Pinball FX VR continues to grow at a rapid pace, with the developers at Zen Studios continually adding more tables every couple of months. The basement arcade that players inhabit (and decorate) has become even more of a labyrinth of fun this week, as a new room containing the beloved (and semi-long-lost) Bethesda tables has magically appeared behind the Godzilla/Kong room.
I've played all three of the Bethesda tables (Skyrim, DOOM, and Fallout) extensively on PlayStation 4, but it has been a few years since I actively engaged with them. And though I am an enormous Fallout fan, the Skyrim table has once again risen to the top of the heap as my favorite, just as it did back in the PS4 days. The other tables are cool, but the Skyrim table is stellar.
Though all of the tables offer some good fun, the Skyrim table does something that the Fallout and DOOM tables do not. Though you can create characters on both the Skyrim and Fallout tables, the Skyrim table actually retains your character (along with it's current skills, money, and loot) and allows you to carry it forward into subsequent games. Fallout makes you start from scratch every time, sinking a few points into your SPECIAL chart (or choosing to have them randomly assigned). But at the start of a game of Skyrim pinball, the machine asks you if you want to continue your quest with your previous character. In practical terms, that means that my elf mage will be waiting for me every time I want to play, and that makes an enormous difference.
It's crazy how much this ability to build a character pushes the Skyrim table to the front of the pack for me. Though I've just started with this amazing VR version of the Bethesda pack, I've already locked in on Skyrim as my favorite. Ten years later, and my tastes haven't changed a bit.
Of course, I've always enjoyed playing these games in mixed reality, so I've plunked the Skyrim table smack dab in the middle of my extremely Fallout-themed office. Sure, the result is a little discordant (and the Skyrim table is HUGE), but I get a kick out of playing this way, so I'll deal with the Bethesda mashup. (And yes, that is the special edition Indiana Jones globe. It just kinda fits in with the Fallout stuff. Bethesda-Bethesda-Bethesda mash-up, if you will.)
Pinball FX VR is available to play on Meta Quest 3. The Bethesda table pack releases today, February 12.
