There have a lot of posts about how GTF is a nearly irredeemable game. Many of these posts were earlier on, and yet, the perception that is game is fatally flawed persists.
I've been having a very different experience, as have (based on posts here) a number of others, and I've been struggling to figure out if the game is truly as flawed as is *currently* perceived. No one is questioning that there were show-stopping issues early on, and no one is questioning that the game still has bugs now; but we all own the same hardware and software, why are we having such different experiences?
Part of it seems to be that the major issue is with multiball ball tracking when 1) using the physical ball lock, 2) during multiplayer games only. Single player games seem to be alright; we've narrowed most of the single-player multiball problems to needing to tweak the ball lock mechanism.
I think that looking back, we'll find that that many of the issues could be attributed to a need to tweak the ball lock, similar to issues with the TK ball lock on Stranger Things. The difference here is that, unlike with STh, the ball lock issues here could lead to showstopping issues with inappropriate multiballs; still, the lock here can be tweaked (see below), and virtual ball locks can bypass the issue in the meantime.
SO, is GTF truly still irredeemable? Is it as much of a mess as the current perception is?
Most of the issues that have been reported in the history of the game by owners since launch have already been addressed.
The only issues reported by owners that demonstrably persist are:
1) "Custom message" function not working
2) Some video clips dialog silent
3) Missing animations/overlapping animations/delayed mode starts - mitigated by 4/2024 code
4) Improper ball lock function - see Pinside owner's thread for solutions
5) ball count/state issues, specifically multiplayer mball w/ physical lock: - Some say resolved by 4/2024 code - others, not.
THIS VIDEO SHOWS THAT THE PREVIOUSLY REPORTED BALL COUNTING ISSUES WITH MULTIPLAYER MULTIBALL ARE GONE BY 4/2024 CODE.
1, 2 and 3 are hardly showstoppers. Bugs, sure, but not major.
Issue #4 can be addressed, depending on the root cause of the issue on your particular machine. (See posts in Pinside owner's thread, for how others have tweaked.) And #5 is addressed, at least in part, by this video.
So, in my opinion the argument that is game is irredeemable, seems very overstated, especially in the realm of Apr 2024 code.