The Sony news and discussion thread

[mik]

From 1UP's review of Black Ops Declassified:

Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified is tangible proof that if developers insist on trying to cram a console experience onto the Vita, then the handheld might as well slink away into obscurity

Note that the same site--and indeed, the same author--declared LittleBigPlanet Vita to be the best in the series, despite it being a console game "crammed" onto the Vita.

[Buckled Kipper]

From 1UP's review of Black Ops Declassified:

Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified is tangible proof that if developers insist on trying to cram a console experience onto the Vita, then the handheld might as well slink away into obscurity

Note that the same site--and indeed, the same author--declared LittleBigPlanet Vita to be the best in the series, despite it being a console game "crammed" onto the Vita.

This is exactly the kind of journalism I was referring to. Criticise the game if you must, but don't tar the rest of the Vitas output with the same brush.

[Buckled Kipper]

After a week or so's play I can confirm that Most Wanted is indeed Burnout Paradise in your pocket. Really impressed by it. Can see myself playing this for a long long time.

[Alex79]

I've not been in the slightest bit tempted by a Vita up until now, but now it's being included in the PS+ freebies I'm pretty close to beginning to think about it...

[AndyKurosaki]

Rented Silent Hill Book Of Memories. How it gets away with being called a Silent Hill game I'll never know. Absolute bollocks, and with COD being a car-crash and Assassin's Creed being mediocre, the Vita desperately needs a better year in 2013. It's a brilliant console, but the lack of support is doing it no favours.

[Sean]

I played PS All Stars a whole lot over the weekend, and, it's pretty impressive on Vita. Cloud saving is seemless with the PS3 version. Absolutely love it.

[richie_in_japan]

Had been wavering for a long time but finally decided to take the plunge with the PS+ announcement (and with the obligatory approval from the missus). Absolutely loving the hardware so far. It is my first gaming handheld so that might be a large factor. I have tried without success to get into gaming on my iPhone but this is a whole different experience.

As for the press, I think a lot of enthusiast press are too close to the industry and struggle to empathise with regular gamers. Vita is a slow starter, but not a failure. Look at the long tail of the PSP. With PS+ and the back catalogue of PSP and PS1 games, there is already a wealth of quality titles available on the Vita, but if you have been immersed in the industry for so long and already played everything, I can see why you would not necessarily understand that. It's a similar thing with this constant moaning about the length of the console cycle. It is their job to have new things to hype and so they are getting restless. Look at the quality of some recent and forthcoming titles (Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls) and I think there is no real rush to get a new console yet.

[dezm0nd]

For those with Facebook you can get some free PS Minis for liking their page and doing some minor slave work.

https://www.facebook.com/SonyPlaystatio ... 8762805824

For those that don't, here's some codes of which I got but have already on other platforms.

C6P6-5KN6-KC9L - Canabalt - Works on PS3 and Vita
R4AA-92N8-B5GG - Wizorb - Ditto

[ratsoalbion]

Nice, I just bunged mine over in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=422

[Alex79]

Anyone know if the Vita has or may soon be hacked yet?

If I could play all the emulators I used to play on my PSP on it, that would be a huge draw. And with the added power, I shouldn't think emulated N64 games would be out of the question.

Then again, I'm pretty sure that rampant piracy was one of the biggest downfalls of the PSP.

[Buckled Kipper]

New Tearaway gameplay vid. Really looking forward to this one.

[mikeleddy83]

We're around about a week from the expected reveal of Sony's next machine and I wondered what you might be expecting from it on the hardware front ?

The rumours seem to be in full swing and for a contained environment (with possibly little overhead) there's quite some power likely to keep the thing afloat for some years to come.

On a base level I'm heavily in favour of the machine supporting party chat, coming bundled with an inexpensive headset and being backwardly compatible in regard to accessories. As mentioned in the game capture thread the system is also rumoured to have VCE UVD built in to allow video capture on the fly without any resource hogging which will be much appreciated if true.

On the flipside I'm barely interested in the Gaikai integration and possible backwards compatibility options, wondering if the possible 512MB of OS headroom could cause headaches down the line (especially since the Wii U doubles its concentration in this area and the next Xbox looks likely to take this further) and a tad concerned Sony's first party releases could become a cropper for unnecessary touchpad use policy should rumours of the new controller come to fruition.

Ultimately the skeptic in me knows that whilst I'm aware of these rumours (and the constant push from the media that they're 100% accurate), is there not a chance it's being oversold and that we should expect something with much lower specifications. If the recent rumours of the control method being the big push for the machine ring true, can we seriously expect Sony to be throwing in a technological beast just as an out of focus image in the background of their ad campaigns?

[NokkonWud]

I'd love it if it were Sony trolling everyone and it's just a PS Vita price-drop announcement.

[Scrustle]

I've heard less rumours about the PS4 than I have about the next Xbox, but from what I've heard it's sounding better so far. The only thing that the Xbox may have over the PS4 is RAM, but who knows what that actually mean for how it performs.

As for other stuff, what's mentioned here is pretty much all I've seen. There's nothing that sounds terribly bad about what I've heard, except the possibility of it locking used games and no backward compatibility. I can perhaps see it not having backward compatibility, but I don't believe it'll block used games. And of course, the Xbox has had these rumours too, but from more sources, and it sounds like something MS would do too. I don't know at this point which I'll be getting, but I'm getting kind of paranoid about the Xbox.

It'll be interesting to see if they actually do announce the PS4 next week. It doesn't seem like it's being hyped up as the kind of announcement big enough for a whole new console, but the timing seems right, if a little early. There's also the fact that they said they were going to wait for MS to show their hand first too.

[DomsBeard]

I'd like a decent controller please

[JaySevenZero]

It's gotten to the point of saturation with the rumour mongering and rampant speculation that I'm now just gonna wait and see if and announcement is made on the 20th.

At the end of the day, regardless of what the internals can do it'll come down to the games and any console reveal will have to be backed up with showing what exclusives you might be playing on it, that's what will get the gamers attention. It's not speculation that Media Molecule and Guerrilla both have, as yet unannounced, titles in the works so it appears that Sony are gearing up their first party teams to deliver stuff.

Since Ueda-san is still working on his game it wouldn't surprise me (and frankly, it would make more sense at this point too) if The Last Guardian is released on the new console. It would certainly be an interesting move if it was a launch game.

The backwards compatibility could be a contentious issue. I can understand the new Xbox not having it as the rumour is that it'll be using Blu-Ray (DVD being a dying format anyway), but the new PlayStation will still be using it so I'll frankly be a little annoyed if it doesn't play PS3 games.

[NokkonWud]

There's no reason a Blu Ray drive can't play DVD games. Same way a DVD drive can play CD games.

[JaySevenZero]

There's no reason a Blu Ray drive can't play DVD games. Same way a DVD drive can play CD games.

Well, there kinda is in the sense that it's not compulsory that manufacturers make their BD drives backwards compatible with DVD, so it's entirely up to them if they do or not.

but we're not talking about technical limitations. Not including backwards compatibility allows for re-selling past gen titles on the new system which we have seen a proliferation of this generation (whether HD'd or not). Judging by the way Sony removed BC from the PS3 and then started to re-sell past gen games as download, I wouldn't be surprised to see this practise continue.

That said, because it'll be expected (and crazy not to) have our trophies and achievements to carry across platforms, not being able to play the games they are from could become an issue for many. When I got my launch PS3 I transferred my FF12 save onto it and finished the game on that system for a couple of reasons, I preferred the wireless controller and also there weren't many games I wanted for the PS3 and by being able to play PS2 on the newer console meant that I didn't have to have both of them set up.

[JaySevenZero]

Funnily enough, Ueda-san tweeted today saying that there will be an announcement regarding The Last Guardian soon (20th?).

[mikeleddy83]

One thought stuck in my head over the day has been how an announcement of the system could really give Microsoft some headaches. I've rarely seen machines over the last decade get an announcement and have anything less than a year to gestate (most machines and even accessories seem to headline 2 E3's in advance of release) before becoming a box in a shop, Sony could buck the trend but not by a huge margin and force the next Xbox into 2014 but even then is there enough hype already in place to see any of these systems this year?