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BPX027: Livin' Da VITA Loca

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    BPX027: Livin' Da VITA Loca



    This week Playstation Spain confirmed what we'd all known for a long time now for Europe (and America). The Playstation Vita has been discontinued.

    With it comes not only the end of a powerful handheld but also the end of the last rival to Nintendo's market dominance and the end of Sony's handheld ambitions. Battered by proprietary hardware, weak support from Sony and the initial rising march of mobile gaming, the Vita's following has been niche but deeply passionate.

    The system increasingly relied on Japanese and Indie support for its software releases, software that still continues to come out in its home market place. But rather than software recommendations, this is a place for current and past owners to reflect on their memories.

    What are your closing thoughts on your time holding Vita in your hands?
    14
    Vita - It was one of the greatest handhelds ever
    0%
    6
    Life - It was full of ups and downs
    0%
    4
    Death - It always was a failure
    0%
    4

    #2
    The PlayStation Vita is the best portable console I have played (in the last 24 hours).

    Comment


      #3
      Love the machine and the games. I bought more for it than I did my 3DS. The perfect weeaboo console!

      Really sad to hear it's been discontinued to be honest, that's put a slight bummer on my Fri night.

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        #4
        As a piece of kit incredible, great screen and build quality. The games though I got seemed more like tech demo's EDF aside, Killzone in particular looks lush but is over far too soon, the last level fight design is similar to a generation long ago.

        I prefer my PSP's far, far more.

        It's not the fault of the Vita though rather Sony for the lack of support.

        A crying shame.
        Last edited by Anpanman; 23-03-2018, 21:23.

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          #5
          Nice screen and it has some good games of course but it was a compete failure to me.

          PSP was better.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Cepp View Post
            Nice screen and it has some good games of course but it was a compete failure to me.

            PSP was better.
            Pretty much this. Owned an OLED model and a slim and while the hardware is nice I hate the console OS (why didn't they just continue using XMB?) and there isn't enough niche Japanese stuff to hold interest (boob games aside (of which I don't like)).
            Last edited by speedlolita; 23-03-2018, 21:31.

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              #7
              [QUOTE=Anpanman;2265392]As a piece of kit incredible, great screen and build quality/QUOTE]

              Really, I must have bought something different than you.

              Pokey analogue sticks, poor 1st gen OLED using a heavily oversaturated colour gamut, bad screen blotch on a black screen, poor pixel response time, cramp inducing triggers.....and that’s before the dreadful support for quality software.

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                #8
                For me a failure. I certainly never clicked with this machine in the same way I did with its predecessor or Nintendo handhelds. I think the previous point about the awful OS is fairly apt, although as a gaming only machine it was a fairly insignificant barrier to playing your games (save games being deleted with the app issue aside). Perhaps I could have played more games on it, or missed some gems but I didn't, so it's not a machine I particularly miss since I got rid of mine.

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                  #9
                  Pre-order a Japanese launch system as soon as it was available on NCSX. Don't know why I felt the need to import a Japanese system from a US based company but, well, there it is.

                  I remember waiting for it to ship, and then followed the tracking over the Christmas period hoping it would arrive between Christmas and New Year.

                  It did, 29th December 2011. WiFi consoles Minna no Golf, Uncharted and an 8Gb memory card.

                  Bliss!!

                  Incredible machine, a fantastic range of software, hampered slightly by the ridiculous price of the proprietary storage. Even Nintendo use MicroSD for foofs sake!!

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                    #10
                    I quite enjoyed mine, although not as much as I liked the PSP. It was awesome having such great and modern games on a handheld, like Borderlands 2. However, as that was its main attraction for me, the Switch has made it rather redundant now.

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                      #11
                      I think much of the Vita's enduring popularity will rest on its Japanese output but also on those who have/eventually open the system up. It remains a very capable handheld and for those who have wrenched open its firmware it's perfectly capable of being a great portable for emulation including its predecessor which means for some it renders the PSP obsolete. The poor support from Sony remains a puzzle though as does the general way they treated it. The lack of westernised content was a key area of hurt though. They had an early window to really dent Nintendo in their most profitable market but greed killed it with all that proprietary nonsense.

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                        #12
                        I was travelling back from London yesterday (as a passenger) and I was playing EDF on the move! Game on!

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                          #13
                          I'm still playing it (going through a bit of a PSP renaissance at the mo' though). Apart from the terrible ****ty proprietary memory card (stereotypically Sony) the machine and it's library are great. I have had a blast with it and the Psn store is ripe with great indies - many with PS3/PS4 cross buy and cross play.

                          I think Sony dropped support way too quick but I'll probably buy a spare unit once the masses start dumping it.

                          I'm probably a bit odd as I also like the PSTV with all of its flaws.

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                            #14
                            Any gems in the PS+ sale I might have missed.

                            Tempted by Dariusburst.

                            Also Dragonquest Builders & Borderlands 2.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Superman Falls
                              What are your closing thoughts on your time holding Vita in your hands?
                              Honestly? Just a bit of sadness at the missed opportunity. It really was a wonderful machine, with great hardware.

                              It was just let down by the stuff we've all discussed; the memory cards, the kinda pointless 3G support and the lack of proper L3/R3 and L2/R2 buttons. Also, I still think the name was poor, and detracted from the machine's identity. And the Vita-TV, whilst good in theory, was flawed in practice.

                              I think it's difficult to lay it entirely at Sony's feet, though. The machine released when smartphones were exploding in popularity, which I think had an impact. It also straddled an strange era; when it came out, I think that significantly fewer gamers were willing to buy mainly digital games, but by the time it was discontinued in 2018, this was a more widely-accepted practice.

                              My hope is that the Switch becomes the new Vita. I'm still surprised we haven't seen ports of more of the games; all those quirky JRPGs for one.

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