PSVista, any good?

[DSouth87]

I saw the PSVista is coming out. I had a PSP, waste of money. Is this one any different?

[pariah]

I dunno; Ask GigaBoots.::playful::

[Qarx]

I'd wait till there's actual games out (or at least announced) that you want. The games I enjoyed the most on PSP were the Prinny games, Kingdom Hearts BBS, Blazblue CT and CS2, and the Metal Gear Solid games (a total of 7 games, though I might enjoy Persona 3, ZHP, and Silver Star Harmony). Otherwise, my PSP has been used for homebrew and as a music player since I don't have an iPod ::playful::.

Personally, I would like to own one, but going to wait on it, partly because I'm not yet interested in its current library (the ones most people are looking forward to I'm not too familiar with, like Uncharted... yeah, I know XP), and partly because I'm paranoid that the support is going to be as barren as the PSP's was (just how many games utilized any kind of DLC or connection to the internet? I know the Prinny games had DLC, and some SOCOM game had internet, but when you have so many games that are great when played with friends, including BBS and Peace Walker, yet do NOT have online functionality outside of using your PS3 [and when it's a game like Blazblue, why not just buy the PS3 version and get to use your PS3 controller instead of the shitty PSP buttons and pad?], it's really a disappointment, particularly because the FUCKING DS had better support, to the point of the Professor Layton games having free DLC and many 1st and 3rd party games having online modes, like Yu-Gi-Oh!: Spirit Caller and Star Fox Command). Why is that such an issue? Because where I live, so few people even HAVE video games, and the ones who do only play Halo/CoD, or are small children >_>. I'd also like to play with some of you Blistered Ones or some of my other online friends ::playful::.

Boy, I went off on a tangent there. I like the PSP, too... guess you can call it tough love XD.

I have a question, too, actually. Concerning using the PSP as a music device, I find it incredibly aggravating that it puts the songs in whatever order it feels like, even if it's multiple songs from the same album. I even went to the trouble of making folders on my PSP's memory stick to make it so the songs at least belonged to each other, but it still doesn't solve the problem of the songs being randomized (no, it's not by size, format, length, quality, name, album name, or artist name, it's completely. Fucking. RANDOM... unless there's some coding that it uses that eludes my understanding...). So my question is: can the PSP be made, outside of putting each song in their own "album" and naming them so that it's forced to put them in the right order (since it lists ALBUMS by name ::eyeroll::), to actually list the songs the way I want?

Also, have one question toward Vita owners: does this problem exist on the Vita, or did they realize I might actually want to use it as a music player and not have to pull out my PSP every time it plays a song I didn't feel like listening to?

[BookwormOtaku]

For me I'm not buying a Vita until Persona 4: The Golden and Ultimate Mayonaka come out in english or a miracle happens and Tales of Innocence R comes out in english first. Besides I have so many PSP games to play already with more to come, especially Growlanser 4

[diva01miku]

For me I'm not buying a Vita until Persona 4: The Golden and Ultimate Mayonaka come out in english or a miracle happens and Tales of Innocence R comes out in english first. Besides I have so many PSP games to play already with more to come, especially Growlanser 4

Same. But then again I never buy consoles or handhelds as soon as they're released because the games I really want for them don't get released until much later.

[K7Sniper]

From what I've see, it has potential.

However, I'll be on the wait and see camp as well.

[StratRat1956]

Can I rent a Vita to find out if it's any good?

[lostleader]

Unlike the 3DS the Vita honestly doesnt have anything in the future thats worthwhile. That doesn't mean the vita is bad, persay, but the fact is there is no rush to get one. It doesnt play UMDs, thus not backwards compatible with your hard copy PSP library nor is the price a welcoming sale. Simply wait to get one, while I doubt there will be any kind of price drop like we saw with the 3DS, I believe we will get some good bundles at the least. But the best advice is to just wait.

[Herbis]

Battery life of 4 hours http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/news/735000/737270_0.jpg 4 HOURS!
And the fact that Sony "made" their own SD card which costs two,three or four times as much as a regular SD card is putting me off from this.

Seriously, I want to like Sony, but with all the shit they've been pulling I cant, I honestly cant, fuck them.

[pariah]

Can I rent a Vita to find out if it's any good?
Sure, if you're local game store does rentals. Although you won't be able to if it has some bullshit D.R.M. that binds it to the first user for life through the Internet..::eyeroll::

[Yawaru]

I got a Vita and played with it for a couple days, just wanted to give an honest opinion, I was looking for reviews of it myself but it doesn't seem like there's much interest in it. I'd put it in a blog but I'm too lazy to find pictures and put it in the normal format. Is there a template for the BT border that's usually on the headline image?

And to answer a question, I loaded an album onto the Vita and it played the tracks in order, worked fine for me.

Anyway, overall it's a nice piece of hardware but early support for it is severely lacking. It's like a shiny new car without a tank of gas, there's a lot of ooo's and aaah's but it's not going far on its own. The system itself is pretty sleek, it's got a nice responsive screen but the buttons could be a little bigger. The potential is there and it's definitely closer to a hardcore gaming machine than the 3DS, it just needs more support.

Good: Nice screen, dual analog, plenty of power and multi-tasking capabilities

Bad: Lack of 3rd party support, few apps, new proprietary memory and game media, not backwards compatible at all, high price tag and limited 1st party support

WTF: Touch screen on the back, of course.

First let me break down what I got and the prices, I got the 3G bundle which comes with an 8 Gig memory card and Shinobido 2, I also subscribed to the AT&T 3G services for a month with 250 MB bandwidth limit for 15$. With the bundle came a coupon for a second month of service and a free game (Super Stardust Delta) with the purchase of the first month. The 3G system is normally 300$ where as the WiFi only is 250$, but the 8 Gig card is normally 30$, so technically the 3G version is really only 20$ more. That having been said there really isn't much call for a 3G service right now since the Vita's capabilities are limited, so 3G is not a must buy but it's not a complete rip-off either. The system uses a sim card (included) which I assume is the same as a phone's. The game I bought cost 40$ and the price of launch games seems to be between 30 and 50$, which is really steep for a handheld game.

So, after unboxing I went through the set up, simple enough, but there was one small hangup. It asked me to register my Playstation store account during set up, but when I tried to it wouldn't allow me to access the Playstation store until I updated the firmware after the setup. Clever Sony, clever. Click register later and move on. The settings menu for the system is a bit bare, no option to calibrate the screen just basic necessities. I said the touchscreen was responsive and it is, but it seems almost too sensitive. Often I could use the touchscreen without actually touching the screen, so I think a calibration option might help.

Next I tried the Playstation store, registered my account which happens to be a Playstation Plus account, and was immediately disappointed. Now the Vita is supposed to be able to play PS3, PSP and Mini games downloaded from the store, however none of the games I already purchased were able to be played on Vita. There is a fairly large library of PSP and Mini titles that the Vita can play, and I haven't purchased anything from the Playstation store besides downloading the free games for being a Playstation Plus member for a few months now, but the lack of support and backwards compatibility is astounding. I've also tried transferring content from my PS3 to my Vita and that didn't work either. Which brings me to my next gripe, almost no benefit for Playstation Plus members. Aside from a few markdowns on retro games, there are no free games and few discounts on the Vita titles for Plus members. You would assume Sony would have the foresight to add a few free games or at least some minis for the Plus members, anything really. But no, there's no Plus section, barely a store option at all. There are no screenshots, minimal descriptions and only a handful of demos for launch titles, just the bare essentials to sell a sparse selection of games. There are 3 free Augmented Reality titles in the store to make use of the AR functions of the system, Fireworks, Cliff Diving and Table Soccer, but aside from that Sony's really dropped the ball so far.

I'll do a quick run through of the AR games. Fireworks is a simple game where you tap fireworks on at their apex to earn points. There are additional challenge modes where you have to perform certain tasks, like only hitting silver fireworks. It's a nice little diversion, and the graphics aren't bad. There's little point to the AR part, aside from seeing fireworks in your home with simple filters. Some parts can be played without the AR cards but still use the back-facing camera for the background. The Cliff Diving game uses timed button presses to perform stunts and earn in-game cash to buy unlockables. Another straightforward game with simple but colorful graphics, but nothing too memorable. Last is the Table Soccer game, this one is a bit more involved as it uses all 6 AR cards where as much of the other games can be played with one. The first 3 are used for the field, which you can space closer or farther apart to change the size of the field. Then 4 and 5 are for audience stands and 6 is the scoreboard, you can arrange them however you want. They aren't bad for free games but I really wish they wouldn't rely so heavily on touch controls when you have to hold the Vita a certain distance from the AR card to play. The Fireworks game is okay, but the Table Soccer would probably be better off using standard controls.

For playing games in general, there's a bit of a long load time at first, but the loads in-game are short, or masked by cut-scenes. So the flow of gameplay is pretty seamless overall. The graphics are nice, the models are a bit blocky but the textures are clean. The early round of games seem like cleaned up ports of PSP games rather than next-gen graphics, so I'd assume games coming out in the next few months will steadily improve. Controls are pretty tight, I would have liked slightly larger face buttons, and possibly trigger buttons, but the touch screen should make up for the lack of triggers and R3/L3. Playing the Shinobido game I found that they used the touchpad in back for aiming, and while you could hold Right bumper and O, you could swap to the targeting screen automatically by touching the center of the touchpad. Still it's a bit unwieldy to hold the system and use the touchpad. And speaking of touch controls, I really hope there isn't a lot of shoehorned touch controls for the sake of using the touch screen. Quicktime events are one thing, but the Uncharted demo had a touch screen swipe to cut down a rag. Why!???!?!?

As far as sound goes, the stereo speakers give a much better sound than the old PSP system. I've only ever had the fat model so I don't know if the slim or go was any better. The position of the speakers is a little awkward but it works.

The remote play option has some potential, but it has a lot of issues. First, the connection is a big laggy. I had issues connecting with private network, the internet option worked though. The resolution is a bit low also, it looked like a SD stream. Also I was unable to play most of the content I had on my PS3, I wasn't able to play PS3 or mini games, only the PS1 games, which are small enough that I'd really like to be able to load onto my Vita. I wasn't able to play remote with 3G either.

Honestly, there's a lot wrong with this system. There is no good reason to make a new proprietary memory card system, there's already too many types of memory as is. And did they really need a new kind of USB cord? I can understand not using UMDs anymore, but they also changed the media management system. Instead of the Media Go system they released a little while ago, you need to download a new media management driver, then you have to move files from the Vita's screen, which I absolutely hate. No I can't use my mouse on my computer, or my wireless controller on PS3, I have to stand by my TV just to reach the thing with the short USB cord they provide.

I'd really have to say pass on the system unless you're a diehard Sony fan. I'm sure it will get better, but as it stands Sony really isn't putting their best effort into this. It's bound to be the hardcore gamer's system of choice for graphics and the dual analog sticks, but with a mediocre launch lineup and no support for Plus members, plus an overall lack of backwards compatibility for nearly all the downloadable content to date, it's not cost effective. The media manager barely works, the Playstation store is bare-bones and the 3G service isn't worth the price, so it's kind of a chore to use.

[pariah]

I was looking for reviews of it myself but it doesn't seem like there's much interest in it.
I guess you don't visit GigaBoots.com (http://gigaboots.com/) then, huh?::playful::

[Sephiroth89]

I disagree the PSP was a waste of money..I've loved the lil thing for the games I've played on it. Tekken DR and PSone games on the go are alot of fun, not to mention I use the thing as an IPOD so I don't have to buy an actual Ipod lol I honestly found few games I ever wanted to play on the DS personally...just sayin.

That said, the PSP still did have its issues and I hope PSVita is better


edit: oh..sounds like vita is doing bad. Explains the fact I can't find reviews for it anywhere...

[Qarx]

I honestly found few games I ever wanted to play on the DS personally...just sayin.
I had the opposite issue; go figure. Though IMO, both were definitely worth having, but of course, you need to make sure the games are ones you want....

[lisajane]

I actually not interested for PS Vita yet, since i already have psp. But since i saw Uncharted Golden Abyss PS Vita trailer on Youtube,i think i must have this gadget.

[louisa9]

I'm not entirely sure.I'll be on the wait.We can get the better one if you waitting for it...