10 PS Vita Strengths and Flaws
Here is a list of 10 strengths and 10 flaws of the PS Vita by pramath.
10 PS Vita Strengths
1. OLED Screen: This probably justifies the system on its own. The Vita sports a great big gorgeous OLED screen that really is like nothing you have ever seen before. This high resolution OLED screen is the best on any handheld system so far (and far trumps and dwarfs the 3DS's screen in comparison). The best part is that it is also touch enabled, and that moreover, it supports capacitive touch as opposed to the resistive style touch screen that the 3DS supports.
2. PSN Network Integration: The PS Vita is fully integrated with PSN. This means that you retain your PS3 PSN Id on the system, complete with your trophy collections, friends list and game history. This is possibly the Vita's biggest advantage over the 3DS (which has no unified account system and still relies on a friend code reliant friends list tied to the system).
The best part of this network integration is that if ever you lose your Vita, ot buy a new one, you get instant access to your games and friends on the new ones, without having to muck with patchy workarounds like the 3DS Transfer Utility App.
This also means that every game will probably support online in some way (unlike the 3DS where games that are online enabled can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand), and that online play should be smooth and without a hitch.
3. Rear Touch Panel: The Vita's big innovation, the touch panel at the back of the PS Vita adds a plethora of potential possibilities to the Vita's control scheme. Not only can the touch panel be used to simulate L2 and R2 buttons (that are otherwise missing on the system), but it can also be used to directly influence and interact with games in unprecedented ways (a great example of proper utilization of the rear pad appears to be Little Deviants)
4. Dual Analog: The PS Vita has many control inputs, but this one is arguably the one that will matter the most. Dual analog sticks mean that not only will we have fully 3D games that actually control well without the weird ass workarounds that had to be created for PSP games (and will most likely also be created for 3DS games), but it also means that we can look at console style games on the system that will not be compromised as far as control is concerned.
5. Uses Cartridges: For everyone who was sick of the clunky and battery draining UMDs, this should come as a blessing in disguise. The PS Vita uses cartridges as its primary game format. The advantages of this are twofold:
One, we can do away with the long load times that plagued most PSP games.
And secondly, the size of Vita games may increase in the future, as opposed to the games being limited by the size of the format, as is the case when your format is optical.
6. Cross Game Chat: The one ace in the hole that Xbox Live held over PSN and the PS3, the PS Vita offers cross game chat. For people who enjoy social online gaming, this should be great!
7. System Power and Specs: The PS Vita is a very powerful handheld, powerful enough to get multiplat versions of games developed for the HD consoles. That is saying a lot. This means that for people who enjoy the idea of console gaming on the go, they will not have to put up with downgraded ports of their favorite games- the full experience can be had. The console is powerful enough to support it, and its control options and online play ensure that the experience will not be hindered by those factors either.
8. PS Suite Compatibility: Of course, there are many who *don't* want console gaming on the go and prefer bite sized gaming from their handhelds. The Vita has you covered. With the PS Suite, the Vita gains access to smartphone style games that will be released on both Android and on the PS Vita.
9. Digital Focus: Then again, there are those that think that the very idea of carrying game cartridges or discs defeats the purpose of a portable system. the Vita has you covered there as well. Every single game on the Vita can be bought online from the PSN Store... and the best part is, that most probably, games bought online wlll be cheaper than games bought at retail (which probably explains the high cost of the memory cards). So you just have to worry about carying your system with you, and you have all your games with you. No having to worry about losing small game cartridges. This is in sharp contrast to Nintendo and the 3DS, where they stubbornly maintain that retail games will never be offered on the eShop.
10. PSN Store: The Vita gains access to the PSN Store, which not only boasts of better content than Nintendo's eShop, but also sports a better interface. Sharper, cleaner, better organized.
10 PS Vita Flaws:
1. Entry Price: Honestly, the PS Vita is good value for money. It's $249/$299 prices are great, but as the PSP and PS3 amply demonstrated, customers don't really care about the whole 'value for money' angle, and spending that much money on a handheld system will probably be unacceptable to most, especially when the actual cost of entry is deceptively higher than what the price tag might indicate.
2. No on board memory: And for a 2011 system, this is flat out unacceptable. The last system to be sold without on board memory was the Xbox 360 Core, and that was discontinued years ago. The Wii, which everyone likes to slag off on, comes with 512MB of system memory. The 3DS comes with 1GB of on board system memory and a 2GB SD Card included in the box. Microsoft was called out when its system had no on board memory. Nintendo is always called out if they make such an oversight. Why isn't Sony?
3. Memory Cards are a requirement for many games, games won't even start without Memory Cards: This is where things start to get really bad. To play Uncharted: Golden Abyss (just one example), you will need to buy not only the system, but also a proprietary Memory Card. Not even Sony's own Memory Stick, but a new format made specifically for the Vita, made only by Sony, so the prices are never likely to go down, and not by much if at all. Considering that the cheapest card is $29, and the most expensive one is $119, (4GB and 32GB respectively), these prices are a rip off.
Adding insult to injury, the competing system 3DS uses the industry standard of SD cards, and comes with a 2GB SD Card included in the box.
The worst part is, you can't even start playing the game without the Memory Card... you need the cards to boot up the game. Seriously, this wouldn't have been an issue if the system had some on board memory just for saves, but the Vita lacks even that, making a Memory Card purchase necessary, meaning that the true cost of the Vita is in fact at least $280.
4. Battery Life: On medium settings, the PS Vita gets 3-5 hours of battery life. This teeters on being unacceptable; people like to point at the 3DS's oft quoted 3-5 hours battery life figure as a defensive comparison, but the 3DS's 3 hour battery life is on the highest settings. If the Vita gives out 3 hours on medium settings, I hate to think what it would perform like on high.
What's worse is that unlike the 3DS, you can't even change your own battery. You have to send the Vita in to Sony a la Apple and the iPod for them to change your battery for you.
5. No TV output: Not really a deal breaker, but a definite step back from all their other PSP models since the PSP 2000, which have included a TV out. An obviously deliberate omission to be included in a future revision.
6. Backwards Compatibiltiy is a mess: Another big issue. The PS Vita uses a new proprietary cartridge format for its games, and so features no UMD slot. This means that it is not backwards compatible with any physical PSP games you might already own, not unless you take part in a UMD Conversion program, which requires you to pay for games you already own,and which doesn't even cover all games. Contrast this with the 3DS, which allows you to play all DS, DSi and DSiWare games right out of the box.
Digital copies of your games can and will be carried forward to your Vita, however, assuming you register the same PSN account to the device that you used to buy the games with on your PSP.
7. You can't use the browser while playing games: It might seem like I am nitpicking here, but seriously, what the f**k is this? This is no biggie, I can always just use my smartphone or my PC if I want to consult a walkthrough, but why can't the Vita do this when even the 3DS can? One of the best things about the 3DS is suspending my current game, booting the browser up, going to GameFAQs and consulting a walkthrough on how to proceed, and then resuming my game. It adds to the self contained portable nature of the device that both these systems must exhibit if they are to survive in this iPhone/iPod world. Why can the Vita not access the browser when a game is being played, especially considering its great multitasking capabilities?
However, Sony have apparently said that they will be fixing this problem with a firmware update soon, so sit tight!
8. Only one account per system: This one actually negates one of the big advantages that the Vita had over the 3DS- but only one account can be registered per Vita system. This means that you and your brother can't share a Vita, this means that you can't have multple accounts to get around region restrictions, this basically means that you are account locked onto your unit. Again, not a deal breaker, but a bit of a puzzling decision.
To some people, there might be a problem because they might buy games from all over the world. So if you have a US PSN account on your Vita, and you buy a game in the UK, you can't buy DLC for your game.
9. PSOne Classic Games Won't Be Available At Launch: Remember the 3DS launch, where the eShop and DSiWare games weren't available at launch, and were patched in with a future firmware update? That is what this is like, only not quite as bad.
People hoping to play PSOne games on their shiny new Vita, hold up. You can't, at least not yet. That functionality will be patched into the Vita with a future firmware update.
Looks like Sony just pulled a Nintendo on all of us.
10. You Can't Manage Your Vita With A Mac: If you want to manage all the media, games, apps and more on your Vita with your PC, you're fine. If you own a Mac, you're screwed, since the management software apparently is not compatible with Mac. Yet. Sony said they would be looking into fixing this issue soon.
Source: GAF
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