Vita Launch Guide

Sony’s newest handheld gaming system the PlayStation Vita comes out today and I have put together a basic buyer’s guide to help people looking to learn more before purchasing the device.  Hopefully this will help some people with their decision on whether or not to get the system and prevent them from wasting any money.

So first things first there are two version of the Vita available: the Wi-Fi only model for $250 and the 3G model for $300.  If you go the route of the 3G model you will be able to go online and download from anywhere but it will run you $15 a month for 250MB or $30 a month for 3GB.  Now the $30 a month version is obviously better but you should know that if you were to download Uncharted: Golden Abyss (which is $5 cheaper on PSN due to Sony giving 10% discounts when you buy from them digitally) it would take about 3.2GB, which would pretty much fill up the smallest memory card (I’ll get to that later), and go over your data limit for the month causing an overage charge.  So if you ask me stay with the WI-FI model, so you save $50 up front and $30 a month after that, and just download when at home or in a Wi-Fi hotspot for an extended period of time.

Alright after picking the model you want comes the next and quite frankly the most important thing, the games.  I am not going to tell you what games to get since I have yet to play any, let alone all, of them and that is a matter of personal preference.  So I’ll just leave you with the list of all 26 launch titles (that’s right all 26 are day one games) and order them by price.

Game(s) for $7.99

 Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (PSN Only)

 Game(s) for $9.99

Hustle Kings (PSN Only)

Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only)

Super Stardust Delta (PSN Only)

Game(s) for $14.99

Escape Plan (PSN Only)

Game(s) for $29.99

Asphalt: Injection

Ben 10: Galactic Racing

Hot Shots Golf World Invitational

Little Deviants

ModNation Racers: Road Trip

TOUCH MY KATAMARI

Game(s) for $39.99

Army Corps of Hell

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II Plus

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance

Dynasty Warriors Next

F1 2011

FIFA Soccer

Lumines:Electronic Symphony

Michael Jackson: The Experience

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus

Rayman Origins

Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Virtua Tennis 4

WipEout 2048

Game(s) for $49.99

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

            In addition to the Vita’s 26 launch titles there are 275 games from the PSP that can be re-downloaded onto the Vita.  I figured it would be simpler to just provide the link to the list especially since it gives some info on how to re-download the games.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/02/09/how-to-download-psp-titles-to-ps-vita/

Well now that you got games you need to save them on to something, which brings us to my biggest gripe with the system: the need to use overpriced proprietary memory cards exclusively made for the Vita.  The prices are as follows: 4GB - $20, 8GB - $30, 16GB - $60 and 32GB - $100.  Game sizes vary quite a lot especially if you decide to download the games.  For instance if you download an arcade game like Super Stardust Delta it will take about 200MB of space, but as I wrote above Uncharted will take 3.2GB.  Playing games does not require installation, so if you don’t download any retail games or many arcade games you should be fine with any size card.  However if you add in photos that you might take, songs that you might listen to and movies that you might watch you will probably want to get at least an 8GB card.

            As with all handheld systems there are a number of different accessories available for the Vita.  The best deal that I have found is the Sony PlayStation Vita Starter Kit for $40, which includes a Screen Protector ($10), a cleaning cloth, a car adapter ($10), a pocket pouch, a case that holds up to 8 games & 2 memory cards, Vita headphones ($20) and a 4GB memory card ($20).

            So that is pretty much everything you need to know about the Vita right now.  Hopefully this helps and hopefully the Vita will prove to be an amazing system. 

Weekly Wrap Up: Feb. 20

Far Cry 3 at GameStop

            FarCry 3 has a trailer and I have to say it is pretty cool even if I don’t understand how some random guy on vacation can become I total badass and start taking down an army of bad guys.  However I don’t really want to discuss the trailer, it is linked below if you are interested.  What I want to briefly talk about is the fact that they are offering 4 free missions if you pre-order the game from GameStop.  I hate pre-order bonuses and I think it is bogus to hold that much content back from paying customers who choose to buy from other stores.  I may eventually write a piece about how much I hate pre-order bonuses and how I think it is a terrible and ridiculous business practice so I won’t get into that whole issue now.  I just want to say that I will not be buying this game from GameStop at launch or ever for that matter on sheer principle.  Those missions may end up as downloadable content and if they want me to pay for what everyone should have gotten with the game than I need the price to drop so that I don’t feel like I got ripped off.     

http://far-cry.ubi.com/far-cry-3/en-us/home/

Gears of War 3’s Season Pass Finale

            The final DLC pack for Gears of War 3 has been revealed.  It is another Map Pack and will contain 5 maps, a  bunch of weapon and character skins and some new weapons.  Out of the 5 maps 3 are entirely new and they are called: Aftermath, Artillery and Cove.  The other 2 are new versions of Raven Down and Jacinto, which are maps from previous Gears games.  The new weapons are 4 different types of elemental cleavers, which sounds pretty cool.  The pack is called Forces of Nature and will be released on March 27.

Assassin’s Creed 3

            To no surprise Assassin’s Creed 3 has been announced and also as a major non-shocker it will be coming out this year.  I really wanted a break from this series, but I knew that there was no way that would happen since the game’s story deals with everyone’s favourite end of the world time setting of 2012.  Seriously how could you possibly pass up releasing this game in 2012 from a marketing standpoint?  So we will finally end Desmond’s storyline on October 30 and I sincerely hope that with the massive change to the game’s setting that it will look and feel different from the rest of the series. I would hate for the finale of Assassin’s Creed to feel repetitive and stale.

Resistance: Burning Skies release date

            The first Resistance game on the Vita will also be the first one following Insomniac’s departure from the series.  It will be released on May 29 and will hopefully not be another failure for Nihilistic Software.

Diablo 3 news

            Diablo 3 will not support voice chat.  Why?  I don’t know but hey that is what Blizzard thinks is best and they are ridiculously successful so I guess I’ll just trust them on it.  Also the game will have 4-player co-op throughout the campaign, which some people have actually been complaining about.  The reason why, is that there are 5 classes so they feel that there should be 5-player co-op.  It is a valid argument, but maybe they want you to strategize by not having every class in your party at once.  Then again maybe it was just easier to have 4 instead of 5.  Quite frankly I can’t think of many non Massively Multiplayer games that support more than 4-player co-op, so perhaps there is a challenge with it.

Resident Evil 6 details

            So a whole lot of details about one of my most anticipated games of the year RE6 have been released.  First off as we saw in the trailer players will hop between 3 characters: Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield and a currently unnamed mercenary.  Since they have been mentioned as the playable characters and no one else, along with the darker more horror based atmosphere I saw in parts of the trailer, I am currently assuming that this will not be a co-op game but that is yet to be confirmed.  A major change that I am a little upset about is the fact that players can now move and shoot at the same time.  I know a lot of people complained about that before but I love the tension that it brought to the experience, so hopefully ammo will be scarce and moving while shooting will make you inaccurate.  Players will also be able to slide, roll, take cover and perform “enhanced” melee attacks.  Resident Evil 6 will mark the franchise’s return to true zombies, but they will be more dangerous than the ones found in the earlier instalments as they will be able to run, jump and use weapons (although probably not guns this time).  There is also a new type of enemy called J’avo which appears to be an upgraded version of the enemies from RE4 & 5 since they can understand speech and mutate based on which body parts you target.    

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