Lancer wrote:But the thing that sort of killed it for me was the load time. I just wanted to play a game and get out of there but it seemed like the load just to play one race took 2-3 min. I dont know if it relies on internet connection or not but it was really slow loading the game.
That's disappointing to hear that and i've read those comments elsewhere. They need to get a handle on this because load times at most should be 5 seconds with no UMD disc. My hacked PSP is almost as fast loading games as the almost instant on game play of the Nintendo DS.
I hope the developers can address this issue or i'll be passing on such games. Gran Turismo 5 comes to mind. The load times throughout the game were so bad at first that the game was almost unplayable. Then after numerous updates the developer figured out how to speed things up. There are still load times but it's almost a non-issue now.
Here's a video of a guy with the full version of Wipeout. Load times he says are 20-25 seconds and you can time it yourself while you watch it load in his video. If you replay a track that's already loaded then it's no load time.
The proprietary memory crap from Sony has to stop. Of course everyone wants more memory these days but a 32GB runs at $100 coins? Took my little one to the Sony booth again where she played "Little Deviants" and she was hooked. Also tried VT myself which I am not a very big fan of the franchise but overall the gameplay felt tight with the usual arcade feel to it. The flat stroke felt as if I was hitting always topspin to it and I am sure there's a separate button for that, but graphically it was beautiful.
If it wasn't for the BB coupons that I have and some gifts receipts, I would have probably waited to see how the software develops for the VIta. I doubt Sony would bring their price down any time soon so it's all up to the software.
I went back to the mall today and was going to give it another try but just lost interest after the first few min. It got to 'feel' like another sony handheld, which I can be a good or bad thing depending if you like sony handhelds. I examined the hardware more this time and while it's better than PSP, it's still like PSP Next Gen. Just gave me that same feeling/experience.
One thing I noticed at GS was that they really didn't make the store Vita Friendly. When i went in yesterday, I had to ask the worker there where it was. He pointed it out to me, but if he didn't, they did a great job camouflaging it with everything else in the store. Even today, there was no lines or wait to use it. Almost like the general gamestop customer really didn't even know it was coming out.
So I don't know if there is any buzz for the device outside of hardcore gamers like here. Like 10s said, I guess it depends on how much software will come out for it and if the big developers are really committed into pushing the device.
Lancer wrote:So I don't know if there is any buzz for the device outside of hardcore gamers like here. Like 10s said, I guess it depends on how much software will come out for it and if the big developers are really committed into pushing the device.
There isn't much buzz which is why Sony wisely packaged bundles. I would have waited if it weren't for the Vita costing me $240 and buying Uncharted for $37.
If it goes the way of the PSP Go i'm ok with that as long as I can get Persona 4 and Final Fantasy X for the Vita.
A lot of reviews coming out today. Destructoid gives Uncharted a 9.5/10 and IGN gives it a 8.5/10. Wipeout getting lower scores but not bad ones -- seems like single player is on the short side. I'm pretty sure it won't be so short if played on the highest difficulty setting. Little Deviants getting average scores, which is what I expected given the nature of the game. The console itself gets a 8.5 from IGN and a positive review from Destructoid. I haven't had a chance to read some of the other reviews on the various sites, but overall it appears that the games people thought would be good are good, and the lesser games are pretty much crap. Only a couple more days!
Resistance got it's release date today: May 29. Looks like Super Stardust Delta and its DLC will come free with the 3G bundles for North America. I'm cool with that. IGN gives it 9.5/10. IGN also gives Rayman 9/10 and Lumines 9/10. Pretty strong launch lineup of games to say the least.
I've been reading reviews all day. Kotaku busted a nut over it which is to be expected now that Sony biggest fan boy is in charge. Other sites have positive reviews and then the more gadget sites says it's nothing special.
You guys should actually want me not to buy this I am pretty much the death nail to anything lately. If I like it and buy it out of the gate it usually fails.
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It looks like the free PSN game is tied to you buying a month of 3G. So basically it's a wash if you cancel after the month because you get a voucher for Stardust.
Rodster wrote:It looks like the free PSN game is tied to you buying a month of 3G. So basically it's a wash if you cancel after the month because you get a voucher for Stardust.
I seem to recall reading you also get a free month of 3G and that you get the game after that month is up. I could certainly be wrong, but I think it need not cost anything additional.
Rodster wrote:It looks like the free PSN game is tied to you buying a month of 3G. So basically it's a wash if you cancel after the month because you get a voucher for Stardust.
I seem to recall reading you also get a free month of 3G and that you get the game after that month is up. I could certainly be wrong, but I think it need not cost anything additional.
That was the initial thought but some at CAG are saying the condition to receiving the voucher for the game is tied to buying a month of 3G. I hope they're wrong because that's a nice free game.
MizzouRah wrote:The show x-play had a bunch of negatives to say... I wasn't buying anyway.. but I don't think it will succeed any better than the psp did.
They also ripped Kingdoms of Amalur.. so maybe they don't know s***.
Are you saying that the PSP didn't succeed?
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
MizzouRah wrote:The show x-play had a bunch of negatives to say... I wasn't buying anyway.. but I don't think it will succeed any better than the psp did.
They also ripped Kingdoms of Amalur.. so maybe they don't know s***.
Are you saying that the PSP didn't succeed?
Yeah I was tryin' to figure that out as well. I guess the 7 year run and 5 or 6 iterations means an item didn't succeed these days.
Well, it gave them a portable handheld business where they didn't have one before.
But sales of games was poor, especially compared to the DS. Rampant piracy didn't help and outside of Japan, third-party support seemed to have petered out.
They had some success early on with UMD movies but that fizzled out too.
Sony entered the handheld market for the first time and sold 72 million PSPs. Not sure how that is not successful. I guess the Xbox 360 has been a really big failure since it has sold only 66 million. Despite some folks in the media freaking out over Vita sales in Japan, it still has sold well over double the units the PSP did in the same time frame when it was released, and that was without competition from smart phones. Sony announced yesterday it is going to spend $50 million marketing the Vita early on. Clearly they are not messing around. Nor should they, as the PSP made a tidy profit for them.
toonarmy wrote:Sony entered the handheld market for the first time and sold 72 million PSPs. Not sure how that is not successful. I guess the Xbox 360 has been a really big failure since it has sold only 66 million. Despite some folks in the media freaking out over Vita sales in Japan, it still has sold well over double the units the PSP did in the same time frame when it was released, and that was without competition from smart phones. Sony announced yesterday it is going to spend $50 million marketing the Vita early on. Clearly they are not messing around. Nor should they, as the PSP made a tidy profit for them.
Didn't know that.. I stand corrected. Just seemed like to me it didn't get much press. That's quite a bit of sales there. )
toonarmy wrote:Sony entered the handheld market for the first time and sold 72 million PSPs. Not sure how that is not successful. I guess the Xbox 360 has been a really big failure since it has sold only 66 million. Despite some folks in the media freaking out over Vita sales in Japan, it still has sold well over double the units the PSP did in the same time frame when it was released, and that was without competition from smart phones. Sony announced yesterday it is going to spend $50 million marketing the Vita early on. Clearly they are not messing around. Nor should they, as the PSP made a tidy profit for them.
Didn't know that.. I stand corrected. Just seemed like to me it didn't get much press. That's quite a bit of sales there. )
Yeah, it's really weird how there is a popular perception among quite a few people in the gaming media that the PSP did not sell well.
The PSP did sell very well but behind the numbers wco81 is correct. Part of the reason the PSP sold well as a handheld was because it was hacked to death. Nintendo had more impressive software sales because their DS systems were much easier to hack than the PSP but they had higher software sales.
Midway in the life cycle of the PSP developers began to bail because Sony couldn't stop the leaking security holes in the PSP. That's part of the reason why Sony released so many different models. That was Sony's way of trying to keep one step ahead of the hackers. They changed motherboards, firmware etc at a fast rate and still that didn't work. I remember reading several articles on how developers were getting pissed that Sony couldn't stop the hacking and that they weren't getting a good return on their investment in the platform.
That's when the PSP Go was announced. No removable battery, downloadable games only.
So yeah hardware wise the PSP was a hit but only for the hackers.
MizzouRah wrote:
Yeah, it's really weird how there is a popular perception among quite a few people in the gaming media that the PSP did not sell well.
You really don't hear much about it except when The Show does its annual release on it.
PSP sales were over like 7 or 8 years and at a much lower price than the 360.
Only reason they sold that many was that there were some monster games in Japan that kept the system alive.
It's somewhat surprising that Sony went with Vita but I think overall, the company is hurting, with the decline of their TV business. So they may not have had much choice, though it's obvious that there's a lot of competition for dollars spent on electronic toys.
wco - seems like you know a lot about Sony. SO I have a unrelated VITA question. What happened to the quality of TVs Sony made? My grandmom has 2 sony tv's from 30 years ago that still work perfectly. But a couple of my friends bought Sony HD TV's over the last 5 years and either they've crapped out on them or the picture quality has degraded.
I have a Bravia HDTV I use for mainly gaming and fingers crossed no issues. But it seems like the quality that was known for Sony has taken a hit the last 5-10 years. Is it that they were late in the game for HDTV's and quality suffered?
Lancer wrote:wco - seems like you know a lot about Sony. SO I have a unrelated VITA question. What happened to the quality of TVs Sony made? My grandmom has 2 sony tv's from 30 years ago that still work perfectly. But a couple of my friends bought Sony HD TV's over the last 5 years and either they've crapped out on them or the picture quality has degraded.
I have a Bravia HDTV I use for mainly gaming and fingers crossed no issues. But it seems like the quality that was known for Sony has taken a hit the last 5-10 years. Is it that they were late in the game for HDTV's and quality suffered?
That's an easy one to answer. When Sony plugged the plug on their Trinitron TV and switched to flat panels they no longer made the panel displays and were purchased from several flat panel mgfs, which Samsung is one of them. I'm not saying Samsung makes their panels but there are like 3-5 display panel mfgs in the world.
It's hard to separate yourself from the crowd when everybody else has access to the same panels. And because of the Sony name the price carries a premium.
