I'm not hip to the mark-up tools here to fill this out as I did in my original post elsewhere, so bear with me on that. The source follows the impressions in this post. I just wanted to my friends here at CAG to see this. 
So the Playstation HQ in Santa Monica reopened today after it's 6-week run last year pushing the Playstation Move, and I went in along with my friend Kenny to check it out and hopefully get some swag. But first, some outside pics. The people inside were hovering all over us, so I didn't feel comfortable even asking to take some pics, so these will have to do.
Anyway, we were promptly greeted by two strange men, and were from there left to wander aimlessly about, but I saw a registration kiosk, and found out that we had to go to four different stations with a little stamp card to test different aspects of the PSP, and then turn in the fully stamped card for a prize. I also was informed that Sony was coming out with a new handheld gaming device called the Playstation Vita, releasing February 22nd of next year. Exciting news!
We first went over to a station with Hot Shots Golf and LittleBigPlanet, so I'll start with those in that order.
Hot Shots Golf - I've never played anything more than a demo of the HSG games, though I've spent plenty of time with Camelot's Mario Golf games to feel a bit familiar with how the game played. It had plenty of customization options, and very little touch screen activity. There's not really much I can say about the gameplay other than it felt pretty standard. The visuals, however, were the least impressive of the games I played, as they were very pixelated and full of jaggies. That said, going by the options and customization screens, this game's got depth, and will definitely deliver on that front. Definitely not a good choice for showing off the hardware, though.
LittleBigPlanet - I was worried about this one, as I wasn't sure how different it could feel from the console versions, but man, I shouldn't have been worried about the other way around. The demo had about 6 stages, all very different in theme, feature use, and gameplay. The first stage I chose was a vertical scrolling stage that actually had me hold the Vita vertically, and maneuver left and right with the right stick. It was a very awkward proposition, I must say, and I quickly just reverted back to horizontal position and lived with the fact that my high score was sideways, and then I wish I could have used the left stick to maneuver, rather than make my character arbitrarily lean left and right with it.
The next stage I tried was a more traditional stage with some new hardware twists. I found myself using the touch screen to pull a pulley platform over to me, and drag it back to the other side, jump in an Angry Birds-style slingshot and pull back to launch myself to progress further, and even slide my finger over a gigantic, wall-mounted piano keyboard to open a door. The things like the pulley platform and slingshot were silly little things that I didn't mind, but the piano keyboard was ridiculous. The screen is simply too large to be able to run my thumb from left to right, so I had to take my right hand off of the system and extend my thumb out. It was not comfortable, and it didn't help that I did it too fast for it to register properly the first few times, and the guy came and told me to do it much slower.
At the end of the stage, though, came a part where I was forced to make use of the rear touch panel, and it did not make me a believer. I encountered a wall of Tetris-shaped blocks all recessed in a frame, and I had to push the blocks out with the rear touch panel to push certain blocks out to scale my way to the top. The touch panel could only sense one of my fingers at the time, though the employee claimed other games can keep track of 3 fingers on the touch screen, and 3 fingers on the rear panel simultaneously. When I placed a finger on the panel, a green fingerprint would show on the screen as to where I was actually touching from behind, and I had to line it up with where I wanted to push and give it another tap. If I tapped out the wrong block, I could push it back in via the touch screen. It was interesting, but not fun.
The other stages were various other mini-games in which I could open and close gates by flipping them to change courses that balls would go as they went through pipes, and other little diversions like that. Overall the visuals were great, the controls seemed just fine, and it felt exactly like the console versions, only with new features to play with. A fine experience, and a definite launch title for me.
Next up, we went to a station with a PS3 hooked up, where they were demonstrating cross-platform play between the PS3 and the PS Vita with Wipeout. Kenny gladly took the reigns of the Vita, and I used the PS3 controller. The point was well demonstrated; it ran seamlessly, and looked just as stunning on the Vita as it did on the PS3. Kenny's gripe with the Vita version, however, was that he had to hold the R Button to accelerate, whereas I got to use the X Button, and got to use the L2 and R2 buttons for tighter steering. Still, the game looked great, and will play fine for those who don't mind the control change. Less importantly, I won the race.
The next station was showcasing ModNation Racers, with an attendant especially adept at shoulder hovering, and was constantly reminding me all about how awesome ModNation Racers is, and how it's like Mario Kart. The demo was off to a good start. I made a crack to Kenny about expecting long load times, and sure enough, it took a solid 45 seconds or so to load the race. That told me all I needed to know, as this game feels exactly like the PS3 version. It's fun, frantic, and frustrating. Visually, it's right on-par with the PS3 version. There's really not much I can say about this game that those that already played the PS3 version don't already know. I didn't get to mess with the touch screen enabled track editor, so I can't say much there. I played through my race, going from a consistent 1st place to last place right at the very end thanks to a perfectly orchestrated barrage of items by my 3 AI challengers. I'm not touching this game ever again; didn't like the PS3 version, nor did I like this one.
We then moved to the next station, where they were showcasing Uncharted: Golden Abyss. There were two chapters available, and I played through both of them. The first available chapter (Chapter 4) took place in a burning building (a series first second!) The game looked very pretty and maneuvering Drake with the analog sticks felt right at home. Everything was going fine until about 15 seconds in. Kenny and I were both trapped in a room. After about another minute of utter confusion, I just started hugging the walls until a little icon popped up on the right side of the screen by a curtain, which is where icons show that you can touch to perform actions. The action that came up was an icon of a machete.
I pressed the machete with my thumb, and was greeted by a long green arrow pointing down in the middle of the screen. I had to swipe my thumb down, and Drake awkwardly sliced down the middle. I was glad that was ove--- oh wait, now it wants me to swipe diagonally down to the right.. and then to the left... He finally cut his way through. That was an entirely unnecessary gameplay element that was likely pressured by Sony to use the touch screen as much as possible. I then told Kenny how to do it, and he shared my sentiments.
After cutting through, I was greeted by lots of unstable pipe climbing and monkey bars, which was no surprise. Then I got to a balance beam, in which I had to keep the Vita centered to run across, or tilt back and forth if I lost my balance. I ran across with ease, while Kenny fell and had to shimmy. Yet another unnecessary inclusion of a new Vita feature. Kenny pointed out a treasure he found to me, and I noticed that there are 40 treasures in the game. A decent amount for a portable game, I suppose.
I tested out the touch screen climbing mechanics, and they were just as dull as they looked in the early demo videos. I tap where I want him to go, even if it's far off, and he'll scale all the way to it. Game, play thyself. Cool for those that want a point-and-click adventure when they can, I guess.
After escaping the burning building, we were whisked away to what I believe was Chapter 11, which had Drake and his new (yet old, since this is a prequel) partner pinned down on a patio of sorts, conveniently with it's walls lined with sniper rifles. My partner, for whatever reason, was running around down below, and I had to give her cover fire with the sniper. Sniping felt very imprecise with the analog stick, though I'd probably get used to it. Funny enough, I actually found myself using the accelerometer to move my Vita around and pick my enemies off that way, which worked out much better.
After picking off all the guards, two trucks emerged, one with covered cargo, and the other with a guy on a covered turret. I took some shots at the turret, and it became apparent there was no way I could do damage to it with direct fire. Conveniently, the wind blew in my favor, and blew the tarp off the truck right next to the turret, which just happened to be loaded with explosive crated. My partner had a "crazy idea" to shoot them, so I did, and there went that problem in a nice little explosion. I didn't get to do anything but snipe in that chapter and find my second of 40 treasures, which leads me to believe that this game will be even more narrow and linear than the main series, with more arena battles on static set pieces rather than sprawling paths and the like. The demo ended on a bad note, too, as my partner asked me for a boost up to the second story at the very end, which I had to do by swiping up on the touch screen again.
After that, we had 3 of the 4 stamps we needed for our prize. The last station was a circular area with a bunch of small white tables with nothing on them. This was basically the augmented reality section, where they had Reality Fighters being played on two Vita systems already. Rather than waiting, we were offered to play Little Deviants instead, which we gladly accepted. This is where things got fun...
We were asked to take off our shoes and stick them in a cubby, obviously so we didn't run off with the Vita. Next, we had to put on over-sized life vests as they brought out two stray Vita systems, and tethered them to our live vests via a rubber-coated wire lock. After about a 5 minute set-up with the shoe and life vest process, we were ready to play. To start, this game looked very crisp and colorful; definitely a showcase title as far as visuals go; the perfect contrast to Uncharted's grittier, more life-like color palette and art style.
The very first mini-game reaffirmed, and even strengthened my dislike for the rear touch panel. My deviant was placed in wrestling arena, and the only way I could move him was by the touch screen and the rear touch panel. No, not one or the other, but both at the same time. It was horrendous. I had to awkwardly hold the Vita with my right thumb on top, and my right index finger below, and pull both the top part and bottom part of the screen my deviant was on simultaneously, and release to shoot them around the ring and into enemies to take them out. This was probably one of the most awkward things I've ever done with any piece of gaming hardware, and I'd never want to do it again. The attendant told me that I've gotten way farther than anyone else he's seen all day, I wonder why...
Next up in Little Deviants was a blatant Face Raiders knock-off, which had me pivoting around the room blasting little robots chasing my deviants. Unfortunately, neither Kenny or myself were aware that we weren't supposed to shoot the deviants, too (I would have liked to be able to, honestly), so we finally figured it out when we got our warning of having only two deviants left to protect. It worked very well once we understood what was going on, and I realized just how crisp the rear camera on the Vita was. It's so very crisp that I couldn't help to admire and inquire about how many mega-pixels it had, to which I was given a generalized answer of "It's got the best camera we could have ever put into a game system." I'm sure a quick google search will yield results, but other than that moment of being impressed by the resolution of it during the Face Radiers-esque game, I'll never care again.
Next up was the mini-game we saw at E3, where the player uses the rear touch panel to push through the ground in the game to move a ball-shaped deviant through a small field full of houses and fences to collect stars and keys while avoiding enemies. This was attrocious for me, and was so very, very uncomfortable. It also made me realize the texture of the slide pad can, at times, be difficult to slide over gracefully thanks to it's super shiny plastic texture. Slide over a CD case for a similar effect. Results may vary. After the first stage, I was content never touching this mini-game ever again.
The last stage I played was accelerometer-based. I simply guided my deviant-in-a-UFO through winding underground passageways, and later ice caverns to a goal by tilting the Vita to steer him through and collect stars along the way. Again, they couldn't leave well enough alone. Ice walls would get in my way that required a tap on the rear touch panel to shatter in order to progress, which, in my opinion, broke up the simple flow the game had in a bad way. Again, another game I'd never want to play again.
It's evident that Little Deviants is nothing more than software suite of mini-games that make arbitrary use of every technological feature that the Vita has to offer, some (e.g. the wrestling mini-game) unbelievably counter intuitive, others merely done better elsewhere, if not just a thousand times before on smart phones. Honestly, I wouldn't even play this game on my own smart phone if I got it for free, as I've already deleted tons of games that do most of this already, just without the amazing visuals. No one reading this thread is really going to be the target audience for this game, as it's clearly focused to wow people who have never played basic launch games on iPhones and Androids before.
Overall, as far as the games were concerned, none of them managed to wow me as much as I'd hoped they would. One of the attendants said it, "Sony is aiming to give you a PS3 for your pocket," and he was very right. These games delivered nothing that moves the industry forward, but rather, their inclusion of the touch screen in games like Uncharted only hold the experience back, which is a shame; it's not even intuitive. Future games will likely find good uses for the touch screen and rear panel, but as for now, it's evident that current developers, and even Sony can't figure out how to use them in ways that don't feel monotonous and trite. Luckily for Sony, I was sold on LBP, Uncharted, and Hot Shots Golf before going in, because none of the demos would have made me a believer if I didn't already know I'd like them because of the name alone. Little Deviants aside, the rest were all fine games that will provide experiences almost exactly in-line with their PS3 counterparts, so we all should know what we're getting ourselves into, here.
And that wraps up my experiences with the Vita games, now I'll drop some short impressions on the Vita itself, as well as it's OS.
For starters, the PS Vita feels very solid and sturdy. The all glass screen and surface area feels sturdy, the buttons are firm, but the d-pad feels a bit mushy until they click when fully depressed, which is fine with me, it's just nothing like the d-pad of a Dual Shock or PSP, though I think I may actually prefer the Vita's to those. The analog sticks feel very sturdy as well, though they do have a bit of wiggle to them right out of the proverbial box, which gives me worry as to their ability to retain their firmness over time rather than get even looser. They are also VERY sensitive. I was testing the sensitivity in LittleBigPlanet, and noticed my character would move at even the slightest amount of pressure in any direction on the analog stick, so hopefully they do stay as firm with wear, or Sony will have a big long-term problem on their hands down the line as analog drag could set in and ruin gameplay. Hopefully they've stress tested it enough, though. All-in-all, though, this thing feels built like a brick, so I have to give major props to Sony for delivering such a high quality piece of hardware.
As for the software, it's ALL touch-based. You can't do a thing on the menus with the sticks, d-pad, or buttons, not even in many game menus, which was terrible. In Uncharted, I paused the game to enable subtitles, and I thought the game froze. I couldn't move through the single-line, horizontal menu. I was then informed that I had to swipe through the options, and then press on the one I wanted to change. This felt so tedious and cumbersome. LittleBigPlanet did the same; I couldn't select levels with the controls; I had to slide around to rotate the globe to the desired stage, and tap it to start. It's fine to have that as an option, but some menus are just better served with hard controls, and to disable that entirely is unforgivable.
That said the layout of the OS was very intuitive. I could be in the middle of a firefight in Uncharted, press the PS button, and my game will be immediately frozen in time, and I can swipe around to other pages and check my friend list, trophies, and whatever else I may choose to do in the middle of a gameplay session. One concerning thing is how easy it is to close a game session, as all one needs to do is peel the game session off the screen from the top right corner. Kenny peeled it thinking it would switch menus, and he had to restart the game entirely after that. It should really ask if a player wants to end the session rather than make it so effortlessly peel off. The peeling is used as the lock screen unlock, too, and it looks and feels pretty cool, I must say!
Anyway, after we got our 4 stamps, we went to the counter, and was given a little metal PS Vita collectible coin. We were supposed to get a little coin pouch, too, but I guess they didn't have those out yet since they just opened today. One side of the coin says PS Vita, the other has a picture of Kratos. They will have different character coins every week for the next 6 weeks, apparently. I snapped a few quick pics.
We also entered into a contest to win a free hat or pair of sunglasses, which we lost on the spot, though last year we both won PS Move drawstring bags. Either way, I wouldn't have used either prize.
Lastly, they tried to get us to pre-order the Vita at bestbuy.com for a special Playstation Holiday gift box, which they had on display at the counter. I asked what came inside of the box, and was told that nothing came in the box. It was just a black cardboard box coated with X, O, Square, and Triangle icons all over it. There was no way I was going to bother with getting Best Buy to put a hold on my card of $249.99 + tax for a cheap cardboard box, so I gladly passed. I'm sticking with my Vita order on Amazon with no tax and free release date shipping, thanks.
Anyway, there it is, folks. I spent a lot more time writing this than intended, but I hope you all enjoy the read, if you can even stand make it this far! Please feel free to ask any questions, and I'll try my best to answer them to satisfaction!
Source and pics: http://boards.badcartridge.com/inde...engthy-impressions-within/page__fromsearch__1
So the Playstation HQ in Santa Monica reopened today after it's 6-week run last year pushing the Playstation Move, and I went in along with my friend Kenny to check it out and hopefully get some swag. But first, some outside pics. The people inside were hovering all over us, so I didn't feel comfortable even asking to take some pics, so these will have to do.
Anyway, we were promptly greeted by two strange men, and were from there left to wander aimlessly about, but I saw a registration kiosk, and found out that we had to go to four different stations with a little stamp card to test different aspects of the PSP, and then turn in the fully stamped card for a prize. I also was informed that Sony was coming out with a new handheld gaming device called the Playstation Vita, releasing February 22nd of next year. Exciting news!
We first went over to a station with Hot Shots Golf and LittleBigPlanet, so I'll start with those in that order.
Hot Shots Golf - I've never played anything more than a demo of the HSG games, though I've spent plenty of time with Camelot's Mario Golf games to feel a bit familiar with how the game played. It had plenty of customization options, and very little touch screen activity. There's not really much I can say about the gameplay other than it felt pretty standard. The visuals, however, were the least impressive of the games I played, as they were very pixelated and full of jaggies. That said, going by the options and customization screens, this game's got depth, and will definitely deliver on that front. Definitely not a good choice for showing off the hardware, though.
LittleBigPlanet - I was worried about this one, as I wasn't sure how different it could feel from the console versions, but man, I shouldn't have been worried about the other way around. The demo had about 6 stages, all very different in theme, feature use, and gameplay. The first stage I chose was a vertical scrolling stage that actually had me hold the Vita vertically, and maneuver left and right with the right stick. It was a very awkward proposition, I must say, and I quickly just reverted back to horizontal position and lived with the fact that my high score was sideways, and then I wish I could have used the left stick to maneuver, rather than make my character arbitrarily lean left and right with it.
The next stage I tried was a more traditional stage with some new hardware twists. I found myself using the touch screen to pull a pulley platform over to me, and drag it back to the other side, jump in an Angry Birds-style slingshot and pull back to launch myself to progress further, and even slide my finger over a gigantic, wall-mounted piano keyboard to open a door. The things like the pulley platform and slingshot were silly little things that I didn't mind, but the piano keyboard was ridiculous. The screen is simply too large to be able to run my thumb from left to right, so I had to take my right hand off of the system and extend my thumb out. It was not comfortable, and it didn't help that I did it too fast for it to register properly the first few times, and the guy came and told me to do it much slower.
At the end of the stage, though, came a part where I was forced to make use of the rear touch panel, and it did not make me a believer. I encountered a wall of Tetris-shaped blocks all recessed in a frame, and I had to push the blocks out with the rear touch panel to push certain blocks out to scale my way to the top. The touch panel could only sense one of my fingers at the time, though the employee claimed other games can keep track of 3 fingers on the touch screen, and 3 fingers on the rear panel simultaneously. When I placed a finger on the panel, a green fingerprint would show on the screen as to where I was actually touching from behind, and I had to line it up with where I wanted to push and give it another tap. If I tapped out the wrong block, I could push it back in via the touch screen. It was interesting, but not fun.
The other stages were various other mini-games in which I could open and close gates by flipping them to change courses that balls would go as they went through pipes, and other little diversions like that. Overall the visuals were great, the controls seemed just fine, and it felt exactly like the console versions, only with new features to play with. A fine experience, and a definite launch title for me.
Next up, we went to a station with a PS3 hooked up, where they were demonstrating cross-platform play between the PS3 and the PS Vita with Wipeout. Kenny gladly took the reigns of the Vita, and I used the PS3 controller. The point was well demonstrated; it ran seamlessly, and looked just as stunning on the Vita as it did on the PS3. Kenny's gripe with the Vita version, however, was that he had to hold the R Button to accelerate, whereas I got to use the X Button, and got to use the L2 and R2 buttons for tighter steering. Still, the game looked great, and will play fine for those who don't mind the control change. Less importantly, I won the race.
The next station was showcasing ModNation Racers, with an attendant especially adept at shoulder hovering, and was constantly reminding me all about how awesome ModNation Racers is, and how it's like Mario Kart. The demo was off to a good start. I made a crack to Kenny about expecting long load times, and sure enough, it took a solid 45 seconds or so to load the race. That told me all I needed to know, as this game feels exactly like the PS3 version. It's fun, frantic, and frustrating. Visually, it's right on-par with the PS3 version. There's really not much I can say about this game that those that already played the PS3 version don't already know. I didn't get to mess with the touch screen enabled track editor, so I can't say much there. I played through my race, going from a consistent 1st place to last place right at the very end thanks to a perfectly orchestrated barrage of items by my 3 AI challengers. I'm not touching this game ever again; didn't like the PS3 version, nor did I like this one.
We then moved to the next station, where they were showcasing Uncharted: Golden Abyss. There were two chapters available, and I played through both of them. The first available chapter (Chapter 4) took place in a burning building (a series first second!) The game looked very pretty and maneuvering Drake with the analog sticks felt right at home. Everything was going fine until about 15 seconds in. Kenny and I were both trapped in a room. After about another minute of utter confusion, I just started hugging the walls until a little icon popped up on the right side of the screen by a curtain, which is where icons show that you can touch to perform actions. The action that came up was an icon of a machete.
I pressed the machete with my thumb, and was greeted by a long green arrow pointing down in the middle of the screen. I had to swipe my thumb down, and Drake awkwardly sliced down the middle. I was glad that was ove--- oh wait, now it wants me to swipe diagonally down to the right.. and then to the left... He finally cut his way through. That was an entirely unnecessary gameplay element that was likely pressured by Sony to use the touch screen as much as possible. I then told Kenny how to do it, and he shared my sentiments.
After cutting through, I was greeted by lots of unstable pipe climbing and monkey bars, which was no surprise. Then I got to a balance beam, in which I had to keep the Vita centered to run across, or tilt back and forth if I lost my balance. I ran across with ease, while Kenny fell and had to shimmy. Yet another unnecessary inclusion of a new Vita feature. Kenny pointed out a treasure he found to me, and I noticed that there are 40 treasures in the game. A decent amount for a portable game, I suppose.
I tested out the touch screen climbing mechanics, and they were just as dull as they looked in the early demo videos. I tap where I want him to go, even if it's far off, and he'll scale all the way to it. Game, play thyself. Cool for those that want a point-and-click adventure when they can, I guess.
After escaping the burning building, we were whisked away to what I believe was Chapter 11, which had Drake and his new (yet old, since this is a prequel) partner pinned down on a patio of sorts, conveniently with it's walls lined with sniper rifles. My partner, for whatever reason, was running around down below, and I had to give her cover fire with the sniper. Sniping felt very imprecise with the analog stick, though I'd probably get used to it. Funny enough, I actually found myself using the accelerometer to move my Vita around and pick my enemies off that way, which worked out much better.
After picking off all the guards, two trucks emerged, one with covered cargo, and the other with a guy on a covered turret. I took some shots at the turret, and it became apparent there was no way I could do damage to it with direct fire. Conveniently, the wind blew in my favor, and blew the tarp off the truck right next to the turret, which just happened to be loaded with explosive crated. My partner had a "crazy idea" to shoot them, so I did, and there went that problem in a nice little explosion. I didn't get to do anything but snipe in that chapter and find my second of 40 treasures, which leads me to believe that this game will be even more narrow and linear than the main series, with more arena battles on static set pieces rather than sprawling paths and the like. The demo ended on a bad note, too, as my partner asked me for a boost up to the second story at the very end, which I had to do by swiping up on the touch screen again.
After that, we had 3 of the 4 stamps we needed for our prize. The last station was a circular area with a bunch of small white tables with nothing on them. This was basically the augmented reality section, where they had Reality Fighters being played on two Vita systems already. Rather than waiting, we were offered to play Little Deviants instead, which we gladly accepted. This is where things got fun...
We were asked to take off our shoes and stick them in a cubby, obviously so we didn't run off with the Vita. Next, we had to put on over-sized life vests as they brought out two stray Vita systems, and tethered them to our live vests via a rubber-coated wire lock. After about a 5 minute set-up with the shoe and life vest process, we were ready to play. To start, this game looked very crisp and colorful; definitely a showcase title as far as visuals go; the perfect contrast to Uncharted's grittier, more life-like color palette and art style.
The very first mini-game reaffirmed, and even strengthened my dislike for the rear touch panel. My deviant was placed in wrestling arena, and the only way I could move him was by the touch screen and the rear touch panel. No, not one or the other, but both at the same time. It was horrendous. I had to awkwardly hold the Vita with my right thumb on top, and my right index finger below, and pull both the top part and bottom part of the screen my deviant was on simultaneously, and release to shoot them around the ring and into enemies to take them out. This was probably one of the most awkward things I've ever done with any piece of gaming hardware, and I'd never want to do it again. The attendant told me that I've gotten way farther than anyone else he's seen all day, I wonder why...
Next up in Little Deviants was a blatant Face Raiders knock-off, which had me pivoting around the room blasting little robots chasing my deviants. Unfortunately, neither Kenny or myself were aware that we weren't supposed to shoot the deviants, too (I would have liked to be able to, honestly), so we finally figured it out when we got our warning of having only two deviants left to protect. It worked very well once we understood what was going on, and I realized just how crisp the rear camera on the Vita was. It's so very crisp that I couldn't help to admire and inquire about how many mega-pixels it had, to which I was given a generalized answer of "It's got the best camera we could have ever put into a game system." I'm sure a quick google search will yield results, but other than that moment of being impressed by the resolution of it during the Face Radiers-esque game, I'll never care again.
Next up was the mini-game we saw at E3, where the player uses the rear touch panel to push through the ground in the game to move a ball-shaped deviant through a small field full of houses and fences to collect stars and keys while avoiding enemies. This was attrocious for me, and was so very, very uncomfortable. It also made me realize the texture of the slide pad can, at times, be difficult to slide over gracefully thanks to it's super shiny plastic texture. Slide over a CD case for a similar effect. Results may vary. After the first stage, I was content never touching this mini-game ever again.
The last stage I played was accelerometer-based. I simply guided my deviant-in-a-UFO through winding underground passageways, and later ice caverns to a goal by tilting the Vita to steer him through and collect stars along the way. Again, they couldn't leave well enough alone. Ice walls would get in my way that required a tap on the rear touch panel to shatter in order to progress, which, in my opinion, broke up the simple flow the game had in a bad way. Again, another game I'd never want to play again.
It's evident that Little Deviants is nothing more than software suite of mini-games that make arbitrary use of every technological feature that the Vita has to offer, some (e.g. the wrestling mini-game) unbelievably counter intuitive, others merely done better elsewhere, if not just a thousand times before on smart phones. Honestly, I wouldn't even play this game on my own smart phone if I got it for free, as I've already deleted tons of games that do most of this already, just without the amazing visuals. No one reading this thread is really going to be the target audience for this game, as it's clearly focused to wow people who have never played basic launch games on iPhones and Androids before.
Overall, as far as the games were concerned, none of them managed to wow me as much as I'd hoped they would. One of the attendants said it, "Sony is aiming to give you a PS3 for your pocket," and he was very right. These games delivered nothing that moves the industry forward, but rather, their inclusion of the touch screen in games like Uncharted only hold the experience back, which is a shame; it's not even intuitive. Future games will likely find good uses for the touch screen and rear panel, but as for now, it's evident that current developers, and even Sony can't figure out how to use them in ways that don't feel monotonous and trite. Luckily for Sony, I was sold on LBP, Uncharted, and Hot Shots Golf before going in, because none of the demos would have made me a believer if I didn't already know I'd like them because of the name alone. Little Deviants aside, the rest were all fine games that will provide experiences almost exactly in-line with their PS3 counterparts, so we all should know what we're getting ourselves into, here.
And that wraps up my experiences with the Vita games, now I'll drop some short impressions on the Vita itself, as well as it's OS.
For starters, the PS Vita feels very solid and sturdy. The all glass screen and surface area feels sturdy, the buttons are firm, but the d-pad feels a bit mushy until they click when fully depressed, which is fine with me, it's just nothing like the d-pad of a Dual Shock or PSP, though I think I may actually prefer the Vita's to those. The analog sticks feel very sturdy as well, though they do have a bit of wiggle to them right out of the proverbial box, which gives me worry as to their ability to retain their firmness over time rather than get even looser. They are also VERY sensitive. I was testing the sensitivity in LittleBigPlanet, and noticed my character would move at even the slightest amount of pressure in any direction on the analog stick, so hopefully they do stay as firm with wear, or Sony will have a big long-term problem on their hands down the line as analog drag could set in and ruin gameplay. Hopefully they've stress tested it enough, though. All-in-all, though, this thing feels built like a brick, so I have to give major props to Sony for delivering such a high quality piece of hardware.
As for the software, it's ALL touch-based. You can't do a thing on the menus with the sticks, d-pad, or buttons, not even in many game menus, which was terrible. In Uncharted, I paused the game to enable subtitles, and I thought the game froze. I couldn't move through the single-line, horizontal menu. I was then informed that I had to swipe through the options, and then press on the one I wanted to change. This felt so tedious and cumbersome. LittleBigPlanet did the same; I couldn't select levels with the controls; I had to slide around to rotate the globe to the desired stage, and tap it to start. It's fine to have that as an option, but some menus are just better served with hard controls, and to disable that entirely is unforgivable.
That said the layout of the OS was very intuitive. I could be in the middle of a firefight in Uncharted, press the PS button, and my game will be immediately frozen in time, and I can swipe around to other pages and check my friend list, trophies, and whatever else I may choose to do in the middle of a gameplay session. One concerning thing is how easy it is to close a game session, as all one needs to do is peel the game session off the screen from the top right corner. Kenny peeled it thinking it would switch menus, and he had to restart the game entirely after that. It should really ask if a player wants to end the session rather than make it so effortlessly peel off. The peeling is used as the lock screen unlock, too, and it looks and feels pretty cool, I must say!
Anyway, after we got our 4 stamps, we went to the counter, and was given a little metal PS Vita collectible coin. We were supposed to get a little coin pouch, too, but I guess they didn't have those out yet since they just opened today. One side of the coin says PS Vita, the other has a picture of Kratos. They will have different character coins every week for the next 6 weeks, apparently. I snapped a few quick pics.
We also entered into a contest to win a free hat or pair of sunglasses, which we lost on the spot, though last year we both won PS Move drawstring bags. Either way, I wouldn't have used either prize.
Lastly, they tried to get us to pre-order the Vita at bestbuy.com for a special Playstation Holiday gift box, which they had on display at the counter. I asked what came inside of the box, and was told that nothing came in the box. It was just a black cardboard box coated with X, O, Square, and Triangle icons all over it. There was no way I was going to bother with getting Best Buy to put a hold on my card of $249.99 + tax for a cheap cardboard box, so I gladly passed. I'm sticking with my Vita order on Amazon with no tax and free release date shipping, thanks.
Anyway, there it is, folks. I spent a lot more time writing this than intended, but I hope you all enjoy the read, if you can even stand make it this far!
Please feel free to ask any questions, and I'll try my best to answer them to satisfaction!Source and pics: http://boards.badcartridge.com/inde...engthy-impressions-within/page__fromsearch__1
