I don't know anything about Vita, help! Need advice & info!

[juubei1i]

So my 9yr old is playing his original DS when we travel and it's time for an upgrade.  He only plays 3rd party and isn't into Mario, etc.., so I figured Vita would be better for Uncharted and others.  We have two PS3s and soon a PS4 in the house but I know nothing about the Vita and need help.

I just bought a new Vita/Lego Batman bundle from Target for $200 price match.  If anyone's curious, my store had plenty and it's a temp price cut online but website shows no stock.  I've also picked up various accessories on clearance at BB and Walmart.  I've got four 4GB memory cards for $5 each (target clearance recently).

I know 4GB isn't a lot but what can he do with them? 

Was thinking about buying used Vita instead of new to save some cash (probly Ebay), what should I be careful about, what are the things to check or ask?

Is the $250 Vita model good enough or should I get the $299 model?  Why?  I'm not sure what diff is.

Games like Black Ops, Unit 13 and Resistance haven't gotten great reviews.  Why do they suck?  Are they that bad?  He's a 9yr old kid that thinks Call of Duty is better than sliced bread.  Will he probably enjoy these games?  I won't let him play online with others.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!  I don't want to make an expensive mistake but don't know anyone that owns a Vita.  Feel free to direct me to links that might answer my questions also.

Thanks.    

 

[Lemstar]

The only difference in models is 3G vs Wi-Fi only, but I'm pretty sure that the 3G will never come in play, so you don't have to worry about it.

The biggest problem with used Vitas is probably cosmetic scratching - especially on the back touchpad, which is almost absurdly easy to scratch. Those obviously aren't going to impair performance, though, and a screen protector does wonders for disguising it. If you're going down the used route, I'd suggest checking out the Cowboom thread in gaming deals - $110-140 shipped for a used one that includes USB cable and AC adapter is a good price.

AFAIK, Black Ops Declassified merited the terrible reviews because both the singleplayer ("campaign" is about an hour long) and multiplayer were horrible, at least on launch. If you're looking for a shooter, Unit 13 is probably your best bet.

Really, though, if you're looking for a mobile gaming outlet for a fan of CoD and Uncharted, I can't recommend a Vita in good conscience - the best games on the platform won't be providing either that kind of big-budget singleplayer experience or that kind of multiplayer.

 

[doc_j88]

Black Ops in my opinion is  an excellent game. The multiplayer is fun and addictive.

As the above poster said, Unit 13 is a solid shooter. Resistance is good too.

In my opinion, the reason these games got low scores are because they are compared to their console counter-parts. Reviewers are grading them like that instead of as a portable game, as it should be.

Compare DS Black Ops to Vita Black Ops. Vita is definitely superior and would get high scores.

Compare Vita Black Ops to PS3 Black Ops. It doesn't stack up in reviewers heads, because it failed to completely "mirror" it's console brethren, in regards to extra content and such.

But it's Sony's fault for marketing the Vita as a Console experience on the go. "Console-like" would have been a better analogy.

 

[Chadt74]

Vita owner here and stick with the Wifi esp if you are only going to have your son play local.  If you have 2 PS3s GET PS+ with all of the free games you will not regret it esp. if you have a PS3 & Vita. 

For memory cards 4 4GB do not equal 16GBs.  The reason is that you have to fully shut down your vita each time you swap your memory cards and they are really small and hard to carry, easy to lose and hard to mark (i.e. Uncharted & Gravity Rush on this card).  Also some download sizes are 2GBs so, ya look for a bigger card.  Also if you are looking for a PS4 I read somewhere that all PS4 games will support the Vita remote play.  I think the Vita is a great piece of hardware and has some really good games, but not really FPS right now.   

 

[AnaBob]

If you are looking for a used Vita, definitely look at cowboom. I just got my little sister a white wifi Vita for ~$115 that is in great shape (I still baby her now that she's an adult). On cowboom, it was listed as a grade 4, but was much nicer than I was expecting to get. 

As far as the FPS games for your  9 year old, COD is kind of lame for the single player campaign. It is made to be portable, but in a bad way. The missions are kind of short with no checkpoints, so if you die you have to start from the beginning. This can be frustrating for a kid. I don't  know about the other games. 

If you get a Vita for him, you definitely need to get him the Metal Gear Solid HD collection. It will make him a better human being. That is simply a fact. Also, the lego games are pretty fun.

One last thing: since you have a PS3 already and are getting a PS4, you should get PS+ if you don't already have it. The include Vita games in the instant game collection. This is how I got Uncharted, Gravity Rush, Disgaea, etc. Some pretty great games for "free".