Sony Playstation Vita – The DVDfever.co.uk Review

So, out of all of these games, clearly Uncharted: Golden Abyss walks away with the prize. However, I can tell that the Vita’s killer titles are yet to be released. For example, we must have a sequel to the amazing LittleBigPlanet coming this year on this handheld? Please?

The Vita also contains a PSP emulator, so that in addition to the main physical releases, plus the
Vita-specific PSN download-only titles such as Escape Plan, Super Stardust, MotorStorm RC etc. there’s a great number of PSP content on the PlayStation Store that’s also available to buy. This content is made up from “PSP Mini’s” which are priced from 60p upwards, to full PSP titles, such as God of War: Chains of Olympus.

PSP titles running on the Vita are also improved via the emulator, both visually, and with the option to map/reconfigure the original controls onto the 2nd analogue stick and touch screens (front/back).

Of course, inbetween the PSP and Vita, there’s been the significant take-up of tablets, which can also be used to play games. Well, yes, they will all have a bigger screen (up to 10.1″ compared to the Vita’s 5″ OLED screen) but I *do* like my buttons and joysticks and the tablets have none of those. To me, I think tablets are just a laptop missing a keyboard anyway, so really aren’t my bag.

And you can also play games on smartphones, but they are generally smaller and my HTC Desire Z has slowed down to a crawl in less than a year of use anyway, so there is definitely still the market for a dedicated unit, as Nintendo’s handhelds have shown.

Games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Little Deviants give a taster of what’s possible with the PS Vita and its various attributes so I’m looking forward to seeing what else it can do in the coming months.

Overall: 4.5/5

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Detailed specs:
Distributor: Sony Computer Entertainment
Price: £197.99 (Wifi), £259.99 (3G + Wifi)

Sony Playstation Vita Features

Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display
Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device
Dual analogue sticks
Two digital cameras (front and rear)
Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards
Three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass
Wi-Fi connectivity
Free PlayStation Network access, including trophy support and new Vita features “LiveArea” and “Near”
Vita can play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store

Technical Specifications

CPU – ARM Cortex-A9 core (4 core)
GPU – SGX543MP4+
External Dimensions – Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Touch Screen – 5-inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear Touch Pad – Multi-touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras – Front camera, rear camera
Game Media/Storage – New dedicated flash-based game medium; dual slots, one for the new game medium, the other is for storage media to be utilised for personal content and download content
Sensors – Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), three-axis electronic compass
Battery – Internal/embedded (not removable)



Sound

Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone

Location

Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches

PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications

IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)
Connectivity subject to Wi-Fi availability coverage limitations.

Box Contains

PS Vita Console
Safety Guide
Quick Start Guide
Parental Controls Booklet
PSN Sign-Up leaflet
Power Lead / AC Adaptor
USB Cable
Wide Area Augmented Reality (WAAR) Cards