Hardware Thoughts on the Vita

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heartgold

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Oh, deffo - rarely any game used the full potential (Black being one of the rare instances - it practically looks like an X-Box game), but we have something else to thank for as far as the PS2 is concerned - it's one of the first platforms that did not render polygons when they were outside of the screen boundry - normally they'd be drawn anyways since they were within the drawing distance. That allowed for pumping out "more" polygons than the GPU could technically handle, and most, if not all systems use that technique now - it's the PS2's legacy. Even the DS used that technique by rendering only the part of the model that could be seen, resulting in amazing 3D games like Metroid Prime Hunters on hardware that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't be able to produce such stellar graphics.

...but I digress. :P
I don't doubt the power behind the Vita. ;)
Off topic- you reckon it's powerful to emulate the PS2 or gamecube. :grog: Who's not waiting for that day?

CPU: 4-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore @1.2GHZ - 800MHz
SGX543MP4 (four cores) @200MHz thats delivers 133 million polygons per second and fill rates in excess of 4Gpixels/sec.
128MB Video RAM

Maybe those clock speeds are even higher. :P
 

Foxi4

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Off topic- you reckon it's powerful to emulate the PS2 or gamecube. :grog: Who's not waiting for that day?
I wouldn't hold my breath - emulating PowerPC-based architectures is difficult enough (Gamecube) and emulating the PS2's hardware in general is insanely tough (with all the tasks divisions and co-existing chips). I'd count more on consoles like the Dreamcast, to be perfectly honest.
 

heartgold

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I wouldn't hold my breath - emulating PowerPC-based architectures is difficult enough (Gamecube) and emulating the PS2's hardware in general is insanely tough (with all the divisions and co-existing chips). I'd count more on consoles like the Dreamcast, to be perfectly honest.

You're right. Dreamcast is likely. But DS and 3DS emulators are more possible on the Vita. XD
Maybe Sony will release PS2 games(emulator) on the Vita one day and hackers will reverse engineer it just like the PSX emulator. ;)
 
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Foxi4

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You're right. Dreamcast is likely. But DS and 3DS emulators are more possible on the Vita. XD
Maybe Sony will release PS2 games(emulator) on the Vita one day and hackers will reverse engineer it just like the PSX emulator. ;)
A DS emulator will be "doable" within months after forming an SDK, a 3DS would be quite tricky due to screen space constraints, the PICA and being short on RAM... and, well, not knowing what the hell is in a 3DS, precisely. :P

...any ARM-like architecture should be a breeze though, not to mention arcade machines and such. It'll be a true emulation powerhouse as far as portables are concerned.
 

heartgold

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A DS emulator will be "doable" within months after forming an SDK, a 3DS would be quite tricky due to screen space constraints, the PICA and being short on RAM... and, well, not knowing what the hell is in a 3DS, precisely. :P

...any ARM-like architecture should be a breeze though, not to mention arcade machines and such. It'll be a true emulation powerhouse as far as portables are concerned.
Perhaps, 3DS is arm based and PS Vita is using a even stronger arm chip, four of them. Anything is possible. GPU is the real struggle imo. We need to open up the 3DS first, to see how the inners work. PS Vita project is light years away. 'ha
 

TripleSMoon

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And @Foxi4, regardless of whether the Vita is vastly more powerful than the 3DS when we look at the numbers, I'm talking about what's apparent visually in games. Owning both systems, I acknowledge that there is a big difference but I just don't see a huge generational leap.
But if that's the case, you also have to remember that the 3DS is a year older, and hence developers are going to be more familiar and be more able to utilize its resources. This happens with any system. Case in point, Uncharted Vita and Resident Evil 3D both came out at roughly the same time... except one was on a system that just came out, and one was on a system that had been out for a year.

Just something I think is worth considering.
 

Qtis

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This is an interesting topic to follow, since there is a lot of pro and con for both consoles going on (with reasonable, civilized opinions). What still makes me wonder is how some people say that "Bring me this and that or I'll never buy it since console X doesn't have games". If I look at the Metacritic scores for both consoles, they both look like crap with only a few (20?) games getting a >75 score. That's kinda low. Really.

As for techs and visual display, I'm really impressed by the PSVita. I've never expected PS3 level graphics on the console, but the games do look nice on screen (Uncharted, AC3:L, Gravity Rush). Regardless of possible corners cut to make a game look good. Just look at Skyward Sword on the Wii: If the only thing bad about the game is the resolution, you could just go kill yourself (don't take literally). The 3DS doesn't look that bad either, but some of the games on it have worse problems graphically than the PSVita versions. Probably for the same reasons as all consoles. Devs haven't figured out how to max the console.

Just look at the PS3 and how some games were done on/near launch vs now. It's just a pain to try to get into some of the series since the first games of many series are just.. Unbearably dull in many way (graphics, fps, controls (!), etc).

Personally waiting for Persona 4 Golden and Zero Escape to be released as it's received very good scores on Metacritic. On the other hand, I'm waiting for something a bit different since most 3DS/PSVita games are the same old we've seen already on multiple consoles. Not that games like NSMB2 are bad, I just didn't see the "wow" in them this time around.
 

Psionic Roshambo

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This is an interesting topic to follow, since there is a lot of pro and con for both consoles going on (with reasonable, civilized opinions). What still makes me wonder is how some people say that "Bring me this and that or I'll never buy it since console X doesn't have games". If I look at the Metacritic scores for both consoles, they both look like crap with only a few (20?) games getting a >75 score. That's kinda low. Really.

I agree totally with this... It's why I do not own either machine just yet. Both systems have some games I want to play but there just isn't enough to make me go "Yeah let me get out my wallet for that!".
 
D

Deleted_171835

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Finished Uncharted: GA. It's a decent game and a nice show-case for the Vita's capabilities.

Started Gravity Rush.
+ Adore the art-style. The game just oozes charm.
+ From what I heard of the soundtrack, the music is good.
+ Visually, the game looks nice but I'm not a fan of all the aliasing or the sub-native resolution. Not a big deal, though.

- Iffy on the controls. Haven't quite got a grip on the whole gravity mechanic.
 

Foxi4

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Started Gravity Rush.
+ Adore the art-style. The game just oozes charm.
+ From what I heard of the soundtrack, the music is good.
+ Visually, the game looks nice but I'm not a fan of all the aliasing or the sub-native resolution. Not a big deal, though.

- Iffy on the controls. Haven't quite got a grip on the whole gravity mechanic.
I know what you mean man, it takes a while to get used to them. Once you get a bit deeper into the game and start upgrading your powers it becomes much easier to control - since you travel faster, it gives you more time to adjust your aim in-between of jumps.
 

TripleSMoon

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Finished Uncharted: GA. It's a decent game and a nice show-case for the Vita's capabilities.

Started Gravity Rush.
+ Adore the art-style. The game just oozes charm.
+ From what I heard of the soundtrack, the music is good.
+ Visually, the game looks nice but I'm not a fan of all the aliasing or the sub-native resolution. Not a big deal, though.

- Iffy on the controls. Haven't quite got a grip on the whole gravity mechanic.
This game is so freaking tempting every time I hear about it. *Sigh*...
 

Foxi4

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This game is so freaking tempting every time I hear about it. *Sigh*...
In a lot of ways, it's like Nights... but not... and the graphics are what I believe to be the perfect use of Celshading that doesn't poke you in the eye as childish. The game utilizes all of the Vita's features and it does it in a way that doesn't impede gameplay - I specifically like the Gravity Dash move (holding your thumbs on both sides of the touchscreen and tilting the Vita like a steering wheel allows you to dash through a level at high speed which normally would take several Gravity Jumps - you gotta get used to the turning, but otherwise it's very useful). It certainly shows that it's an "early" game, but it's incredibly "good" and a must-play for all Vita owners.
 
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TripleSMoon

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In a lot of ways, it's like Nights... but not... and the graphics are what I believe to be the perfect use of Celshading that doesn't poke you in the eye as childish. The game utilizes all of the Vita's features and it does it in a way that doesn't impede gameplay - I specifically like the Gravity Dash move (holding your thumbs on both sides of the touchscreen and tilting the Vita like a steering wheel allows you to dash through a level at high speed which normally would take several Gravity Jumps - you gotta get used to the turning, but otherwise it's very useful). It certainly shows that it's an "early" game, but it's incredibly "good" and a must-play for all Vita owners.
I've played the demo. I love the graphics and the way the game flawlessly incorporates the gyroscope without feeling shoehorned.
 
D

Deleted_171835

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Added some thoughts on more games.

Gravity Rush

The game is overrated as fuck. It started off good but devolved in a snorefest near the end.

Hell I didn't even know I beat the game until I seen the credits. Only thought was, "That's it?". Huge disappointment.

Missions started off okay. The usual fetch quest, defeating generic blobs and being a human taxi. Until I realized that was the best the game had to offer. It never picked up. That was all you fucking did throughout the whole game. Fetch quest, fight, taxi, rinse and repeat.

Frankly, the best part of the game was the music. There are a few duds in the soundtrack but for the most part, it's pretty damn good.

Visually, it's a mixed bag. While the art-style is nice, a lot of the Vita's shortcomings are obvious here. Objects popping in out of nowhere, framerate in the final battle dropping faster than your IQ score watching Jersey Shore and the fact that it runs at a sub-native resolution.

Do not buy this game at full-price. The most I would spend on this is $20. It's a good concept but ultimately fails in execution.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

I'm definitely enjoying this, really fun game. I love all the little touches added throughout the game as well (look at the gallery below).

http://imgur.com/a/MDHJs

JET SET RADIOOOOOO!!!

Don't have much to say here.

While the game can be fun, the controls aren't very good and do diminish my enjoyment of it a little bit. Not any fault of the Vita, though.
 

Guild McCommunist

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Yeah I played the Gravity Rush demo and I didn't think it warranted a $40 price tag. Good game for PS+ but reviews pegged it at an average playtime. Not something I'd spend $40 on.

Also confirmed soulx is from the US. Although I thought I knew this back when he was soulsnatcher.
 

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