preview

Sony’s new handheld, the PS Vita, is set to continue the company’s trend of making the most technically impressive hardware possible with a price tag to match. It a risky strategy with the huge overheads on development, but in a slumping economy and phone gaming eating into the Vita’s market, I am worried that my two hundred and thirty pound investment will all too quickly turn into little more than an attractive paper weight.

Huge screen, numerous ways to interact and diverse launch line up, the Vita is for gamers; but how many of us are there?

Even at thirty-two years old I find myself getting over excited at the prospect of a new toy. Opening a new game still fills me with delight, and a new console has me itching with anticipation. But as I have grown older I have found the come down from my joy becoming ever more severe, with the realisation of what else the money could have been used for quickly eroding my enjoyment.

It is this emotional rollercoaster that has me scared for Sony’s new handheld, the PS Vita. I can feel my anticipation building as I climb towards its release date eager to claim my pre-order. But there is an unshakable feeling somewhere at back of my mind, and I can feel myself preparing for the backlash from my elation.

Perversely I have no doubts about the Vita itself. Having now used one I can say with certainty that it certainly lives up to my expectations. It’s solid well-made form lives up to Sony’s high standards, feeling sleek and comfortable in my hands. Dual analogue sticks, while small are ergonomically placed even for my large hands, while the front and rear touch panels are easy to reach. The systems gorgeous five-inch OLED screen compliments this wonderful form factor, allowing games to be rendered with a clarity I couldn’t have imagined without seeing it. Such a display would be wasted without the graphics to back it up and the Vita doesn’t disappoint here either, its quad-core processor enabling games that are comparable with some of the best home console releases.

Wonderfully stylised, Escape Plan is just one of the titles to make use of Vita's front and rear touch functions.

What has me scared is the market the Vita is coming into. It was less than a year ago that the 3DS launched to a less than riotous response, forcing Nintendo to make a dramatic cut in the system’s price. Speculation about the 3DS’s slow start is rife, but ultimately it boils down to price, demand and competition, factors that of course the Vita is also up against.

Continuing the comparison with the 3DS, the Vita is in a stronger position. There is an intangibility in advertising 3D, a promise of something that cannot be shown. Vita is a considerably more concrete in its promises, with far better graphics, connectivity with the PS3 and a fantastic launch line up of games to name but a few.

Perversely however the majority of the handheld market isn’t currently made up of traditional gamers. It is ubiquitous devices that dominate mobile-gaming, multifunctional items that we carry with us. Sony and Nintendo are no longer tussling with each other but with the iOS and Android systems for domination of people’s thumbs when on the move. Already in peoples pockets these phone and tablet devices have a huge advantage in terms of their accessibility for people. They negate the need for players to buy a dedicated machine, providing bite-sized games for players who are only looking for a distraction rather than a more substantial experience.

Beautiful, and inventive Gravity Daze is just another of the launch titles I hope to get my hands on.

It is the implications of all this that scares me, not that the Vita wont live up to my expectations but that it wont live up to Sony’s or publishers. I was a huge proponent of the PSP, and indeed still am. But its slow decline was something of a self-fulfilling prophesy with poor sales (in the West at least) leading to poor development support of the platform… which in turn lead to poorer sales. Seeing the system sit idol as publishers turned away from it in favour of more profitable options was difficult and it gives me pause again now.

I am convinced of a place in the market for the Vita. It corrects all of the PSP’s mistakes and provides a serious mobile gaming platform that really has no rival. What I am not convinced of is that the hole it is intended to fill will be big enough for everyone who wants to make profit from it. With the system’s powerful graphic power requiring high development costs and competing against none traditional gaming devices with low overheads, Sony are going to face a struggle getting enough systems into peoples hands to ensure continued backing. But I for one hope they do because the possibilities it offers, and because I would like the high I get off this purchase to last.

Shifting away from the old massive-link posts I am now planning to do more regular pieces letting you know about my articles on other sties while they are still vaguely relevant. This format will also allow me (where appropriate) to give a little more detail on the thought process behinds specific posts, and expand if necessary.

I confess that shots like this not only hit all the nostalgic notes, but also offer me hope that Gearbox are on the right track.

The first of these posts is my recent preview of Aliens: Colonial Marines, the upcoming movie licence from Gearbox. Some twenty-five years after the release of the Aliens movie, this new game is to tell the story of what happened after reactor explosion on LV:426, as you take control of a new squad of marines sent in to investigate the ill-fated planet.

As a long time fan of the series the games announcement hit me with equal parts excitement and dread as I realised that there was considerable more chance of failure than success at maintaining the movies themes and tension. It is this I focus on in the preview, discussing how the squad-based gameplay will struggle to portray the panic and mistrust that is such a pivotal element of the movie’s potency.

Perhaps I am being unfair to the development team but my doubts stem from two (almost) inevitable truths; that movie tie-ins usually suck, and that a game’s desire to reach a broad audience generally requires forgoing tension in favour of action. I am sure that graphically Aliens: Colonial Marines will be everything avid fans of the series could hope for, but I fear that once again that the nostalgia mining moneymen are hocking my childhood to line their pockets.

To see more information about the game, and more on my thoughts head over to Game People and have a look.

In order to really make sense of Square-Enix’s new fast paced third person shooter, Gun Loco, it is important to keep in mind that it is based on a Manga. Set on a future prison world the cast of characters range from the suit wearing Mafioso types to people in diapers with bunny ears. These aesthetic idiosyncrasies mixed with a fast loose pace of play means Gun Loco instantly feels different to its more somber Western counterparts as it’s Japanese roots shine through.

Gun Loco sets a frenetic pace to its action. As a third person shooter it bucks the current norm of cover-focused combat in favor of mobility. To ensure players follow this more crazed play style the game manages to do a good job of empowering players when they are moving and punishing them when stationary as the lack of cover leaves them exposed and vulnerable.

Yeah, rabbit heads.

This emphasis on movement is highlighted by Gun Loco’s main game mechanics, toted by Square-Enix as ‘sprint-action-shoot’. Entering an arena everyone is instantly moving (or at least they should be) as they begin vaulting and sliding under the blue highlighted geometry of the world. During all of this everyone is constantly aiming and shooting as taking any time to consider a target invariably ends in death. This seeming lack of tactics may well be the reason for the team-based nature of the demo, to prevent everything being a target in this frantic mess. It is only by having team members that the action is is prevented from sinking into an unmitigated mess, allowing it to rise above a ‘twitch-shoot-die-respawn’ game, which is certainly less appealing as a tag line than Square-Enix’s current choice.

And yet more rabbit heads. And diapers. Classy.

I will admit Gun Loco’s chaotic motion was fun for the short time I played. But within the small arena I found myself already bored as I finished my five minute induction. I had the distinct sense I had seen everything the level would offer within my short play and with nothing on show in the way of different weapons, tactics or modes it was hard to imagine anything being introduced that would significantly change the experience. A generally floaty feel to the action did nothing to help my opinion, as it left me feeling disconnected from the action further preventing me being drawn into the shallow gameplay.

As it stands Gun Loco’s quirky style does little to endear or set it apart from the other examples of the genre already on the market. While the optimist in me hopes the fluid motion will bring something to the formula the demo gave the nagging sense that it will struggle to raise itself above mediocre.