Games Bought Thread 3

[A Black Falcon]

So, the other thing I got recently was, a couple of days ago, a Playstation Vita. I saw one in a local place for a pretty good price, and just could not resist it...

For $85, I got an original-model PS Vita, with a Vita charger (part of which also doubles as a USB cable to connect to a PC), 4GB Vita memory card and a PDP carrying case for the Vita as well. It's the 3G version of the Vita, not that I ever plan on using the 3G element of the system. I've heard that the OLED screens on the first-model Vitas age more quickly than other screens, but this one seems to still be in pretty good shape. There are some noticeable line things on the lower part of the screen, but I only notice it in the menu and not in games, so it's fine. The OLED lives up to its reputation and looks really nice, with real blacks in a way LCDs never have.

On the other hand, of course, sort of like the last major system I got (the Xbox One), the Vita has a small game library that is VERY heavy on multi-platform releases that are also available on the PC, where they almost always have better graphics and controls. It gets harder every year to justify any consoles other than Nintendo's, for anyone with a decent PC... hopefully this one has enough stuff to be worth it.

Also, of course, there's the other elephant in the room with the Vita, the storage situation. That is, that Vita memory cards are really expensive, unacceptably so. I was kind of hoping that I'd be able to install homebrew on this system, to be able to use a micro SD adapter instead of Sony's stupid-expensive things, but no, that needs an older version of the Vita's firmware than this one came with. Blah. The 4GB card I have is enough for a moderate-sized library of physical-card games, but that's it because even if their default install is small (and thankfully they often are), lots of games need space on the card for patches, DLC, updates, and such. I'd really like to have a 64GB card (or several maybe, eventually...) but those things cost at least $90 new, which is insane. Sure I can save a little bit if I get a good deal for one on ebay, but would that actually be trustworthy? I'm not sure. Regardess, they should cost half that much at most, for that size! And larger sizes than that should be available too, and of course they are not. The storage situation has always been one of the Vita's biggest faults and I think Sony's insistence on trying to nickel-and-dime their customers this way really hurt the platform... as it should have, really.

Otherwise, the Vita is a reasonably comfortable system. The buttons and sticks are really small though, which is an issue; this thing isn't as comfortable as a regular console controller because of how small everything is. And even just looking at handhelds, the analog sticks are better than the 3DS's awful tiny right analog nub, but they're a lot worse than the 3DS's left analog slider, which is more important. It works, and of course cramming all of these sticks and buttons into a portable thing is difficult, but this is an issue here just like it is in almost any handheld with more than two face buttons (and even some with only two).

As for games, this is what I got so far. I went to the three Gamestops near here and got some things at each of them. These aren't the Vita game I want the most -- the one I want the most is Wipeout 2048, but I haven't seen a copy of it yet -- but hopefully most of them are fun. Vita selections are limited these days unless I'm wiling to pay full price for new games, which right now I'm not...


Vita (note: I assume Vita games don't have paper manuals, so "complete" means the cart and case.)
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Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy - $16, complete
Exist Archive - $16, complete. This is a sidescrolling RPG (with traditional RPG battles) from Tri-Ace, with gameplay reminiscent of Valkyrie Profile. I just played it for a few hours and low difficulty aside I'm really liking it. It's got good graphics and gameplay with a fun battle system.
ModNation Racers On Tour - $4, complete
Drive Girls - $14.40, complete (One of the less good games I got here. I wish it was more of a racing game and not a fighting thing, but ah well.)
Freedom Wars - $8, complete (One of the many Monster Hunter-inspired games, this one seems decently interesting.)
Soul Sacrifice - $8, complete (The setting here goes overboard on the edge, but the gameplay seems alright.)
Little Deviants - $2.70, cart in generic case
Lumines Electronic Symphony - $2, cart in generic case
Ridge Racer - $14, complete (probably shouldn't have gotten this one, but ah well. What's here is good, for the series. It just needs an actual single player mode... and more content on the cart and not in the DLC packs, but that only adds tracks, cars, and music, not modes.)

Vita DD - These are not games I bought now, I have not bought any digital Vita-only games; I'll need a memory card first, for sure. I went through my purchase history in the Vita store and found a bunch of games I got for the PS3 but also came with crossbuy Vita versions. These are listed below. I haven't downloaded most of them for space reasons. (Plus, I have all of these installed on PS3, where most are probably better...)
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Hohokum
Entwined
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale with its DLC pack
Resogun
Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype
StarDrone Extreme (this is the one I did install. It's small and quite different on Vita because you play exclusively on the touchscreen, which works well for this game.)
The Unfinished Swan