Topic: Vita > 3DS ad dis. Honest opinions?

[Hey Einstein!]

Just saw this advert in which Sony explains that Resistance Burning Skies is twice as awesome as any other portable FPS in the history of ever because of the miracle that is dual thumb sticks.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNgI7gwiaiA&feature=player_embedded


Now, I'm not interested in a flame war or baiting some Nintendo apologists. But as Resistance BS was the last game I completed it got me thinking.


I like my Vita. I like it a lot. But I didn't like R:BS. It's dull, buggy (try the melee attacks!), the touch screen controls are iffy, it's too short, the graphics on the human characters was laughable, the story was extremely poor, the difficulty spikes were very badly paced and the whole game is one long corridor punctuated by kill rooms. I played it for 2 weeks and sold it. The first Medal of Honour Heroes game on the PSP was actually more fun.


It got me thinking and I reckon that Resi Revelations with the CPP plays a lot more like a home console game (and is a much better game, although obviously not an FPS).


My conclusion: twin triggers are just as important as twin sticks.


I really hope (but strongly doubt) we see more CPP games, especially a decent FPS.
I have been waiting for a decent portable FPS since the DS was announced and I'm still waiting. ho hum.
Thoughts?

[BranDonk Kong]

They could actually be talking about the PSP and not the 3DS...especially since the 3DS has the Circle Pad Pro now.

[nickmitch]

I think the second thumb stick is overrated on a handheld. It's great if you want the "console experience," but when I want that, I'll buy a console. I'm not saying that not having one is better than having one, but if that's gonna be the reason, then I'm not gonna be sold on it.

[NWR_insanolord]

I think I own something like nine Vita games, and I think only three of them really use the second analog, so even when it's built in it doesn't seem like you're seeing a ton of games use the functionality.

[leahsdad]

I think I own something like nine Vita games, and I think only three of them really use the second analog, so even when it's built in it doesn't seem like you're seeing a ton of games use the functionality.

OMG.   I did not know there even were 9 Vita games.  Nice to see that your overspending on games is not prejudiced towards Nintendo.  :-)

I remember on an old Connectivity you said you had something like 16 retail 3DS games?  How many are you up to now?  My collection now numbers 20.

[Uncle_Optimus]

Yea I am in the camp of people who hasn't adjusted super well to twin sticks in 3D games and am usually happier to play games without it...perhaps I am one of the lapsed gamers that Iwata once mentioned, for whom many games have grown too complex for. Anyway I imagine the general population doesn't care about such a feature and in fact may even approach an outfitted device with trepidation. (I suppose this is why Nintendo went with one?)


I am curious tho whether a clever combination of the touch screen and gyros in the 3ds can generally make up for second stick functionality which seems to often be deployed as some camera adjustment variant.



As for the commercial, it's just marketing: it is the adverts job to say the game is the best thing since ever

[NWR_insanolord]

I think I own something like nine Vita games, and I think only three of them really use the second analog, so even when it's built in it doesn't seem like you're seeing a ton of games use the functionality.

OMG.   I did not know there even were 9 Vita games.  Nice to see that your overspending on games is not prejudiced towards Nintendo.  :-)

I remember on an old Connectivity you said you had something like 16 retail 3DS games?  How many are you up to now?  My collection now numbers 20.

Not only do I own nine, I've got a tenth en route to me. Of the nine I have right now, I like all of them except Resistance, which was a poor decision I'll chalk up to getting the system the day before flying out to E3 and being in a rush to pick out games to download. Should have stuck with my gut and gotten Unit 13, which I have now and like a lot better.

As for the 3DS, I think I'm a little over 30 right now, with another one coming next week in the form of Heroes of Ruin.

[Chozo Ghost]

Sony should make more commercials of Crash Bandicoot going over to NoA headquarters and trash talking Mario on a megaphone.

[broodwars]

I have quite a collection of Vita games as well, 4 retail and probably 4-6 digital games.  I actually don't think Resistance: Burning Skies is a bad game, more spectacularly average with some decent gunplay.  And considering the pedigree of that particular developer (responsible for such failures as StarCraft Ghost and PlayStation Move Heroes), it's a miracle that the game was even average.

As for the ad, FPS games haven't had a great history on handhelds because of the lack of the two sticks, so Sony's saying it's the best handheld FPS is probably technically correct.  But that's an exceptionally low bar to surmount.

[Hey Einstein!]

As for the commercial, it's just marketing: it is the adverts job to say the game is the best thing since ever

Yes. That is it's job.
But as I'd played the game and found it very unlike a "home console experience" it got me thinking about what makes a portable game more like a console experience and where I have seen it work.


By contrast Super Stardust Delta is a great portable take on the PS3 game, once you turn off all the touch screen crap (moving my hand from the stick to the screen to complete a task is suicide in an arcade game of this type).

[Uncle_Optimus]

Hey Einstein, when I think about what makes a portable game more like a console one I have started to ask myself: What do we hire portable games to do for us now?


There may have been a time when a portable game was indeed meant for travel or any other away-from-home-console context. It was a largely inferior experience either in presentation or control experience. Since, as we know, technology has steadily improved and the portables we have today are now capable of delivering similar experiences to what we are used to from our home consoles. (and even some we are not: see 3ds).
Perhaps not surprisingly, more and more people have come to play their mobile (including traditional portable gAmes) at home.http://gigaom.com/2012/03/22/where-is-mobile-gaming-happening-at-home-in-bed/

As such I realize that I no longer really differentiate between the "portable gaming experience" and the "traditional home gaming experience"...the games are now good enough for me that I am quite comfortable choosing to play on either platform depending on which game title I desire to play at any given point. Actually, as my lifestyle has changed, I depend more on portables for convenience,..you could very well say they fulfil the primary game experience role for me :p
This is however dependent on the type of player...as someone who does not play twin-stick shooter games for example, the portable experience is now analogous to what I would play on a console.
To a gamer that, as an example, expects such controls in a full blown console experience I imagine portables remain unsatisfactory and that will not change until they can have an uncompromised experience. Perhaps this will be CoD Vita?


My main takeaway is really that it depends on the level of user and the types of experiences they are looking for...but I suspect that for many users, portable experiences can now ably fulfil primary gaming roles

[Hey Einstein!]

Thanks for your perspective Unky_Ops.
I've been a big portable gamer since I got Mario Bros Cement Factory for my 11th birthday precisely because I could play it in bed! Looking back that was one boring game 


What really matters is of course whether a game is good or not.
My life style means that all of my gaming is now portable but some of my favourite games of this generation have been Arkham Asylum, Mario Galaxy, Modern Warfare & Dead Space (this is not meant to be a' best of' list as I have played comparatively few home games this gen). Of those I think Dead Space is the only one with a comparable portable game.


In the early days I played plenty of portable games that were as good or just the same as the home version.
The Gameboy had Tetris (of course) , Duck Hunt and the Mega Man games. The Game Gear had the master system versions of several games & an MS adapter. It frustrates me some times when there are home games that I want to play and can't or when I try the portable version of a popular title I find it a shoddy cut down experience. But I realize I am asking for a lot when you compare the specs on a portable system and a home console.


I'm hoping that the Wii U will mean I can play Arkham City and the next Mario Galaxy in bed. But obviously it's not a portable system. What I am really waiting for is the day when I can take my whole games collection any where and play the same games on a big or small screen. The nearest thing I've seen so far was the Gameboy player!

[Uncle_Optimus]

What I am really waiting for is the day when I can take my whole games collection any where and play the same games on a big or small screen. The nearest thing I've seen so far was the Gameboy player!

Our posts were so long I literally forgot what we were talking about in this thread :p
On your last comment: that day is surely coming, and Soon, but it is unlikely that Nintendo will be the one* who brings us there
But if they are forced to follow shortly after then I guess, for us loving and loyal customers.

(*way off topic but Microsoft, Apple and various Android players will all sooner-or-later make this type of value proposition to consumers as an extension of their burgeoning software platforms.)

[Hey Einstein!]

Our posts were so long I literally forgot what we were talking about in this thread :p

I think it was something to do with the Atari Lynx.

[Uncle_Optimus]

Our posts were so long I literally forgot what we were talking about in this thread :p

I think it was something to do with the Atari Lynx.

O man that thing was heavy, not to mention it really weighed a lot!