A Review/Ramble/Editorial of the PSVita

Some of you may have followed the previous post on handhelds and their cultural relevance and if you did it was abundantly clear that I very much love my Vita. What follows are just some thoughts on the system in no real order on how it plays, works, games and interface.

THE SYSTEM:

It's excellent. It's built very well and even though it's a little on the large side for a handheld it feels great in my hands. I really liked my PSP 3000, but it was a tad small and uncomfortable to hold.

The sticks are excellent and give you the precise control you'd expect from sticks. The buttons are of the "clicky" variety which isn't my favorite, but the shoulder buttons feel very good.

The touchscreens work very well. As good as any smart phone I've ever used.

The screen itself is huge. It's gorgeous and is a pleasure on the eyes.

I thought the interface was a little clumsy at first. Want to look at friends or trophies or chat? They are all separate apps that have to be loaded independently of each other. At first I thought this was lame until I realized it was more than likely done this way as a way to save power.

I like that the system seems to be aware of when it actually needs to be connected to the PSN and only connects when necessary. It always holds the wifi signal, but won't go into PSN accounts until needed. Again I would assume this is to save battery.

The networking and PSN Store all work better than I could have hoped. It's all relatively seamless and works well. I've been adding funds to my wallet and using PSN cards with great ease.

The system multitasks extremely well. I love that at literally any point of any game I can hit the PS Home button and it will instantly pull me out of the game and will allow me to flip through any page on the Vita I want. I can pull up my friends or trophies app or load the PS Store and Chat all while keeping my game running in the background. When I'm ready to keep playing I go back to the page my game is running on and hit continue and I'm instantly back in the game with no loading. It's awesome.

The battery generally gets a beating by me since I have all the settings maxed and am generally downloading something at the same time. Not sure from a first hand account yet as to how long it will last while simply just playing a game, but the general 4-5 hours seems accurate.

I really only have 2 gripes about the system: 1. I'm not fond of the speaker locations. They are almost constantly blocked by my thumbs to some extent while using the sticks. It's not a huge deal, but can be distracting to get some slight sound muffling while playing. 2. The back touchscreen is great, but sometimes I'm accidentally inputting things when I don't mean to because of where I place my fingers on the system. I guess that there's probably not a way around this as it is literally the nature of the Vita.

GAMES:

I currently own Uncharted, Escape Plan, Rayman, Mutant Blobs and Super Stardust. The weakest of the line up is Escape Plan. While not a bad game it isn't wowing me like I hoped it would. Levels are very short and the load times are long. Using all aspects of the Vita has been very "grin giving" to me. Pushing things over or pulling out drawers by hitting the back touchscreen gives a very unique feel to a puzzle game I've never seen before. This is the only game I've ever played that gives you almost a fly on the wall God complex through the way it plays which is really cool. Leaky steam coming out of a pipe? Literally plug the pipe with your finger. It's a neat game that could be really amazing when a sequel rolls around.

Uncharted is shockingly good and is surprisingly more fun than Uncharted 1 and 2 for the consoles. I'm not saying it's the better game, but that it is more fun. There seems to be more platforming and a smaller amount of endlessly streaming enemies wearing balaclavas (one of my biggest gripes of the series). There are even some decent stealth levels which were almost non-existent in the console versions (I've yet to play UC3).

Using the touchscreen for this game has been surprisingly fun. I'm no fan of gimmicky controls, but I do appreciate using a new input that is executed well. Another good example of this is arming charges in Killzone by using the Sixaxis tilt controls. In Uncharted you enter combinations through a dial combination lock. You take charcoal rubbings of important landmarks. You use the back panel to spin an item and the front panel to literally clean it up to better inspect it. At one point I had to put my Vita up to a bright light to see the hidden ink on some paper to read it. Using the back touch panel as an exact and seamless way to zoom with my sniper rifle and camera is amazingly refreshing. One thing I thought I would never use was to use the sixaxis to further dial in a precise shot while aiming down the sights. I now use this all the time. Combat also utilizes a little touchscreen prompts for fist fights. The lamest one by far is when you slip while walking across a beam and have to use the sixaxis to not fall....really lame.

Needless to say the graphics are amazing on this game and the soundtrack and voice acting is on level with the console versions. I'm on chapter 15 and I'm still shocked that I'm playing this on a handheld.

Rayman is a breath of fresh air that I didn't know I needed. It's ridiculously fast paced and tons of fun. It's like Mario mixed with Sonic, but with very tight controls and some tough platforming. It uses the touchscreen to a small, but fun, extent to grab certain items that are in bubbles. A very fun game that I wouldn't have given a fair shake on consoles.

I got Super Stardust as a gaming dare by my bro-in-law, Silent, to have high score competitions and it's fucking awesome. Basically it's a twin stick shooter and is as balls crazy as Geometry Wars, but you're playing on a spherical planets. Amazing controls and graphics with a great soundtrack. A ton of modes to play and a leaderboard built specifically to make you play more and more as every game mode shows where your points stack up against your friends. It's very addicting and very fun. Just so you all know I'm already pummeling Silent.

Mutant Blobs I got just last night and haven't even played yet. I keep reading it's a ton of fun and a must buy. I'll keep you posted on that.

CONCLUSION:

All in all I'm madly in love with the Vita. I've been consistently choosing to play it over my PS3 and 360 which is something I've never done with a handheld.

The ability to play small short games along with large complex ones is something that hasn't happened up to this point with handhelds.

UBER-CONCLUSION:

Sell all other handhelds and get a Vita. It's truly the best handheld there's ever been. I look forward to pwning your weak punk ass scores in Super Stardust.

Handheld Cultural Relevance

I've been thinking a little bit about handheld systems lately, mainly due to Sony's Vita release.  Handheld gaming has changed a lot over the years in technology, but I'm not sure the gamer's personal goal in handheld gaming has really changed at all.  Culturally speaking, I think Sony took a bit of a gamble with the Vita, positioning themselves in a way that they could either destroy the market share Nintendo has had for so long, or destroy themselves.

Let me start off by saying I really like the Vita.  I think the high price tag is the only thing that really kept me from making the investment.  It is totally stacked with cutting edge tech, game quality and graphics look phenomenal, and all the inter-connective features on it (PS3, web, etc.) really add some depth to gaming that has been absent from even home consoles.

We have seen in the past, however, that technical proficiency does no equate to sales dominance.  For me, this is no better represented than by Sega's GameGear. Poised in perfect position to really show Nintendo what for, the GameGear boasted a larger color screen, a comfortable button layout, and (for it's time) cutting edge features, such as a TV tuner adapter.  Why did Nintendo's little grey box with it's puny monochromatic display succeed?

Nintendo (deliberately or not) met the needs of the 'gamer on the go'.  As fantastic as of features as the GameGear had, it wasn't addressing the main needs of the travelling player.  Nintendo exercised a sort of, 'form follows function' mentality when designing their unit.  It was compact, efficient, and it scratched that gaming itch all at the same time. The GameGear was large, required ample power to run, and it ignored the cultural need of it's time - who needed to watch TV wherever they were at?  Nintendo won out because they were more aware of the cultural 'need' (I use that word very lightly...).

As a quick segway, let me defend Sega's decision here... they were attempting to become the emergent technology.  Sometimes the culture dictates the need and technology responds, sometimes the technology emerges and the culture embraces it.  The iPad, for example... There wasn't a very strong need for tablet computers, they had existed for a while, but the iPad found a way, through a mixture of redesign and marketing, to make their product a cultural solution. Sega just didn't do that...


Back to the Vita, and this is what I'm curious what other people are thinking on this too.  Is the Vita meeting a need, or is it trying to fill in an unnecessary gap?  It's features are very close to that of a smartphone, so much in fact that it even includes social media apps, and game information sharing features.  I'm very impressed by the ability to bring Uncharted with me wherever I go, but is that really what I want out of mobile gaming? It's the free games and simple games that make the smartphone gaming market so lucrative, so how do you convince a million Angry Bird addicts to pony up 400 bucks for this new thing and a couple of games?

That might be a little unfair, but it is the truth of the market we are currently in.  Nintendo has kept up their success thanks to their share of first party titles (surprise, surprise...), but with them the risk is the opposite.  If they don't stay more culturally relevant, then they risk becoming old news, a console lost in the piles of old toys from yesteryear.  I think the risk for them is real too - I have a 3DS, and as much as I love it, the marketing focus on the 3D technology was a mistake.  I play it all the time, but I never use the 3D.

Anyone else have a different experience with this stuff?  Most of this is written based off of my own experiences, but I don't think it's that far from the truth... I basically stopped playing my GameGear because I was always tethered to a wall outlet.  That isn't exactly what I imagined when I wanted to go into "mobile gaming."

DLC - Game Extender or a Malevolent Shitstorm of Corporate Greed?

DLC. Not entirely new or ground breaking, but the way it's packaged and presented is always changing. Most recently so with clever marketing tag lines like "Elite" and "Season Pass".

Now I'm not talking about user created content or mods or patches. I'm talking about content created by the developers and then sold to the gamers.

I've been talking, at some length, with Lead Salad about Gears 3 DLC and the continual pillaging and raping of my belief in developers as kind gamers, like myself, that love games as much as I do and want to spread gamer love to all with new content they've created.

I feel very strongly that Gears 3 DLC has crossed a line. Normally I wouldn't take the time to write about DLC because it's always a point, in my mind, as a power of choice, as a consumer, to purchase or not to purchase (that is the question!) it. But it was the clever marketing and thought that I'd actually be saving money that got me to purchase the now hated "Season Pass".

What the Season Pass gives players is the first 4 DLC packs for the cost of only 3. I believed, in my naive and safe mind that the world was fair and beautiful, that if I loved the game and expected to play it for a long time after release I'd be stupid not to....only in this case I was very stupid to.

Shortly after the first DLC dropped it was announced that it would be made free to everybody as a sign of how "giving" Epic is at Thanksgiving. How wonderful! I've now paid for DLC in advance that's now free to all! I've already been robbed of my benefit of getting 4 for the price of 3. But hey look! I at least get these extra skins! 10 bucks for 3 cosmetic skins works out to $3.33 a skin or 266.66 MS points per skin. Not too shabby!

Not long after the first DLC was released the Season Pass was put on sale at a discounted price. Another burn.

I guess what bother's me the most is that I feel had as a consumer. Like they really stuck it to me. It feels worse than buyers remorse because I've actually spent around 90 bucks on a game I feel I really have to keep, more than ever, to justify my expense. I enjoy the game, overall, and wouldn't really wish to be rid of it, but whenever I play it it comes with a tinge of resentment which is something I've never felt with any game in the past. Not even HALO 3 or REACH which I bought and sold about a dozen times between the two.

The DLC has also been released criminally close to the launch of the game. At least when COD releases it's inevitable map packs it lets the game breathe a little.

I have wondered, in the past, if maybe the developers would have included some of this content at release, but were unable to because of disc size capacity issues. If that's true then that might be the biggest burn of all. And please don't forget on disc DLC which Gears has been guilty of in the past.

I'm not a moron. I understand that games are a business and that large developers and publishers have a bottom line that must be met and that cushioning that bottom line is made easier with DLC.

I just wish it weren't so obviously shitty.

Game Update

Now that the holidays have come and gone, I'm almost caught up on my list of things to play.  Almost. My birthday was a couple of days ago, so a few more games got added to the list. I guess if you're gonna choose to have any problem in your life, having too much to play and enjoy isn't a bad problem to have.

In the online world, MW3 and GOW3 have still been occupying a majority of my time. Both have their issues, but not big enough ones to stop playing, just big enough to rage quit every now and then.  MW3 is what it is, and it's usually a safe bet because I'm almost always guaranteed to have someone online to play it with.  Gears is really only fun when you've got a group working through it together (in Horde or Multi) so that one usually takes the backseat.  I still own Battlefield 3, in hopes that maybe someone besides my brother will pick it up, but with so much on my plate anyways, not gonna do any persuading to other people to buy it.

In the single player world, I've been playing quite a bit on my 3DS.  I finished Ocarina of Time 3D, as well as Mario Land 3D, and have been chipping away getting all gold cups in the new Mario Kart.  On the big screen, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been quite the treat, and I anticipate in a month or so I'll probably end up doing a full write up on that.

I've also been playing through a couple of the Professor Layton games that I missed.  The Layton games are awesome, for those that don't know, and anyone with a DS looking to kill some time, these come highly recommended.  Professor Layton, they famous puzzle professor, and his young apprentice Luke, work their way through strange mysteries and mishappenings.  The characters are charming, the animation sequences are top notch (very reminiscent of The Triplets of Belleville for those animation buffs out there...) and the gameplay is simple and straightforward - puzzles!  The puzzle selection is fairly diverse as well, from logic puzzles, more simple math equations, riddles, kinetic puzzles, etc.  My only real problem with Layton, which is really more of a preference is how they end up ranking the puzzles.  Each puzzle is given a quantity of "picrats" to earn depending on it's difficulty, but due to the puzzle diversity and how different people use their brains, a hard puzzle for someone might be very easy for someone else.  The touch screen can also inhibit some of the puzzle solving here... Point and click adventures worked very well on PCs because the mouse cursor could change as something new could be interacted with. When the DS uses this mechanic, there is no "hover" feature that lets the player know what they can and cannot interact with, leaving them feel lost and confused. Most of the time when I can't think my way through a puzzle, the beginning of my confusion could be traced back to the limits of controls. Or maybe I'm just making excuses for a puzzle stumping me good.

In any case, it's been nice to get back to gaming in a variety of genres.  I also finished Uncharted 2, which was a long time coming, so I didn't feel like that was worth writing much about.  That game is just too long.

I'm gonna start my day off now, and spend the rest of it exploring Skyward Sword until someone invites me to play something online.  This was kind of a lazy post, just felt the need to write something. Out.