PlayStation Vita

This weekend I was lucky enough to get a hands on experiance with the extremely anticipated Playstation Vita and spend some proper one on one time playing some of the launch titles. If I am totally honest I was never really looking forward to the Vita as I was never a fan of the PSP and generally I have no time for handheld consoles…Now however, I think I’d better start saving that pocket money – In fact I think it’s important a lot of you lovely people should do!

So let’s start at the beginning shall I? 

Isn’t it beautiful? I mean I was a little put off by the size of the whole thing as I thought it’d probably be around the same size as the PSP slim and light, however I found it quite bulky and a slightly too big for my hands. (Aprox size 18.2 x 8.35 cm) Then I turned it on and wow, that wonderful 5inch OLED screen is just perfect. Even by the standard home screen I was surprised at how nice it looked, so crisp and fresh if you will. I spent a lot of time just looking at it and in all honesty I totally forgot about the fact it's touch screen! And even then I almost didn't want to ruin the screen with my fingerprints...Which is, unfortunately, unavoidable. 

It's finish tells us that it's not for childre like the Nintendo DS. It's not a portable console to be messed around with and in PS3 fashion, it's a big lads toy. I found something about the controls a little hard to master in terms of action buttons to begin with but it's stuff found easier as you get used to it, I was a little put off by how small the analogue sticks were to be honest but I was thrown by how comfortable they are and easy they were to become familiar with. I was surprised at how my brain just understood the rear touch screen functionality and the more I messed with it the more I loved the idea of it! I can see how It really works with certain games and ideas. (such as Katimari)  Both the front and rear facing cameras felt very familiar to me though I feel the position of the front facing camera seems a little off - And I'm excited for the use of skype on the Vita. You'll see the good old 'start' and 'select' buttons there doing exactly what you've always known them to do and finally I was happy to see that PS home button and glad to find something that took me back to the start with just one click. 




Let's talk about some of the games as I'm not sure how much longer I can keep quiet about Wipeout 2048 - In good old Wipeout fashion the game is ace but that's not what gets me excited...it's how it looks; how it runs. Incredible. I'm pretty certain I watched the introduction sequence to that particular game about 20 times in one day and the best bit about it? The in game graphics are just as perfect as that video. Unfortunately the camera I used to take these pictures does the Vita no justice but even then, don't you think this is amazing? Wipeout was by far the best looking game out of the ones that I played . This game uses many features of the Vita and is a great game to get used to specific controls, for example; using the rear touch pad for acceleration and the microphone for voice activated weapons. 

Another game which, obviously many of us are excited about is Uncharted: Golden Abyss, again the graphics were simply wonderful but not as exciting as Wipeout. I think the best part about playing Uncharted on the Vita was the use of both standard controls and touch screen features to both navigate and use in combat. Also, who is going to complain about another Uncharted game? 

Although I didn't find it all that perfect - I feel that this game was one of the main games to example how dual anologouge was going to be a brilliant idea however I found it was all a little too, loose? Aiming for your target for me seemed a lot more like chance but then you're probably much better at Uncharted than I am, so let me know what you think on that one!

Okay so forgetting about the main titles coming for launch the Vita has a 'welcome pack' which includes games that will help you get used to certain aspects of control from the six axis to touch motion. Involving, skateboarding and reaction games. Perfect way to get used to the system. 

My only main issue on the games side of it, is that the PSVita has no internal storage space and with the highest available memory card at launch costing around £40/45 being a 16gb it's just much money for too little space. So installing games is something I wouldn't recommend as Uncharted itself is around 4GB alone. Although to buy physical copies of games may figure more expensive than to buy off of the PSN.

In terms of performance there isn't much for me to bash. Using a quad core processor it runs pretty smoothly and the sound seems pretty solid. I really like the ability to run programmes in the background when it comes to smaller tasks but it seems you can't leave one game running in the background whilst trying out another game. Which isn't much of an issue but I'd like the idea of being able to switch from one game to another. 

All in all I was really surprised with what the PS Vita has to offer, I found the hardware extremely impressive and I am very, very excited to get my hands on my own one! Still put off a little by the price but then what can you expect? Maybe after the initial launch, like Nintendo, they'll hear a hint and lower the cost. At least for the WIFI version any way. 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. If there is anything I missed or you want to ask let me know and I'll get back to you!

JodieTheyer.