PS
Vita, is it worth it?
Written by: Spencer Cordts
The PS Vita itself
starts at $259.00 for the standard Wi-Fi system and there is a 3G version which
comes with an 8Gig memory card that is priced at $299.99 which seems like a lot
of money. But you have to realize that
what you are paying for is almost the equivalent to a next generation ystem
(Xbox360, PS3, Wii) in system performance.
Although, it seems like
a lot of money to spend on a game system it is well worth its cost. This same situation happened back in the 90s
when the Sega Dreamcast came out it was way beyond the other systems that came
out at the time. So if you think about it the PS Vita is like the Dreamcast of
this age.
I had a hard time
justifying buying this, until I saw all TBA games that will be coming out for
the Vita. It has very powerful titles
behind it. The games coming out for Vita
are more interesting to me than some of the major titles coming out for the home
consoles.
For an idea of how
powerful the PS Vita actually is the game Gravity Rush which was originally
intended for the PS3 will be on the Vita and the game Uncharted: Golden Abyss. If you want to want to see how impressive the
graphics are for the Vita look up game play of these games. Gravity Rush was released June 12 of this
year and it is definitely worth watching.
Some people say they are
interested in the Vita but the games out for it right now aren’t interesting
enough for them to make the leap to the Vita. One thing I have to say is that
if you didn’t own a PSP because you didn’t want to invest the money into the
games, they have made the leap to the Vita for a reduced price on the PlayStation
Network or PSN.
Most Vita games run
between 25 to 40 USD, which is not a leap from PSP games that generally capped
off at 40 USD with a few PSN
exclusives: Escape Plan, Hustle Kings, Plants vs. Zombies and someothers. Matt Machado, a Vita owner, said “I bought a
lot of games off the PSN, its cheaper and I don’t have to worry about losing
them.”
Another great asset the
Vita has is its apps, similar to what one might find on a smartphone. “Near” is
a powerful example of those apps. Near
is an app for the Vita that allows you to find out what other people are doing
around you. But it also you can find gifts
from your friends for games that you play.
Something else that is
quite impressive was the fact that the Vita launched with 25 launch
Titles. Additionally a few of the Vita
games are ports from systems BlazBlue Compendium Shift: Extended, Marvel vs.
Capcom 3, as well as some cross platform games.
One of the things that
interested me most to getting this system is a remake of Final Fantasy X, one
of the most well received games in the franchise. I cannot wait for that game to come out on
the PSN so I can start playing it again.
My first impression upon
turning on my Vita was the incredible resolution of the screen. As well as the responsiveness of the touch
screen. The screen itself claims much of
the front of the Vita at 5 inches which is an OLED display that lends itself well
to the games on the Vita. Weston Wright,
a former PSP owner, said. “Ah PlayStation Vita…amazing interior of technology,
the most powerful handheld device in the world and guess what it doesn’t cost $800
like an Ipad.”
The joysticks on the
Vita are massively improved from the PSP control pad which for lack of a better
term was garbage. The joysticks not only
sport a great feel of grip and support for your fingers but work well with most
of the titles the system has to offer.
The buttons look small
at first in comparison to the PSP but they are also well built, as well as
being about the same size as the 3DS, the competing Nintendo handled system.
Some complaints I have
with the Vita start with the time it takes to load things onto the Vita. Its
content manager is subpar because it loads information to the system extremely
slowly because it uses the Vita itself instead of the PS3 or Computer. And when you load it from the PS3 it locks it
on the screen when it has more processing power than the vita so it should be
able to handle multiple tasks and shouldn’t be locked in the connection
screen. Which seems unnecessary because
the PSP didn’t have something like that you just manually put it in the systems
memory card.
Another complaint is the
internet browser, when you open up links on pages the browser does not save you
position on the original page. Now I
know the Vita wasn’t built to just use the internet browser but I still think
it should be able to at least keep your position on the page even if you leave
the page to another one. It seems like a
silly thing to complain about but when you’re on form sites and the links posted
are imperative to what they have written, it becomes really annoying to have to
scroll pages continuously.
My next complaint is
with the battery life while listening to music.
Without headphones plugged in with the volume on full the battery dies
within 2 to 3 hours and that’s a generous estimate. Again, I know the Vita was
not made solely to be an mp3 player but I feel like it is a fair expectation. If you can get a good 6 hours of game play on
one charge more than 3 hours of music on full shouldn’t be too much to ask for.
The final complaint is
small but I would like to have some patch notes for this system. When a new system version comes out I would
like to read what it is for and how it fixes the problem. I do like the fact that you don’t have to
update your games when you go to play them on the Vita. Instead it shows you that you have an update
when you start the game and you can choose to update it whenever you want.
Overall, I love the Vita.
It is an excellent demonstration of how good mobile gaming is becoming. The system makes leaps and bounds from where
the PSP was and improved everything about the PSP that that needed work.
With a GPS, a mobile
gaming hub that keeps track of the people you meet, as well as apps for Facebook,
Twitter and other things the Vita made a strong release for itself and will
surely build upon that for years to come. I feel like the other aspects of the
system should be polished enough or they should be looking to constantly
improve it as seen with the many improved iterations of the PSP before it.
Spencer Cordts is a 22-year old gamer who has owned such systems as the Playstation 2, Gamecube, many Gameboys, PSP, PS3 and most recently a PS Vita. Some of his favorite games include Fire Emblem, Star Craft, World of Warcraft, Chaos Legion Final Fantasy 7 and Monster Hunter. He will be attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the fall and hopes to become a history teacher in the future. He absolutely hates Mudkip and everything it stands for and will be glad to take on any challenger in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. For more information on Mr. Cordts contact aflynn@dailyegyptian.com or hatchethead57@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!
