Today, this saturday while I was in Dublin city centre I visited one of the GAME stores and they had a special promotion where they gave an opportunity to play the VITA system for people who wanted to

So I played it myself for a total of half an hour and played 2 games: Wipeout 2048 and Uncharted golden abyss, so what are my first impressions with the system? I have to say...Very positive

Let's start with the screen: It's absolutely beautiful, it's bigger than the PSP screen and games look like a beauty on it

The power of the handheld really impressed me, the amount of detail that the games had were really something, now I understand why they call it a "Portable PS3"

Which brings us to the controls: The VITA has 2 analog sticks apart from the standard d-pad and 4 buttons as well as L and R, the result? Games control very fluid and good, when I played the games I felt like I was literally playing with a PS3 controller, it's very impressive for a handheld. the VITA also has a read touchpad which is used for some very cool things like in Uncharted

The system felt really good in my hands, I had a really nice grip on it, it doesn't slip and it's surprisingly light, probably because it uses carts now instead of UMD's, the system also has a camera on the front and the back

The front touchscreen I thought was kind of unecessary but still nice in some cases

That's about everything that I can think of off the top of my head, if you have any questions then feel free to ask

Overall: I was really impressed with it and I left the store with a smile on my face, I'll definitely be getting one closely after launch

From what I've seen of the Vita it looks like a great system.

I don't know if I'll be getting one just yet as none of the games that have been announced for it so far look like must haves to me, but I'll probably get one later on.

The best titles so far Seem to be: Wipeout, Uncharted and Stardust

There are a lot of games right now in development though, along with a Rumored Castlevania and Contra game

sigh.......
Years ago, I finally convinced my parents and happily bought a Gameboy Colour. Not after a year, Gameboy Advance comes.
Last year, I happily bought my second handheld gaming console--a PSP, and then......

The PSP was way better than the DS, but it died an early death. Superior hardware does not mean the Vita will be a success. It does have a fun looking Dynasty Warriors game on it though, so I will have to buy one. Its too bad that sytem + proprietary memory stick + full price game = cant afford it for some time.

I was going to get the bundle we have for preorder here in the states, but it was the 3g version and that threw me away from it. I am going to wait until I buy my PC before I get it though. Looks great :D

I love my PSP, so I think a Vita is going to be a buy for me. I love Dynasty Warriors, and as I'm sure there'll be some GoW games coming, I'm sure that'll be a solid sell as well. Throw in Castlevania? Sheeeeeeeit.

Did you get an opportunity to test connectivity at all? Specifically, the browser, how fast it was, what it supports, etc? I like the PSP having a browser, but you're pretty limited in what you can browse, due to memory constraints.

The PSP had quite a lot of problems, and I can't shake the feeling that the Vita will just repeat the same issues.

The attach rate for the PSP was atrociously low, and by the time I bought one pretty much all western developers and retailers had thrown up their hands and abandoned it without giving it a chance. Can't help but see that most gamers would buy one for Uncharted, beat it, and return/sell it the next day so no one in the west would bother with it, and a large portion of Japanese developers would probably stick to the cheaper/more established PSP base.

Then there's the legacy issue; I remember hearing that for some reason the japanese release had to ax stuff like the tg16 and psx support though they might get added back later and maybe for the US release as well. And a big problem currently with the PSP is that most of the library isn't available on the PSN, which is the only way to play PSP games on the Vita.

Though there's some new problems in DRM like directions, to try and prevent people from hacking it like the PSP (though tbh, that's probably the only reason the platform survived long enough to get established instead of dying in obscurity). The overpriced proprietary memory cards sold separately from the system, games like Uncharted not even booting if you don't have a memory card despite other games being able to save on the same cart, etc. As well as the most recent PS3 firmware update making keeping backup copies of PSP and PSX (and probably Vita) games that you purchased legally on your PS3 harddrive and transferring them to another system horribly user unfriendly for no goddamn reason. Even though that's what they are trying to emphasize as one of the selling points, trading data back and forth between the console and handheld.

Probably more significantly, there's locking the system to a single PSN account without reformatting the entire system, which cuts out people with more than one account say from using DLC from another region for the game they imported.

And it all turned out to be pointless, since I heard that it got hacked day one using existing programs because of the way PSP games were run. *facepalm*

Personally I'm a bit leery since it seems like it wasn't really designed with portability in mind, with the exposed touchscreens and raised sticks. And the only thing I think is interesting in the software library is Ys 4 Celceta, Sea of Trees (especially since there's been 3 or 4 different versions of the game already yet none of them are really canon nor made by the original developers <_> so this will be the definitive version in both story and gameplay.

Though I might buy one in a year or so, after a price drop or hardware revision.

I think Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors are more awesome when playing on TV console or PC though.

Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors are more awesome no matter where you play them.

If they put out a new Monster Hunter on this it may become hard to resist, <3 Monster Hunter

Ofc, but I like having DW/SW on the go, too. ;-)

If you adopt a system six years after release, you can't be that surprised that a follower is around the corner?
Also, the late adoption suggests that you might not have gotten Vita around launch, anyway?
Just enjoy your PSP, and appreciate that you will be able to pick up most of the games you want on the cheap.

Not to mention that while there's some pretty gaping holes in the PSN selection (most notably BBS but also some of the older titles), you can just buy games on PSN and then you can play PSP games on your PSP now, and then later on a Vita.

I don't think I'll get the Vita. Now, I've been a fan of Nintendo my entire life, literally. First handheld I got was a gameboy color, first game was Pokemon. The GBA comes out, I end up missing out a ton because at that age, I didn't have money, I couldn't make money. My brother gets a white model GBA, then an SP later on. Our grandfather finds two more SP's out somewhere, most likely tossed on the side of a road, still work, both go to my brother. So yes, I miss out on the entire cycle save for a couple of rare moments to use his handheld. DS comes out, by this point I've educated myself on videogames, and this time Sony came for war.

All that old knowledge and research, the gameboy line has had somewhere about 10 different competitive handhelds, each one of them died. Reason? They were all stronger, all more capable, ran on color.... Terrible battery life, high cost, big load times, inconsistent quality. Well, I thought it was going to be the same thing here with the PSP. For the most part, yes. Nintendo has still absolutely annihilated the PSP system. It had all the same things against it, including a difficult format, low battery life, high cost, it ran slower, and it was more or less a handheld PS1. But still, they survived. Sony is the only company to have a handheld survive against Nintendo, for what it's worth.

It's weird for this cycle though. Both were going to have the same launch price, both were going to have gyroscope and touch screens and wifi networking. But Sony kept the battery consistent, Nintendo lost most of it. Sony improved the graphical quality, Nintendo has put the system around late Gamecube quality compared to late N64/Early Gamecube. Nintendo lost it on the release with a panic, and no must have titles at launch. Well, obviously since then Nintendo has managed to pick things up, but it was still a terrible start. They managed to sell more than the DS in it's first year, but things botched so much that they're posting their first loss in 30 years. But they have dropped the price, the games are coming and the third party titles have gotten as much major attention as some of the first party games, Resident Evil Revelations especially. Things are picking up.

Now we get to PS Vita, and somehow it's dug itself into the same spot without changing any of their strategy, to learn from Nintendo's mistake, and now they've wound up with even worse sales, and a stronger drop-off than the 3DS system in the same period of time release. If they released together, we may have seen something different. But right now Sony's in a bad spot. A price drop doesn't look likely, and certainly the added cost of a data plan in the 3G model, connected to AT&T of all companies as the only provider, they've alienated phone enthusiasts. The data plan isn't even going to be as good as a phone's plan, the VIta won't have all the same capability. I don't see the Vita getting quite as lucky as Nintendo did in their handheld revival, games or no games.

I want to point out, I haven't really been a Sony fan for a while. Not since the PS3. The PSP, it won me over a little bit. We got it like three years after release, second hand. We got a few decent games on it, and I don't have the same nightmarish disrespect as I used to have. But I still preferred my DS system, and now with a 3DS I plan on sticking with my new handheld. A Vita? 4 years down the line if that probably. But the economy has soured worse than what it did in 2004. The 3DS will probably pick up at least 50 million sales in it's lifetime. The Vita? The way things are right now, it's going to be DS against PSP all over again, with a system carrying 70% of the market share, and a system that's selling just enough to build a profit on, despite intention and marketing and mudslinging and outright confidence in winning. I don't see the Vita doing any better this go around without a good deal more generosity or an economic upswing within the next two years, and they have to push hard on every single strong aspect of their system to make it a must buy for Sony fans. But right now, I don't think it is. I didn't think the 3DS was when it released, I was downright afraid of it bombing hard, but I've come around since getting it for Christmas. The Vita, it's going to be up to the fanbase to keep it alive until it becomes reasonable for the average consumer. And that's my thought.