The Pundits are Wrong: The PSVita is Awesome

[Solid Snake]

You can't walk two millimeters through the ugly, bloated morass of gaming websites on the interwebs without hearing holier-than-thou journalists triumphantly declare that the PSVita is dead already, despite the fact that the system is less than a year old in the states.

Of course, we saw the same kind of bullshit from the paid pundits regarding the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, back when the 3DS' prices were too high, games were being canceled and the doomsday proclamations emerged.

I wouldn't dare indulge in any delusions (as Sony executives might) that the Vita will 'beat' the 3DS. And they certainly aren't going to compete directly with smartphones.
But that's okay. You see, I don't think the PS Vita is going after the same market.

What the Vita is is quite possibly the best portable system for hardcore gamers I've ever had the opportunity to experience.

I'll be honest: When I put down a shitton of money on my Vita, I thought I was buying a mediocre system for the sole privilege of experiencing Persona 4: Golden. I had an influx of cash to afford it, but I was pretty miserable the week leading up to the transaction. It felt more like something I was just inevitably going to do out of a twisted sense of obligation, rather than something I was genuinely excited for. I wanted to recreate the circumstances that led me to pass the LSAT a few years ago, costs be damned, because apparently I'm more superstitious than I'd like to believe.

What's shocked me so far is how much *fun* the Vita is.

(Not just P4G. I'm fortunate in that I haven't gotten to the problematic new content yet, so everything's positive so far -- beautiful vibrant colors, polished graphics, and a metric shitton of extra features make P4G a standout title, though -- unfortunately -- it'll stand out for all the wrong reasons once I get to this scene and have to resist the urge to shout obscenities at the screen.)


Here's why I recommend you check it out
(If you can afford to, of course. The costs are extremely prohibitive and that's really where Sony's been botching things lately. Had I not literally received 'you failed the Bar pity monies' as a gift from my grandparents a couple weeks back, it wouldn't have crossed my mind.)

* I've never seen a screen so pretty.
And I know 'pretty' is a generic word, but I don't know any better way to describe it. I own HD TV screens that I've paid tons of money for but even with brightness full-blast I wouldn't be getting color like I'm getting from this screen.
The colors alone lead to the best-looking versions of PS1 and PSP games you could possibly imagine. I actually think I might prefer the way the 'HD' versions of MGS2 and MGS3 look on the Vita as opposed to on the PS3.
And games developed for the Vita, like P4G and Assassin's Creed Liberation, are just damn pretty.

...I've seen the P4G intro on Youtube and on a computer it looks, well, okay. On the Vita it looks stunning. I don't even know how to describe it.
I know aesthetics don't make or break a system, but whichever department of Sony's was responsible for the Vita screen deserves all the free cookies in the universe.

* The control scheme and layout is the best and most intuitive I've experienced on a handheld.
Nothing more I can add here except that I completely disagree with Kotaku's assertion that it's uncomfortable.

I love my Nintendo DS (it's how I played Ace Attorney, after all), but I've never been a huge fan of the stylus or the dual screens. Maybe I'm just poor at multitasking, but I prefer my eyes to stick to one place. That's probably why my favorite DS games minimized reliance on both screens (with Ghost Trick quite possibly being the major exception to that rule, but hey, that was Ghost Trick.)

I'm not sure if I'll like the dual analog sticks much when trying titles that rely heavily on it -- so far I've been able to get by with the D-Pad -- but I really do like the Vita's layout.

* For such a large screen and for such pretty graphics, what shocks me most about the Vita is how light and easy to carry it is.
It can fit in my pocket and barely weighs me down. I mean, I'm sure it weighs more than an iPhone or a DS, but it still surprised me how unobtrusive it is.

* The Vita's menu interfaces are so intuitive and easy to use they put the PS3's to shame.
This is probably a personal preference thing, but damn, I love the Vita menus. It's easy to edit and place icons and takes all of a couple strokes with a finger to access the content you want. Everything feels where it belongs. And the PS Store on Vita isn't the atrocious mess Sony's turned the PS3 Store into.

* This will probably be the definitive way to enjoy PS1 and PSP games.
Especially PS1 JRPGs, which look about twenty times better on the Vita's screen, especially when you select a few quick settings changes.
The idea of replaying PS1 games seemed daunting when I was limited to their awkward, stretched appearance on an HD television. On the Vita, they appear closer to the original resolutions. The colors are phenomenal. The intimacy of the smaller screen and its proximity to your eyes really draws you in.
It's exciting to actually be excited about replaying the PS1-era Final Fantasy titles again, not to mention all the PSP RPGs I missed out on because I haven't owned a PSP.

* I can understand reservations regarding a lack of incoming stellar game titles, but it's been less than a year.
As I recall, the PSP was all but sunk after its release too, when the DS was trouncing it and before the JRPG library (and Monster Hunter) picked up and salvaged things. And the PS3 a year post-launch? Sony was dead in the water. Now the PS3 is on course to potentially match the 360's hardware sales when all's said and done.

I understand that gaming journalists love to hype up successes and failures and stoke flamewars to galvanize the masses into reading their articles and commenting.

But in all seriousness: a Vita purchase I felt lukewarm at best about has become my favorite gaming-related purchase of the year.

And maybe that says something about me -- how I might be more interested in older-school PSP and PS1/2 era JRPGs than modern-era releases, how apparently I care more about aesthetics than graphics when it comes to visuals, or how satisfied I'll feel when given an alternative to gritty gruesome brown-tainted shooters.

But I'd really prefer it if folks gave the Vita a chance. Instead all I can read about it are postmortems that barely seem to restrain the various authors' glee at the thought of its imminent demise.

This wall of text brought to you by Kotaku, who infuriated me sufficiently to write more Snakewalls.

[Flarecobra]

I never actually heard of any "Vita is doomed!" articles to be honest...

[Ryong]

Originally Posted by Flarecobra

I never actually heard of any "Vita is doomed!" articles to be honest...

Have you not been on any game-related sites in the last couple of years?

Either way: I was thinking of getting a Vita, but the pricetag on it and the games just don't make it sound like a good idea. Stupid taxes.

Also: Don't go to Kotaku. It's a terrible place. This is coming from someone who visits 4chan.

[Aldurin]

I actually mostly agree with a lot of this stuff, especially how surprising the graphical capability of the Vita is. The first game I got was Uncharted: Golden Abyss (somehow feels better than Uncharted 3, breaking my fervent adherence to the idea that outsourcing kills IPs) and I was just stunned on how they were able to get so close to the PS3 level of graphics. On a small screen.

It's one of those cases where I'm considering just getting the Vita versions of cross-play games like Sly 4 since the quality is way up there.

I think my favorite part about it is that it actually takes advantage of technology to make a powerful handheld to appear to hardcore gamers, and hopefully this will show more and more when competent developers start swarming this system.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

The main problems with the Vita is that.

1.) Sony advertised it as being Equal to home consoles in terms of power. Which it's not, so yeah that's a pretty big screw up on their part that hurts it's image.

2.) Sony hasn't been supporting the Vita very much at all as of lately.

3.) 3rd party Devs are leaving the system left and right, with only a hand full of the A list and B list devs such as Bandai Namco (who announced that their "Tales of" Series will be Sony exculsive for PS3/PS4/Vita and will be released to the states from now on) and NIS America still sticking around (which may be due to not liking the 3DS's limitations).

and 4.) Due to the systems costs, not many poeple are willing to buy them right now. The Sales have been low and sadly have remained low. Heck the WiiU more or less sold more units in a few weeks then the Vita has in a year. That's not good.

The Vita's a good system, it's just that it came at a bad time, Sony advertised it as a Home Console in the palm of your hands (which it's not as it's weaker then/equal to the Wii, which results in reviews bashing it for not being a portable PS3 like they said it was). It's ports don't live up to the PS3 standard it was set to thanks to Sony's Ads, and it has been vastly out spec'd by the iPhone 5 which has a GPU equal to the PS3's in terms of performance (why Apple would do that and sell it for close to $500 is beyond me).

What the Vita needs is a new marketing direction and strong 3rd support. Seeing as it's still too soon for Sony to price drop it. (they are already selling the thing at a loss with no sight of breaking even till sometime between 2016 and 2018)

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Kyanbu The Legend

1.) Sony advertised it as being Equal to home consoles in terms of power. Which it's not, so yeah that's a pretty big screw up on their part that hurts it's image.

I've never been the type to believe that graphics alone makes a game.
Sure, the Vita isn't capable of outperforming a console with an HD TV. But visuals in games like Assassin's Creed: Liberation actually aren't too far removed aesthetically from what the PS3 is capable of.

Certainly, the PS Vita is closer in terms of performance to the PS3 than the PS2, which it far outshines.
In my opinion, anyone who sincerely believed the hype that a thin handheld device was going to outperform a current-gen console is nearly as foolish as Sony themselves for making the assertion in the first place.

2.) Sony hasn't been supporting the Vita very much at all as of lately.

Gravity Rush was a game originally designed for the PS3 that Sony explicitly pushed onto the Vita.
But yeah in the interests of not sounding excessively fanboyish, it's true that Sony could be doing more on the software side. I'm not disappointed with the Vita's current slate of games, but that's because I've never owned a PSP, so all the PSP titles available essentially feel like 'new' Vita titles to me.

The Vita's a good system, it's just that it came at a bad time, Sony advertised it as a Home Console in the palm of your hands (which it's not as it's weaker then/equal to the Wii, which results in reviews bashing it for not being a portable PS3 like they said it was).

Aesthetically speaking, if you take visuals as a whole and don't just view graphics as a byproduct of raw power, I think the Vita's visuals have impressed me far more than the Wii's, and I own both.

I'm not sure if I follow your logic regarding the Vita not being akin to a console. More so than any other handheld before it, it is comparable to a console. It plays the HD versions of MGS2 and MGS3 nearly as well as my PS3 does. Assassin's Creed Liberation looks and feels like an AC game, and in some respects impresses me more visually than the original AC did a few years back.

...Yes, it's undeniably true that the Vita isn't as powerful as a PS3. Sure, that's conceded. If Sony marketed it as a PS3 they did misrepresent the product.
But for a handheld? It really does deliver console-style graphics in the palm of your hands, more so than any device ever has. That part isn't a misrepresentation. And given how bright and vibrant the Vita's screen is -- remember, visuals aren't just about graphics -- its aesthetics really are worth lauding.

As for the iPhone 5: If you're right and it really does have a GPU similar to the PS3's, it almost seems like a waste of money. I can't imagine trying to play a 'real' videogame on it. The iPhone's not well suited to much beyond Angry Birds.

The Vita does have some significant issues, I just don't think graphical inferiority to current home consoles is one of them.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

That's what makes it so bazzar. I really don't see the iphone needing that kind of GPU.
EDIT: http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone...-news-4843.php

Most of what I said is based on what I've learned from Game Journal lists and review sites.

The system's good in my book, it just needs some love from sony and a better direction in advertising that's not compareing it to a PS3. As it's ports aren't going to be 100% accurate.

[Ryong]

iPhone having a GPU on par with the PS3 wouldn't exactly work. That uses a lot of power and you'd burn through the battery and heat up the phone rather fast. So yeah.

On specs: The Vita is definilitely better than the Wii and most people in the industry don't seem to understand how specs actually work. You know, like the 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit bullshit.

Wanna try something fun? Try figuring out how powerful the WiiU is in comparision to the PS3, Xbox360 and Vita. Then look at the specs you'd have on a PC of this "generation".

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Originally Posted by Ryong

iPhone having a GPU on par with the PS3 wouldn't exactly work. That uses a lot of power and you'd burn through the battery and heat up the phone rather fast. So yeah.

On specs: The Vita is definilitely better than the Wii and most people in the industry don't seem to understand how specs actually work. You know, like the 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit bullshit.

Wanna try something fun? Try figuring out how powerful the WiiU is in comparision to the PS3, Xbox360 and Vita. Then look at the specs you'd have on a PC of this "generation".

I don't think that's a fare comparison. lol Given that PCs upgrade so much in the span of a few years, they tend to be whole generations ahead of consoles. XD

Yeah I'm beginning to think a lot of that "iPhone 5's Equal to PS3 GPU specs" may have been off quite a bit. (though the visuals are pretty close thanks to the low res).

[Inbred Chocobo]

* I can understand reservations regarding a lack of incoming stellar game titles, but it's been less than a year.
As I recall, the PSP was all but sunk after its release too, when the DS was trouncing it and before the JRPG library (and Monster Hunter) picked up and salvaged things. And the PS3 a year post-launch? Sony was dead in the water. Now the PS3 is on course to potentially match the 360's hardware sales when all's said and done.

Monster Hunter isn't coming to the Vita. Makes me sad. I'll elaborate what I have discovered.

Back when Monster Hunter Portable 3 was released on the PSP, a special version of ad-hoc mode was developed for the game on the PS3 by Sony so that people could play online in Japan. When Capcom went to localize the game in the states, they asked Sony to localize the ad-hoc mode for the PS3 advancements for the new Monster Hunter. Sony and Capcom got in a fight about who should pay for it, and since this was never resolved, the States never got Monster Hunter Portable 3.

(Sony was like, this is just for Monster Hunter, and Capcom was like, Other games can use this too ya know, and both acted like children here honestly.)

After the argument, Capcom immediately started pushing the Monster Hunter platform to Nintendo systems. The G version of Monster Hunter 3, titled in the states as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, both the Hd version and portable version, will be on Nintendo consoles, (The 3DS and Wii U respectively). They have also shown videos of Monster Hunter 4, and its being developed on the 3DS as well, and there are no signs of the Monster Hunter franchise being put on the Vita at all.

Yeah I know, sucks, and I bet there is a lot more to this story than that, but the main influence that got me on the PSP was Monster Hunter, and without that flagship franchise, I have no interest in Vita. (Strangely though, I now have a big interest in the Wii U, but that is a different story).