Mostly Vita game talk, some game & industry discussion and the occasional side of general daily life.

• 6Jun 13

  Demi-Games are Killing the Vita

  We need to talk.  About the Vita.  And its games.

  Admittedly, I am starting to lose faith in my Playstation Vita.  Nearly a year into owning the device, I'm feeling disheartened at the lack of the kinds of games I was looking forward to playing on the system.

  This morning I downloaded a new free 'game' on the Vita starring PS mascot Toro, "Toro's Friend Network".  It is basically Facebook for the Vita, and it sucks.  But it's just one of many games that seems like a waste of time and effort on the Vita.

  Today I noticed 3 more games were announced for future release on PSN - Project Diva F, Fieldrunners 2 and Stick it to the Man.

  At first, I was happy to see that more games are coming to the Vita, and one of them is even a localization of a game that Japanophiles have been going crazy about.

  But then I looked at the facts.  Project Diva is another rythm game, and it stars a fictional Japanese singer who sings a bunch of obnoxious J-Pop tunes - this one will really only appeal to people who probably already import games.  Fieldrunners is a tower-defense game, and while it looks like the most fun of the three games, tower-defense has been done to death over the last few years and now I can't help but associate them with casual gaming devices like the IPod where they thrive.  And I feel...  Nothing, absolutely nothing at all, about the announcement of Stick it to the Man.

  This is because, aside from the release of Soul Sacrifice a month ago, all Sony has been giving to us Vita owners this year is PSN games.  Very brief, very simple PSN games.

  The other month I downloaded Jacob Jones, and while stylisticly it is cute and all, the game isn't very good - in fact it kind of sucks from a gameplay perspective.  I didn't mind it so much because I figured that would be the only cheap, simple title Sony would give us for a while.  I turned out to be dead wrong, by several times.

  Even more discouraging is that what's left of game options on the Vita are ports of older games, games that you can also play on a PS3, and really short games that aim high but only partially fill the gaming void like Soul Sacrifice and Gravity Rush.

  Not to mention that Phantasy Star Online 2, a game that maybe could have redeemed the Vita a bit, a freaking MMO for crying out loud, is still nowhere to be seen and has been tossed carelessly onto the backburner by Sega.  But Sega will give us Project Diva F.  Let me ask you all, unbiasedly, which of those two games do you think would have more mass appeal?  I reckon it would be PSO2, without question.

  That's pretty sad.  This handheld is going toward the crapper, and its fate is being sealed by dozens of mediocre downloadable titles.  The Vita shouldn't be a casual game dump, but that's what it's fast becoming.

  Things are getting so bad with these 'demi-games', that I am becoming turned off to the idea of PSN entirely.  At first they were off to a good start with Tales from Space, Super Stardust and Escape Plan.  Now...  Not so much.  It's as though someone at Sony thinks pumping out trillions of microgames will do as a sufficient replacement for the system's lack of games.

  And though Tearaway is on the horizon, and looks like it could be a very good game, I honestly don't think one game is enough to save the Vita anymore, this late in the game.  Killzone Mercenary will have to be one very good game when it releases, because if it disappoints even half as badly as COD did, I think it will ruin the chances for any future FPS game ever seeing success on the Vita.

  Even with the hopefulness of E3 nearing us, I am beginning to feel like I have little to show for my Vita now.  Media Molecule alone can't keep this thing afloat.  And I'm not getting console-sized experiences on a handheld, which by this day in age should not be that difficult to re-create.  I'm not even asking for modern console-sized experiences, just console-sized experiences!  But instead of vast area to explore, we get restrictive arenas.  Instead of dozens of hours of story, we get a handful.  Bite-sized is almost not worth biting into at all.

  Why can Nintendo fans get games with deep strategy like Fire Emblem Awakening, and games with hours upon hours of game play like Pokemon X & Y, but we Vita owners with more powerful games and tech can't get much of anything out of our Vitas except bite-sized demi-games?

  I don't understand it.  And for right now, I don't know if I want to continue to support the Playstation Vita.

  ~ Ovirew

  • Posted Jun 6, 2013 1:41 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 4Jun 13

  Rewgular Update 6-4-13

  We went from a pretty mundane and chilly Spring season, to a busy and rainy/humid Summer season over the last couple weeks.  The weather is a lot nicer, but fluctuates a lot between storms and pure heat.  The Summer days bring more and more things for me to look forward to, but life still has its usual ups and downs.

  Since I last talked about my house work, we finished painting our bedroom and moved back into it.  (I still have to finish painting some heater plates and put them back, but I've been slacking for a few days.)  I still don't feel like I'm 'back' in my room yet, I guess because I still haven't organized all of my stuff and put it back where it was before.  But I haven't done that yet because I'm honestly not sure what to keep and what to throw away, and where to keep stuff I don't have room for.  I went through my clothes and discovered that I have about 3 t-shirts in good condition, I can't remember how many pants.

  Soon I'm going to need to buy clothes, even though I was hoping to get a bit more mileage out of them.  I think all of the painting helped to ruin a few of those clothes.  I need shirts, socks, underwear, probably even some new pants.  I also need to buy some new work shoes again already, since they don't seem to last.  Finding good shoes anymore is difficult.  I think Payless is the only shoe retailer that still makes shoes that I feel comfortable in, which is where I bought these shoes, even if they don't last.  There are so many 'Famous Footwears' around here, and I'm lucky if I can find one pair there that works for me.  I also need to keep an eye on my belt, since those seem to be good for about a year before you need to replace them.

  Even more important than my clothes, however, is setting up an eye exam and buying a new pair of glasses.  After spending the past year wearing contacts, I've grown to dislike them, and I keep wearing my old presription broken-frame glasses around the house.  It's a funny thought, but I keep thinking about how if the world were to suddenly end and I was the lone surivor on this planet, I couldn't rely on contacts but I could probably rely on a pair of glasses.  Perhaps the one episode of the Twilight Zone with the guy who had a bunch of books and peace and quiet, but broke his glasses and could no longer enjoy reading, is a good metaphor here.

  Next month, I will need to have some money set back to make a trip back to my hometown, where I'll be staying for a couple of days this time around.  I'm pretty excited about going, since it's been a few months since my last visit and it will be good to see my family and some of the places that I haven't been to in a while.  I'll have four whole days, which will give me a lot more time than when I usually went there for a weekend, and spent a lot of the trip driving there and back, and had about 1 full day to spend.  I'm just waiting for a confirmation that I've got the days off from work, but I'm optimistic that it won't be an issue for my workplace.

  So that's clothes, work shoes, eye appointment, eyewear, trip money, gas money for the trip...  And I will need a haircut soon.  I still need to get a Father's Day present for my dad to go with his card.  And my sister's birthday is coming up soon.  All of this stuff, in addition to my regular expenses - groceries, rent, car insurance, credit card payments and gas money.  I am so fortunate that I still have no other bills to worry about.  I couldn't do it.  Money is a fickle, fickle bitch.

  Despite all of that, here I am, debating whether or not to buy the season 5-1 DVD (or blu-ray) of Breaking Bad.  I'm that anxious to see more of the show.  Given all of these upcoming expenses, though, I guess it'll just have to wait.  Yes, sadly, I'm probably not gonna be able to get it.  I might ask someone to get it for me as a birthday gift, though.

  New games are also not in the cards anytime soon, which isn't too big of a deal since I have quite a few games to work on now.  I've been playing Ni No Kuni for a few weeks, and haven't felt like getting into much else for the time being.  Still, I'm feeling bad that my Vita isn't getting as much attention as I'd like to give it.  Maybe that's my fault for buying Hot Shots Golf the other month, instead of waiting and buying Little Big Planet, or Playstation All-Stars, or Soul Sacrifice.  Hot Shots is okay and all, it's just that the game isn't enough to make me want to pick up and play my Vita for my daily gaming fix.  It's really unfortunate that the Vita is still struggling, but I guess it's a tough time - with new consoles on the horizon, and fierce competition from the 3DS and app market.

  So, sorry to talk about my own problems, but the point is, I expect much of my Summer to be about budgeting my money.

  Aside from that...  Well, my girlfriend has been going for more walks than me the last few months.  She has been going for walks just about every day with her one friend.  I'm proud of her, she's doing pretty good with that.  I haven't been walking as much as I was a few weeks ago, but I still walk a lot at work.  Maybe now that the painting projects are just about out of the way, I can get back into going for walks in the morning?  I probably should.

  I also forgot that the kitchen project is coming up, but hopefully not until later this Summer.  But with any hope that won't take too much more money - maybe just for new flooring.

  So that's what's on my mind right now.  Lots to keep an eye on this Summer, but at least I'm not having some of the problems I had earlier this year.

  ~ Ovirew

  • Posted Jun 4, 2013 9:10 am GMT
  • Category: General
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 3Jun 13

  A Question for the Ages

  ...To buy, or to hold off?

  Currently, I am leaning towards buy...

  • Posted Jun 3, 2013 3:56 pm GMT
  • Category: TV
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »