I’ve followed the launch of the PS Vita quite closely because, for the past year or more I’ve been obsessed with having some form of mobile computing device beyond my phone/ipod (remember, I have a BlackBerry not a fun phone!). I’m definitely someone who would look to either a tablet or handheld device as a life saver, I fly at least twice a month and I spend a solid hour on the tube every day.
In the summer I bought the Sony S1 Tablet thinking this might be the best halfway house purchase for me. The size and potential productivity of a tablet with the fun of the Playstation games offered within. This was arguably the worst purchase I’ve ever made and I took it back within 4 days, it had the processing power of a dead goat, half the features didn’t work and the playstation games (crash bandicoot) just didn’t work on a touchscreen device. (Thank you PC World for a full refund!)
So the PS Vita looked like it might be a good device to at least settle my hunger for something to play. Currently I get incredible value out of my iPod Touch app store purchases, at the moment I’m playing Tripletown a game that has both me and soon to be Mrs. TosspoT addicted in the puzzle world of fighting bears and building houses. If you were to look over someone’s shoulder who was playing it, you’d think they were an idiot, but to play is to love. Before that, Plants vs Zombies, Bloons Tower Defence, Airport Mania and more. All purchased for the grand sum of less than 2 pounds each – yet delivering between fifty and a hundred hours of game time.
At a maximum of two pounds for a game, I don’t mind taking a punt on a game that isn’t going to deliver the all action excitement of Plants vs Zombies (brains…) if that price was say…forty pounds I’d certainly think twice!
The motivation for this column and reason for my fear of purchasing the PS Vita is this review of 10 launch games. Having not bought a game for my XBOX360 in years and my PC Game buying cycle being driven by yearly repeat purchases (Football Manager, Call of Duty etc) – I have become numb to the actual price of video games.
You’ve got to be joking if you think I’m going to drop forty pounds on a handheld game or even worse, 45 pounds for FIFA! (I hate handheld football games for some reason). In that review list there is only one game that would tempt my purchase and that is wipeout (it always upsets me that since the turn of the millennium Wipeout games have not migrated onto PC).
For me the reality is that ‘the App game’ has killed the handheld experience. Why pay 20x the price when I can risk just a fraction on the war in my back garden between plants and zombies. I cannot imagine I'm alone, whilst there was a time where I'd spend whatever took to have the best game and to be a pokemon master - those days are gone! Kids today will be wise to where their pocket money is spent, on the phone or on their handheld/console.
Whilst the app game is rarely as immersive in terms of story line, that’s something I can forgo for the additional bulge in my wallet. My hankering for a new gadget will probably lead me to an ultrabook sometime later this year.
In the summer I bought the Sony S1 Tablet thinking this might be the best halfway house purchase for me. The size and potential productivity of a tablet with the fun of the Playstation games offered within. This was arguably the worst purchase I’ve ever made and I took it back within 4 days, it had the processing power of a dead goat, half the features didn’t work and the playstation games (crash bandicoot) just didn’t work on a touchscreen device. (Thank you PC World for a full refund!)
So the PS Vita looked like it might be a good device to at least settle my hunger for something to play. Currently I get incredible value out of my iPod Touch app store purchases, at the moment I’m playing Tripletown a game that has both me and soon to be Mrs. TosspoT addicted in the puzzle world of fighting bears and building houses. If you were to look over someone’s shoulder who was playing it, you’d think they were an idiot, but to play is to love. Before that, Plants vs Zombies, Bloons Tower Defence, Airport Mania and more. All purchased for the grand sum of less than 2 pounds each – yet delivering between fifty and a hundred hours of game time.
At a maximum of two pounds for a game, I don’t mind taking a punt on a game that isn’t going to deliver the all action excitement of Plants vs Zombies (brains…) if that price was say…forty pounds I’d certainly think twice!
The motivation for this column and reason for my fear of purchasing the PS Vita is this review of 10 launch games. Having not bought a game for my XBOX360 in years and my PC Game buying cycle being driven by yearly repeat purchases (Football Manager, Call of Duty etc) – I have become numb to the actual price of video games.
You’ve got to be joking if you think I’m going to drop forty pounds on a handheld game or even worse, 45 pounds for FIFA! (I hate handheld football games for some reason). In that review list there is only one game that would tempt my purchase and that is wipeout (it always upsets me that since the turn of the millennium Wipeout games have not migrated onto PC).
For me the reality is that ‘the App game’ has killed the handheld experience. Why pay 20x the price when I can risk just a fraction on the war in my back garden between plants and zombies. I cannot imagine I'm alone, whilst there was a time where I'd spend whatever took to have the best game and to be a pokemon master - those days are gone! Kids today will be wise to where their pocket money is spent, on the phone or on their handheld/console.
Whilst the app game is rarely as immersive in terms of story line, that’s something I can forgo for the additional bulge in my wallet. My hankering for a new gadget will probably lead me to an ultrabook sometime later this year.
When I bought MW3, I was a little shocked, 46€ it was I think.
Of course, its expensive to create a game and all that stuff (MW3 and BF3 are awesome games).
But how comes, I'm spending hours playing shit on my iPhone?
Apps for it are at 0,79€ mostly, I'm buying a lot of those every month and I'm spending more time with the iPhone apps than with BF3, I think. (Certainly more than with MW3).
For me, those cheap apps are way more addicting than the 40-50€ Pc games.
Even the Multiplayer apps are great (try Tradenations!)
You need friends who play it too, tho. Since you need to trade, order stuff at their shops and so on.
Very addicting, internet required, tho.
Its nothing to play for an hour or two since it always takes time (minutes or hours) to build or produce something, its a game you check every hour.
The fun part about it is the challenge with your friends: who can lvl faster, build the "cooler" Village.
On the other hand, you can only be successful if you work together with your friends, means accepting their orders in your shops so you can order the stuff you need in their shops
And honestly I can only see the 'app market' games as a revolution in price, I never liked handeld devices apart from the gameboy color ofcourse my Pokemon machine and my TI-84 can be considerd as a tetris-machine. And part of the reason why I didn't like them probably has to do with being overpriced, If I compair what I get when I bought a game for my pc or for any handheld device it's less fun/bucks.
By the way why do you have an blackberry I've never really considerd it as a good phone, in my eyes it's outdated since the first iphone.
Ultrabooks seem to be pretty awesome but they should drop like 200 euro's and be priced around 800 euro. This only will happen when they get more mainstream and I belive they will manage that since it are awesome products just a little new at the moment.
I never considerd myself an apple fan and probably won't ever, but I have to thank them a big time for changing the phone industry(with that handheld gaming) and the laptop industry with their macbookpro and macbookair.
vita has that stuff working like a charm
also
how can you expect sony to sell games for 2 bucks
Au moins sur ce coup ci il y avait de l'innovation!
in the end a friend of mine did get it and i tried it and didnt rly liked it.
the 3d only worked in the right position in front of your face and dare you if you moved it to just a tiny bit
pretty much like the htc 3D Evo its a nice to have but i wouldnt spend any money on it
So basically you want a PS Vita type device but then still expect to only pay iphone app type costs... you see where i'm going here...
i paid 16 euro for fifa 12 in an internetstore...
I dont think you can compare phone app games and handheld console games, I have not seen a phone app game that has interested me for more than 10-15 minutes, including the ones you mentioned, while atleast certain titles on handheld consoles is "real" games.
The VITA is an amazing device, so many intuitive features with the future looking really strong for the device! You just can't compare it to a phone. Don't forget, for a top end smartphone to play "their" games to their potential, your looking upwards of £399, the VITA, £197. The near £200 saving on this can go somewhere towards buying those games, and with trade-ins, I reckon you could get about 12-15 VITA games for that saving.
I agree that £45 is an absurd amount of money to pay for a game, but you don't have to pay that and no one is making you. Games wise, I have spent £32.79 on VITA games, Uncharted (79p), FIFA (Free), Wipeout (£5) and Marvel vs Capcom (£27). It's all about finding the good prices (HotUKDeals helps!). The rise of PSN store has led to a massive decrease in online retail prices, just look at Asda, the majority of games are under £28.
u MAD?!!?!?!?!
http://ninjakiwi.com/Games/Tower-Defense/Play/Bloons-Tower-Defense-5.html
I paid 30 quid recently for Marvel vs Capcom on my PS3 and barely touched it but i can happily spend hours lost in crappy flash games.
I think the big console producers are falling for the same old traps of either rehashing popular franchises (COD etc.) or going for gimmicks like the motion capture/wiimote games. The general public lap them up and the games companies make plenty of money so why stop.
The independent nature of flash games and mobile phone apps and the relatively low costs involved means more choice and more creativity. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of shite out there but the sheer volume of games means plenty of diamonds as well.
Yes there isn't as much choice as for the iphone, but thats only because the ps vita has only just launched.
You are negative about the vita because fifa footbal costs 40 euro. But for the VITA there are a handfull of cheap kick ass games like motorstorm RC (6euro) + you can buy a lot of PSP games for around 5-10 euro.
I got myself a VITA and I must say the quality of the screen is amazing, I never want to play anything on an iphone or tablet ever again.
Anyone else thought of a boner here? no homo btw