Pinball on the PC is a fool's errand. The screen is too small to convey the ball motion. However, companies that are adding computer displays to pinball machines, are finding some success: http://www.jerseyjackpinball.com/the-hobbit/
Pinball in VR is surprisingly immersive. It's a much better simulation of playing pinball in real life, plus you can press your face to the "glass" to see the fine details of the playfield.
Not being able to look at the ball/table is a key part of pinball I find missing from the digital experience, and while VR takes care of this I think I would still miss the physical experience of the controller.
I see someone made a pinball table controller to use with Oculus as soon as it came out[1]; this controller doesn't look heavy enough to have fun tilting properly, but it certainly got me excited to try some VR pinball.
Yup, I've tried Pinball Fx2 on the Rift. It's certainly not the same as real-life pinball, but I enjoy being able to look around the whole table rather than the camera automatically panning where it thinks I want to look.
It's obviously not the same as a real pin; I've yet to find a PC game that simulates nudging to my satisfaction.
One interesting data point is that my 10 year old son is more interested VR pinball than either regular PC pinball or real life pinball. I think it's because of:
- the novelty of VR
- the animations on and around the table (these can be either fun or distracting)
- the tables are easy for a beginner
- the fact he's taller in VR. At an arcade he's either not tall enough or has to stand on a stool, but in VR he can look down on the table as if he's 6 feet tall.
Pinball Arcade is working on VR version, so I'm interested to see their take on it. They mentioned it in passing for their AC/DC table kickstarter (since cancelled but still under development).
