Is Sony’s PlayStation Vita worth a buy?

By: Musa Afridi

  |   September 3rd, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Almost eight months following the console’s release, should consumers be looking into purchasing a PlayStation Vita or should they hold off just a little longer? Wishfree.com takes a look.

The PlayStation Vita hit shelves in Japan during December of last year and the rest of the world had to wait until February of this year before they could get their hands on it. Sony was enduring a difficult period on the financial front with the exchange rate working against them, faltering sales and a hacking scandal all within the space of a few months.

That put extra pressure on the PlayStation Vita needing to be successful and in typical Sony tradition, the manufacturer produced a machine that is truly in a class of its own on the technological front.

Let’s just understand this from the get-go, the Vita is nothing like its closest rival, the Nintendo 3DS. Both consoles cater to different tastes and markets and if it came to choosing between the two then the consumer needs to ask themselves what kind of experience they want and that is where we are going to start.

One can tell that Sony wanted to appeal to a wide consumer base with the Vita. The games are varied, diverse and can cater to a range of age groups, and there is also an element of social connectivity on the console as well, but again, is it worth spending $250 on as it stands?

Features

So the PlayStation Vita is about the same size as the PlayStation Portable but comes with a lot more ‘oomph!’ The console has two cameras one on the rear and one front-facing camera. Sony usually does not compromise on the quality of their cameras but the Vita’s camera is poor by the company’s standards.

However, having said that, it does the job it was designed to do. It works well with AR (Augmented Reality) Gaming, does more than its job when Skype-ing and does take pictures and videos that are passable – just don’t expect HD quality and you should be fine.

As for the console’s touch functionalities, well the front touch screen is responsive and smooth and could rival any smartphone and the rear-touch pad is a feature that game developers will be making plenty of use of in the future as demonstrated by both Uncharted: Golden Abyss and FIFA Soccer. The former uses it to zoom in and out when using a sniper scope and the latter makes the best use of it as it becomes an aiming control for shots.

The biggest and most important change is the dual analogue sticks as opposed to the PSP’s single stick, which are a game changer.

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Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of wishfree.com