I downloaded the three augmented reality games (Cliff Diving, Fireworks, and Table Soccer) a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to trying them until today.
Cliff Diving and Fireworks are OK games, especially considering they're free, but they really don't make good use of AR. All they are doing is superimposing the "playfield" on whatever surface you're using. I actually felt more restricted by the AR elements, since I have to aim the Vita's camera at the card to continue playing, rather than being able to play from a comfortable position of my choice.
Then I went to try Table Soccer, and I got stuck on the tutorial! When it asks me to "zoom in", I try moving the system forward, but it won't progress to the next step. I can zoom up to about an inch away from the table, it still won't progress. If I zoom back more than about 2 feet from the cards, it'll report "out of range". Moving the 01/02/03 cards closer or further apart doesn't seem to affect this. This will change the size of the playfield (as it's supposed to), but the size of the playfield doesn't matter because the range for the distance from the Vita to "see" the cards is still 2 feet or less. No matter what I try, it just never detects my repeated efforts to "zoom in". I had no choice but to quit out of the game.
I then figured I'd switch to the camera to see if there's some lighting issue that I'm missing. Lighting seems to be OK, but my goodness, the image quality is truly one of the absolute WORST I have ever seen from anything purporting to be a digital camera. The amount of grain is atrocious, and there's no settings that you can adjust to compensate.
The camera on the Vita is so shockingly TERRIBLE that I'm wondering if my system has a defective camera, or if everyone's Vita camera is this bad. I know that some of the hardware reviews have mentioned the low quality camera, but this is much worse than I expected. The old PSP snap-on camera had far better quality. I have a digital camera that's approaching 15 years old, and even that has significantly better image quality than the Vita.
At this point, I've become disenchanted with the concept of AR games on the Vita--this is turning into a real bust. Between the difficult camera tracking, having to hold the system relatively close to a card to maintain the virtual playfield, and games not really utilizing the environment, it's seriously disappointing. Developers might be better of just forgetting about AR altogether. I'd prefer to simply use the touch screen to drag onscreen icons for item placement, than to place cards in the real world. It might be a cute gimmick to see a playfield rendered in your kitchen or your bedroom, but there are too many restrictions that hinder the level of enjoyment.
