[quote][b]Warning: Third Party Account[/b]
This game requires you to create a third party "FarSight Account" account... there's no valid reason for this in a PC game when SteamWorks is available. This is often done to harvest private data and profile you, with potential sale and transmission of your private data to third parties. The developers will probably argue that you can trust them, but if they were trustworthy they wouldn't demand you create a third party account.
This represents a considerable risk to gamers due to the privacy and security implications of developers that wish to bypass Steam and harvest user data. Remember, sometimes if the product is free, YOU are the product.[/quote]
[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtransaction]Warning: In-Game Cash Shop[/url][/b]
This mobile aoo is infested with a toxic mobile app style cash shop. You will be prompted to and expected to give money/credit card details to the developers through this cash shop to buy in-game goods so you can play the game.[/quote]
"Stern Pinball Arcade" is yet another non-free game pretending to be free. This costs an eye watering FIFTY UNITED STATES DOLLARS to unlock the content needed to own the full game. Yeah, fifty bucks for a heavily dated, 9 year old pinball sim, and not even a decent one. You're basically paying for the licensed properties on the tables here, and gettting gouged for it. No thanks.
Worse, it's a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam to try gouge PC gamers.
What do you do in the game? It's a pinball simulator. Well, more accurately, it's a DLC buying simulator, as you need to spend money to unlock stuff.
Visually, this has some fairly mediocre/dated looking graphics that will understandably be a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Part of that is the compromises and limitations of the iPhones this mobile app was designed for.
This game is fairly dated at 9 years old... and even back then it looked old and busted compared to contemporary, professionally made 3D games of the same period. It looked bad then, it looks worse now.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
You're expected to pay up $50 USD to unlock content through DLC purchases. The game should not be considered completely unlocked until you empty your wallet for the developer. This is misleading and predatory pricing on a product falsely marketed as "free".
In terms of public reception, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it.
Since free games don't contribute to your game collector badge and other profile stuff, is this a worthwhile addition to your Steam library?
Not on a bet. This might be "free", but I still feel like I got ripped off.
