I am telling everyone to get their hands on a PlayStation Vita before passing judgement. Nothing kills me more than hearing that "it's another PSP." It's not -- it's so much more. My personal mission has had me handing off my own personal unit to what has to be near 100 people now. I've wiped this baby down so many times that I'm surprised that the paint hasn't worn off yet.
Save the wear and tear on my personal system by going to GameStop. The company says that they'll have Sony's newest portable available for play at more than 3,300 of their U.S. stores. Many games will be available for play, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, wipEout: 2048 and Escape Plan.
If their demo unit pushes your buttons, they'll let you trade in your older portables for an extra $25 in trade-in value toward the Vita. Or you can keep them and make a cool system stack like I did (above).
Check here to see if your local store has a Vita open for demoing.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 02.03.2012 | 
My roommate actually played with one at a Gamestop last week, and thats pretty much their only complaint about it: "Everything took long to load, I was surprised"
Further adds to why I'm waiting to get this thing I suppose.
As a 3ds owner who excitedly tried a Vita yesterday, my personal answer to the question 'do I fancy it?' is no and for the following reasons.
Whilst I was very impressed with the machine itself (it's bloody light for a start), I was less impressed with the very, very long loading times and non-native res of the launch games I played. I tried both Wipeout and Uncharted and though both had a lovely level of detail and great shaders etc, I couldn't help but be disappointed by the resolution of the overall image. Trust me, if you're used to the sharpness of a retina-equivalent display then you may well be as shocked as I when you finally get to see this thing in motion. From what I hear only a few launch games actually support native resolution (virtual tennis being one I think) which does't bode well for a machine that's being heralded for its horsepower. Also the framerate in Wipeout was a genuine disappointment to, I was fully expecting it to be native res @ 60fps but what I played seemed 25-30fps at a lower res which made what should have been a sharpe far-off track view blurry and blocky.
I was really looking forward to seeing a monster polygon basher in this console but I'm afraid not even the gimmicky rear touch panel was enough to cover these shortfalls for me. Actually a bit sad about the whole thing thinking about it now :(
L.O..A..D...I...N....G.......
I guess im old....when i was a kid playing games, we were happy to partake in such a cool hobby, and started working at age 11 to afford buying games.
Nowadays, there is a sense of entitlement that takes all the fun out of it. Oh well. I'll keep enjoying things that the hipster kids couldnt enjoy if they tried. I guess i should be thankful im not so depressed and clueless.
i'm sure bias has nothing to do with those opinions.
complaining about frame rate? are you serious?
smh
Well, frame rates probably should be noted considering Sony's pushed the fact that games should all be playing at 60fps on this.
Still having a blast with Uncharted and UMvC3 (after it finally stops loading,that is...)
I accept the reality that Vita, like 3DS, is likely the place I'm going to find most of my proper JRPGs since its less of a risk for them to go there, but that doesn't mean I have to like the cheap dual analogs, inferior storage options and crappy load times.
I mean, they're on flash cards now, how the fuck do you have load times that long on a flash medium?
Shitty load times are the only reason my PSP is rarely played. So frustrating to have to wait what feels like an age to play the game again because I died.
Like people mentioned load times are long. Not just load times, but simply getting to the start up screen took a while. For some reason the demo booths have no sound ( I went to another gamespot and that Vita didn't have sound either.)
I heard alot of raving about how good the sticks felt, but I didn't like them. They weren't bad, but they were just too loose and too sensitive at the same time. I was having difficulty aiming with them in Gravity Daze, but then I tried the motion aiming, and that worked well.
Gravity Daze pretty much stole the show for me I tried every demo, and it was the only one that struck me as something special. Escape Plan was pretty neat too though.
The Vita wasn't very comfortable to hold, it felt to slippery because of the back touch panel and the glossy front. In my opinion the PSP is much more comfortable to hold. I get sweaty hands when I play games so after I spent some time with the demo unit it almost felt like it was going to slip out of my hand.
The shoulder buttons were squishier than the PSP shoulder buttons, and the face buttons are noticeably smaller than the PSP face buttons too. However I like how the indented the buttons in a circle, I just wish they were as big as the PSP buttons.
I'm not a fan of the rear touch pad. It didn't really add to any game, it just seemed to make games awkward to control and the system more difficult to hold because of it's slippery-ness.
The Uncharted Demo was mega lame it's very short, and their was no gunplay to show of the dual sticks. I was disappointed with the graphics on it, Drake looked just like the PS3 model, but the environment was a little muddy and grainy. The fire is badly pixelated and looked flat. I hope that the Uncharted demo is just an early build of the game because it was very disappointing. For the record Uncharted 2 is one of my favorite games of this gen.
The environment in Hot shots golf were very very grainy. The character models looked fab, but their was so much pop in when the ball was flying. Modnation Racers was the same way great character models, but lots of pop in inside of the enviroments and not so great textures.
Overall I feel like the Vita is two steps forward and two steps backwards from the PSP. I'm one of those people who actually like the PSP, and I'm not entirely sold on the system yet. The truth is my main reason for wanting a Vita is just case I own every other Playstation device (PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP).
I want the Vita to be great, I game mainly on portables, and I'd like to see Sony give Nintendo some stronger competition in the handheld arena.
It's not a bad device, and I understand why some people really like it, but right now it's just not for me. I'm sure that with time it will build up a decent library of games, but right now I don't really want one. That's why I went to gamestop 3 different times to look at the Vita, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just dismissing the system for a dumb reason. Once Sony does something to fix those expensive memory cards, and Sega releases that new Project Diva game I will probably get a Vita, but in the meantime I'll be doing my Sony gaming on my PS2, PS3 & PSP.
How long are the load times? Like, are we talking 5-15 seconds or 30 seconds?
It makes the original load times on PSP seem merciful.
Like Scissors, I know I'm going to want a Vita as I am mostly a portable gamer and especially for the JRPGs, but they need to address these loading and storage issues before I'll take the plunge.
@Mix they are long, trust me.
The analogue sticks are my favorite thing about the system. Also, Scissors, you were holding it wrong...You're supposed to put your fingers in the ridges in the back...
I really liked the D-pad and the sticks, never had problems with them and I'm thinking of actually getting fighting games since the D-pad is really good. Certain controls need to be calibrated since I found the Uncharted's camera to be a bit slow because the sticks were shorter than that of a console analog stick. Gorgeous screen, very light but solid build.
I hate gyro controls but the implementation in Gravity Rush had me using it over sticks most of the time. Escape plan looked interesting and everything else was fun. Looking forward to it.
If Sony wises up and allows this thing to stream PS3 games, I'd have no problem buying this handheld (which I otherwise completely ignore).
This clip more accurately depicts the kind of load speed I (and evidentially others here) have witnessed in our demo units: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8wcELtzwo
If your comment was typed out like you had taken the load times comment personally, I would have loved you for typing that.
So essentially, the cartridges are fine but Sony has made some slow arse memory sticks they charge a fortune for.
Kind of baffled why Sony would intentionally give a sub-par experience to demo the unit though.
Am definetly getting one now.. that, and the rubable rear panel will make for a great Lesiure Suit Larry Vita game. Fingers crossed its already in development
Second store had it behind the bubble as well, but when I pressed about getting some hands on, they undid the entire display and let me play it for a bit. Seems the Northeast PA District Manager (Steve Bennett, who I have dealt with before and is a genuine Grade A Asshole) mandated that the bubbles were to stay on and nobody was to play with them. I asked them if Steve would be pissed that somebody was getting hands on time and they said "Probably." I felt even better about trying it out.
Played some Hot Shots, enjoyed it. Screen is fucking GORGEOUS. Pictures do NOT do it justice. Tried to test Gravity Daze, but after the painful start up times and loading times, I just gave up and went back to home menu and then tried out Little Deviants. Played a round of the game where you gotta poke robots and found the back touch pad surprisingly intuitive.
All around the system seemed really cool and I'd love to get one, but the price is going to be the biggest issue. I priced it out to get the system, screen protector, two games (Hot Shots and Little Deviants since I don't give a shit about Uncharted) and a 32GB memory stick (why buy a small one now and then need a larger one down the line and spend extra?) and the grand total from Amazon is still $425. Jesus Christ. From anywhere else I'd be looking at an extra $25 in tax too.
I know I can get a cheaper Memory Stick and drop the price down a lot, but it's still some real bullshit that there's no Memory Stick included. Sure, I can buy the launch 3G bundle with the 8GB stick, but I will NOT use AT&T and I'd essentially be paying $50 for an 8GB stick. No thanks.
Ooh! I can always trade in my DS Lite to GameStop! After their $25 bonus, a DS Lite gets a WHOPPING $55 total trade in value. Again, AFTER the bonus.
As cool as the Vita is, I think the start up costs are just way too high for most people.
Also, quick heads up to some of you guys. Beware when buying a Vita memory stick from GameStop. EVERYWHERE ELSE is charging $20 for the 4GB and $30 for the 8GB memory sticks. GameStop is charging $25 and $35. Because they are assholes.
Here where I live the vita is priced at $550 with modnation racers and a 4gb memory card.
The demo units in store really are slow as hell, at least in the UK. Read-write flash is always slower than ROM, so the carts should be faster, but I wasn't expecting the gulf between what I played and that video.
My face is beeming! :D
Arg, this is awesome!!!
The 3DS demo units take some time to load game too. Also, the environment could have an impact on ones psyche and sense of time ie 'this is taking forever!' when in reality it is 50 secs (and it would not be noticible if you own the device).
Also, this guy owns a (Japanese) PSVITA and all his videos show how quick (eg one second) game saves and the like are,
YouTube.com/skyghene22
SO STOP THE LIES, INFADELS!
Check the video NoMoneyLeft posted, it is that slow on the demo units. I'm guessing the memory cards aren't fast at all for big jobs like loading a game while the carts are.
When that skyghene22 is doing demo content from PSN, that's also slow as hell.
I had a psp go, and I really liked it. Being able to keep all the games stored on my console was worth giving up the physical packaging and game. I was really excited that they were taking PSN seriously this time.
But this is a huge kick in the nuts. I'm waiting until this issue is fixed.
I tried that, but I still found it uncomfortable to hold the system, I've always held my game controllers with my fingers laying flat on the back, just changing that is a difficult habit.
The majority of people will buy their games at retail anyways. Until the PS Vita memory card prices drop and/or third party manufacturers create PS Vita cards, retail will be the best option for US.
@Scissors: The first batch of PS Vita games made by developers will test all of this out. As time goes on all that should be taken care of. I would err on the side of researching good games as those look at all the dynamics of how someone is going to be holding the games. The games with decent play testing will look into whether (unintentional) backtouch will or will not be a nuisance.
I doubt that the loading time thing is a PS Vita issue. It is more of a game by game basis.
Just like the 3DS is also a beefed up DS for me.
The Bad before the good:
Like others said, load times are a little longer than i expected- but certainly not deal breaking. On that note though, all demos were loaded on memory unit and not a card, not sure how it will run with a physical version of the game. Some titles weren't as pretty as i was initially hoping for. Lots of fingerprints. Worst of all - it was tethered to the wall and i couldn't break it free quick enough to make it to the door.
Now for the good:
The sticks are excellent. They take some getting use to and i was disappointed at first, but after an hour i loved them. Buttons and touch panels are very responsive and the screen is amazing. Moving Drake from ledge to ledge with a touch was much more fluid than i expected and felt natural. the surprise of the day though was Gravity Rush though. That was the game that forced my preorder. Hot Shots golf is as great as it always has been- give or take some texture issues. Escape plan was nifty and i hope that is my free downloadable game with bundle. Was NOT a fan of Wipeout though, controls were overly sensitive in that game. Little Deviant was ok but nothing to write home about. Cannot wait for MK9!!