Tetris Ultimate PC thoughts

[Wojtek]

• it is not working smoothly on my laptop (not like my laptop is any good but still some modern 3d games work ok on it, why tetris can't?)
• playing sprint is pain (can be related to not running smoothly but maybe controls are bad too)
• slow gameplay (line clear delay, etc)
• barely can find any multiplayer match (can be lack of players or my location/timezone)
• so far I had no crash, but sometimes it loses internet connection (which forces me to restart the game)
• boring meta game: no rating system, there are leaderboards but not presented well, uninteresting stats
• no option to remap keys

to sum it up: boring game with technical issues

[cycle]

Steam User reviews:   Mostly Negative (38 reviews) (72% negative)

read them here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/316750/

tetris ultimate failure again.

[VitoKing]

Steam User reviews:   Mostly Negative (38 reviews) (72% negative)

read them here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/316750/

tetris ultimate failure again.

Hey, about time you showed up

But yeah, It seems to be bad. But unlike last time, and thanks to the Steam refund policy, people are actually getting refunds for the game. I would like to think that would shake up Ubisoft a bit, but I very much doubt it.

[Okey_Dokey]

I've played a bit more multiplayer and now I can definitely say Tetris Ultimate is even more laggy than Tetris Friends on my computer. I never reach 60 FPS online, but that doesn't seem to be the entire reason. If I play against 3 bots I have roughly the same framerate, but it feels so much better. Also I encountered deschronization (probably because it's laggy). In the following screenshot, players #1 and #2 are desynchronized (it looks like they messed up the stack but they didn't):

[!--ImageUrlBegin--][a href=\\\"http://i.imgur.com/Bj9W7kl.jpg\\\" target=\\\"_new\\\"][!--ImageUrlEBegin--][img width=\\\"500\\\" class=\\\"attach\\\" src=\\\"http://i.imgur.com/Bj9W7kl.jpg\\\" border=\\\'0\\\' alt=\\\"IPB Image\\\" /][!--ImageUrlEnd--][/a][!--ImageUrlEEnd--]

So yeah, maybe Tetris Ultimate is an OK singleplayer game, but as a multiplayer game it will never get accepted by this community.

[Kevcel]

This conversation illustrates it all...

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Blink10:32 streaming now
Blink10:32 hey massi4h
Blink10:32 okay let's make a room
Blink10:32 battle online, see you in
massi4h10:32 I dunno how this works
Blink10:32 is this your first time
massi4h10:32 yeah
Blink10:32 playing online
Blink10:33 okay so are you in the game right nowz/
massi4h10:33 I turned tetris live on and am searching
Blink10:33 okay
massi4h10:33 regular battle right?
Blink10:33 for battle right?
Blink10:33 yes
Blink10:33 i have actually never tested if we can play people from other countries
massi4h10:33 :/
massi4h10:33 can I add you through this client or something?
Blink10:34 no you can't do that
massi4h10:34 main menu says "select friends to join party"
Blink10:34 by friends it's talking about the bots or something
Blink10:34 the game is lacking a lot of features
massi4h10:34 lol...
Blink10:34 this sucks, i think i can't play with you
massi4h10:34 yeah...
Blink10:34 let's leave it searching for awhile
massi4h10:34 no wonder I haven't been able to find a game
Blink10:34 restart your search
massi4h10:35 yeah ok
massi4h10:35 this game is making me more sad
Blink10:35 this is horrible
Blink10:36 nobodys on and i can't even play you
Blink10:36 let's reload the game, that doesn't make sense
Blink10:37 searching
massi4h10:37 me too
Blink10:37 okay it would have worked by now
Blink10:37 so it must be different servers for diff regions or something
massi4h10:37 yeah
massi4h10:37 oh well
massi4h10:38 tetris too hard to program lol
Blink10:38 alright
Blink10:38 solo mode it is
Blink10:38 lol this is so lame
Blink10:38 so there goes that
Blink10:38 if anyone on HD wants to play talk on shoutbox
Blink10:38 i'll just be playing singleplayer modes
massi4h10:39 haha
massi4h10:39 this game loves us
Blink10:39 did you see that massi4h
Blink10:39 rofl i had it streamed
massi4h10:39 yeah
Blink10:39 first i can't play with you, so i go to a solo sprint game
Blink10:39 and it crashes rofl[/quote]

[kb1900]

this is so disappointing...

if only they sold the licensing rights to people that cared about tetris

[Okey_Dokey]

Some days ago, there was a local event near Chicago (Frosty Faustings IX) which also hosted a Tetris Ultimate tournament with about 16 participants who paid a 10$ entry fee.

That made us talk a little about TU's garbage system on the shoutbox. Again, this made me play some rounds against the bots and I must say I enjoyed that system (more than change per attack garbage) although I must agree that it has it flaws.

In the PC, XBOne and PS4 versions (probably also Vita; Battle mode only - not Battle Ultimate), each garbage line has its hole in a total random column, which means that there's a 90% chance that the hole column will switch after each row. Also, Tetris Ultimate has no garbage blocking (not delaying incoming lines during a combo).

Strong point is that  it really rewards T-Spins. In games like Tetris Friends, NullpoMino or TOP I always felt like I would perform better with combo style because the straight garbage by T-Spins and Tetrises could be sent back easily (I don't screenwatch my opponents so I can't cancel incoming messy garbage properly). And you get higher downstack combos which makes you feel smarter somehow. All in all, it's more diverse gameplay than with change per attack garbage.

Of course, it's not really balanced in Tetris Ultimate. Matches end too quickly (especially against bots because they suck at stacking) and T-Spin openers are too powerful. I feel it's often best to use the garbage lines only as a base for T-Spins - digging through the garbage doesn't seem as powerful unless you make a big (lucky) downstack combo. Major reason for that flaw is that Tetris Ultimate has a pretty long lineclear delay (even a bit longer than in Tetris Friends). Take away that lineclear delay and reduce the hole change rate a little (to let's say 75%) and downstacking would be worthwhile. To make games last longer, one could also introduce an extended garbage canceling period as in Tetris Friends (receive garbage lines one piece later, if manage to drop the current piece quickly).

( I only compared hole change rate garbage with change per attack garbage in this post. Of course, it's possible to use other systems or even combine these 2 garbage kinds (e.g. Puyo Puyo Tetris: 90% chance that hole column switches after each attack, small chance that hole column switches during an attack). )

I've played a bit more multiplayer and now I can definitely say Tetris Ultimate is even more laggy than Tetris Friends on my computer.

Not true anymore on my newer laptop. At least in 800x600 (pretty much no lags). For a 3+ player room I have to switch to 1152x864 resolution though so that it doesn't look too weird (otherwise e.g. half of the ghost piece outlines disappear). Also, there was a patch that allowed key rebindings (but that's the only thing it did change).

[Okey_Dokey]

From this month onwards, Tetris Ultimate can't be bought anymore online, no matter what platform: Steam, 3DS, PS4, Vita, XBoxOne. It's delisted on most platforms and otherewise there's no prize tag. I am very sure that the Ubisoft Tetris license lasted longer originally. They must have sold back some of their rights (Sega's Western Puyo Puyo Tetris release was already strange).

Maybe this means that there will be a new major Tetris game in 2019. Note that Tetris will celebrate its (fake) 35th birthday in 2019, and Maya & Henk Rogers already dropped some hints at the end of 2018 in a Japanese IGN interview (use google translate).

[Neo7]

Game never loaded for me. Mode selection always caused crash.

Frankfurt Airport had a console with TU loaded on it free to play. That's the only plus I can give it.