Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Gaming Purchases - Mars 2017

Mars 14th:

Finally found what I've been looking for, kind of, it's the wrong firmware to be useful for anything but playing physical games but I'll take what I can get at this point.

PlayStation 3:
EyeCreate

PlayStation Vita:
original OLED Sony PlayStation Vita PCH-1104 3G OFW 3.63
official Sony PlayStation Vita 32GB memorycard

Lego:
Nexo Knights Ultimate Lavara

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Mars 15th:

I went back to the local GameStop where I got the Vita yesterday to buy some games for it today, I picked up all I could find that were of reasonable price and seemed interesting enough, I have to say they were all great.

PlayStation Vita:
Deception IV Blood Ties
Killzone Mercenary
Reality Fighters
Smart As...
Spy Hunter
Tearaway


I love how the Vita has a screenshot feature!

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Now Playing - Mars 2017

Mars started off with watching lots of movies and not really playing a lot of games, but that all changed when I got myself a PlayStation Vita the 15th and the second half of the month has been gaming almost around the clock, mostly Sly Cooper Theieves in Time that I picked up on PS3 after having caught up on Vita. I've been playing them with parallel save files so I can compare every step in both versions, only one thing so far has stood out as different, the bow and arrow mission had you get 120 points to pass on PS3 but only 85 on Vita, making the mission on Vita much easier to compete, I actually had some trouble on PS3 and it took me several tries while on Vita I did it on the first try no problem, so it wasn't really harder on the Vita like I thought when i saw the lower number, they were just more lenient in that version it seems, which means the trophy you get for completing the challenge is also easier to get on Vita, seems a bit unbalanced but it's literally the only real different between the two versions outside of visuals I've found so far, the rest is virtually identical, at least in content, the controls are of course a little different but not enough that I'd say it makes an actual difference, it really does feel like I'm playing the same game when I switch from one to the other, the visual difference is only noticeable for a few second than you get into the game and forget all about that and play on as normal.



Elasto Mania (PC)

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Entertainment System)

Loaded (PlayStation)

ReLoaded (PlayStation)

Baja Edge of Control (PlayStation 3)

SEGA Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation Vita)
Finally get to play this on Vita now that I have finally own a Vita. Content and gameplay wise it's on par with the PS3 version I'd say, I haven't noticed any real differences in those areas, be that for better or worse.. a great game still.
Visually is another topic entirely as the Vita version has a lot of visual stuff missing, like tons of small environment details, overall polygonal detail, environment shadows and lighting effects, the cel-shaded black outline effect on characters and enemies and a whole bunch of other minor special effects like the heat wave emanating from lit torches and such, it also runs at half the framerate, 30fps tops instead of the 60fps tops on PS3. It's funny how some items, especially the small treasures you pickpocket from enemies still retain the black cel-shaded outline, I guess they just forgot to remove all of it from the game.
The Vita version also lacks many language options, the biggest suprise being the complete lack of english in the version I got hold of, I wasn't playing it in english on PS3 but I do enjoy hearing the original voices in games, especially when the original is in english, so not having the option to do so on Vita is baffling, I can understand having other languages alongside english but removing the original language, especially when the original is english, is completely beyond me, and it's an extremely poor decision to say the very least.
Thankfully it contained the same language I play on PS3 so it works fine for me, but had someone who doesn't speak any of these languages bought this copy they would've been screwed as the only international option is so mysteriously missing.
Still, it's a great game and it's a good portable version of the beefier PS3 version for sure and because of the better motion sensors in the Vita some of the motion control stuff is actually a lot easier to do on Vita than they were on PS3 using the Dual Shock 3 controller, it's both more responsive and more accurate on Vita when using the tilt controls.
I actually had real problems with one specific mission in the third episode on PS3 where you had to do a bunch of minigames to train a character, Rocky montage style, and the controls were just so bad I kept failing and it was just awful, but on Vita I did it on the first try, it was a bit tricky but the controls did what I wanted and it was actually one of the easiest missions in the game at theta point because of it, unlike on PS3 where it remains the hardest part of the game so far.

Spy Hunter (PlayStation Vita)
I used to own and have played the older first remake for Xbox and PS2 and I have the sequel on Xbox as well, they were really good I thought, especially the sequel, and this is yet another remake in similar fashion and I like this one a lot too.

Reality Fighters (PlayStation Vita)
A fighting game where you use the camera to create a fighter and fight in augmented reality, it's good, similar to what Invizimals did back on PSP but on the next technical level, very nice.

Smart As... (PlayStation Vita)
Solve problems and such, it's fun, I like game like this, it's also narrated by John Cleese which is nice.

Tearaway (PlayStation Vita) I fell instantly in love with this, so adorable, I just wanna hug it, all of it. I love Tearaway.

Killzone Mercenary (PlayStation Vita)
I'm impressed by the visuals and it plays great, a worthy game of the Killzone name and so much better than 2 and 3 were on PS3.

Deception IV Blood Ties (PlayStation Vita)
An excellent successor to the fantastically brutal Trapt on PS2, as good on Vita as it is on PS3, and vice versa!

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)

Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Mega Drive)
After having seen MrBaffacake's review on Youtube I had to give this one a try.