My first month with the PS Vita

Who am I? Well to be brief I'm an illustration student who plays far too many games that far outweigh his responsibilities.

My history with playstation has been a part time one at best, I had a playstation 1, which I loved, i had a playstation 2, which I also loved, but i hardly played it, no, thats not true, I played it LOTS, but I only ever had 10 games, as i used to replay them over and over again, or borrow my sisters boyfriends games. Then I played PC games for years, whilst moving to Xbox360, this relationship lasted a few years, but I fell bored and decided to migrate to the PS3, the transition was a difficult one at first, the platform felt very different, I had less than half the friends with a Ps3, so multiplayer wasn't something I played much of. HOWEVER, the single player experience is far superior on PS3 with its superb array of exclusive games, it really pleases me and i personally feel that the Playstation 3 is one of the greatest consoles ever, purely due to the games it, and its third party has exclusively created for it.

So this brings me to now, and Handheld gaming, where do I stand on it? I have a Nintendo DS, original one, and before that a GameBoy, but I really got into the Nintendo DS as it was brilliant. I't had all the experiences I would expect to have with Nintendo, and I really enjoyed it, I spent at least £600 on games for it.

Mobile gaming on Android and iOS has been hit and miss with me, whilst the platform is great, many experiences are limited to a touchscreen and no matter how good the graphics get, it doesn't make up for the lack of better input methods, so Angry Birds = Yes. First Person Shooters = Not Really.

So, Why the Vita, Why should you own a Vita?

I wanted it because I knew that sooner or later I would get the full blown experience I had received from playing Playstation 3, and who wouldn't want that? So far, one year later the games released for it have been a mixed bag, which is upsetting to a degree, as why aren't more developers getting their hands on this console and creating content?! It has all the attributes of an Android and iOS device;

Great graphics, fantastic screen, front and back touch input, buttons, analogue sticks, front and back camera, accelerometer, and most importantly the PLAYSTATION BRAND.

Your mum knows what a Playstation is, your unborn grandchild knows what a Playstation is, so why the lack of love from developers?!

It can be hard to adopt the Playstation Vita platform when at a glance there aren't much games on the shelves, and their prices are generally high. BUT ALAS, the Playstation store has much more than what you would know about, and it's not marketed nearly enough, Hundreds of games;

PSN Games, PSone Games, Mobile Games, PSP Games.

So there's already a big fat fistful of games available on the store that you can only know about if you have a Vita, which is why I have been having so much fun with my Vita, playing things I might not have known about, like, Frobisher! Says. This game is just brilliant, It's WarioWare meets David Shrigley meets contemporary illustration at its best, oh and it's free? This is basically all I played for the first 2 weeks, me and my friend still giggle like little girls when we play it because its just so silly!


Playstation Plus is probably the greatest thing to come to PSN, it really gives the users some value for money and gives developers money for old rope, it's so cheap that its a great purchase for anyone, however you benefit more if you have a PS3 as well, which is what I have. I think the most I spent in my first 3 weeks of owning a Vita was £1.99 for the Frobisher! Says addon.

Since owning the Vita, I've finished Gravity Rush and have almost finished Uncharted, and I've also been playing Wipeout 2048, When Vikings Attack, Escape Plan and a handful of others. Reviews will be coming soon.

I've really enjoyed my time with Vita so far, though I would like to see more games been developed for it because pre-E3 there isn't much that appears on the horizon. I'm really looking forward to Tearaway, and kinda looking forward to Killzone Mercenaries, though the footage I keep seeing leaves me sceptical of what its actually going to be like.

Anyway, Updates coming soon, Don't forget, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD are our free games coming to Playstation Plus on Wednesday, which is my birthday non the less, considering I've finished MGS2 more times than anyone else ever, so it's a great present from Sony (and Konami) to me, I'm interested to see how it plays on the Vita, having played the PS3 version over the summer, hoping it's as good, and don't forget Puddle the week after.


Unofficially, Beyond.