Playstation Vita Thread


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Yeah it comes a week early.

eb games is telling me the first edition is tomorrow.... :/
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IGN's Vita Launch Reviews Schedule

PlayStation Vita games are already on store shelves, the PlayStation Network already has Vita games on it, and the First Edition PlayStation Vita bundle hits the street early next week. So, when will IGN post PlayStation Vita game reviews? Very soon.

Below, you'll find the breakdown of when we're reviewing your most anticipated titles. Some games are listed as "Week of" because they don't have a specific embargo -- we're just waiting on them to go live and then we'll review them after we've played them. The list is subject to change, so check back often.

Monday, February 13th @ 6 a.m. PST

Tuesday, February 14th @ 9 a.m. PST

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The 3DS "flopped" because of the high price of the console relative to the hardware you get with it and the complete bomba launch line-up. Nintendo sells Nintendo, if there is no Mario or Zelda (though there was the OoT Remake) then people just arent interested.

Though once the price dropped they started to fly off the shelves, Nintendo completely overestimated initial interest but now Mario Land 3D, Mario Kart 7, etc.. are out the 3DS is easily clearing 75k units a week compared to 24k PS3s, 17k Vitas, 15k PSPs, 1,000 DSis.

Nintendo has lost touch with the market, they are in danger of being left behind, just look at the Wii U they completely got it wrong and now they have gone back to the drawing board and are rethinking it for this years E3.

Sony knows the market has changed, when the DS and PSP launched smartphones were only just coming out, now phone manufacturers and companies like Apple have drilled it into us that we need to carry a device that does everything instead of seperate devices and the app market has drilled into us that you can pick up simple casual games for 99c. Which is why they have aimed the Vita as a high end piece of kit, a lifestyle device. They arent gunning to take out smartphone sector of the market they are hoping to supplement the market for the core gamers who want better hardware, better controls, etc..

The problem with smartphones is the relative lack of power, poor controls, etc.. you will never see a 10-12 hour game like Uncharted on a smartphone because thats not what the smartphone market wants, they want quick pick up and play 99c games to waste time while they are waiting for their next appointment, waiting for the bus, etc..

Personally I think Sony are smart, its got the back catalogue of AAA IPs like your Uncharteds, Wipeouts, etc.. but the machine also has enough power so that they can tempt indie devs to port their IOS games, the architecture is pretty much the same whereas iPad 2 has dual core ARM CPU/GPU the Vita has quad core ARM CPU/GPU.

In a future where a smartphone gaming boom (and ultimately collapse in the future IMHO) the Vita is perfectly placed to capitalise on the core gamer as well as the casual IOS gamer, theres no reason why developers couldnt do a multiplatform release for IOS and Vita.

Why cant we have a platform that has 99c casual pick up and play time wasters AND ?20-30 Core games?

touch controls suck for a lot of games, absolutely. but you can do things to make your experience better with said device when you are not on the road. for example, this is how i played shadow gun and sonic 4 at my parents this week-end when i went back home with my galaxy tab.

it's absolutely brilliant what you can do with tablets/smartphones nowadays in terms of gaming (shadow gun is a pretty good game btw). Google doesn't advertise this much, but Ice Cream Sandwhich has native support for 360 and ps3 controllers and it works great, it's just up to the devs to support gamepads. not to mention you can throw emulators on it and you literally have a portable gaming console. obviously there is a market out there for the vita, but i really think that market is becoming a niche market that the gaming giants out there aren't going to want to cater to for much longer cause the cost/benefit isn't going to be there sooner then later.

but the problem is seems with nintendo is that they go after the casual gaming market (well it seems like that's their target now ever since the wii). but the casual market is now being dominated by companies like popcap, halfbrick, glu, gameloft etc who can make games that entertain those people for hours for 99 cents.

You're absolutely right in sayign that sony created a platform that can cater to the mobile phone gamer where they can port their 99 cent games, but what's the point? Why would you want to buy a Vita and play jetpack joyride on it? You are going to carry a wallet/purse, cellphone, keys and a vita to play a 99 cent game when your cellphone can do it and you eliminate one thing you have to carry with you? that doesn't make sense... espcially when said casual device cost 200-300 bucks when you have a cell phone which could range from 0 - 200 that can do that game and more. Your argument of sony reharshing their 1st party AAA titles is a good one, but how long can they keep that up? (well nintendo keeps doing it so who knows?). And yes you will see games like

. It may not be as good and pretty as uncharted, but it's getting there.

15.03 million as of 12/31/11 (<1yr).

http://en.wikipedia....tendo_3DS#Sales

the nintendo DS sold 14.43 million in its first year

fact is, cell phones arent a unified platform like handhelds are. there are many chipsets, cpus, and gpus. Developers would need to code for each platform and no company would want to invest in that. as someone mentioned above, emulated controls on a cell phone are terrible. also, Golden Abyss is 2.7GB - who's going to want to download that to their cell phone? even if the particular game is smaller for whatever cell phone, you'd still be talking several hundred MBs. cell phone games, today, do not have the depth of story or gameplay that handheld games have either.

iOS is a pretty unified platform with only a couple of devices that are relatively all the same in the inside but just getting faster hardware with each model revision. Android tablets are all pretty much tegra based so make it for one you have made it for all the tablets out there. And a lot of people will download big games on their cell phone, you jusut have to manage your space and decide what you want on there like anything else. cell phones come with up to 64gb of space on them so 2-3 gigs isn't much. You can say the same with apps too, my tom tom app on my iphone is almost 2 gigs. You're argument of cell phone games aren't deep i don't buy. GTA 3, backstab, shadow gun, spectral souls are all pretty deep. spectral souls you can get 100+ hours out of easy.

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IGN Part #2

(Had to break it into 2 posts since I added the cover images)

Wednesday, February 16th

The Week of February 13th

  • 90px-Escape.jpg
    Escape Plan - Score TBD
  • 90px-Hustle.jpg
    Hustle Kings Vita - Score TBD
  • 90px-Plants.jpg
    Plants Vs. Zombies - Score TBD
  • 90px-Shino.jpg
    Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen - Score TBD
  • 90px-Tales.jpg
    Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack - Score TBD

The Week of February 20th

  • 90px-Dynasty.jpg
    Dynasty Warriors Next - Score TBD
  • 90px-F1.jpg
    F1 2011 - Score TBD

Depending on how on top of it I can stay, my plan is to update this posts with links to the individual reviews, the scores given out, etc.

Thanks for putting that list together, Larry. I might do one for Destructoid, just because they have been pretty good about staying on top of Vita reviews as well.

I'm surprised at the somewhat lukewarm reviews for Wipeout 2048. Extremely long load times seem to be one of the big detractors, and sadly I can definitely see how that could get on somebody's nerves (remember Modnation Racers on the PS3?). I'm still getting it, just out of my love for that franchise, but long load times are definitely one of my pet peeves, so we'll see how long I can tolerate it for.

If I do buy Super Stardust (and it's slowly starting to win me over), I'll probably buy that on PSN, just so that it's always available. It seems like the kind of game that would be perfect for little 5-10 minute sessions here and there. I'm kinda wishing that I had done that with Lumines, but I think the box is already en route to my house. Ahh well...

No problem. Would be nice if you can put together that Destructoid one. (Y)

And yeah, I have Wipeout at home, in box, and I too am a bit worried about the load times as you mentioned. Hopefully this patch is good and does fix them. As that would suck if that are that bad.

And I am 98% positive Super Stardust is only PSN, that is the only way to purchase it, $10. Get it. Seriously. It is the PERFECT game for 5-10 minutes playing. I say this based on the PS3 version, which all reviews say Delta is the same as the PS3 version, just made for the Vita and improved upon.

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Think im gonna need to get one of these as soon as theres a LittleBigPlanet title. Been choking to play that for so long, but refuse to buy a PS3 for it. Mind you after MS and there idiocy in dealing with my account being hacked, I wont be buying anything MS for a while.

Was holding the grudge of Sonys treatment of Lik-sang and what the loss of that did for us day 1 Jap Psp owners. Starting to think I might give them another go as if this is anything like the Psp was, then im all over it. Like ants on a picnic, but yeh when I got my Psp originally for the first year or so it was literally the most amazing piece of tech Id seen up to that point.

Hope Wipeout on Vista has the same amazing soundtrack of the 1st Psp out-ing and isnt too disimilar, as I must of clocked a few hundred hrs racing round that listening to LFO in front of the TV.

Plus my original Psp was the bomb for when I had to "allow" my sister a shot of the only PC in the house at the time (the rig i built and payed for ><). Ah the good old days.

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touch controls suck for a lot of games, absolutely. but you can do things to make your experience better with said device when you are not on the road. for example, this is how i played shadow gun and sonic 4 at my parents this week-end when i went back home with my galaxy tab.

it's absolutely brilliant what you can do with tablets/smartphones nowadays in terms of gaming (shadow gun is a pretty good game btw). Google doesn't advertise this much, but Ice Cream Sandwhich has native support for 360 and ps3 controllers and it works great, it's just up to the devs to support gamepads. not to mention you can throw emulators on it and you literally have a portable gaming console. obviously there is a market out there for the vita, but i really think that market is becoming a niche market that the gaming giants out there aren't going to want to cater to for much longer cause the cost/benefit isn't going to be there sooner then later.

Thats the problem, there is no universal support for gamepads. Who is going to buy a PS3 pad to play smartphone games?

You're absolutely right in sayign that sony created a platform that can cater to the mobile phone gamer where they can port their 99 cent games, but what's the point? Why would you want to buy a Vita and play jetpack joyride on it? You are going to carry a wallet/purse, cellphone, keys and a vita to play a 99 cent game when your cellphone can do it and you eliminate one thing you have to carry with you? that doesn't make sense... espcially when said casual device cost 200-300 bucks when you have a cell phone which could range from 0 - 200 that can do that game and more. Your argument of sony reharshing their 1st party AAA titles is a good one, but how long can they keep that up? (well nintendo keeps doing it so who knows?). And yes you will see games like
. It may not be as good and pretty as uncharted, but it's getting there.

No ones buying a Vita just to play 99c games, but if you get one you get the best of both worlds, AAA titles as well as casual pick up and play titles.

As for that game it doesnt even come close to the kind of graphics the Vita can output thats not even touching on the production values, story, etc... To get decent graphics you have to shell out ?300-500 for a tablet which then puts it in the same bracket as Vita, it becomes a lifestyle device and who is going to spend that kind of money on a jack of all trades master of none.

Also which developer is going to spend the millions needed to get a console like experience and length for a casual, pick up and play platform? Even if they do people wont be willing to pay ?20-30 for a smartphone game.

You are also forgetting these phones arent cheap, sure you can get them for 0 to 200 but then you factor in the monthly contract and thats before youve even started to buy games for it. Over the 12-24 month contract you are paying, even on the most conservative contracts, at least double the cost of the Vita not including the initial cost of the phone and then the games to go with it.

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Thats the problem, there is no universal support for gamepads. Who is going to buy a PS3 pad to play smartphone games?

you mean who would buy a ps3 controller to play psx, mame, sega, snes, nes etc games on their tv and android/ios games? i think a lot of people would...

No ones buying a Vita just to play 99c games, but if you get one you get the best of both worlds, AAA titles as well as casual pick up and play titles.

As for that game it doesnt even come close to the kind of graphics the Vita can output thats not even touching on the production values, story, etc... To get decent graphics you have to shell out ?300-500 for a tablet which then puts it in the same bracket as Vita, it becomes a lifestyle device and who is going to spend that kind of money on a jack of all trades master of none.

i got my galax tab 10.1 for free... just sayin. so did a lot of other people i know. it was a pretty big promtion in canada through rogers. also kindle fire cost 200 bucks...

Also which developer is going to spend the millions needed to get a console like experience and length for a casual, pick up and play platform? Even if they do people wont be willing to pay ?20-30 for a smartphone game

it's defintely not there yet. you are right, but games are getting bigger and bigger and companies (even the big ones like EA) are investing a crap ton of money in mobile games. plus mobile gaming is showing that it can be just as or even more profitable then console games. (didn't angry birds make like 400-500 times what it cost to make or something?)

You are also forgetting these phones arent cheap, sure you can get them for 0 to 200 but then you factor in the monthly contract and thats before youve even started to buy games for it. Over the 12-24 month contract you are paying, even on the most conservative contracts, at least double the cost of the Vita not including the initial cost of the phone and then the games to go with it.

yeah but everyone has a phone anyways... no matter how you put it, for like EVERYONE out there, and probably every single vita owner, has a cell phone so that is a moot argument

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Here is a list of Vita reviews that Destructoid has published thus far. I will update this post as more reviews become available. It turns out that their review schedule is already pretty well organized, but I will post the scores here for people who don't want to click through to every review (the list is in alphabetical order):

And here is their review of the hardware itself.

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you mean who would buy a ps3 controller to play psx, mame, sega, snes, nes etc games on their tv and android/ios games? i think a lot of people would...

i got my galax tab 10.1 for free... just sayin. so did a lot of other people i know. it was a pretty big promtion in canada through rogers. also kindle fire cost 200 bucks...

it's defintely not there yet. you are right, but games are getting bigger and bigger and companies (even the big ones like EA) are investing a crap ton of money in mobile games. plus mobile gaming is showing that it can be just as or even more profitable then console games. (didn't angry birds make like 400-500 times what it cost to make or something?)

yeah but everyone has a phone anyways... no matter how you put it, for like EVERYONE out there, and probably every single vita owner, has a cell phone so that is a moot argument

Not EVERYONE has a phone capable of playing console quality titles, all those people that have a Vita that also have a phone bought it for a reason.

Theres a reason why handheld consoles didnt destroy home consoles, and for that same reason smartphones wont destroy handhelds, its a lesser than experience.

Smartphones have their 99c market, 3DS and Vita are positioned perfectly between home console and casual smartphone gaming, its just that Vita is uniquely placed because it has the specs, similar enough to iPhone specs, so that it could support the ported IOS casual games as well as the full blown cinematic titles.

*edit*

Just reread and I sound like a complete fanboy, thats not my intention, im putting over ?400 into a Vita + Games I dont want it destroyed just because people wont give it a chance.

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Here is a list of Vita reviews that Destructoid has published thus far. I will update this post as more reviews become available. It turns out that their review schedule is already pretty well organized, but I will post the scores here for people who don't want to click through to every review (the list is in alphabetical order):

And here is their review of the hardware itself.

I think I'm also gonna pick up UMvC 3 and one other, haven't decided yet... I picked up Wipeout 2048 on Monday though.

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Wipeout load times after patch.

Bought ?150 worth of PSN vouchers today, bought PS+ and the rest is ready for buying a few PSP games and another Vita game i havent decided yet, maybe wipeout.

7 days to go!!!!!!

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Just reread and I sound like a complete fanboy, thats not my intention, im putting over ?400 into a Vita + Games I dont want it destroyed just because people wont give it a chance.

Not at all. As honestly, I just cannot see how anyone with any sort of objective eye can sit here and say smartphones in their current state can compete with the gaming experience the Vita can offer. It is just not true. Maybe when you add a controller and all of that, but even then not really even a comparison.

And I own an iPhone and an iPad 2. I desperately wanted gaming on iOS to be great. But it is far from that. There are some superb smaller experiences to have, but as far as good real games, they just do not really exist. I might as well have burned the $5 I spent on GTA for iOS. Seriously.it was so awful with the controls.

There is no doubt the Vita faces an uphill battle because of the smartphone market, but one thing Sony has always done is stand behind their product. They are used to rocky launches, and they no doubt realize this is probably going to be the rockiest of the bunch. I think we will be fine though overall, and all of us who have either purchased it and or those that will do so in the future, will ultimately enjoy it tremendously. So do not let naysayers make you question it. Most of them hate just to hate anyway.

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Not at all. As honestly, I just cannot see how anyone with any sort of objective eye can sit here and say smartphones in their current state can compete with the gaming experience the Vita can offer. It is just not true. Maybe when you add a controller and all of that, but even then not really even a comparison.

And I own an iPhone and an iPad 2. I desperately wanted gaming on iOS to be great. But it is far from that. There are some superb smaller experiences to have, but as far as good real games, they just do not really exist. I might as well have burned the $5 I spent on GTA for iOS. Seriously.it was so awful with the controls.

There is no doubt the Vita faces an uphill battle because of the smartphone market, but one thing Sony has always done is stand behind their product. They are used to rocky launches, and they no doubt realize this is probably going to be the rockiest of the bunch. I think we will be fine though overall, and all of us who have either purchased it and or those that will do so in the future, will ultimately enjoy it tremendously. So do not let naysayers make you question it. Most of them hate just to hate anyway.

Even Chinatown Wars which I bought a week or so back sucks. My fiancee gave my ipad back to me after 5 minutes lol. I kept playing for about an hour.

There's just no way I can convince myself certain experiences on the iPad are manageable, or decent given it's touch control, or to man up and learn because I spent hundreds on the device. Touch only simply sucks sometimes and that's my bottom line as a gamer. It's a very strict method of input, even our generations motion control fad is primarily supplemented with buttons (Wii Mote, PS3 glow bulb vs Kinect). 2/3rds with buttons.

Really gutted I can't pick up a Vita just now, especially since Half Byte Loader requires a PSN game that Sony will no doubt patch after it's announced which one. I would really like genuine emulation on the Vita, gone are my days of "backed up ISOs" and all of that :rolleyes:

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Wipeout load times after patch.

Bought ?150 worth of PSN vouchers today, bought PS+ and the rest is ready for buying a few PSP games and another Vita game i havent decided yet, maybe wipeout.

7 days to go!!!!!!

Hmm... that still looks pretty rough, though perhaps it will be bearable. As long as restarts (i.e. once a track is loaded) are fast enough, I think I can deal with it.

And yeah, I feel the same way as Larry and Audioboxer regarding touchscreen-only gaming. I honestly can't even remember the last time that I fired up a game on my iPhone. Most of my portable gaming is done on my DS Lite at the moment (though I don't do any portable gaming out of the house; I just take a book with me in those instances). Obviously different people are going to have different preferences (I would never imply that touchscreen-only gaming is a "fad" - it is clearly here to stay), but I feel like what Sony has going on here really resonates with my personal tastes as a gamer, and it has been a long, long time since I felt that way about a piece of gaming hardware.

My Vita actually shipped out yesterday afternoon (First Edition bundle), so I'm anticipating having it either tonight or tomorrow night. Fun times :).

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Okay so I made a decision tonight to sell my iPad 2 and get a Vita/Kindle. Vita will do my portable gaming needs, and Kindle my reading. My iPad 2 is slowly becoming a glorified Kindle reader, especially as I have a new Sony Vaio laptop incoming for portable web browsing/work.

Need to decide on the bundle I'll go for. Amazon are the cheapest at ?209.99 with an 8GB card, or I can get an Amazon bundle with Lumines and 8GB card for ?224.99. I'm not getting Rayman as I have it on the PS3.

Or I can go for Play with the 8GB and pre-order pack for ?212.99.

Thoughts?

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Okay so I made a decision tonight to sell my iPad 2 and get a Vita/Kindle. Vita will do my portable gaming needs, and Kindle my reading. My iPad 2 is slowly becoming a glorified Kindle reader, especially as I have a new Sony Vaio laptop incoming for portable web browsing/work.

Need to decide on the bundle I'll go for. Amazon are the cheapest at ?209.99 with an 8GB card, or I can get an Amazon bundle with Lumines and 8GB card for ?224.99. I'm not getting Rayman as I have it on the PS3.

Or I can go for Play with the 8GB and pre-order pack for ?212.99.

Thoughts?

I'd sell my Ipad2 for the same, but my GF still uses it for bedtime facebooking and shopping :p We are thinking about trading in the old psp and games/movies and throwing down for a vita though in a month or so.

What's the difference between play and lumines bundle? not really much of a price difference between them though...

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Not EVERYONE has a phone capable of playing console quality titles, all those people that have a Vita that also have a phone bought it for a reason.

Theres a reason why handheld consoles didnt destroy home consoles, and for that same reason smartphones wont destroy handhelds, its a lesser than experience.

Smartphones have their 99c market, 3DS and Vita are positioned perfectly between home console and casual smartphone gaming, its just that Vita is uniquely placed because it has the specs, similar enough to iPhone specs, so that it could support the ported IOS casual games as well as the full blown cinematic titles.

*edit*

Just reread and I sound like a complete fanboy, thats not my intention, im putting over ?400 into a Vita + Games I dont want it destroyed just because people wont give it a chance.

man now i am arguing with a fanboy... kidding!

what you say makes sense, basically you are telling me there is a market out there for it. which i completely agree there is, i just think that market is becoming a niche market. everyone needs a cell phone nowadays, that's a given so im going to give some examples of how cheap smart phones can be here in canada. the average cell phone contract in canada is between 2-3 years. right now you can get any of the super powerful android phones. RAZR are 50 bucks with a contract, S II LTE's are 100, Nexus 130 all with a 3 year. Are all super fast, can play all the latest games. iphone 4 are 50 bucks now i think... anyways, my point is, is why spend the ?279 on a portable gaming machine when you can spend a crap ton less on a cell phone (or a ps3 for that matter) that can do almost as much in terms of gaming and a crap ton more in terms of everything else?

i'm not trying to convince anyone not to buy a vita, do your thing, your opinion, your life, do what you want, i couldn't care less. i'm just saying i think it's a waste and it's not going to get far in the smartphone world we live in (especially cause the thing is massive... whos pant pockets are big enough for that thing?) I also hate that sony is using their own expensive memory cards again... just another cash grab.

vita1-4f3ae26-intro.jpg

vita2-4f3ae39-intro.jpg

At then end you said you don't want your giant investment to go wasted because people won't give it a chance? that's kinda the risk you take whenever you buy any sort of product at launch right?

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Okay so I made a decision tonight to sell my iPad 2 and get a Vita/Kindle. Vita will do my portable gaming needs, and Kindle my reading. My iPad 2 is slowly becoming a glorified Kindle reader, especially as I have a new Sony Vaio laptop incoming for portable web browsing/work.

Need to decide on the bundle I'll go for. Amazon are the cheapest at ?209.99 with an 8GB card, or I can get an Amazon bundle with Lumines and 8GB card for ?224.99. I'm not getting Rayman as I have it on the PS3.

Or I can go for Play with the 8GB and pre-order pack for ?212.99.

Thoughts?

I looked up the play preorder deal. For the extra ?3 I would for it. You get the nice in-ear headphones, a ?5 voucher towards a few PSN games, one of which is Super Stardust Delta, so it does seem like the best deal overall.

And congrats. As an iPad 2 owner, I totally understand why you are making your decision. (Y) I really hardly use it, my wife uses it on occasion to surf the web but prefers her laptop, so from a gaming standpoint, absolutely the way to go, for the reasons I outlined earlier in the thread, and several others, such as no playing games at 15fps like Infinity Blade 2. :laugh:

Enjoy.

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I looked up the play preorder deal. For the extra ?3 I would for it. You get the nice in-ear headphones, a ?5 voucher towards a few PSN games, one of which is Super Stardust Delta, so it does seem like the best deal overall.

And congrats. As an iPad 2 owner, I totally understand why you are making your decision. (Y) I really hardly use it, my wife uses it on occasion to surf the web but prefers her laptop, so from a gaming standpoint, absolutely the way to go, for the reasons I outlined earlier in the thread, and several others, such as no playing games at 15fps like Infinity Blade 2. :laugh:

Enjoy.

I have some nice expensive in-ear headphones, so I went for the Amazon bundle with Lumines. Been hearing good things about it, and it works out at ?15 for the game in the bundle. Cheapest I can find the game on it's own is ?30 - Most likely hit ?20 in a few weeks with the way the UK games market goes, but it'll be nice to have it at launch.

My iPad will go for around ?300, so almost enough to grab my Kindle shortly after the vita launch.

512MB ram, ain't that a bit low memory? I thought it would be at least 1GB.

For a device dedicated to pretty much gaming only (OS wise), it's actually a fair bit. The vita has cross game chat and other functionality the PS3 doesn't have due to memory issues!

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