PlayStation Vita: The Pre-Launch Guide
Fine, it looks nice, it definitely has some horsepower, but what's really new about this thing?
Published: February 6, 2012
Easily the biggest change, above all the various new doodads and whiz-bang technology, is the way the Vita is spearheading a kind of revised PlayStation Network experience. Incorporating everything that the PSN on the PS3 is capable of, from Friends Lists to Trophies to online play to digital PlayStation Store downloads of Games, Movies and more -- including third-party services like Netflix, Twitter, foursquare and Skype -- the Vita is readily attempting to make the PSN seen at home something that works on the go. Using supported games' ability to take a screenshot by simply pressing the PlayStation and Start buttons simultaneously, accomplishments can be tweeted seamlessly by jumping back to the main OS, switching to Twitter and attaching the pic to a tweet.
Better still, it leaps over the hurdles and roadblocks thrown up by the PlayStation 3's particular memory architecture that prevented things like cross-game chat and more advanced features from becoming part of the base operating system. The PlayStation 3's OS was designed with a set of modules that could be loaded by developers as needed, but only until they gobbled up the small pool of memory not relegated to the games themselves. Over time, Sony was able to refine and decrease the overhead of the base OS, but the PSN was more or less locked, features-wise, a while ago.
Using the PS3 PSN as a jumping-off point, the Vita incorporates a handful of tech that uses the 3G and/or Wi-Fi (depending on the model, of course) to pinpoint its location in the world. By using a program called Near, players can go on scavenger hunts around real-world locations to find objects gifted by other players (or leave their own), pick up goodies developers have offered up, or just see who around them is notching a high score or bit of progression. Near turns playing on the go into something that's more dynamic than just playing on a bus; now a particular stop on that bus line can be a chance to earn something new for use in a game. For 3DS owners, Near is analogous to StreetPass/SpotPass; a means to find and interact with other players even after they've left.
Finding friends is one thing, but actually getting into games with them is another. The PlayStation 3 eventually developed a means to allow players to jump into friends' matches with invites, but it was a clunky, one-time-use sort of option. The solution? Party an eight player lobby that lets everyone involved not only chat with each other across games, but easily join games in progress with just a few taps. Text chat between games is persistent as well, and Parties stick around until you leave one to join another, even between gaming sessions.
Finally, there's LiveArea, a specific space on every Vita game "page". See, the main interface for things this time around isn't the familiar Xross Media Bar seen on the PSP and PS3, but a series of screens with little bubbles that flip when opened and quiver when swiped to a screen they're on. The bubbles open into a handy information view of the game you're about to play (including an an-game manual), and offer a means to jump in and start playing (if you haven't started another game yet, this will actually pick up right where you left off).
The LiveArea tab of a game collects all recent activity from friends (including, yes, Trophies, which are fully supported and tie into your PSN account, naturally), plus announcements from the developers for things like add-on content (read: DLC). LiveArea, true to its name, is something that's updated in real time, so tracking your friends' progress is nigh-instant no matter how long between play sessions.
[Hardware Shmardware]
Right, so maybe you don't care about specs or features or any of that bunk. Maybe you care about what really matters: games. Come on back Wednesday and we'll have more than you've ever seen in a system launch. No, really! Don't believe us? Check back then and you'll understand what we mean.
Better still, it leaps over the hurdles and roadblocks thrown up by the PlayStation 3's particular memory architecture that prevented things like cross-game chat and more advanced features from becoming part of the base operating system. The PlayStation 3's OS was designed with a set of modules that could be loaded by developers as needed, but only until they gobbled up the small pool of memory not relegated to the games themselves. Over time, Sony was able to refine and decrease the overhead of the base OS, but the PSN was more or less locked, features-wise, a while ago.
Using the PS3 PSN as a jumping-off point, the Vita incorporates a handful of tech that uses the 3G and/or Wi-Fi (depending on the model, of course) to pinpoint its location in the world. By using a program called Near, players can go on scavenger hunts around real-world locations to find objects gifted by other players (or leave their own), pick up goodies developers have offered up, or just see who around them is notching a high score or bit of progression. Near turns playing on the go into something that's more dynamic than just playing on a bus; now a particular stop on that bus line can be a chance to earn something new for use in a game. For 3DS owners, Near is analogous to StreetPass/SpotPass; a means to find and interact with other players even after they've left.
Finding friends is one thing, but actually getting into games with them is another. The PlayStation 3 eventually developed a means to allow players to jump into friends' matches with invites, but it was a clunky, one-time-use sort of option. The solution? Party an eight player lobby that lets everyone involved not only chat with each other across games, but easily join games in progress with just a few taps. Text chat between games is persistent as well, and Parties stick around until you leave one to join another, even between gaming sessions.
Finally, there's LiveArea, a specific space on every Vita game "page". See, the main interface for things this time around isn't the familiar Xross Media Bar seen on the PSP and PS3, but a series of screens with little bubbles that flip when opened and quiver when swiped to a screen they're on. The bubbles open into a handy information view of the game you're about to play (including an an-game manual), and offer a means to jump in and start playing (if you haven't started another game yet, this will actually pick up right where you left off).
The LiveArea tab of a game collects all recent activity from friends (including, yes, Trophies, which are fully supported and tie into your PSN account, naturally), plus announcements from the developers for things like add-on content (read: DLC). LiveArea, true to its name, is something that's updated in real time, so tracking your friends' progress is nigh-instant no matter how long between play sessions.
[Hardware Shmardware]
Right, so maybe you don't care about specs or features or any of that bunk. Maybe you care about what really matters: games. Come on back Wednesday and we'll have more than you've ever seen in a system launch. No, really! Don't believe us? Check back then and you'll understand what we mean.
