PlayStation Vita empties pockets for a good reason

Gamers willing to dish out an extra 50 dollars were able to get their hands on the newest portable gaming device from Sony, the PlayStation Vita, before its official release. With a starting price of $249, the PlayStation Vita offers a fresh start from the PSP Go which has been pulled from the shelves in all countries except for the US. What makes this device better than its predecessor? Among the improvements are better graphics, a touch screen and a rear touchpad.

The screen has been stretched out to an astonishing five inches – which is about the size of an entire iPhone. This gives the system plenty of room to flaunt its gorgeous graphics with its OLED screen  displaying approximately 16 million colors. While the games "Little Deviants" and "Escape Plan" showcase the new features of the PS Vita, games such as "Uncharted: Golden Abyss"  and "BlazBlue: Continuum Shift" showcase the system's startling colors and fluidity.

The touch screen and rear touchpad are nearly perfect on this device. The touch screen for the PS Vita is the same as any other and allows for easy navigation. The rear touchpad is the star player of the PS Vita, allowing physical interaction with the game without fingers touching the front screen. In the game "Little Deviants" (included in the first edition bundle), the player has to move the character by rolling their fingers along the touchpad. The touchpad is extremely accurate and is also pressure sensitive.

Consumers may be wondering if the $349 price tag is worth a bundle that only includes a game, case and memory card. The memory card for the original PSP was an average memory stick pro duo. The creators of the PS Vita decided to make things more pricey and complicated by changing the memory card for the new system. With the first edition bundle, a PS Vita card is given, but it is only 4GB whereas the PS Vita released on Feb. 22 comes with an 8GB memory card. So, when purchasing and downloading a game like "Uncharted: Golden Abyss," 3.2GB of the card space will be used. Purchasing an 8GB memory card is already 30 dollars, making the grand total spent on this device around $379. So, waiting until the actual release on Feb. 22 might not be a bad idea.

Memory card issues aside, the future of the PS Vita is extremely bright. Since the device has backwards compatibility, there is already a very large library of games to choose from. Unlike the PSP Go, the PS Vita supports physical and digital copies of games. Along with this perk, when games are released for the PS Vita, digital copies will be released simultaneously for five dollars cheaper on the PS Network. Game designer Hideo Kojima("Metal Gear" series) has already expressed his aspirations for the PS Vita. He will create a feature allowing players to have continuous gameplay by allowing wireless transfer of game data between the PS Vita and the PS3. This will be available with "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker," "Metal Gear Solid 2" and "Metal Gear Solid 3."

So is it worth nearly $300? If gamers can find the money in their pockets after surviving the overkill of video game releases in early winter, then yes. If not, then they might want to wait and see if prices will drop or the other cheap alternative: just borrow a friend's.

Originally Posted HERE