PS Vita: Touching the Future

Instead, it's placed its bets on everything, cramming every trick on the market right now (plus some of its own) into the PS Vita's slim frame. We finally went hands-on with the handheld, and alongside a heap of games, took our time to get a feel for the machine. Here are our impressions.

THE LOOK
To look at the handheld is to be amazed. To hold one is to marvel. The units attached to widescreen TVs and dotted throughout the Sony event are prototype only for developer use, and lacking any of the gloss we should expect from the final retail models. That knowledge doesn't diminish the feeling in picking one up for the first time.

Weight-wise it's hard to judge, given the cable connections weighing it down, but it feels slightly heavier than a 3DS, but obviously spread across a bigger piece of kit. If there wasn't already familiarity due to the design mimicking the original PSP, we'd imagine this would feel akin to grabbing an iPhone for the first time. But there's a huge difference between a first-gen iPod and an iPhone 4. And its those additions that really sell the hardware here.

THE STICKS
Firstly, the obvious inclusion of the extra thumb stick. In that simple respect Sony's handheld finally feels right, your hands shaping themselves naturally over the twin sticks. Nub has been replaced with raised stick, the tops convex rather than flat, which leads to hooking the thumbs on the circles' corners. We'd rather have our digits resting in the security of a smooth concave bowl, but we assume the design apes the classic PlayStation DualShock controller.

Though the sticks don't feel as robust as their console counterparts; they feel worryingly thin, as if they could snap given a strong enough push down with the thumb. We'll definitely be checking out this part of future PS Vita designs to see if these are insulated more or it's just something we're unused to (who treaded too softly when using the DS touch screen for the first time for fear of breaking it?)

THE FRONT TOUCH SCREEN
The 5-inch screen is a thing of beauty, and likely to make your iPhone suffer self-confidence issues as a result. Games like Uncharted blaze out in a rich mixture of vibrant colours, while Reality Fighters, which uses the rear camera to project virtual combatants onto whatever you point it at, pumps out the picture in good detail without any of the ghost blur you get on smaller cameraphones.

As for the touch-based recognition, playing through the multiple games on offer suggests that its as much the developers utilising the tech correctly as it is the screen itself. On our first go (on a title we're can't speak of just yet) we found there was a small but noticeable element of lag between touch and action, but which was completely non-existent on other titles. Wiping the screen for to initiate stone rubbing in Uncharted for example, was precise as you'd wish for. It'll be a big relief to those that won't want to sacrifice the sure touch they've gotten used to in these post-Apple tech days.

THE REAR TOUCH PAD
The immediately crazy thing about the rear touch-sensitive pad on the machine's back is that if you weren't told about it, you wouldn't know it was there. For some reason we had the impression it'd feel slightly rubberised. What we got was a smooth surface imprinted over with miniature silver-gleaming symbols. There's no denying it takes a while to get used to, both in design and in game use.

You have to grow accustomed to where you fingers are by feel in relation to the screen, but seeing the screen stretch and grow to your strokes is fascinating. Some applications are subtle - Studio Liverpool lets you make indentations on Wipeout's title screen, pushing the multiple triangles in the background upwards like pin art. For others it forms part of the game - such as Little Deviants, which has you manipulating the ground into hills to roll a ball to its goal, or tap the pad to strike enemies in another section that are looking towards the rear of the screen.

One thing we found was the need to adjust the handheld to sit comfortably in our grasp for particular titles. That latter Little Deviants mini-game required you to tap the pad in one of nine boxes arranged in a three-by-three grid. Routine will learn you to shift and tap your fingers as they rest naturally on the device's grips. However hitting the middle top box requires readjustment to how you hold the machine, to the point were we held the PS Vita like an iPhone - one hand gripping the unit top and bottom, with the other hand hovering below. We'll have to see how the PS Vita handles for people with smaller fingers than ours, or whether adoption of the one-handed grab becomes the norm.

THE FRONT BUTTONS

They're never moulded to feel like part of the overall case design nor are they raised at the same uniform height; the front four face buttons on the PS Vita dip into the concave that encircles the buttons, paralleling the D-Pad's design opposite, and naturally causing your thumb to touch the 'lip' of each button rather than the full thing. This works reassuringly well, letting you identify which button you're on by touch alone due to the angle and direction of said lip. Within minutes of playing it felt completely natural to use. A nice, if subtle, redesign.

BATTERY LIFE
While Sony hasn't confirmed the battery life expectancy just yet, the firm did state to Endgadget (reported by MCV) the PS Vita would be "on par" with its previous handheld, with the exception when having to power "graphically intense" titles like Uncharted.

NAME, PRICE, RELEASE, GAMES- AND FINAL THOUGHTS

NGP becomes PS Vita. Why's the codename sound a lot cooler than the final official name? Not because 'Vita' lacks the coolness (or despite claims, comparison to a flavoured water drink brand) but simply because our tongues and minds have gotten used to the codename.

It's the same with anything, repetition bringing with its familiarity. Dolphin sounded better than GameCube, Revolution than Wii, Project Cafe than Wii U. We got used to the first two, we'll get used to Wii U. We'll certainly get used to this. Besides, 'Vita' translates as 'life', and if you think about that, it's a cool notion about how big a part of your everyday routine Sony expect PS Vita to become.

Also, history dictated the adoption of a number alongside the original name: PSP2 has been used often enough by press. But common sense would suggest ensuring there's a clear difference between the previous product and its negativities. and make clear the distinction that this is a completely new machine (and not fall into the same trap as the 3DS). Design doesn't (it does, on first glance, look identical to its predecessor) but name and price will.

Yes, the price. Ending Sony's E3 conference was the announcement that the two PS Vita models would come with two price points. The Wi-fi only model would retail for $249, and the Wi-fi + 3G version for $299. Pundits and retailers are already speculating that will translate into a £230 and £280 price point come launch. We wondered if Sony would announce a competitive price and steal Nintendo's thunder. It did, and it has.

For early adopters, the news that PS Vita is likely to be region-free, if comments from Sony Worlwide Studios Europe boss Michael Denny are anything to go by, is great news.

Another interesting thing to note that's spiralled out of Sony's own conference in light of Nintendo's: cross platform play. The Wii U sell, that players could continue their gaming time by switching from TV to controller, was a major sell.

Sony already has an answer. Cross-platform play was shown with Wipeout 2048 at the pre-E3 event, and the publisher announced eight-player competitive races in the title was option between any combination of PS Vitas and PS3s. But more importantly, action RPG Ruin showed the ability to seamlessly continue gameplay from handheld to console, and obviously vice-versa. Don't be surprised if Sony add the additional emphasis that of connectivity between the two platforms going forward.

Game-wise, the PS Vita provides a strong resume. Eighty titles sounds a weighty number, but any new console always boasts such huge numbers. But upon closer examination of the games on show, there's more to be excited about. No ports, no "lesser" versions of console titles here.

The likes of Uncharted, Wipeout and Street Fighter x Tekken, which pulled a surprise appearance in playable form at Sony's conference, showed developers are treating the handheld not as an off-shoot, but as a gaming device with a robust future with plenty of platform-exclusive titles worth owning. Though it'll be interesting to see if the new Ridge Racer, just confirmed for the launch line-up, is an entirely new title or a "Best Of..." course collection akin to the 3DS game.

While social media, network, cross-platform play and many other factors haven't been discussed in great detail or shown (aside from a cross-platform game of Wipeout 2048, the details of which weren't discussed), the system impresses. By throwing everything together into one case Sony is offering a versatility unseen by other companies or products. We've had reservations about the PSP because the console seemed to lack true commitment even from its staunchest supporters and lacked a sense of belonging in the marketplace. It felt like a half-hearted attempt at covering multiple areas in a very vague way. PS Vita feels like it's wiped those fears clean off the board.

The pre-E3 event began with Sony emphasising that the event was to focus on the games, not the hardware. But its the range and rawness of the power bristling under the hood that impressed. Until we see the second waves of 3DS games proving otherwise, the PS Vita trumps it in visuals. This is a confident, sexy piece of kit that'll offer slices of gaming you'll not be able to find on mobile devices. It's a Sony handheld that has finally found its place in the world. And (providing the price is right) Apple and Nintendo should be very worried indeed.