- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
Well its been about a month since I've had this neat little gadget and figured I'd go ahead and give my thoughts on it incase any OCFers were looking at getting one (Not that I think anyone really cares.)
First let me start with what I'm not happy with since my ego is so out of whack and if I were a happy person, I wouldn't buy electronic gaming devices in the first place.
I won't be weighing in the typical Gamespot/IGN-esque "Pros n Cons" layout, instead I'm going to strike right at what is downright sad about this product.
Let me start by saying to Sony that they HAVE to stop investing in technology that nobody will ever, ever, ever care about. Yes there is a weird little touch pad on the back of the console and I've tried using this bloody thing with the Shinobido demo and it gives me cramps in under 30 seconds. Also, Augmented Reality is both confusing and unnecessary ... I really have no desire to play a fighting game with my bathroom sink as the scenery (not the mention the inherent vertigo that comes with moving the camera around.)
Now lets move onto THEIR network. I'm not talking about the Wifi in this device, I'm talking about the fact that it takes upwards of 20-30 minutes to download a 300MB Demo (Whereas I can download any number of 2-7GB on STEAM much faster.) Upon running Sony's speedtest the numbers seem to check out but I suspect the PS Store itself is the issue, it did this on every demo I tried to download but I have no solid evidence as of yet.
The WEB BROWSER. I will start by saying that the PSP had a horrible, horrible web browser and the Playstation3's was no different. How in god's name did somebody try the built-in web browser out and go "Yeah, this looks good" and sign off on it?! My Droid Incredible loads EVE Online's website faster than this horrible excuse for software.
Proprietary! Yes Sony, we understand the desire to be just like Apple (Along with every other half-baked company in this country/world.) but it just ain't gonna happen. It certainly won't happen any faster if you bend me over and supply me with a pathetically short proprietary USB Cable that is shamefully similar in appearance to Apple's proprietary cables. I will finish this thought aimed at all companies: ONLY APPLE CAN BE APPLE.
Memory Cards...this I can understand. Many companies like Apple jack up the price tag by up to $100 for a mere 16GB so I don't see why Sony shouldn't be able to get away with it. That being said, Sony should have built the memory INTO the friggin' device instead of offering me a pre-order Vita that came with NOTHING so I'm not stuck with the inability to play/download anything until I get around to running out and buying a memstick. I can give Sony props for the insanely cheap pricetag of only $249 and trying to supplement it with pointless accessories but they need to factor in convenience.
Software Distribution. The current state of the PS Store is just downright pathetic. NONE of the games have even so much as SCREENSHOTS to give me an idea of what the hell I'm looking at. When I loaded the PS Store I literally had no idea what "Army Corps of Hell" was simply because I'd not heard of it before. That's right Sony, I had to get on my PC to look up a YouTube video about a game on YOUR Handheld. I can't pick on Sony for the Demos on certain games as I'd assume this is up to the publisher. As far as price goes, if any of these companies think I'm paying $40 for a mobile game they're out of their minds. But at the same time I have no choice but to wait for the physical media to go on sale on Amazon and order it since I don't see the PS Store having "Weekend Sales" like STEAM does anytime soon (Which will end up hurting these games in the end.)
Netflix. I'd really like to give Netflix some more e-Hatred as whoever programmed this Netflix app needs to be beaten repeatedly based on principle alone. I can't even begin to fathom why the Netflix app is more responsive/quicker on my Smartphone than on this beast of a handheld (Bad Netflix!!)
Now lets get down to the good parts which I will be summarizing:
-Orgasmic controls. These little Analog sticks are so round and perfect I can't get over how well they work. The buttons and D-Pad are also flawless
-Perfect Screen. I'm incredibly picky about contrast, color reproduction, and ghosting and I've gotta say this is one of the finer screens I've played any sort of serious game on. Definite thumbs up for Sony here
-Speed and multitasking. I love the overlay, O/S, and whatever else you want to name off. It's almost Linux-like in how it behaves and how snappy it is ... perfect!
-Game quality. While I suspect there will be many offbrand/jappy companies out there who will inevitably flood the market, I'm quite optimistic about a few good games coming out (GTA/Call of Duty/ETC...) given that this thing is literally on-par with PS3 graphics which is fine for me on a small screen. So far the PS Vita has only sold 1million+ units and Mojang even said he won't bother with a Minecraft port which concerns me, I'm worried that the good game devs/publishers out there won't bother because its not economically feasible since the Vita seems to have such a small market share.
My recommendation? I'd say if you need some distraction from work or during commutes definitely get it. For $249 its a hell of a lot more entertaining than many of the crappy Android tablets out there and despite the many faults it has I see it improving within the coming year.
First let me start with what I'm not happy with since my ego is so out of whack and if I were a happy person, I wouldn't buy electronic gaming devices in the first place.
I won't be weighing in the typical Gamespot/IGN-esque "Pros n Cons" layout, instead I'm going to strike right at what is downright sad about this product.
Let me start by saying to Sony that they HAVE to stop investing in technology that nobody will ever, ever, ever care about. Yes there is a weird little touch pad on the back of the console and I've tried using this bloody thing with the Shinobido demo and it gives me cramps in under 30 seconds. Also, Augmented Reality is both confusing and unnecessary ... I really have no desire to play a fighting game with my bathroom sink as the scenery (not the mention the inherent vertigo that comes with moving the camera around.)
Now lets move onto THEIR network. I'm not talking about the Wifi in this device, I'm talking about the fact that it takes upwards of 20-30 minutes to download a 300MB Demo (Whereas I can download any number of 2-7GB on STEAM much faster.) Upon running Sony's speedtest the numbers seem to check out but I suspect the PS Store itself is the issue, it did this on every demo I tried to download but I have no solid evidence as of yet.
The WEB BROWSER. I will start by saying that the PSP had a horrible, horrible web browser and the Playstation3's was no different. How in god's name did somebody try the built-in web browser out and go "Yeah, this looks good" and sign off on it?! My Droid Incredible loads EVE Online's website faster than this horrible excuse for software.
Proprietary! Yes Sony, we understand the desire to be just like Apple (Along with every other half-baked company in this country/world.) but it just ain't gonna happen. It certainly won't happen any faster if you bend me over and supply me with a pathetically short proprietary USB Cable that is shamefully similar in appearance to Apple's proprietary cables. I will finish this thought aimed at all companies: ONLY APPLE CAN BE APPLE.
Memory Cards...this I can understand. Many companies like Apple jack up the price tag by up to $100 for a mere 16GB so I don't see why Sony shouldn't be able to get away with it. That being said, Sony should have built the memory INTO the friggin' device instead of offering me a pre-order Vita that came with NOTHING so I'm not stuck with the inability to play/download anything until I get around to running out and buying a memstick. I can give Sony props for the insanely cheap pricetag of only $249 and trying to supplement it with pointless accessories but they need to factor in convenience.
Software Distribution. The current state of the PS Store is just downright pathetic. NONE of the games have even so much as SCREENSHOTS to give me an idea of what the hell I'm looking at. When I loaded the PS Store I literally had no idea what "Army Corps of Hell" was simply because I'd not heard of it before. That's right Sony, I had to get on my PC to look up a YouTube video about a game on YOUR Handheld. I can't pick on Sony for the Demos on certain games as I'd assume this is up to the publisher. As far as price goes, if any of these companies think I'm paying $40 for a mobile game they're out of their minds. But at the same time I have no choice but to wait for the physical media to go on sale on Amazon and order it since I don't see the PS Store having "Weekend Sales" like STEAM does anytime soon (Which will end up hurting these games in the end.)
Netflix. I'd really like to give Netflix some more e-Hatred as whoever programmed this Netflix app needs to be beaten repeatedly based on principle alone. I can't even begin to fathom why the Netflix app is more responsive/quicker on my Smartphone than on this beast of a handheld (Bad Netflix!!)
Now lets get down to the good parts which I will be summarizing:
-Orgasmic controls. These little Analog sticks are so round and perfect I can't get over how well they work. The buttons and D-Pad are also flawless
-Perfect Screen. I'm incredibly picky about contrast, color reproduction, and ghosting and I've gotta say this is one of the finer screens I've played any sort of serious game on. Definite thumbs up for Sony here
-Speed and multitasking. I love the overlay, O/S, and whatever else you want to name off. It's almost Linux-like in how it behaves and how snappy it is ... perfect!
-Game quality. While I suspect there will be many offbrand/jappy companies out there who will inevitably flood the market, I'm quite optimistic about a few good games coming out (GTA/Call of Duty/ETC...) given that this thing is literally on-par with PS3 graphics which is fine for me on a small screen. So far the PS Vita has only sold 1million+ units and Mojang even said he won't bother with a Minecraft port which concerns me, I'm worried that the good game devs/publishers out there won't bother because its not economically feasible since the Vita seems to have such a small market share.
My recommendation? I'd say if you need some distraction from work or during commutes definitely get it. For $249 its a hell of a lot more entertaining than many of the crappy Android tablets out there and despite the many faults it has I see it improving within the coming year.