E-mpire PS Vita Review

[frosty]

Post your reviews of the vita here. Please be thorough, and include a score on a 1/10 scale at the end. Once we've compiled a few, we'll post them to the main page along with an averaged score based on all the reviews.

[Syncere Styles]

I am thorough. Vita=9.

[BahnNZ]

Let's see...

Control - 9/10
Bad
Small recessed Start/Select buttons. Shitty cameras.
Good
Sticks best on any portable, dpad better and looser than PSP, bumpers good, touch sharp, Gyros and Accels, mic good.

Screen - 8/10
Not great in strong sunlight, and of course not 3D, so only 8/10. PSP would be a 4/10. Very good in a dim room, forget it on a bus in strong southern hemisphere sunlight.

Backwards Compatibility - 6/10
Most PSP games work, and work faultlessly. PS1 doesn't work. PSP demos don't work. Still got to download a demo on a real PSP first. No VC rom download service. Million times better than launch 360 though, not as good as launch PS3.

Launch software Library - 9/10
Decent Racer(Wipeout, no not Ridge Racer), decent shooter(Uncharted), decent fighter(MvC 3). Better than PS2 or PS3 launch titles, more keepies.

Storage - 3/10
Shitty proprietary overpriced slow cards sucking some of the cool out of the system. If you're bugged by loading times, this is the reason why. Only 16GB available in Europe, 32GB in US. 64GB not available. Pretty shitty deal.

System Power - 10/10
Insanely overpowered. Quad core CPU/GPU, DX 10.1. 128MB more memory than a PS3/360. Could have half as much memory and cores and still be a steal. Awesome.

OS - 9/10
Very stable, very innovative, better than PS3/360 OS I'd say. Needs folders, but that's about it.

Battery Life - 8/10
For that screen, that system power it's nuts. Gets you a full 3 hours. Minus 2 for no swappable battery

Media Capabilities 6/10
No DLNA, music player basic, video player basic. No comics, no podcasts. Pretty basic at this point. Does have netflix.

Internet - 6/10
No MSN/AIM/etc. Browser good but not awesome. No email, no RSS feeds. Basic at this point.

Portability - 6/10
Too big for a pocket, this is for the rucksack.

Value for money - 10/10
Just nuts for a device of this spec.

How about dat

[frosty]

Perfect example, I like the pro's and cons approach.

[Viper]

Battery Life - 8/10
For that screen, that system power it's nuts. Gets you a full 3 hours. Minus 2 for no swappable battery

I thought you could. It's in the manual.

Looks like a pain to change but you can.

[BahnNZ]

You can? Thought it was a screwdriver tear down deal? Change the battery the same way you can change the motherboard.

[Viper]

Yeah, it does require a screwdriver to open the back casing but it's changeable.

Here's the instructions from the Japanese manual. Can't find an English version though I've read it's in there too.

[PSXBatou]

Yeah, it does require a screwdriver to open the back casing but it's changeable.

Here's the instructions from the Japanese manual. Can't find an English version though I've read it's in there too.

There isn't an English version to this, unless they added an addendum to the manual.

http://manuals.playstation.net/docum...ita/index.html

[Viper]

I'm seeing others say it is there. Might be a region thing.

[venomv]

Opening it up like that looks like it might void the warranty, I'm not sure if there is anything about that in there because I can't read Japanese.

Even though it looks fairly easy if it voids the warranty in the process...

[masteratt]

I am going to be lazy and copy bahn's template.

Controls - 9/10
It is just like any other handheld in my opinion. Your hands are going to get cramped sooner or later and you will soon develop interesting techniques of holding it to try and avoid it. Try all you might brave gamer, you can't escape hand cramping.

Buttons all feel great, I never slip or have a hard time reaching any of them. Back panel is satisfying in FIFA for shooting and a very natural fit in other games. I haven't seen anything that uses it as precisely as fifa, it's mostly "tap back panel to launch special" for example (in Super Stardust Delta). A clever technique is pinching where you tap front screen and back panel at same place to pull off moves, for example in Escape Plan pinching your character makes him shoot forward fast. All this feels top stuff and in no way gimmicky.

Those controls and how well they work should really inspire developers and I am looking forward to seeing what we get in many years of VITA games to come.

Unlike our friend BahnNZ, I have no complaints about Start/Select, their use is very minimal anyway. Just checking stats/scoreboard, pausing etc.


Screen - 10/10
This for me is god vision. I was most excited about this aspect of VITA and it still exceeded my expectations. There is literally no complaints from me as far as the screen goes, it's as I said, simply god vision.

I haven't taken it outside yet (I rarely take myself outside lol), so I can only speak for room conditions.


Backwards Compatibility -8/10
The other day I was playing a PS1 game that is on my PS3 on the VITA using remote control. That is three PS systems. That to me is pretty nice system linking and support. Official PS1 support is coming soon, supported games have PS3 remote play, so we are only missing PS2 which may or may not come but supporting so much of the PS library this early on is a huge plus for VITA. Not that you'd get any free time from the great VITA launch titles to play other PS games, but hey, the more the better.

The only downside of course is although it supports PSP, the owners of UMDs got burned pretty badly. It does get a bonus on the PSP side though because they bothered to develop image improving features into the VITA to make your PSP games look nicer AND to top it off, support for 2nd analogue for all games (as it is built within the emulator).

That is pretty sweet software support for a company that is usually not so good on this stuff so great job by Sony on all accounts.


Launch software Library - 9/10
The greatest PS launch library of all time and enough here to keep people busy and smiling for months. Excellent launch.
I don't need to go on, just check our PS VITA forum for all the games we are talking about. Simply amazing, it feels like this console has been out for months with the library that is here.


Storage - 6/10
A bit of a biting point this one. I am most annoyed we [EU] didn't get the 64GB cards. Other than that, I am not too fussed, as it is a "pay once, it'll serve you a lifetime" kind of deals. I just wish though I could buy a 1TB one or something and get that cost over with. As I am a big fan of digital content, I no doubt will pay a ridiculous price again when 64GB makes its way over here to upgrade my 32GB.

In other news, content manager works smartly and easily between VITA <-> PC or VITA <-> PS3 so you can use them as external storage to save space.


System Power - 10/10
The screen helps everything when it comes to how VITA looks but it also runs every game amazingly. If you want a tech demo I suggest Wipeout (game demo available on PSN). BahnNZ listed the specs, I myself do not keep up too much with hardware specs but I can tell you it's as impressive as all those things he said make it sound like it is.

The Sony philosophy of "NEEDZ MOAR POWA!!" we know and love continued on with VITA then.


OS - 8/10
As BahnNZ said, definitely folder system needed. If it doesn't get it anytime soon you are going to be scrolling up and down for ages before you find content.

At first I was in love with it but as with any OS, the more you use it, the more it gets to you. I personally had a couple of freezes while installing demos, had to do a hard reset of VITA (handled it well though, everything back to normal upon restart).

I am also not quite sure on things like connection. I would have appreciated a cleaner OS design on that end. There is a Party app, Message app, Friends app and it seems to sign you out everytime you close them? Because when you go back to them you get a "signing into PSN" notification. You can of course leave them open.
It doesn't matter if I am wrong or right, the fact I am confused means it's not a very clear system as far as connection.

The notification bubble on the top right is amazing and I love how easy it is to keep up with your friends.

It does lack a bit of personality though but it is very fast and slick. You can drag, open, close, swipe through apps with minimal fuss. The minimal fuss comes from some apps needing 3 or 4 "please wait" boxes opening and closing for some odd reason.

But for a system that just launched it is an absolutely solid OS with very nice features (taking screenshots anywhere is one worth mentioning).


Battery Life - 7/10
I get into a game and addicted to it and don't appreciate being told to go charge after four hours. Hours seem to drift away on the VITA so four hours can feel annoyingly short.

On the plus side you can charge while playing (via USB or power socket).


Internet Browser - 3/10
Doesn't do anything a modern browser should do. And even basic things like displaying some sites gets messed up. We know it will get updates and it should. Also it would be nice if we can open it while gaming. Definitely not something you'd use unless you literally have no other thing around you that can surf the web.


Portability - 5/10
Not too big for my jacket pocket but definitely feels odd. I don't feel too comfortable carrying around a gadget so new anyway. Not for security reasons but people come around and go "ooooh" and annoy you.

I will say no button support ruins this part. I remember putting the PSP in my pocket with music player and tapping through songs. VITA can not do that as no app supports any physical buttons (neither does the OS). Might be patched in later? Who knows but the music app at the very least should get some button support.


Value for money - 10/10
I thought and thought about it but sorry, I can't say to any cynics "yep you are right not to want it". It's just a fantastic system that does gaming as well and better than a portable has a right to.

Typical Sony console, pushes the bar ever higher than anything on the market and laughs at anything below it.

Get it if you got the moniez. If not, do what I did and trade in lots of stuff to get it for even a better bargain. Just have one, you'll love it.

[Gegenki]

I'm seeing others say it is there. Might be a region thing.

Could be for disposal, like disposal instructions for fridges to stop CFC gas release

[BahnNZ]

Oh yeah don't take my neg points as trolling mayne. No such thing as a perfect console, they always do something to bugger them up.

Best console ever made ever PS2 - Terrible reliability, couldn't FSAA to save it's life and it really needed to, weak looking textures.

Second best console ever made SNES - Slow crappy CPU. Guess that's what blast processing meant. Blast processing means... Megadrive didn't have a slow crappy CPU.

PSP - Stupid rotating plastic disks, no place in a handheld. thumb nub that took your thumb off. Like half a PS2 in your pocket, no original portable control schemes.

PS3 - Initial $600 price tag, Great BC... Which went away. Needs USB in the back, keeps your TV set up tidy init.

360 - Where do we even start... No free online, charging you for nothing of value, terrible reliability, proprietary rip off hard drives, controller a downgrade from XBox(No pressure sensitive buttons), last gen DVD storage capacity, Kinect laughably bad and laggy... Gives you cancer... Made up the last one.

Wii - Good points - Plays kick ass Platformers... Hawt chicks play it. Everything else is a bad point. Everything wrong with that sodding console.

Megadrive - Tiny color palette, wacky Z80 generated sound.

GBA - SNES in your pocket... Hurrah, then put four sodding face buttons on the front, AB,XY, hello? Original GBA advance worst... Screen... Evah. GBA SP first usable one.


Sega Master System may have been perfect, the Japanese one with the FM sound chip naturally, nothing bad to say about that one. Lovely system. But there's minor buggering up (PS3) and then there's extreme buggering up (Nintendo 64), don't think Vita is extremely buggered up. All minor.

---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

System Power - 10/10
The screen helps everything when it comes to how VITA looks but it also runs every game amazingly. If you want a tech demo I suggest Wipeout (game demo available on PSN). BahnNZ listed the specs, I myself do not keep up too much with hardware specs but I can tell you it's as impressive as all those things he said make it sound like it is.

The Sony philosophy of "NEEDZ MOAR POWA!!" we know and love continued on with VITA then.

They've put (GPU wise) 2 iPhone 4Ss in there. Sh*ts insane dawg. CPU wise I don't know enough to comment, iPhone 4/4S CPUs are well beefy, lots of FPU power. Off the shelf ARM CPUs used in Android phones aren't, weak as. Hopefully they've put some floating point grunt in there. Can't have a PS3 in your pocket without some FP grunt. 4 CPU cores, but only 3 are available to the application, one reserved for the OS.

Should compare very well to the A5X chip in the iPad 3 announced in a week. You know the one that won't cost $250.

It's a Ferrari 458 Italia in your pocket.

[Gribble-Grunger]

perhaps this could help cramped hands:



http://www.news10.net/entertainment/...ta-accessories

[Viper]

And if you get mad at a game and throw it, it will come back to you.

[masteratt]

Err, I rather have cramped hands thank you :/

[D3adcell]

I don't really have a problem with getting cramped hands. However maybe i'm just not playing the same period of time you guys are?

[OmniStalgic]

Fugly...super fugly...

[pari]

PS VITA has to be experienced cannot be said in words. The screen is outrageously good and like everything about the hardware, feels surprisingly light (might be from holding the tablets too long). OS UI/UX could use some more polish and error code could be helpful, it is very cryptic.

Battery standby is good and I have not used the web browser (prefer tablet). The backside touch panel seems sluggish from playing little deviant and in escape plan it works well. The backside touch panel has growth curve as you cannot see your finger and have to get used it to use the backside touch panel well.

And in storage, the ugly side of Sony shows up. Sony would have owned MS on this front if they had used regular memory card but need to make money by nickel and dime-ing won.

Overall a very good portable gaming system and Sony has to fix i.e., polish the other aspect of VITA as the competition is iPhone and other smartphone ecosystem.

Just a personal preference, the VITA game box would have been made smaller and slimmer. Lots of empty space in the box.

[SadPanda]

Controls - 9/10
For a portable gaming experience nothing else comes close to the feel of the Vita. Hopping between Uncharted on the Vita and Harry Potter or Zelda on the 3DS is just night and day difference. The slider pad on the 3DS should be taken out in the future to be replaced by the Vita's sticks.
I feel the 3DS and Vita are on more or less equal footing on the D-pad (haven't played MvC3 yet) but I do prefer the Vita's shoulder and face buttons.
Comparing the touch interfaces on the 3DS and Vita the Vita wins in almost all respects. I feel more comfortable touching the Vita's front and rear panels than I do switching between finger and stylus input on the 3DS. I would say that for the 3DS the dual screen design pays off, but moving the screen around all the time limits how much "3D" my eyes can stand before i give up. Whereas the Vita's OLED display is viewable at pretty much all angles.

Screen - 9.5/10
Speaking of that gorgeous screen... Makes me wish all my gadgets had this tech. Playing outside at 1/2 brightness (where i have it set inside) feels the similar to using the Galaxy S2 outside. You can do it in bight sunlight, but you'd rather have some shade or you'll adjust how bright the screen is.

My only gripe with the screen, is that I don't think it is gorilla glass so i'm a bit nervous about putting a scratch in it and the Sony PSvita case can go jump off a bridge for all I care for it.

Backwards Compatibility -3/10
No UMD transfer support
No PSone support (or PS3 remote play)
Not all PSP games are in the store and the ones that are aren't really "priced right"
The two digital PSP games I have work, but I've got a few UMD psp games that I was really hoping to transfer or at least see on the store (KH mostly)

Launch software Library - 9/10
Lumines, Uncharted, Wipeout ... thats all I need

Storage - 7/10
The price for these cards is frickin outrageous. That said my 3G vita came w/an 8GB card so i'm not really out that much. Until I start getting those PSone, PSP, movies, etc on there....

System Power - 9/10
This system is incredible for games. sucks for pictures... and no skype w/a Front facing camera... wtf
but really I <3 this little beast.

OS - 8.5/10
Sony was smart to KISS on this.
Would love to see folders and a tweaked notification system more in line w/Android or iOS, but at least it is easy to understand.


Battery Life - 7/10
Would love it if this lasted as long as an iPad, but this plays Uncharted so I'm really happy with what I do get.


Internet Browser - 1/10
no flash or video codec for HTML 5 ... the only reason this isn't a zero is due to the fact it isn't IE6


Portability - 4/10
A bit less portable than the 3DS, but fits in my jacket just fine.


Value for money - 8.5/10
If you just want a kickass portable game machine then this is prolly more a 9. but it does need some OS tweaks and more apps (skype, G+, etc) so I have to rate it lower.

that said I'm really happy with the Vita, much more so than the 3DS.