VITA owners UNITE!

[Dangerboy]

In fairness, Brain Age (it was called Big Brain) and Advance Wars both had Wii versions...

Time out.

Time out.

Time out.

a. Brain Age and Big Brain are two different games on the DS. 'Brother and sister games' like Pokemon Black and White. The Wii version of Big Brain was a hand-me UP 2 years later.

b. I will pay $100 for Advance Wars on the Wii. I'm fairly certain you're mistaking "Battalion Wars" for Advance Wars. BW is a real time action game with tactical options. Advance Wars is a turn based strategy game with no relation to each other unless "Wars" now connects any two games at the hip with it in their name.


...and by your standards, every Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda or other marquee Nintendo game on the 3DS would be a "hand me down" as well.

No trying to put words in my mouth.

Zelda 64 was a textured hand me down from the N64. Mario Kart 7, while not a true hand me down, is too mired in recycled tracks and minimal upgrades (Like every MK game since the N64). It's the Madden of Nintendo releases (right next to Animal Crossing). Super Mario Land was fairly original and wouldn't be a hand me down. In fact, I don't think I've bought a 3DS game since Super Mario Land - and SML was amazing.

... it does have some fairly niche recent or upcoming titles like Ragnarok Odyssey and DJ Max Technika.

$250 (+ Memory Card) is a fairly high price to play 2 games. One of which has versions available on the PSP. I never said the whole library was shit, in fact, I never questioned the quality of the games. I'm criticizing the selection of games. It's pitiful that the Vita doesn't have enough of it's own, no-relation-to-another-system's games.

I brought up "Professor Laytons, the Phoenix Wrights, the Brain Ages, advance wars" because they were born and bred on the portable and have maintained that lineage. Yes, Big Brain got a WIi release, but you can't play Professor Layton on anything but a DS, meaning you *need* a DS to play that game. I don't have to a Vita to play Uncharted, Rayman, Wipeout, etc no matter how good they are, because I have them all ready on another platform. *That's* the Vita's library problem - it doesn't have enough actual exclusive games.

So by your logic, anything good Nintendo makes isn't a true exclusive and isn't worth playing

a. Did I miss the seminar on twisting people's words around?

b. See previous reply - Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming industry. They do minimal upgrades with lots of pomp and circumstance. Pilotwings 3DS was a shit rip from a Wii game, Zelda was just a fancy N64 game, etc. Layton is a sequel, not a hand me down, so that falls under different criteria. That said, Super Mario Land 3DS was a superb and for-the-sake-of-argument 'original' game in the 3DS.

We can bicker and argue Nintendo's problems in another thread at another time. This is about a Vita owner (me) being very fucking concerned about the lack of anything original for his system.


Not confused in the least. Everyone knows how lazy 2K is and I'm sure they thought about porting it over to the Vita, but came to the conclusion that since the Vita can play PSP games, why not release the PSP version and be done with it.

Translation: A game company so lazy couldn't even be bother to just farm out the game code to a 3rd party to port and bring out to please all those sports fans who have nothing but Madden and baseball to play because, really, fuck basketball. Not like, you know, there could have been a market for it...or any game on a thirsty system, for that matter.

Nintendo also delayed Luigi's Mansion 2, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing until next year.

Yes, except with those being delayed they didn't lose 20-25% of the upcoming library, which is what would happen if 3 Vita games got delayed.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. At the moment, there are roughly EIGHT confirmed games left for Vita's upcoming release, and that goes through March 2013.

Worry.

[kupomogli]

Dragon's Crown has been confirmed for North American release sometime in 2013. It's just not on most release lists. Atlus took over as publisher and also is helping with development. It's going to be for both PS3 and Vita and they've announced a North American release as "when it's finished in 2013." I've got it preordered at Amazon for $30 on the PS3. I messaged Amazon and complained about the price increase since I already had it preordered, so I have it preordered again for the same price, just Atlus as publisher now.

Dragon's Crown also has cross play between PS3 and Vita for those might prefer the Vita version but still wants to play with friends on the PS3.

Sacred 3 and Lords of Shadow 2 were also confirmed to be released on the Vita. Again, no specific dates, but confirmation of release. Western games, so these ones won't be Japan exclusives. Although it's happened before. Beavis and Butthead Virtual Stupidity for the PSX was a port that was only released in Japan.

[Dangerboy]

Kupo: When they have a solid confirmed street day of release, I'll amend the statement and the list.

[Bojay1997]

In fairness, Brain Age (it was called Big Brain) and Advance Wars both had Wii versions...

Time out.

Time out.

Time out.

a. Brain Age and Big Brain are two different games on the DS. 'Brother and sister games' like Pokemon Black and White. The Wii version of Big Brain was a hand-me UP 2 years later.

b. I will pay $100 for Advance Wars on the Wii. I'm fairly certain you're mistaking "Battalion Wars" for Advance Wars. BW is a real time action game with tactical options. Advance Wars is a turn based strategy game with no relation to each other unless "Wars" now connects any two games at the hip with it in their name.


...and by your standards, every Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda or other marquee Nintendo game on the 3DS would be a "hand me down" as well.

No trying to put words in my mouth.

Zelda 64 was a textured hand me down from the N64. Mario Kart 7, while not a true hand me down, is too mired in recycled tracks and minimal upgrades (Like every MK game since the N64). It's the Madden of Nintendo releases (right next to Animal Crossing). Super Mario Land was fairly original and wouldn't be a hand me down. In fact, I don't think I've bought a 3DS game since Super Mario Land - and SML was amazing.

... it does have some fairly niche recent or upcoming titles like Ragnarok Odyssey and DJ Max Technika.

$250 (+ Memory Card) is a fairly high price to play 2 games. One of which has versions available on the PSP. I never said the whole library was shit, in fact, I never questioned the quality of the games. I'm criticizing the selection of games. It's pitiful that the Vita doesn't have enough of it's own, no-relation-to-another-system's games.

I brought up "Professor Laytons, the Phoenix Wrights, the Brain Ages, advance wars" because they were born and bred on the portable and have maintained that lineage. Yes, Big Brain got a WIi release, but you can't play Professor Layton on anything but a DS, meaning you *need* a DS to play that game. I don't have to a Vita to play Uncharted, Rayman, Wipeout, etc no matter how good they are, because I have them all ready on another platform. *That's* the Vita's library problem - it doesn't have enough actual exclusive games.

So by your logic, anything good Nintendo makes isn't a true exclusive and isn't worth playing

a. Did I miss the seminar on twisting people's words around?

b. See previous reply - Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming industry. They do minimal upgrades with lots of pomp and circumstance. Pilotwings 3DS was a shit rip from a Wii game, Zelda was just a fancy N64 game, etc. Layton is a sequel, not a hand me down, so that falls under different criteria. That said, Super Mario Land 3DS was a superb and for-the-sake-of-argument 'original' game in the 3DS.

We can bicker and argue Nintendo's problems in another thread at another time. This is about a Vita owner (me) being very fucking concerned about the lack of anything original for his system.


Not confused in the least. Everyone knows how lazy 2K is and I'm sure they thought about porting it over to the Vita, but came to the conclusion that since the Vita can play PSP games, why not release the PSP version and be done with it.

Translation: A game company so lazy couldn't even be bother to just farm out the game code to a 3rd party to port and bring out to please all those sports fans who have nothing but Madden and baseball to play because, really, fuck basketball. Not like, you know, there could have been a market for it...or any game on a thirsty system, for that matter.

Nintendo also delayed Luigi's Mansion 2, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing until next year.

Yes, except with those being delayed they didn't lose 20-25% of the upcoming library, which is what would happen if 3 Vita games got delayed.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. At the moment, there are roughly EIGHT confirmed games left for Vita's upcoming release, and that goes through March 2013.

Worry.

Apparently I don't understand your use of the terms "hand me down" or "true exclusives". Are you just talking about ports then (i.e. a game that has it's code taken and adapted such that it can be played on another platform)? Because if that's the case, there are a few Vita games that aren't true exclusives, but most of the first party Sony stuff would be true exclusives in the sense that they are completely original games based on the same underlying IP. I agree with you that Nintendo and the 3DS is completely irrelevant to this discussion, but you're the one that brought it up by referencing four games, only one of which has had a 3DS iteration thus far. I'll give you the Advance Wars argument (although Nintendo did link BW to the Wars series both in the US and Japan by title, although not gameplay), but Big Brain is about as blatant a port as you could have between a handheld and console.

I suspect what you are really arguing is that the Vita doesn't have any must buy titles such that a system purchase would be justified. I would argue that I haven't seen much on any console or handheld this generation that would justify a hardware purchase in and of itself, but that I have enjoyed playing the Vita at least as much as my 3DS or DS before it. I would also argue that there are a number of Vita games on the horizon that simply haven't hit the GS preorder lists yet including many niche JRPGs that have been picked up for localization. The same is true of the 3DS. You won't see tons of announcements until the new year as nobody ever makes major release slate announcements during the prime holiday sales season.

[WCP]

Wipeout IS fantastic, but again, hit with technical hurdles it can't overcome. Variety isn't there for budgetary & space concerns. You can count the number of course textures on one hand sometimes, where the PS3 explodes into an array of colors, saturation, and depth. It's striking on the small screen, but again, you can't just look at that and ignore the rest. The PS3 version was what, $15? Sony wanted $40 at launch for the Vita Wipeout. It's not even close from a consumer perspective.

Wipeout on Vita isn't perfect. It has it's issues (difficulty is too high). However, it's an absolute showcase piece of software for the Vita. It looks beautiful, it sounds amazing, and it plays very well. Whenever I want a burst of 10 to 15 minutes of amazing graphics and sounds, I'll throw in Wipout 2048.

[NayusDante]

There's still no 1:1 pixel mapping for PSP software, and there's still very little in the way of original content. I looked at the PSMobile content, and it's the same App Shop stuff you see everywhere else. I'm kind of looking forward to PSO2, but not much else.

[Leo_A]

1:1 pixel mapping for PSP software would make things pretty tiny. I imagine they don't think there's enough of a call for it to bother with when it upscales so easily as it is. A single PSP pixel equates to exactly 4 Vita pixels which is a design clearly intended to make PSP upscaling as easy as possible without the need for a complex upscaling algorithm. So I really don't think 1:1 pixel mapping for PSP software was ever in the cards.

I suspect the visual issues that someone may be seeing that they're blaming on the upscaling process has more to do with the larger viewing area of a Vita screen (Which is a significant size increase compared to the UMD PSP models and also a decent upgrade in size over the Go's screen) making flaws more evident that may of not been as obvious before and the different color range of a Vita screen that can give colors slightly different hues on the Vita compared to something like a PSP 2000.

And if you're going from a relatively dim PSP 1000 to the Vita, there'd be even more that you're noticing now for the first time. Both good things like little details you may of missed in the past and negatives like visual flaws that may of not been so obvious in the past like low resolution textures.

[WCP]

I have both 3DS XL and Vita.
3DS has the better library now.

Here's the thing. My son has a 3DS XL. I've played 3D Mario Land, Mario Kart 7 and Pilotwings. I've played Pushmo and Mutant Mudds. All 5 of those games are good games. Mario Land is a killer app, no question about it. Mario Kart 7 is extremely solid. I actually really enjoy Pilotwings. Pushmo and Mutant Mudds are both good downloadable titles.


But what else does the 3DS have ?


I know it has the NSMB game that just came out, but I've heard that game is a somewhat boring coin collecting fest. It's a been there, done that, type of thing. Of course, Mario Sticker Star is coming out. Not sure if that would be my type of game or not, but it looks interesting. Still, I don't see 15 quality 3DS games. I'm not sure I even see 10 solid 3DS games. I will admit that I'm the rare bird that actually likes sports games, and the Vita is super strong in that department. Most people could probably care less if the 3DS had good sports games, but I enjoy sports games on a portable. I don't play sports games too much on console, but on portables, I like it for whatever reason...

[kupomogli]

I don't get why people want 1:1 when playing PSP games on the Vita because the games look noticeably better when playing on the Vita the way they are.

Just look at this comparison. It shows the anime opening then a demo level of Maverick Hunter X, and on both 2D and 3D it clearly outshines the PSP. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w4t1ef7ETg

The color on games when emulating also look better. Although if you want to wash the colors out slightly so they look closer to what the console pushes you can always turn on one of the filtering options(don't remember which one it is.)

*edit*

For those who hate using the touch screen on the OS. If you're on the latest firmware you can go into the settings menu and change it so you can use the buttons to control the menu. You might be thinking that it doesn't work well, but it does, and it doesn't work on just the OS, it works on a lot of the programs as well. Even when it's turned on you can still use the touch screen features as well. Too bad they don't patch some of the games to use the controls on the menu options as well(Uncharted for sure.)

[duffmanth]

Here's the thing. My son has a 3DS XL. I've played 3D Mario Land, Mario Kart 7 and Pilotwings. I've played Pushmo and Mutant Mudds. All 5 of those games are good games. Mario Land is a killer app, no question about it. Mario Kart 7 is extremely solid. I actually really enjoy Pilotwings. Pushmo and Mutant Mudds are both good downloadable titles.


But what else does the 3DS have ?


I know it has the NSMB game that just came out, but I've heard that game is a somewhat boring coin collecting fest. It's a been there, done that, type of thing. Of course, Mario Sticker Star is coming out. Not sure if that would be my type of game or not, but it looks interesting. Still, I don't see 15 quality 3DS games. I'm not sure I even see 10 solid 3DS games. I will admit that I'm the rare bird that actually likes sports games, and the Vita is super strong in that department. Most people could probably care less if the 3DS had good sports games, but I enjoy sports games on a portable. I don't play sports games too much on console, but on portables, I like it for whatever reason...

Nintendo portables have never been strong when it comes to sports titles, Sony has always had a much better selection of sports games.

[substantial_snake]

So does anyone here actually own Resistance: Burning Skies?

Heard it got bad to average reviews and I see people make snide comments about it a lot but I just played the demo and it was actually not bad at all.

[Oldskool]

I played the demo too. Seemed like a good game. It seems this day if a title is not an AAAAAA title then it deserves to be slammed.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

FUCK YEAH!!!

I am SO motherfucking glad that I held off on buying Gravity Rush (as difficult as that was to do considering how much I enjoyed the demo).

Breaking news: Playstation PLUS makes its way to Vita starting next week with the following SIX games available for free:

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• Wipeout 2048
• Gravity Rush
• Jet Set Radio
• Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
• Mutant Blobs Attack

I can NOT stress this ENOUGH:

If you own a PS3, ENROLL IN PLUS!

If you own a PS3 and a Vita, ENROLL! IN! PLUS!

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/...take-the-tour/

[RCM]

I can NOT stress this ENOUGH:

If you own a PS3, ENROLL IN PLUS!

If you own a PS3 and a Vita, ENROLL! IN! PLUS!

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/...take-the-tour/

I like what Sony is doing with PP, but it's simply TOO MUCH FUCKING content for me. If I played more on traditional consoles I'd probably sign up, especially if I could keep all these "free" games after my subscription ended.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I like what Sony is doing with PP, but it's simply TOO MUCH FUCKING content for me. If I played more on traditional consoles I'd probably sign up, especially if I could keep all these "free" games after my subscription ended.

Heh, too much content is a problem that I love having!

I would think that it mirrors a lot of our physical collecting tendencies here, no?

While cancellation of Plus locks out downloaded games, you can keep anything that's NOT a GAME proper (avatars, add-ons, themes, soundtracks, etc.) that's free and any GAME that's purchased with a discounted price.

[kupomogli]

I like what Sony is doing with PP, but it's simply TOO MUCH FUCKING content for me. If I played more on traditional consoles I'd probably sign up, especially if I could keep all these "free" games after my subscription ended.

Not being able to keep the games after the subscription ends is a good argument in itself, but with how many good games that have been offered month after month, sometimes games that just came out(Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown was on PS+ within the first week for example) one could make a better argument that why not just continue paying for the subscription.

Now that both Vita and PSP games are free on PS+, it's just one more push towards getting me to sign up for the service rather than just game sharing and getting the service from a friends account. Although, I can currently play any PSP game I want on my Vita, including games like Crisis Core or Mega Man Powered Up. I still don't have Gravity Rush and that's what's really pushing me, but I want physical content. I'll either get PS+ and wait for a price drop on Gravity Rush or I'll wait until PS+ offers something else.

--

I'm on chapter three on Ragnarok Odyssey. Here's my opinion on it for anyone who's interested in it.

As you're probably already aware, it's a faster paced Monster Hunter clone style game. You've got multiple classes, each based on a weapon style. Each weapon style has a weak combo string and strong attacks can be input during any portion of the string to enable finisher combos. So at the start or whenever choosing a new class, you'll want to get used to your attacks and all finisher combos since you can continue to hit the heavy attack to do more hits on a finisher combo, some allowing you to charge certain attacks, hitting enemies up into the air to do an aerial combo. The game has dashing and blocking, although neither can interrupt an attack, but weak attacks have such a short recovery time that you can do dash or block quicker.

To me, this game feels like one of those borderline, good and bad games. Playing through the game you go quest after quest, a lot of them just going through as you kill this many of a certain enemy, or collect this many of a certain item. I usually check and see what has to be done, but then go through and kill everyone and collect every destructable box. The reason I even view my objective is because one objective I failed five times in a row as there is a boss during that stage that you don't actually have to kill but at the time I assumed you did, and even getting to that boss as fast as I could, I couldn't beat it without time running out it had so much HP. If I only attacked the boxes in the room the boss was in the objective would have been complete as I would have acquired enough of the item I was looking for. Overall the main problem though with this game is that it's too repetitive on what you're supposed to do.

What's enjoyable about this game though is certain points during quests where you'll fight either the boss monsters, a lot of harder monsters in locked rooms, a room covered in small monsters, etc. You find a lot of different weapons, some that are more powerful than what you can currently purchase or currently have equipped and then upgrade them for high attack output. Then there's the different pieces of armor and cards, which is the main stat modifier of your character. You do get a level up after completing each chapter, a small increase in HP, AP, and Strength, but modifying weapons and inserting cards into your armor are what really increases strength growth. With cards, you have multiple different styles that range from increasing stats such as hp, ap, attack, and defense, character weapon profiency, giving character more power in the air or on the ground, increased invincibility during dashes, longer dashes, elemental weapons, etc, etc.

If you're a fan of Monster Hunter, then there's a good possibility that you might like this game. If you like Monster Hunter but you're not too much of a fan, then I'd say that there's a good chance this also won't appeal to you. This game might look more like Phantasy Star Portable than Monster Hunter Online because in a way it is, but it doesn't have the same feel to it that a Phantasy Star Online/Portable game has. Feels more like Monster Hunter with much smaller sized maps with gameplay that resembles Phantasy Star Portable if that makes any sense.

There's a demo soon to come out for the game this week or next, I'd recommend checking that out before purchasing. Like I said, I enjoy the game and it's still got that addictive nature that keeps me wanting to progress, but at the same time, I feel it's not worth what I paid for it.

[NayusDante]

I'm seriously considering PS+ if it means actually having something to play on my Vita. I wouldn't buy Uncharted, but I'd play it if I had access to it. The thing is, I'm trying to work through my backlog, and I don't need more digital titles filling it up.

This would be something I'd be more inclined to try month-to-month. Having to pay for 3 or 12 month blocks is a bit much for something that I may not have time to enjoy. Maybe if I cancel Netflix or my CD-of-the month subscriptions...

[substantial_snake]

I played the demo too. Seemed like a good game. It seems this day if a title is not an AAAAAA title then it deserves to be slammed.

Exactly. Starting to become suspicious now that I've played Black Ops: Declassified and its a decent game even though critics have shit all over it so far, seems really odd to me. Really fun to read in Europocket.uk the reviewer complaining about having to go out a buy a copy of the game rather then being given a review copy as a negative...before the review was redacted from their site. Anyways I've put a couple of hours into this one now and two things are apparent, that its totally not worth the standard $50 dollar price tag and that its a really fun COD experience. The game simply needs more content to justify that high price and this doesn't have it, but what is here is solid and really fun.

The game is divided into three modes campaign, hostiles, and multiplayer.

Campaign is broken up into a semi-story driven mission stricture kinda like Unit 13, while each mission is only about 5-10 minutes long there are 10 individual missions. There each short but very difficult for a COD game on anything but easy that both track your time a score for a leaderboard ranking against those on your friends list. There is also a Time Attack mode which is the same gameplay idea of getting the fastest high score but on a training range like in the opening to MW1 and MW2 with 5 separate maps to play.

Hostiles is just like what we had in MW2 last year. Its simply a single player against waves of ai soldiers, kill a wave, get an caredrop, and rince repeat. Seems to have 5 different maps dedicated to this mode as well.

Multiplayer is missing many things but feels pretty much like mix between MW1 and Black Ops multiplayer, with a max of 4v4 players. It only has as far as I can tell 5 game modes; Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Drop Zone, and Free-for-All, with another game type just jumbling the 3 team types at random. There are no options for hardcore mode or anything else either, just these basic game types. However it runs smooth online and is a lot of fun to play. The Killstreaks have been way dialed back and again remind me of MW1 in that regard. The game also has a good selection of weapons but not as many as black ops did and class "detail" customization is non existent like particular red dots and face paints. I'm pretty sure there are 6 maps to this mode but I have yet to play them all, so far though they mostly cut down maps inspired by black ops maps, like Nuke House is half of the street and one house/backyard in the console Nuketown. The maps seem pretty perfect for the player count though, they neither feel empty or completly chaotic (excusing Nukehouse of course). Overall although missing a lot of stuff it really fun and frantic COD multiplayer.

The controls for the game work just fine as well, grenade and knife are front screen touch and work ok, although the knife can be a bit finikey at times. Rear touch is used for steadying aim with sniper rifles, and you can set sprint to auto on or off. I believe auto-off you need to press down on the d-pad to activate it but it seems to work well for me automatically in facing forward so I keep it on that. The graphics are fine outside of a low rex texture here or there and stay pretty solid at 30 fps, only really experiencing dips when a lot of people are in one place shooting and lobbing off grenades at once.

Declassified is a cut down COD on a handheld made for bite sized stretches of play, if thats what you looking for it does that well. I am having a blast with it atm but its definitely not worth the 50 bucks they want for it, maybe 40-30 considering how much hard content there is in the game. I actually hope this one gets DLC (though I doubt it) because the underlying mechanics are really fun to play, it just needs more of it.

Also if you get a physical copy you get a Call of Duty Road to Victory PSP game voucher as well, already been confirmed so far to not come with the download version apparently.

[dgdgagdae]

I couldn't tell from what I've seen and read to far - can you get PS+ if you only have a Vita and not a PS3?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I couldn't tell from what I've seen and read to far - can you get PS+ if you only have a Vita and not a PS3?

I believe so.

This wasn't the case with PSP since Plus never officially came to the device as a subscription service even though PSP compatible software is regularly offered through the service.

You should find Plus sign-up in the PSN store on the Vita starting next Tuesday evening.