminology

Ramps – These are just what you’d think. They are usually elevated and well marked with walls that outline their entry points.

Orbits – These are similar to ramps except they are found on the very outside of the table and generally circle the entire top half (hence the name “orbit). Orbits can be hit from the left or right. When I refer to the “left” orbit, that would mean entering the orbit on the left side which is usually done using the right flipper.

Sink hole – This is just a term for a hole on the table that the ball can drop into.

Caught – This is the term I will use to refer to when the ball is in a stopped position on one of the flippers.

Lanes – These are the vertical shoots that lead down to the flippers safely.

Outlanes – These are the vertical shoots that don’t lead to the flippers and instead end up in the loss of a ball.

Nudge – This refers to shaking the table in some direction using the left analog stick.

Kickback – This is a something that can be enabled that will kick the ball back onto the table if it goes down the corresponding outlane. This stays enabled until it is used or you lose the ball.

Ball Save – This is something that can be enabled temporarily which will re-launch the ball if it goes down the outlanes or the center of the table. Unlike the kickback, this only stays enabled for a short amount of time (maybe 30-60 seconds, never really timed it) and then you have to re-enable it.

Basic Strategy
There are some basic skills you should master to be able to achieve trophies in this game and I’ll try to sum them up in the following list:

• Learn the ramp dynamics

Each table has ramps and orbits that behave in a generally consistent manner. It is important to know how to hit the ramps from a caught position consistently and where the ramps take the ball. It’s also important to know after hitting a ramp if the ball will come to rest on a flipper or will be going too fast and fall over the edge of the flipper (nudging is a great technique to get the ball to rest on the opposite flipper if it’s going too fast to rest on the nearest one). I can’t stress enough how important ramp dynamics is to success on the table!

• Understand how the table works

I found that when I first started playing a table I had to get familiar with the targets, holes, missions, etc… Tables like El Dorado and V12 can get quite confusing before you get familiar with them. It sometimes helps to hold down the square button and tilt the controller to take a tour of the table from above. Also, be sure to pause the game and look at the Rule Book for that table to get a better understanding. Don’t be afraid to restart when you are learning because you essentially have unlimited balls to get familiar with how the table works.

• Lane and Outlane lights

It’s important with several of the tables to learn how to light up all the letters in the lanes. This often enables kickbacks or ball save so knowing how to do this can be crucial to extending your play. The key to doing this effectively is knowing how the lights move based on the flipper buttons. Simply put, the right flipper shifts the lights to the right and the left flipper shifts them to the left. When you are preparing to hit a ramp that will lead to a lane, make sure you shift the lights with the empty flipper so you don’t accidentally hit the ball when it’s caught on a flipper. The basic way to think about this is you are lighting the same letter over and over and then shifting the light to another letter until they are all lit. If you learn how the shifting works, you can easily prepare the lights in a useful manner prior to hitting the ball up a ramp from a caught position.

• Learn how to nudge and when it’s useful

One of the biggest things for me was learning how to nudge the table and when it was appropriate to do so. The most useful time to nudge the ball is to get it from one flipper to another. Simply let the ball start to roll down the flipper and then nudge in the direction of the other flipper. You have to make sure you nudge hard enough to clear the other flipper so you can catch it without accidentally hitting it. This is also easily done when the ball doesn’t start from a caught position, but you have to pay more attention to the timing. This is how you can get the ball into a caught position if it’s going too fast to catch on the nearest flipper. The other useful times to nudge the ball are more of a playing style. If the ball is heading too close to the outlane, it sometimes helps to nudge the ball away from the outlane, or possibly toward the outlane in an effort to bounce off the wall instead. There’s no real easy way to explain this, you just have to get used to it. I myself have not had great experiences nudging the ball when it’s heading for the center hole so I suggest you nudge, flip, and pray in that case! When you make nudging a part of your game you must be sure to enable the display and pay attention to the word “DANGER” that appears. You can only nudge 5 times in a short time before you TILT the table. If you nudge the table and the word “DANGER” is suddenly much larger than it normally is, that means that one more nudge will lead to tilting the table. I find that if you hit ramps in between nudging then you never run into this problem. It seems to increase the tolerance a bit, but you should always pay attention to the display when you nudge. There is nothing worse than having a great game going and you tilt the table because you weren’t paying attention!

• Always try to enable kickbacks and ball saves first

It’s easy to get focused on trying to get trophies and neglect the basics. I promise you if you enable kickbacks and ball saves whenever you can you will not regret it! They are invaluable and will extend the game indefinitely if you can enable them consistently. I will explain how to enable them for each table.

• Don’t worry about the score

Don’t focus on multipliers or ramp grinding unless it’s required for a trophy. Getting the silver trophies especially takes patience and skill and you will be at the top of the leaderboards if you manage to get the silvers anyway. Basically, keep your eye on the prize. Don’t let side missions tempt you and then you end up losing your ball and your patience. And once you lose your patience I promise you, you will not be getting a silver trophy until you take a bit of a break, which leads me to the next bullet.

• Take breaks often

There is nothing more counter-productive to play then playing when you are frustrated (and this game WILL frustrate you!). I know it’s hard to stop when you are so close and fail and you just want to try again, but trust me… you NEED to take a break. I got 3 out of the 4 silver trophies after taking several breaks, even an entire day sometimes!

• Death save

I personally don’t find this technique easy to pull off consistently and therefore not really so valuable, but some people do so I thought I’d mention it. If the ball goes down an outlane and you don’t have a kickback enabled you can still save the ball if you time a nudge perfectly. The technique involves lifting the nearest flipper to the outlane and then nudging the ball up and at an angle toward the opposing flipper just before it’s about to go down the middle. Here is a video demonstrating the technique: YouTube – Bangback on Twilight Zone Pinball

• Don’t change the settings and don’t save

Changing any of the default settings for the game disables trophies (I’m not sure if this applies to all settings like controller layout, but definitely changing anything in the operator’s menu does), so don’t do this! Also, if you save the game you have voided your chance to get a trophy in that game, you’ll have to start a new one. For obvious reasons you could just reload your game and have infinite balls essentially.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, I’ll go through each trophy one table at a time and explain the techniques I used to get that trophy.

V12 Table

Kickbacks and Ball Save – The first thing you should do on this table is learn to enable the kickbacks and ball save consistently! There are 3 drop targets on the right and there is a light that rotates from one to another. I found that you can only hit the top and maybe middle target directly from the left flipper so I’d wait for the light to be in front of one of those. Once the light is in front of the target, let the ball roll to the end of the flipper and shoot it at the lit up drop target. If you do this successfully you will activate the right kickback. If you do it again you will activate the left kickback. If you do it a third time you will activate the ball save. The trick here is often when you hit those targets it will send the ball straight toward the left outlane. You need to be prepared to use the far left flipper to try to prevent it from draining. This is really just timing and after a while you will get the hang of it.

Nitro Booster (Bronze)
Lock one ball in the Nitro Tank!

The first thing you want to do here is get rid of the three targets in the center of the table because they are in your way. There are three further targets flashing behind those that spell out the chemical formula for Nitrous Oxide, N2O. You can easily see these if you hold down square to get an overhead view of the table. Hitting the ball up the center of the table several times should hit all of these targets easily enough after bouncing around. Each target changes from flashing to on when you hit it so you know you were successful. After you hit all three targets you will see an orange arrow light up at the top of the table between the targets you just hit. All you have to do is shoot a ball up there into the turn table where the arrow is to get into the nitro tank.

Turbo Charger (Bronze)
Start the Turbo speed mode!

Once again the first thing you want to do here is get rid of the three targets in the center of the table. After you’ve done this you have to perform a sequence of two shots. The first one is to hit the right ramp with the spinner as hard as you can. The spinner causes the turbo fan at the top right of the table to start spinning so the harder you hit it the longer it spins. While it is spinning the turbo arrow light will light up and you have to use the top flipper to hit the ball into the turbo charger. This isn’t as hard as it sounds, but may take you a few tries.

Manifold (Bronze)
Feed a ball in all of the cylinders for Manifold upgrade!

This is one of the tougher bronze trophies, but with practice it’s not as bad as it seems. The manifold is the mini playfield you can enter by shooting the cooling fan target (behind the left target out of the three in the middle of the table), and then shooting the ball into the engine hole. The engine hole is at the left side of the table and is enabled when you see the little license plate light with the word “ENG INE” on it lit up. This is where learning the table comes into play. First of all, hitting the cooling fan target can be problematic to say the least. There are two ways to hit this target; first you can hit the ball early on the left flipper. This will often drop the ball right back down onto the flipper for a nice catch, but many times it will drop the ball right down the center of the table in which case you’d better have great nudging skills or a ball save enabled! The other (preferred) way to hit this is using the right flipper. If you hit the ball when it’s between the middle and the end of the flipper (you’ll have to find the right spot), you will hit the target. Your goal is to hit the right side of the target so that the ball deflects up and to the right and is easily caught by one of the lower flippers after it bumps around a bit. Unfortunately it’s more common to hit the target head on which bounces the ball directly into the left outlane. The reason I prefer this is because kickbacks are easy to enable on this table and they don’t go away until they are used. This pretty much gives you an insurance policy to make this trophy doable. If you end up using the kickback, just re-enable it before you do anything else.

Once you are in the mini-playfield area, just tilt it using the flipper buttons to get the ball to go into all 12 holes. You’ll get used to this after a while and it won’t be so bad. Don’t worry if you get it into the same hole multiple times. I got pretty used to tilting one way a lot and quickly tilting back to get into various holes and I could pretty much get into the hole I wanted every time. Don’t tilt the field until you are near the hole right before the hole you want to get into or you’ll end up in the wrong one.
Monkey-wrench (Silver)
Make one of the parts fully upgraded!

There are 5 different car parts that can be upgraded and I will explain them all here as well as which ones are the easiest. Each part is listed in the center of the table or along the two bumpers with status lights representing the number of times the part has been upgraded. Every time a part is upgraded, an additional light will come on for that part until all 5 lights are on and you have fully upgraded the part (of course that’s the goal here for the trophy). Once you have enabled an upgrade for one or more of the parts you will need to shoot the ball into the upgrade hole on the right to perform the upgrade and start multiball. This hole is identified by a license plate with the word “UPG RDE” on it and will be lit when enabled.

• Manifold

The manifold upgrade is acquired by getting a ball in all 12 cylinders (holes) of the manifold. Essentially you have to get the “Mainfold” trophy 5 times in one game. I wouldn’t recommend this method for getting this trophy since there are easier parts to upgrade.

• Crankshaft

This is actually how I got the trophy and is one of the easier methods. You’ll notice that after you get the ball into one of the manifold holes you drop into another mini playfield with two flippers pretty far apart. The goal in here is to hit the targets in the corners when they are lit. The targets always alternate form one side to the other after you hit them. There are a few tunnels in here that move the ball around, but I’d recommend avoiding them since they don’t help and can be problematic. When the ball first drops into the playfield, hold both flippers up and the ball will come to rest on one of them. Now you just have to go back and forth from one flipper to the other hitting the targets that are lit up. If you miss a target don’t worry about it, just keep repeating as if you didn’t miss to get the ball back to the other flipper. You’re going to have to get a feel for how it works, but the best method is to wait until the ball is nearly falling off the flipper and then hit it. You’ll almost always be able to catch it on the other flipper, but be ready to hit it again if you think it’s going to fall off the edge and try to regain a caught position. Worst case scenario you have to get back into the manifold and back to the crankshaft. The hits are cumulative so you don’t have to get them all in one visit to the crankshaft for each upgrade. The engine starts at 5k RPMs and each target adds 10 RPMs to the total. The final upgrade is at 7k RPMs. The breakdown for each upgrade is

o 10 hits – First upgrade
o 10 hits – Second upgrade
o 30 hits – Third upgrade
o 50 hits – Fourth upgrade
o 100 hits – Fifth and final upgrade

That’s a total of 200 hits to fully upgrade the crankshaft, but it’s one of the easier methods.

• Tires

This is perhaps the easiest way to fully upgrade a part. The goal here is to hit the exhaust orbit or left ramp repeatedly. The trick here is you can’t hit these ramps as part of a combo so after you hit the ramp you need to wait for all the lights in front of the ramps to go out before hitting it again. The exhaust orbit is that top center ramp that is right between the two orange arrows above the “O” and “2” targets. It’s right above the orange turbo arrow and there is a little gauge light in front of it. You can tell how many times you’ve hit one of these by looking at the drift score; it will be 1k times the number of successful drifts. Similar to the crankshaft, the first upgrade is after 10 ramps and then it requires 10 more for each subsequent upgrade. The breakdown for each upgrade is

o 10 hits – First upgrade
o 20 hits – Second upgrade
o 30 hits – Third upgrade
o 40 hits – Fourth upgrade
o 50 hits – Fifth and final upgrade

That’s a total of 150 drifts to fully upgrade the tires, but it’s also one of the easier methods.

• Turbo

I have not upgraded the turbo at all myself, but what you need to do is start turbo speed mode by entering the turbo charger as described above for the “Turbo Charger” trophy. After you do this there will be moving lights or drop targets you need to hit to perform an upgrade. I assume each upgrade will require you to hit more targets, but I have not verified this.

• Suspension

Although this is an easy part to upgrade once you get into the suspension, it’s tough to hit the drop targets that allow you inside. There are 3 drop targets just above the far left flipper. Once you hit all 3 of these, the left outlane will be diverted to the suspension. At this point you actually want to drain the ball into the left outlane and it will go into the suspension. It’s actually quite easy to complete the upgrade once you make it into the suspension. There are 3 drop targets that pop up individually in random patterns. The suspension itself will be moving up and down. The end of the suspension has an angle which will deflect the ball to the right. You’re goal is to launch the ball using the X button at precisely the right time to hit the drop target that is up. You can’t wait too long because you only have a short amount of time before the upgrade fails and it just pops the ball out. If you don’t time your shot right then you will shoot out of the suspension and you’ll have to hit the 3 drop targets again to get back in. Once again I assume each subsequent upgrade will require hitting more drop targets, but I have not verified this.

Tesla Table

Kickbacks, Ball Save, and Magna Save! – This table only has one kickback on the right outlane which can be enabled by spelling out FUSE using the lanes. The ball save is enabled by hitting the dynamo spinner 25 times or more. This is exactly how you get the “Dynamo” trophy explained below. The magna save is unique to this table and will become VERY useful once you learn how to take advantage of it. This is enabled by hitting the tesla coil ramp three times. The tesla coil is the hardest ramp to hit on this table! You have to hit it using the top left flipper. Fortunately, when you hit the left spinner the ball is deposited slowly right past the top left flipper. This is almost always how you will hit the tesla coil ramp (the alternative of hitting the orbit using the left flipper causes the ball to generally go too fast to really aim a shot with the top let flipper so I wouldn’t recommend it). You might as well get good at timing this shot because you will need it for the magna save and 2 of the experiments! Magna save is essential for this table since there is no left kickback. Unlike the ball save, the magna save does not disappear until it has been used or you lose your ball. If the ball goes down the left outlane, lift the left flipper and hold the X button as the ball is getting near the flipper. You’ll see the ball get sucked back up through the flippers back onto the table like it’s being attracted by a magnet! This really is a life saver and without a left kickback, you really should always try to have this enabled. It might also be useful when you’re going down the middle and you don’t have a ball save, but I’ve never used it in that regard.

Dynamo (Bronze)
Spin the dynamo spinner 25 times with one shot!

This is perhaps the easiest trophy in the game because all you have to do is hit the left spinner ramp hard and get a score of 25k (1k per spin) or greater. Unfortunately I have not found a consistent way to do this, it seems pretty random to me. I’ve tried pushing the R1 button hard, soft, timing the shot slightly different, but nothing seemed consistent. Despite all this, if you hit this with a clean shot, you should get at least 25 spins after no more than several attempts.

Bunch of Dollars (Bronze)
Secure at least 500.000 points in Funding Hurry-up mode!

This trophy isn’t too bad, but it does take several shots to pull off. The first thing you have to do is hit the 2 targets on the right with the “$” on them. They are blocking the way to a path on the side of the table that leads to a sink hole under the mini playfield. Once you hit these targets you can then make a shot up to the sink hole. This is a tough shot to pull off consistently, but it can be done from a caught position on the left flipper. You’ll have to hit the ball when it’s quite close to falling off the flipper, but you’ll have to figure out the timing for yourself. When you get up the path and into the sink hole successfully you’ll hear “Hurry Up!” which means you’ve started funding hurry-up mode. At this point you have to get the ball in another sink hole above the yellow dollar sign that is now lit up in the center of the table. I found this hole tough to hit consistently and there are a lot of bumpers up there that will cost you time if you miss. Time is important here because when you start hurry-up mode the funding start at 1 million and goes down by 10k every second. This means you have 50 seconds to secure at least 500k points for the trophy. Once you get the ball in this second sink hole, you then have to make a skill shot launching the ball. You may have noticed that when you launch the ball there are 3 holes it can fall into. The skill shot is the middle hole and requires the plunger to be at a little more than half power. If you miss the skill shot you, don’t worry because you can try to get back into that second sink hole for another chance if you have enough time. If you run out of time you’ll have to hit the drop targets and start all over again.

Tesla Coil (Bronze)
Make 10 coil ramp shots with one ball!

As I said earlier the best way to hit this coil is to shoot the left spinner first. After it drops the ball it will roll slowly passed the top left flipper and you can time your shot a lot better. I usually tried to hit it right after it was completely over the bumper, but there are other timings that also work so try to find one that works for you (I would recommend View 2 for the best view of the top left flipper so you can time your shots better). There is a blue lightning bolt that indicates the path to the coil, but it’s not always lit up. This is the same flipper that needs to be used to start experiments so the ball position on the flipper is very important. As long as you keep an eye on the ball save you should be able to get this trophy with a little patience. If you see the ball save light go out, DO NOT try to make this shot until you enable it again. That means if you hit the spinner and it’s only 23k, let the ball drop back down the left lane instead of hitting it with the upper left flipper. As the ball gets to the flipper leave the flipper down and nudge the ball to the other side. If you keep hitting the spinner and then nudging the ball it never leads to a tilt, so do this until you enable ball save again. Then you can continue trying to make coil ramp shots.

Master Mind (Silver)
Activate the Teleforce by completing all of the other experiments!

This was probably the hardest silver for me due to 2 of the experiments! If you are able to get this silver, then you will be able to get the others as well so be prepared. There are 5 experiments you have to complete to activate the teleforce. You don’t have to complete the teleforce, but it’s an easy 20 million if you do! My advice is to always have the magna save enabled and the ball save enabled just before you start an experiment. It will give you the best chance of survival and that’s the most important thing!

Before I get into the details of each experiment, I’m going to explain how to start and change the current experiment. In order to do either of these, you need to get into the magnetic field. This is generally done by shooting the ball from the top left flipper into a vertical up-kicker which is tough to see (I’ve managed to deflect the ball off the wall into the playfield, but it was never intentional and probably tough to do consistently). You’re actually aiming for the jagged yellow blob in the center of the table and it’s not an easy shot. As with the tesla coil, you’ll want to start out by hitting the spinner and then aiming your shot with the top left flipper. If you can get good at this it’s the best approach, but there is another method brought to my attention courtesy of Chronic77 which is quite nice! If you hit the ball late off the left flipper so that it deflects off one of the 2 hurry-up mode drop targets on the right, it will circle around the orbit at a slower speed. If you then hold the top left flipper in an up position the ball will roll right off of it and right into the mini playfield up-kicker! I ended up using this strategy a lot because I was getting frustrated trying to make timed shots (kept hitting the coil). The only bad part with this is that after you hit one target it goes away and it can be tough to hit the other target correctly to get a proper deflection. Also, to get the targets back after you’ve hit them both involves starting hurry-up mode by getting the ball up into that sink hole behind the targets. The good news is that you don’t have to fund hurry-up mode, you can simply let it time out after 90 seconds. I would generally use this time to practice coil shots, enable magna save or ball save, or even fund hurry-up mode for some points.

Once you are in the playfield you have to hit all 5 drop targets within 10 shots and then get the ball up the half-pipe ramp. I was confused at first about how this worked, but it’s quite simple really, hitting the right flipper throws the ball up and to the right and hitting the left flipper throws the ball up and to the left. There is a hole at the bottom of the playfield that often swallows the ball if you’re not careful, but it just drops the ball down to your right flipper for an easy catch so not a big deal (just annoying). If the ball exits the ramp on the left side, it starts the current experiment. If the ball exits the ramp on the right side, it switches to the next experiment. There is a gauge in the center of the table that shows what experiment is currently selected (if you’re having trouble reading it, hold square and tilt the controller to get a great overhead view). The arm on the gauge shifts left by one each time you change the experiment (regardless of whether you’ve completed the next experiment already) until it gets to the fifth experiment. After that it will start shifting back to the right. It will continue this pattern until you activate the teleforce and then it will switch to the red teleforce section. One of the frustrating things about this table is that it’s very easy to accidentally change the experiment when you wanted to start the current one instead. You’ll see that the ball gets crazy in that magnetic field and it doesn’t always come out how you want it to! Once you have successfully completed an experiment, the light bulb above it will turn on indicating it’s complete.
Tip: When you start an experiment the ball always travels down the left lane too fast to catch on the left flipper so I ALWAYS start out by immediately nudging the ball to the right flipper so I can start out in a controlled, caught position. If for some reason you want to start out on the left flipper then just nudge the ball back.

Now that you know how to start and change the experiments, let’s go through each experiment one by one:

• Induction (1 minute)

This is the easiest of all the experiments. You have to keep hitting the left spinner ramp until you get to 10k watts of power. When you reach 4k, 6k, and 8k, the timer goes up to 36 seconds. If you let the timer expire, you lose 2k of power and get more time so you don’t fail the experiment. After you it the spinner, the ball goes into a sink hole and then pops out the cannon. If you’re lucky it will come to rest on your right flipper every time. If you’re less lucky it will hit the right bumper instead and become more difficult to catch. Whatever it does the first time it will continue to do so you know what’s coming. If it hits the bumper usually you can hold the right flipper up and it will bounce off the left flipper onto the right one. Be careful though because sometimes it doesn’t bounce and you need to instead nudge it over or catch it on the left one first.

• Transmission (1 minute)

You have one minute to complete this experiment. This is the first experiment involving the tesla coil. You’ll notice that when the experiment starts there are 2 little blue lights lit up in front of each of the Y-ramps (ramps that alternate the path they send the ball). You have to hit each of these ramps one time and the light will go out. If you hit the ramp a second time it will turn the light back on and you’ll have to hit it a third time. After you hit one of the ramps, the ball will come down too fast to catch so you’ll have to nudge it to the other flipper. Depending on what flipper you catch it on, you may have to nudge it back to go for the other Y-ramp. Just remember if you nudge too much you can tilt the table so be careful and pay attention to the size of the word “DANGER”. After you hit both of these ramps you’ll see the blue lightning bolt come on, this is the indicator for the tesla coil shot. You’ll have to make the tesla coil shot to end the experiment.

• Chain Reaction (unlimited time)

I would say this is the most enjoyable experiment because you end up with 4 balls on the table at one time. When the experiment starts, the table view zooms out to view 6 just like typical multiball. Your goal is to hit 3 balls out of the air and onto the table. The balls will drift across the table from right to left getting progressively faster. I usually tried hitting the ball straight up with the right flipper to get the first few balls and then just did what I could to get the fourth. It gets tough to catch all the balls and then control the direction you hit them with multiple balls on one flipper. As long as you have 2 balls in play another ball will come out. In fact, even if you only have one ball in play sometimes another ball comes out (I think it depends on how long ago the second ball was lost). Once you have 4 balls in play the center magnet will turn on and start attracting the balls to the center of the table. This magnet is not as strong as the magna save magnet so you’ll have to be weary of how it affects the balls as they are heading down toward the flippers. The goal is to get all 4 balls stuck together at the center of the table. Hitting them lightly with the butt of the flipper should get them high enough to head straight toward the magnetic center. If you lose any of the balls the rest will drop back out of the center and you’ll have to knock another one out of the air. Sometimes I was nudging the table and it seemed to pull the ball floating across the screen down, but I never tried to do this intentionally. When you get all 4 balls together in a clump at the center of the table, they will shoot apart and you’ll lose flipper control. All 4 balls will drain and there’s nothing you can about it, but then you will get new ball to continue playing.

• Lightning (1 minute)

This is the hardest experiment and will probably put you close to the edge. Just remember when you get angry, you need a functioning controller to play this game! Yes, this experiment could lead you to throwing a controller or 2! With that said, you have to make 3 tesla coil shots in under a minute. Of course, it’s actually not even as easy as that. When you shoot the tesla coil during this experiment, the ball will drop right above the top left flipper so you can make another coil shot within 10 seconds of the first one. After you make that shot it will drop back down in front of the top left flipper so you can make a third coil shot within 10 seconds of the last one. If you are able to pull that off, the experiment will be successful and the ball will drop down the lane as it normally does. The only good news is that when you make a coil shot, it pauses the main clock for those 10 seconds so if you can make at least one coil shot it will essentially extend your time. It’s important to understand that you have to make three coil shots in a row without letting the ball come down the table. If you let the ball come down the table you will not be able to make another coil shot within the 10 seconds required. I will admit that one time when I completed this experiment I made 2 coil shots in a row and then missed the third, but I then entered the right orbit and was able to time the top left flipper hit to make a third coil shot very quickly. I was never able to repeat this, so basically you’re looking at three shots in a row. Good luck, this is a tough one!

• Telautomation (1 minute)

This is the second hardest experiment and was actually my nemesis for several games. During this experiment you have to hit each y-ramp twice (once in each direction). The problem is the divider on the ramp that determines the direction the ball goes is malfunctioning and twitches for a while in the center before going to one side or another. If you hit the y-ramp while the divider is twitching you will get electrocuted and the ball will come straight back down (frequently right down the center!). The hardest part about this experiment is getting the timing right to hit each ramp twice in opposite directions. The twitching dividers don’t follow a consistent pattern so it’s very tough. Sometimes they settle to one side for several seconds, but sometimes they only do for 1 second and then you end up getting electrocuted and possibly draining down the center. You have to be fast and patient at the same time with this experiment so it can be very tough. On the other hand, you could just get fortunate timing and it may seem like an easy experiment. Either way, I don’t really have any good tips for this except to make sure you enable ball save before starting it (of course the ball save won’t last for the length of the experiment, but it’s nice to have for a while).

• Teleforce

If you got here then you’ve done it! Congratulations! To start this experiment you have to get the ball in the secret lab hole at the top center of the table. The hole is right above a green sign that says “LAB”. Once you get the ball in here all you have to do is hit the left and right orbits a few times to complete the experiment and you’ll be rewarded with 20 million points!

El Dorado Table

Kickbacks and Ball Save –This table is more open and a little more confusing at first then the others. As with the other tables it’s important to enable kickbacks and ball save before attempting any trophies for this table. The kickbacks are enabled by entering the cave on the left of the table just below the tomb when the cave light is on. I believe the cave lights up after you’ve hit several bumpers on the table. First the left kickback is enabled and then the right one. I was never able to consistently light up the kickbacks intentionally so I mainly focused on the ball save. To enable ball save you have to spell the word “JADE” in the lanes. There are several ramps which make this reasonable to do. You can shoot the left spinner ramp, the right ramp leading to the pyramid, or the airplane ramp (the ramp you hit with the left flipper that leads to statue that looks like a snake with a tongue sticking out of it). I don’t recall which ramps allow the ball to be caught, but get a feel for when you need to nudge the ball to the other flipper. Some of these ramp shots can be tough so try to figure out which ones you can hit more consistently and stick with those. Often with the airplane ramp, if you miss the ball heads straight for the drain down the center.

Archeologist (Bronze)
Find the Extra Ball site during an excavation!

This is one of the easier trophies for the table. First you have to translate glyphs to find treasure. You translate glyphs by shooting the ball up the monument orbit. This is the orbit to the right of the idol with the little foot with 4 toes in front of it. There is also a yellow light below it that says “MONUMENT”. You can easily hit this ramp consistently by letting the ball roll just a little bit off the right flipper and then hitting it up there. I found the most effective way to catch the ball after I hit that orbit was to hold both flippers up in the air. Although this works most of the time, you have to beware because sometimes the ball will shoot straight down the middle and you have to be quick to prevent that (that’s also why I always have ball save enabled). Once you hit this orbit 4 times you’ll see the “EXCAVATION” light turn on at the entrance to the left excavation orbit. Do not go up the excavation orbit yet, you need to hit the monument orbit another 4 times to enable the “XTRABALL” light to turn on. After that red light turns on you can shoot the excavation orbit 3 times to dig up an extra ball! You can do this twice per “real” ball so you can essentially have 9 balls to play with.

Lucky Day (Bronze)
Survive the Giant Ball ramp!

This is probably the easiest trophy for this table. The ramp on the left with the yellow ball light with lines coming out of it is the Giant Ball ramp. All you have to do is hit this ramp 4 times with one ball to get this trophy. This is a good ramp to practice hitting anyway because it will help you spell out “JADE” for ball save.

Treasure Hunter (Bronze)
Collect 3 quartz skulls!

This is definitely the hardest of the bronze trophies for this table. It does not say this in the trophy description, but this has to be done with one ball. After you lose a ball, the quartz skulls get converted to points and you are reset back to 0. I’m not sure anyone really knows all the ways you can find a quartz skull, but there are 3 I will explain here.

• Mayan Challenge – There are 2 ways to start the mayan challenge, although I’ve only been able to get one of them to work.
  • If the idol is fully elevated, hitting the pyramid ramp several times is supposed to start the challenge. I have tried this many times without success, but this is according to the rule sheet so I assume I’m just doing something wrong.
  • There are two drop targets just to the right of the monument orbit with blue and orange lights in front of them. You can hit both of these targets by hitting early from the left flipper. After hitting both of these you can then head into the pyramid using the pyramid ramp. You’ll see a red triple snake light come on showing you the way. When you enter the pyramid you find 1 of 5 different artifacts. Keep doing this until you get the “Golden Bridge” artifact because this starts the mayan challenge.

  The mayan challenge is not too bad once you learn the technique. You have to jump over saw blades as they approach you. The trick is to jump over the first blade and then jump 2 more times immediately, hopefully avoiding the next blade that would be coming. The first blade seems easier to jump then the others so I wouldn’t recommend trying to jump them all. When you complete this challenge for the first time you get a quartz skull.

• Unexpected Treasure from “JADE” – The second way to get a quartz skull is to spell the word “JADE” when you already have ball save enabled. This will give you an unexpected treasure which is hopefully a quartz skull. If it’s not, then you’ll have to try again.
• Unexpected Treasure from ramp grinding – The third way to get a quartz skull is by building up ramp combos. I’m not sure precisely when you get the unexpected treasure, but I think you’re more likely to get a quartz skull if you build up more combos.
• Other possibilities – It has been pointed out that hitting bumpers lights up the orange skull in the center of the table. It has also been suggested that the more you light that up, the better chance you have of finding a quartz skull. I tried verifying that, but I was unable to make any correlation. It has also been suggested that you can get unexpected treasures by exploring tombs, the cave, or getting lost in the jungle, but I have not been able to verify this either.

My basic strategy when going for this trophy was to restart until I was able to get a quartz skull immediately by spelling “JADE” when the initial ball save was active from launch. I did this simply to save time rather than having to enable ball save manually again. Once I got this skull, I did the mayan challenge which is a guaranteed skull, and then I ramp grinded until I got the third one.
Skilled Adventurer (Silver)
Complete all Adventures!

This is the hardest trophy for the table which is why it is silver. The first thing you should know is how to change the adventure. If you hit the spinner on the left ramp you will see a light rotating around the circle in the center of the table just above the flippers. This is actually randomly selecting an adventure based on how hard you hit the spinner (like spinning the roulette wheel). Fortunately, unlike the tesla and shaman tables, once you complete an adventure it will not stop on that adventure again until you’ve completed them all. This is good because otherwise you’d have to keep hitting that ramp hoping it landed on the adventure you wanted. The adventure the spinner stops on will remain flashing until you complete it or change the adventure by hitting the spinner again. When you complete an adventure the light turns solid so you know which adventures you’ve completed.

Starting an adventure is what makes this table pretty tricky, and a bit frustrating (are we sensing a common theme here?). There are two drop targets in front of the idol that you have to hit to open the idol’s mouth. These targets can be hit easily using the right flipper, but the ball usually comes straight back down toward the center drain. I NEVER try to hit these targets without ball save enabled. Take your time, be patient, and this is achievable. Another technique I often used was nudging the table right after hitting the target to try to change the ball’s direction a bit. After hitting both targets, the idol’s mouth will open and you have to shoot the ball in there. It will spit the ball out and then grow further out of the ground exposing a second head. As it’s spitting the ball out I tend to nudge the table left to try to steer the ball away from the center drain if I can. Once again you have to hit the two drop targets in front of it and then get the ball in the idol’s mouth. Finally, after hitting the 2 drop targets and getting the ball in the idol’s mouth a third time, an adventure will begin! All of the adventures are timed unless I say otherwise. I think the time is about 1 minute for each, but I never verified this. The adventures themselves aren’t too tough fortunately, and here they are in detail starting with the top right (skeleton guy image) and continuing clockwise around the circle:

• Conquistador’s Gold

You will see a skeleton moving back and forth across the screen. You have to hit him 3 times with the ball and then you should see the tomb light turn on. Hit the ball into the tomb to complete the adventure.

• Snake Pit

You have to hit several drop targets that randomly pop up one at a time within 7 seconds. I’m not sure how many you’re allowed to miss before the adventure is failed.

• Plane Crash

You need to hit the airplane ramp 3 times to complete this adventure. This is the ramp that leads to that snake statue with the tongue sticking out.

• Log Bridge

You have to shoot the ball into the idol’s mouth 3 times without hitting the drop targets that pop up. If you’re good at this shot, this is easy because the drop targets only come into play if you wouldn’t get into the idol’s mouth with that hit anyway. You’re allowed to mess up twice without failing.

• Grave Robbers

You have to shoot either the giant ball ramp or the pyramid ramp to decrease the distance to the robbers. They start out at 1000 feet away and each ramp shot subtracts about 600 ft of distance so 2 or 3 shots should complete this adventure. This adventure is not timed, but you can’t let the robbers get to far away or you will fail.

• Wall Climb

You have much more time to complete this adventure and it’s actually displayed as a countdown. Your goal should be to hit the upper right bumpers as much as you can and periodically hit the spinner ramp to check your progress (or complete the adventure). Hitting the bumpers climbs the tower and hitting the spinner shoots the grappling hook. When the grappling hook is longer than the distance remaining you complete the adventure.

• Escape!

You have to hit 5 drop targets before time runs out. Two of the targets are in front of the idol and the other 3 pop up for the adventure. You actually don’t have a lot of time to do this so make your shots count!

• Labyrinth

You have to shoot the ball in either the monument or excavation orbit depending on which is lit. You will have to shoot a total of 4 orbits and you need to memorize the order in which you shot them. After you have shot all 4, you will have to shoot them all again in the exact reverse order. It’s not too hard to remember 4 things so this isn’t too bad.

Shaman Table

Kickbacks and Ball Save –The kickbacks are easily enabled on this table by spelling “MAGIC” in the lanes, once for each. The ball save on this table is pretty useless unfortunately. Ball save is enabled by spelling “CAST” at the top of the table, but this is only before you trap a ball up there. It is after you trap a ball up there that you really need ball save enabled so I honestly never bothered with it. That’s one of the reasons this table was so hard to complete…

Rave (Bronze)
Activate any of the magic spinners during any game mode!

This is definitely the easiest trophy for this table. Simply take out the 3 drop targets in front of the guy playing the drums and then hit the ball into the hole revealed behind them.

Doom Bringer (Bronze)
Summon a disaster for the unbelievers!

This is definitely not an easy trophy, but I’d say it’s doable. Here are the steps involved with casting a disaster:

1. Hit the ball into the left or right sink hole to lower the ramp for the mini playfield. These holes are outlined with flames so they should be easy to spot. I find the left hole is much easier to hit from a caught position consistently if you wait until the ball is almost falling off the right flipper to hit it.
2. You then have 10 seconds to hit the ball up the jump that was lowered into the mini playfield. The jump is marked by a red spear-head light to the right of the guy playing the drums. You’ll have to figure out the timing for this, but after the ball comes out of the sink hole you should nudge it to the right flipper and then nudge it back to the left flipper to get it in a caught position (it’s going too fast to simply catch with the left flipper and timing your shot while the ball is moving is tougher). From a caught position you should be able to develop decent timing to getting the ball up the jump before the 10 seconds is up.
3. Once in the mini playfield you have to spell out “ELEMENT” by hitting all the letters using the upper flippers. This takes a bit of practice to do without losing the ball down the center. As with the V12 table, hitting the ball later does a nice job of getting it from one flipper to the other. The toughest letters are the center ones because hitting these can make the ball tough to catch, but you should get used to it.
4. Once you have spelled “ELEMENT” successfully, the letters will be replaced by 4 elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. You have to hit one of these elements with the ball until it is outlined with a box. I found that hitting these can be troublesome and doesn’t seem to register sometimes. If you hit one of the center ones they tend to register right away and then hitting the outer ones seems to work fine. After you have selected an element you can let the ball drain down to the main table.
5. The next thing you have to do is shoot a ball up into one of the sink holes at the top of the table. These holes are located right above the word “CAST”. It’s essentially the same shot you used to get the ball up into the mini playfield except this time you’re going under that jump. If you do this successfully, some bars will pop up and trap the ball at the top of the table (you should be able to see it resting between 2 bars). There are 2 positions the ball can rest in while it is stuck up there because there are 3 bars holding it in place. I’ll refer to these positions as left or right.
6. Once you have trapped the ball, a new ball will be launched for you automatically. What you have to do now is spell out “CAST” by hitting the trapped ball into one of the sink holes behind it. You have to hit it into a sink hole 4 times to cast the selected disaster. There are several techniques for this.

• I found that I had the most success by hitting the left ramp and then hitting the ball with the left flipper as it was moving. This did not lead to many scary center drain problems, but did take a bit of practice to do relatively consistently. For this maneuver you want to make sure you nudge the upper ball into the right slot or you won’t be able to get the right angle off the flipper.
• The other method I used was nudging the upper ball to the left slot and then shooting directly at it from a caught position on the left flipper. I was able to hit it pretty well doing this, but unfortunately slight missed led to immediate ball drains so I gave up on this technique.
• The last method suggested to me by sb59 was to hit the ball straight up from the right flipper when it was in a caught position. Apparently this works well and usually drops the ball right back down onto the flipper. This sounds promising so I thought I’d mention it as well. Since I have not done this, I can’t say which slot the upper ball should be in.

Once the disaster is cast you will receive the trophy. I should mention that on occasion the game seems to get confused as to which ball you are actively using and the camera gets a little screwed up so you can’t actually see your ball. If this happens you can change the view so that it’s zoomed out or nudge the table a little and it should correct it.

Spirit of the Wilderness (Bronze)
Make a Super Combo!

I found this trophy to be quite difficult to do legitimately. A combo starts when you hit 2 ramps in a row before the lights go out after hitting the first ramp. You have to ramp grind about 6 or 7 times to get a super combo and that requires learning when to hit the ball when it’s moving. The problem is it starts moving progressively faster so there becomes an element of luck involved. At the time I got this trophy, I did know the technique for nudging the ball from one flipper to the other. I believe using this technique you could easily hit the same ramp over and over for an easy super combo.

Domination (Silver)
Rule the tribe by summoning all of the natural disasters!

This is one of the 2 toughest trophies in the game! I’d say this and “Master Mind” are equally difficult and incredible accomplishments for anyone who achieves them! The trophy description for this is accurate, but misleading… There is actually a fifth disaster that you can only cast after you cast and successfully complete the other 4 disasters. All disasters are completed by getting a ball in all three juggler’s holes (the sink holes on the left and right and the one behind the drummer), so I won’t repeat that in every disaster description. Once you hit a sink hole, the lights will go out so you don’t have to hit it again. Of course it’s not as easy as that… each disaster has other requirements as well. When you complete a disaster you will see a corresponding light on the shaman’s staff turn on so you know you’ve completed it.

Tip: When you successfully complete a disaster ball save becomes enabled, and you immediately go into multiball where you can score mucho points… but I would highly recommend avoiding this. Points is not what you are going for here and multiball can get out of hand very quickly losing all the balls and wasting a real ball. If you’re feeling brave you can play multiball until the ball save is used or times out, but then you have to worry about catching one of the balls without letting them all drain. I got burned by this too many times so when multiball began I literally caught one of the balls and just let the others drain.

Let’s go through each disaster one at a time:

• Volcano

This disaster isn’t too bad. When you cast it you’ll see a light indicating that you have to go into the volcano. The right ramp will lead into the volcano if you get a strong clean hit, otherwise it will just take the lower path to the right lane. Once in the volcano you should nudge the ball to try to hit as many little metal triggers as you can before leaving (of course don’t tilt because you can always go back in and you’ll need to). I generally only nudge a little while I’m in there. I think hitting the flippers must shift the lights around because when I go back in there they seem shifted making it pretty easy to light them all up and spell “VOLCANO”. After you’ve successfully spelled “VOLCANO” the lights will flash and the ball will come out orange (it’s hot!). At this point you have to hit the ball into the 3 juggler’s holes. This may involve clearing the drop targets in front of the drummer again. The ball has to be orange or it doesn’t count and it only stays orange for a short time. Fortunately, every time you go into the volcano the ball comes out orange (you don’t have to spell out “VOLCANO” again).

• Flood

The flood is the second hardest disaster to complete. When you cast it you’ll see that the left and right orbits are lit up. You have to hit 3 orbits to raise the flood waters and then you can hit the juggler’s holes. This may sound easy, but the flood waters slow the ball down a lot! You can hit the left orbit starting from a caught position on the right flipper with some practice (the positions are slightly different with the slow ball speed), but the right orbit is tricky. You can’t hit this directly from a caught position on the left flipper. You have to build up enough speed to hit the orbit with enough force to make it all the way around. I was able to do this by hitting the left ramp and then hitting the ball as it was still moving on the left flipper. This is still by no means an easy shot and I was never able to do it consistently. You’ll have to figure out the timing for yourself with some practice. Keep in mind that even nudging the ball is different so it’s not even as easy to get the ball from one flipper to the other unless you nudge relatively hard. I would recommend hitting the left orbit, then the right and then the left orbit again. After that the juggler’s holes should light up and you can finish the disaster.

• Tornado

This is not too bad if you’re careful. All 3 spinners come on and they drastically affect the ball flight if you get too close to them. If you hit the ball hard and clean enough then it should be fine generally. For this disaster you’ll have to hit the left ramp and the right ramp (hitting the right ramp must not go into the volcano or it won’t count). I’m not entirely sure how many times you have to hit them, but hitting them changes the direction and speed of the spinners so I know it has something to do with that. I basically just hit them while they were lit up until the juggler’s holes lit up. Finish the disaster by hitting the juggler’s holes when they are lit up.

• Earthquake

This is definitely the hardest disaster to complete. When you cast this the view zooms out and the table immediately goes to 3 ball multiball. You have to hit the juggler’s holes while keeping at least 2 balls alive. The table periodically shakes due to the earthquake making it even more challenging. I would start out by focusing on hitting the balls as they are on the edge of the flippers (typical side sink hole shots) and making sure that you don’t let anything drain down the center. The more balls you hit, the more you’ll hopefully have accomplished. If you get down to 2 balls try to catch them on one or 2 flippers. At this point you can assess what you have left to do and try to focus on that. Be careful though because if they are both on one flipper the earthquake could shake one of them free so pay attention. If you managed to get them on opposite flippers you can shoot one up a ramp and make an aimed shot with the other. Don’t try to hit a left or right sink hole if there is a ball on the opposite flipper because you will slam right into that flipper and probably lose your ball. There’s not much else that I can say for this, it just takes some practice and a lot of good luck! Fortunately the only thing you have to do here is get the balls in the juggler’s holes to complete the disaster.

After completing all 4 disasters you’ll need to get back up to the mini playfield one more time to select the final disaster. This time you won’t be presented with 4 disasters, but instead you will see some sort of picture with a spooky creature that looks like an owl… I’m not even sure you have to hit it with the ball, but I did a few times to make sure. Cast that disaster like all the rest and you will have the trophy. Now feel free to go crazy for points since you don’t have to complete this disaster for the trophy!

Tip: I’d complete the disasters in order of difficulty so you don’t waste time completing the easy ones when you want to focus on the hard ones. I started of with earthquake, then flood, then tornado, then volcano.

- the end -

Umm.. Yeah.
The new Scene It? series, “Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!” is coming to Xbox360, and for Wii and PS3 gamers as well. Until now, it was exclusive to the Xbox360. (or any DVD players or selected mobile devices, if you count those too)

I know if I say this, my friends gonna point and laugh but honestly, it’s a fun game. The game questions are related to the movie or TV-series, and player (upto 4 players) have to answer the correct one. Usually, these questions can be related to anyone who watches movies and TV so the whole family can enjoy it. Sounds casual, huh?

Well, the new upcoming version features:

• Thousands of new questions
• A new and improved single player option
• Party play modes
• Many new puzzle types
• 12 all-new player avatars
• A simplified game interface
• A new, entertaining game host
• New, unique mini-game content

It is developed by Screenlife but this time, with help of big bros; Warner Bros. Interactive is going to be handling the worldwide distribution. It’s good to know big bros, yeah?

The title is set to be released around holiday season of 2009.

Star Wars fans rejoice as a new single-player level DLC arrives for the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

As the new level mission begins at the end of the story of The Force Unleashed and re-imagines the Saga, Activision says that this DLC will take Star Wars Saga into entirely new and unexpected direction.

We’ll lend few words from Activision:

“..The story will begin as if the Secret Apprentice had killed Darth Vader and taken his place at the Emperor’s side, becoming the most powerful Sith Lord in the universe. The story picks up as the Emperor sends his new apprentice to the planet Tatooine to dispatch Obi-Wan Kenobi – who has been hiding on the planet ever since the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. During their hunt for the reclusive Jedi, players will also explore the depths of Jabba the Hutt’s palace and encounter notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett..”

If you’re a Star Wars fan, and that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what will other than the pictures of Princess Leia in bikinis. Oh wait.. There’s an idea.

Let’s face it; PS3 Slim news is everywhere and looks like every gaming website is squeezing in information that’s not even news anymore. And there were debates about the PS3 Slim getting any actual upgrades compared to its fat, older brothers.

While many speculations were floating around the web, Kombo came up with an interesting article about how PS3 Slim is getting performance upgrades. They borrowed a statement from IBM, the Cell processor manufacturer for PS3, admitting that the (Cell for PS3 Slim) is “manufactured using an advanced 45-nanometer manufacturing process,” bringing “many performance improvements while drawing less power than earlier chips.”

So what kind of performance improvements?
Not much news about that, except for an interesting find from Engadget about PS3 Slim.

They’ve found that the PS3 Slim can “bitstream” Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
Audiophiles (and 90% of wannabes who think they are audiophiles) rejoice.

To put it simply, the old fat PS3 had to internally decode the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA formats. This means an additional processing step before the sound goes to the receiver, thus risking a lower sound quality. Now with PS3 Slim, it can directly bitstream the audio information without the extra processing step that can translate to lower sound quality. In the audiophile world, more processing steps usually means degrading the original sound quality.

So there you have it. PS3 Slim is not just about being lighter, smaller and more efficient; it’s also about being smarter about performance management.