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Playstation Vita western launch thread | It only does everything, everywhere.

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solarus

Member
Please suggest me how to get a 32GB memory card in Europe

I'd like to buy the 32GB memory card.
Sadly as you know it is not officially released here in Europe.
I tried to ordered it on Amazon.com but for this particular item, they don't ship to Europe.
Any suggestion in order to get that damn 32GB?
Thanks guys!

Try planetaxel its around £60 if i remember right.
EDIT:Beaten
 

KalBalboa

Banned
I wound up canceling my preorder with Best Buy after realizing they would continually have a pending charge on my debit card. I'm still picking one up on day one, but I was told by a rep that I wouldn't be charged until I picked it up. Imagine my surprise when I checked my account this morning.

The question had arisen again: wifi and 16 gig for $310, or 3G bundle with 8 gig for $300.
 

GQman2121

Banned
What are the opinions on the extended warranties that are being offered? $50 for a two year plan at Best Buy doesn’t seem like a bad investment, accept if the screen cracks they don’t give you a new system, they ship off yours to be repaired by a third party company. I’m not sure how GameStop’s warranties work now, but I do recall them opening a box and handing me a new sliver PSP when I smashed by original years ago while still under their in house warranty. I believe that was also $50.

I don’t plan on taking my system out of the house very often, but all it takes is one spill, drop or mishap to ruin the thing for good.

Does anyone have any insight on the current state of extended warranties being offered? Does Amazon have anything to purchase?
 

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
Finally the launch thread is up! Great stuff!

I think it's pretty much inarguable at this point that the Vita has the most impressive launch line up of any system released, and the year one line up really puts it over the top.

I posted in the old thread, but it seems more fitting to post it in this launch thread, but my day one Vita plans:

3G/WiFi Vita
Uncharted: GA
Rayman: Origins
Super Stardust Delta
Corpse Party
Gladiator Begins
maybe FF Dissidia
maybe Patapon and What did I do to deserve this, My Lord?

My month one purchases:
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Unit 13
Gravity Daze
Escape Plan
Shinobido 2

Other anticipated games for 2012:

Ragnarok Odyssey
Ruin/Warriors Lair
Dragon's Crown

What a line up of software! And who knows what's going to be announced at E3 this year!

I don't mind waiting for the 22nd, but my excitement levels have certainly risen after seeing this thread posted. This will be my first ever launch day purchase of a console/handheld, as well as my first participation in a NeoGAF launch OT. The countdown is going to be fun, and I'm already prepared for the pangs of jealousy I'll be feeling when people start posting pictures of their Vitas as they get them!
 
What are the opinions on the extended warranties that are being offered? $50 for a two year plan at Best Buy doesn’t seem like a bad investment, accept if the screen cracks they don’t give you a new system, they ship off yours to be repaired by a third party company. I’m not sure how GameStop’s warranties work now, but I do recall them opening a box and handing me a new sliver PSP when I smashed by original years ago while still under their in house warranty. I believe that was also $50.

I don’t plan on taking my system out of the house very often, but all it takes is one spill, drop or mishap to ruin the thing for good.

Does anyone have any insight on the current state of extended warranties being offered? Does Amazon have anything to purchase?

The key question is, does it cover accidental damage? Make sure they're very clear about that and make sure you see it in writing. Like if you take it right now and drop it on the ground, will the replace it for you. If it does cover it, then maybe it's worth it. My general rule of thumb is not to buy an extended warranty. If I total up the number of times a device broke and would have been covered versus the amount of money I would have spent covering items, the money I saved could have easily just paid for a new item and still saved money. So I don't think they are worth it in the long run. Handhelds are probably a bit more concerning since they are portable.
 
Any gamestop employee or manager know what day of the week gamestops would normally receive the early shipment of vitas if they haven't gotten it already?
 
Was in a HMV in Dublin today, saw Uncharted GA was €55, actually did a double back to make sure it was real considering all the PS3 and 360 games around it were sub €45.

€55!!
 

Yuripaw

Banned
Any gamestop employee or manager know what day of the week gamestops would normally receive the early shipment of vitas if they haven't gotten it already?

With a pre-release item, there really is no set date. Chances are we'll have our Vitas this week, but there is no specific date they will try getting them to us.
 
With a pre-release item, there really is no set date. Chances are we'll have our Vitas this week, but there is no specific date they will try getting them to us.

Ok, thanks, but are there also days of the week where most shipments come in? Or is a possible Vita shipment excluded from when stuff normally arrives?
 

Kiraly

Member
Was in a HMV in Dublin today, saw Uncharted GA was €55, actually did a double back to make sure it was real considering all the PS3 and 360 games around it were sub €45.

€55!!

Yeah, the MSRP on Uncharted is laughable in Europe - in the Netherlands one of the biggest online retailers (bol.com) has it priced at €59,99.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Seeing as it's 2am and i'm no closer to sleep, i'll throw my twopence in to ring.

Pros :
-- the screen is fantatic
-- battery life is much better than expected
-- game line up ((today)) is strong
-- PSP games get nice boost with games looking pretty neat on the new screen
-- despite being cosmetically duff, the backgrounds of the OS are at least customizable per screen and is extremely usable
-- upgrading from physical to digital is easy and no faffing about with second installs and moving save data


Cons
-- personal pet peeve - the OS music. God make it stop.
-- Vita PSN store is clumsy and needs a redesign to make searching and navigation easier
-- prices for portable games in Japan getting absurd (obviously doesn't apply to everyone)
-- some games clearly early for Japanese launch (Ridge worst offender)
-- due to nature of "console experience on the go" load times are present and in some cases are clearly noticable to the detriment of the on-the-go nature of the unit
-- unclear what the situation will be with cross region downloads
-- in OS in-game photo taking tends to cut input from the left stick - on game by game basis but it means the function is useless in some cases because it effectively ruins your game
-- auto power suspend needs to go - or at least let me set it to more than 5m
-- bubbles need to have an alternative - it's like i'm looking at a screen full of smarties
-- i've had to hard reset (for which i had to get help from online as to how to do it) 5 times, it's a pain when it happens
-- sound volume is low and even at full blast it's not what i expect
-- music player doesn't seem to have play list support - a pain for custom soundtracks
-- content pages are limited to 10 - so you can only have 10 pages of bubble icons. This seems like quite a lot but throw in that each game gets a mandatory "data area" bubble for Vita, then add PSP and smaller games like Neo geo and PC Engine and it's quite possible to hit your page limit before you hit your data limit.
-- buttons are a bit on the small side
-- in PSP mode i have a horrible tendency to rest a finger on the screen which brings up the PSP emu options which is inconvenient
-- backpanel functionality in some games is a little twitchy (mainly Dark Quest - but i'm putting it down to the game rather than the hardware)
-- general game packagin on the whole has been skimpy and it feels cheap that manuals are , in some cases, a simple one page inlay
-- Sony seem to schedule PSN downtime on thursday nights which is a pain when you want to buy games on the day of release from download

Dude...you bought like every 3DS and Vita game released till this day :p
 

Yuripaw

Banned
Ok, thanks, but are there also days of the week where most shipments come in? Or is a possible Vita shipment excluded from when stuff normally arrives?

There is no specific days of the week that we get shipments. Monday-Friday we literally get something new in everyday. Weekends are the only days we get nothing sent to us.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
ok, that was odd.

Just tried the Vita content manager on a UK PSN account. It didn't show any of my UK PSP games available for transfer, but it did show a Japanese PSP game I'd downloaded. Didn't let me copy it (wrong account etc) but it did show up.

So is there something in the bubbles themselves that make them show up? I hope not, because I just redownloaded 16 PSone/PSP games and would prefer not to have to do that over again.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
OK which launch title should I get? I can only afford one of the 39.99 or less on amazon right now (along with escape plan on PSN).

I'm strongly considering Wipeout, but Hot Shots Golf has my eyes too.

both great games. I'd go with HSG, but they're apples and oranges - one a fast racer, the other a relaxing game of golf

Regarding that digital region lock nonsense, is there no way to use a Vita with a US account to play a Japanese game (for example) by using that as the second activation for the game without resetting it? I've thought about that before, but I've never seen it mentioned, so I guess there isn't any way to do that.

Not PSN games. If you plan to play a lot of different region games, I'd suggest either setting your PSN account to the region you play most, and then buy physical cards from the other regions.

If you have a Japanese machine but using a Euro/American profile, can you move PSP games from PS3 to Vita?

Nope.
 
Which...isn't really that much for a giant corporation that is trying to get the word out about a new product they're launching to 100 million people at one time

How many Vitas are they shipping? o_O

If this was the fall I'd be all for spending that money but I think Sony would be crazy to do it now.
 

JohngPR

Member
I posted these impressions on the other thread, but I assume it'll get more traction here. For those interested:


Got my hands on a Vita at Gamestop yesterday.

I was surprised by how light it was initially. Seeing how much stuff they crammed into it, I expected it to be as hefty as a PSP Phat, but it was closer in weight to the Slim.

Pros

- The screen is big and bright...can't wait to see what movies/Netflix looks like on it. My iPhone 4 does fine with this, but I always feel cramped watching TV/Movies with it.

- They had basically every demo that I would want to try out, from Wipeout, Uncharted, Gravity Rush, and Hot Shots. I really liked all of them. Uncharted looked great despite some slight aliasing, Gravity Rush looks like a lot of fun, and Wipeout looks beautiful...dat load time! I was surprised to see that Little Deviants was just a bunch of mini games. Not sure what I was expecting, but something different than that.

- The UI is really slick. My wife is not a gamer in the slightest and knew exactly what to do with the UI when she saw it. Can't ask for much more than that.

Cons

- The right stick feels a little bit too close the to face buttons...particularly the X button. This is something I will probably get used to.

- I felt unsure of where to put the back of my hands because of the rear touch panel. Again, this is probably something I'll grow accustomed to, especially when I get to hold the system without it being tethered to a display.

So overall, I'm pretty excited for the 22nd. Seeing and playing the system for myself left me wanting it even more.
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
You do know that 2 minutes of air time on the superbowl would have been $14 million dollars.

They've dropped so much money in the past for shit products like Xperia.

Is there even an actual Vita TV ad? All I've ever seen are the horrendous Taco Bell ads. It's really pathetic.
 
I have an unusual question.

I remember awhile back Kojima showed a demo of MGS4 running on the prototype vita hardware at like 25 fps.

Has the hardware changed from when that demo was made to now with its final specifications?

In other words is that graphical fidelity still a possibility?
 
Was going to pick up a Vita later in the year, but that offer of a free 8gb memory card from the Amazon.uk pushed me over the edge.

Pre-ordered Vita wifi + 8gb card and Lumines. (This is the first time I've ever pre-ordered anything funny enough)

The price set by Ubisoft for Lumines at £35 was rather ridiculous, but at £15 it's far more palatable.
 

Liamario

Banned
I wonder if the media manager software could be hacked to allow you to transfer all your games from the different regions to the vita.
Or is it a network restriction (you need to be online to do the transfer)?
 

Peterthumpa

Member
I have an unusual question.

I remember awhile back Kojima showed a demo of MGS4 running on the prototype vita hardware at like 25 fps.

Has the hardware changed from when that demo was made to now with its final specifications?

In other words is that graphical fidelity still a possibility?

Nope, same hardware. Also, that MGS 4 build was pretty much non-optimized for the Vita specs, so expect to see games even better looking than MGS 4 down the road.
 

Snowballo

Member
planetaxel ships worldwide

Thanks to you and to Solarus for the replay.

I got the link
PS Vita Memory Card (32GB)

I have a few questions:
- Where are this shop? Europe? US?
- If you tried them, how long does it take to receive something?
- Considering they are shipping from the 25th, I have to plan to buy another memory card the launch date (22th) in order to play games right? Otherwise I cannot even start the games...

Thanks.
 

Amory

Member
Do we know what the battery life is gonna be like? I haven't seen any news about it. I'll bet it's pretty bad, unfortunately.
 
Vita's battery life is surprisingly good. Considerably better than the 3DS, in my experience, and at least on par with the best PSP could do. Significantly, it doesn't use much battery in sleep mode, unlike the 3DS, so I can easily go a week playing it on and off without needing to recharge. It's probably the best you could hope for in such a powerful handheld.
 

Ran rp

Member
So I finally got to play with a Vita on my way home from class and honestly, I wasn't really blown away by it. Not even wowed. Don't get me wrong, I was impressed by what the device could pump out, but I never had an "Oh crap, that's awesome" moment with it. I blame it on the fact that the screen was at about 50% brightness making it hard to see the games clearly and the audio being muted, taking away a third of the experience. The device was also locked to a demo mode so I couldn't fool around with the settings. Anyway, my impressions:

Hardware:


  • The build quality of the device is fantastic. Everything feels sturdy and comfortable except for the left analogue stick. It's a bit stiffer than the right stick and I felt like I had to fight it to move around smoothly in Uncharted.
  • The screen and device are much smaller than I imagined them to be.
  • There were about two minor scratches on the front of the device but I had to scan the surface for a minute before noticing them. I'd recommend getting a full-surface screen protector if you don't plan on picking up a carrying case.

Games: No full games, only demos.


  • Golden Abyss: This was the most impressive game on display. The screenshots do this game absolutely no justice and the only visual oddity I noticed was the super low-res fire. I even forgot that the game was sub-qhd once I started playing so I don't think that'll be an issue later on. I didn't get to shoot anything though since the demo was just a loop of the burning building.

  • Wipeout 2048: The first thing I noticed was the frame rate. It was a lot rougher in person than in the YouTube videos but I'm pinning that on the demo being an older build. It's also much busier than HD/Fury, so seeing where I was going was a little challenging. I probably had the most fun with this demo since I got to play a proper race.

  • Gravity Rush: Short demo. Very pretty. Awkward controls. Using the sticks/buttons/gyro all at once takes some getting used to. I wish the demo was longer so I could get a better feel for the game.

  • Hot Shots Golf: It's Hot Shots Golf. I've only played the demo of the PS3 version so I can't really compare it to a full game but I did have fun with it and plan on picking it up down the road.

  • ModNation Racers: No. God no. The frame rate is horrendous. Absolute trash. I hope the demo was just an ancient build of the game and not what will be shipped for launch.

  • Little Deviants: This game is not worth $30. It's not a bad game, but not a ton of fun either. It should've been a free download for every new Vita owner or a $5 PSN game. I don't understand why Sony's giving it a physical release.

Despite my so-so first experience with the Vita I'm still excited as ever for launch. The hardware and games are great and I can't wait to play everything under optimal conditions.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
For the US Gamestop locations, to my knowledge, even if they had them, it would be breaking street date (Feb. 15, 2012) to give them out early.
 

Ken

Member
Any reviews or impressions on Hot Shots Golf? It seems like the only launch game I'm interested in picking up a Vita for.
 

patsu

Member
What?
Can anyone confirm this?

It true, what is the pricing?

Yes, I saw with my own eyes. GameStop here has started to sell 8Gb, 4Gb, car adapter, starter kit, etc. They are all on display behind their counter.

They told me FEB are being shipped as we speak. And more accessories are on the way.

They were told to sell these Vita stuff as they get them.

I bought the cradle (It's sitting on my desk now). Pre-ordered the screen protector and the 32Gb memcard because they were not in stock at that time.
 

Nert

Member
Does this system have a clock application? I know it's a relatively minor thing, but it will determine whether or not I purchase the charging cradle for it.
 
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