Sony's fails to reach the portable market with VITA.
The PS2 was a great success. Beating the Sega Dreamcast in overall sales, it seemed that Sony had created an impenetrable empire upon which the Playstation community sat. With many developers making games solely for the Playstation 2, most other consoles never really had a chance in the arena. Just after one year on the market, Microsoft introduced the Xbox. It immediately became popular among hardcore gamers, and casual gamers alike. With its new controller design, fresh hardware, and its own set of proprietary developers, the Microsoft had proven themselves as a worthy advisory to Sony, and just a few years later Sony and Microsoft would begin to release details of the New Generation of Gaming consoles.
Sony's first incarnation of what would later become the PS3 was unveiled at the 2005 E3 conference. Showing a large silver boomerang controller, dual television support, and multiple Ethernet ports, this model was proof that Sony was going to rule the market with muscle and hardware. But just a year later the PS3 had been reduced to just 1 HDMI port, 1 Ethernet port, and only 4 USB ports. But it still maintained the full backwards compatibility its previous brother had touted. But only for a short time, with Sony removing its PS2 backwards compatibility and replacing it with software emulation, and later complete removal, much to the anger of PS3 owners. Not to mention Sony's removal of otheros support soon after that, supposedly due to hacker activity.
Right around this time, Sony released the Playstation Portable. With its innovative design, and familiar control scheme, the PSP was received with open arms by most of the gaming community. While some might argue that Nintendo had and always will have a leg up. The PSP was truly in a league of its own, catering to again, both Hardcore and Casual gamers alike, reviving older titles, such as Crash Bandicoot, and the world of Final Fantasy 7. Many of the popular titles released for PS3 would make their mark in the PSP realm as well. Making it a must have for gamers who wanted to continue the story from one game to another. Then with the release of Gran Turismo Portable and its garage transfer utility, that would later enable gamers to load the cars won on the PSP to its PS3 counterpart. Metal Gear Peacewalker, would later do the same thing with the release of the Metal Gear Solid HD collection for PS3.
The Hacker community would also increase the desire for a PSP, with its custom firmware, and the ability to back up your games, and even play your own PS1 ISO files on the PSP. While downloading PS1 and PSP games is illegal. Backing up your own games is not. (For now). The iPhone would also experience the same issues. With hackers coining the term "Jailbreak" allowing users to customize every aspect of their device, and allowing users the freedom and flexibility they desired. One of the greatest aspects of the iDevice reign has been its multi-platform cross-compatibility. Allowing users to play games they have purchased not only from an iPod touch or iPhone, but also from iPad and iPad 2. Giving users complete backwards compatibility for all the content they have ever downloaded from iTunes. Giving the gamer the feeling that what they buy maintains its value, regardless of which device it's being used on. This ideal has changed the portable gaming industry in ways that not even the great giant Sony was able to predict. With the release of the Playstation Vita, Sony has come under great fire. Not only with its failure in income last year, but also missing the mark on its Next Generation Portable.
Finally the review of the VITA!
The handheld takes a lot from its much older brother, but enhances some aspects as well. With a larger OLED screen, a second analog stick for greater control, a Gyroscope for increased feedback. It's a worthy contender to the iDevice ruled portable market. At release the Vita has no backwards compatibility with PS1 or PS2 games. Its compatibility with PSP games and the size of its Vita Games library is limited, with only 20 games available at release. Sony has also left many waiting for the release of the Skype app to the Playstation Network, with its constant push backs and delays. This leaves very little for gamers of newly owned Vita consoles much in the way of actually using the Vita for Vita games. Many going back to PSP roots until something more substantial is release.
It's touchscreen guided main menu works well and is east to navigate, taking many of the touch controls from the iDevice world, such as holding an icon for a few seconds to allow the overall customization of icon placement. You can also change the background image of each tile while in this setup. The Wi-Fi also leaves much to be desired. Games utilizing the touch screen controls will generally give you're the option of using the button controls you're probably familiar with or allow you to use the new touchscreen options. The Gyroscope is also a great new addition usually giving you the option to look around in the 3D world in a 360 degree type fashion, or allowing you to fine tune you're snipers aim by tilting the Vita in the appropriate direction. This adds much depth and realism to the game that the Sixaxis controller for the PS3 failed to accomplish. The antennae is able to pick up most signals, but only within a short distance, forcing you to stay tethered to your living room or downstairs next to the desk. Traveling to the mailbox or garage may prove to be more of a hassle. The Vita is also limited to the type of video format available for viewing, forcing you to either buy from the Playstation Network, or reconvert and keep a completely separate library just for your Vita.
The power save function is always on and cannot be turned off. You are allowed to change the time in which it takes for the console to turn off, but that's it. If you do not touch or move the Vita in that time, it will turn itself off, and if you have the code lock turned on then you have to type that in as well before being able to continue. While the iPhone has the option to have a 4 digit lock or a more intricate lock, the Vita forces you to stay with the 4 digit lock only. The D-pad and action buttons are also resized for the Vita, actually being smaller than the PSP's making it a small issue that never really effects gameplay, just your finger when holding a single button for long periods of time. For example a racing game in which X is gas. It leaves a pretty good dent in your thumb, that might take a minute or two to wear off.
If you plan on charging your Vita on the go, you might want to think again. Most battery chargers like the New Trent battery will not charge the Vita. Not even a little. Even though the supplied charger comes with a USB charging cable, it seems to only work with the supplied charger box, and USB from your PC is only for file exchange and back up. The Vita is also not compatible to the Media Go software set provided by the failed PSP Go console. If you want to display your Vita screen on your nice new television screen, think again. The PSP cable and the Vita port are not compatible. You're going to have to wait for Sony to release its new cable to watch anything on your television. Bluetooth compatibility was excellent, giving you the option to connect to a stereo Bluetooth headset or a Bluetooth enabled Home Theater Receiver, which allows you to listen to whatever is happening on your Vita over your Home Theater System. Great if you were able to watch it on your television too. At this time Sony will be releasing a battery brick for travel at a cost, and does not have any plans to release an HDMI cable for your television. While the Vita does pick up the Bluetooth Digital Television signal, the firmware does not yet support wi-fi video so it will only give you an error.
The proprietary Memory Cards that Sony has released with the Vita are also very overpriced, giving you rates more like that of the PS2 memory cards. An 8MB memory card was $30 when PS2 was released. An 8GB card for your Vita will cost you $30 dollars, while the 32GB card will be closer to $100. Games are also on memory cards, but will still require you to install a little onto you memory card, seems a little much given the cost of a memory card. The AR card supplied with the Vita are a great new invention that might catch your eye for an hour or so, but with the low Mega Pixel rating of the rear camera, your forced to hold the Vita closer to the cards not really giving you a chance to admire the graphics in the AR games. You can still move around your 3D creations on your desk, but moving to the left, and then the right, and then finally coming back to center may not always bring you back to your original position. Meaning the tracking for AR games still has a long way to go before it's really ironed out. You can take pictures with your Vita using either the front or rear camera. But they are such a low resolution, I found myself grabbing my phone for a quick shot versus the vita. You can also take video, but it's stuck at 640x480. You can also zoom for your photos, but only x1 will zoom. x2 will force the picture to crop to the size of the screen and your photo will be pixelated. The front camera is such a low resolution you might as well not even use it. It may be great for video conferencing, but since Skype is yet to be available I cannot comment on its conference quality.
All in all, this is a failure. In a world where people are reliant on their phones to keep them connected, the Vita fails to reach this mark. While not marketed as a phone, phone are now part of the portable gaming market just as much as anything else, and should be reviewed as such. Poor compatibility, and lack of any games brings the rating down as well, as I find my Vita sitting on a table more than being played. With the Playstation Suite being released here shortly, we may find more and more cross platform games becoming available for all Sony Playstation certified devices, but for the moment, the Vita offer nothing more the its PSP brother has to offer.