Friday, 3 February 2012
SONY PLAYSTATION VITA REVIEW
Only 3 weeks to go til the European launch of Sonys new handheld gaming device but with the current smartphone gaming revolution, will the new Vita be good enough to convince gamers that they need a dedicated handheld gaming device and stop using their smartphones for their gaming needs? Will Nintendo 3DS users be impressed enough to ditch the 3D visuals and switch devices? Sony have a lot riding on these questions and have injected a hell of a lot of power into the Vita to show the world that dedicated handheld games consoles still have a place in our iOS and Android world. Let's take a look whether they've done enough.
Although the Vita looks like the PSP, the first thing you will notice is the build quality. It feels solid and less plasticky than the PSP and the weight doesn't deter from long periods of gameplay. The device sports the Playstation buttons on the right along with an analogue stick and front facing camera and speaker. The directional d-pad is on the left along with the second analogue stick ad second speaker. The home button is towards the bottom left of the screen along with the start and select keys which are located on the bottom right. Smack bang in the middle is a beautiful 5 inch OLED multi touch capacitive screen. On top of the device you have the right and left shoulder buttons and in the middle you have the game card and media card slot, volume and the power/standby buttons.
The main user interface of the Vita has been re-done and long gone is the Xcross Media Bar that you see on the PS3 and PSP. Instead Sony have adopted a SmartPhone-ish interface called the Live Area. It's fairly easy to navigate with the touchscreen and as expected, runs very quick and snappy thanks to the 4 cores. Unfortunately, the Live Area isn't brilliantly designed and looks like its aimed at very young users which will put off the hardcore gamer but as you only need to use the Live Area for a few seconds to load a game, it's passable and at worst, a necessary evil. Its evident that Sony are going after the younger Nintendo market but have sacrificed alot in terms of slick menus and navigation.
This what the Vita is made for and luckily, this is where it truly shines.
I played the Wipeout and Uncharted pre-loaded Demos and both ran amazingly well. The frame rate was buttery smooth, the colours were bright and vivid and the stereo speakers were clear and crisp. Because of the depressions at the back of the Vita, holding the device is very comfortable and 5-10 minutes in, you forget that you're playing on a handheld device. The game quality is on par with the Playstation 3 and this includes the visual nature and textures of the game itself. The control pad buttons are very responsive and work brilliantly well. With some games you have the option to use the touchscreen as well as the Playstation buttons but with Uncharted, I found this more of a hindrance so refrained from it after dying constantly. Load times aren't all that long and general gameplay is very quick and snappy again, thanks to those 4 beautiful cores. The overall experience with the gameplay makes you forgive the Vita for its mediocre user interface and below average web browser.
The cameras on both sides of the Vita are 0.3 megapixels which means they are only really useful for video calling and in game functions. Augmented reality is a feature that Sony are trying to push with the Vita which uses the camera to bring a game into the real world. This technology is still unreliable and slow so it has a lot of work to do before it provides a great gaming experience. To sum it up, the Vitas cameras are a welcome addition rather than a photography tool.
The big catch with the Vita is the game and memory format. The games for the Vita are sold on a small memory card which closely resembles a full sized SD card. The problem with these cards is that the ability to save your progress on the game you are playing is non existent on the card that the actual game itself is on. This means you have to purchase another card which Sony calls the Vita Memory Card. This card is basically a Micro SD card but is proprietary which means it will only ever work in the Vita and nothing else. So in order to play games and save them, you would need an additional memory card for storage in the Vita as the Vita has absolutely no internal storage whatsoever. Sony have said that some games will have space on the game card to save games but for the bigger games (ie. Uncharted & Wipeout) you will need a Vita Memory Card in order to save your game.
The Playstation Vita will be launched in the UK on the 22nd of February and all Game and Gamestation retail stores are currently taking pre-orders.
The pricing is as follows
PS VITA Console (Wi-Fi Only) - £229.99
PS VITA Console (3G & Wi-Fi) - £279.99
VITA 4GB Memory Card - £17.99
VITA 8GB Memory Card - £31.99
VITA 16GB Memory Card - £44.99
The Playstation Vita is a fantastic and powerful gaming device. Packed full of features, the console covers all bases with great gameplay for the hardcore gamer and motion sensing controls for the casual Nintendo Wii lovers. The connectivity gives you another way to check Facebook and Twitter although web browsing is pretty useless. Online Gameplay is also available along with cross game voice chat which the Playstation 3 has always lacked. However, I feel that the 3G version is a useless option in the UK as data only sims aren't cheap and the need for a SIM in a dedicated gaming device in a world full of smartphones is very questionable. The Vita shows a lot of promise for the future and if Sony support it well, could get even better than it is. The biggest let down is the pricing and the essential requirement of the proprietary memory cards. The cards add an expense which would have been avoided if Sony just stuck to Micro SD cards which most current Smartphones and Cameras support. Also, the fact that the high end games will cost the same as a game for the Playstation 3 is disappointing. Despite this, the price for Vita is an absolute bargain for a Quad Core device and if you can see past the ugly interface, is a good buy. If you are a hardcore gamer and are happy to carry this around and pay for additional accessories I would definitely recommend the Vita. On the other hand, if you are unsure or a casual gamer choosing between the Nintendo 3DS and the Vita, I would recommend that you wait a few months until Sony drops the price of the console. Given the history of the PSP and the current state of sales of the Vita in Japan, a price drop is a sure thing and it won't hurt to wait a while as newer and better games are released.
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