Mandoble

4GB is not that much if you allocate 2 or 3 for a game and the rest for other apps running in background: Skype, Navigator, Updates/downloads, Music player and the system itself. These saying that a PC game rarely exceeds 2GB are forgetting the other GB that they probably have in the video card, if you want to use hi res textures and if you want to avoid frequent loads from disk, you will need that.

8-16GB RAM means little about price, RAM is quite cheap. If the 256GB HD is solid, then that will be expensive. 1080 60FPS 3D is a weird target, it would all depend on the game detail level, lower it and FPS will raise, increase it and FPS will go down, this is not something that the console provides. It reminds me the ridiculous claim of WiiU being "native" 1080p 60FPS.

I would never say this is shovelware, looks pretty interesting. Reading the review text everything is excellent and outstanding, but then the score is a 7? Is that the reviewer and the one giving the score are different persons? dual personality problems?

The screeshot looks like the typical JRPG total crap, they can send it to the west, they will not sell any.

Absurd idea, if it is for a portable, the focus should be on SP campaign, or do they expect to have the portable connected to internet all the time like the home console? Most users dont have the 3G, and to play it at home only for the MP experience then, again, most users will choose PC/360/PS3 versions over Vita. Now it doesnt matter how good are its graphics or how fluent the game is, they have buried it and they have buried themselves.

This game is a 10/10 for Wii and a 6 for Vita when it has everything in the Wii version and a lot more? Err ... Well ... fantastic review to ruin a jewel, frankly incredible. I have the feeling that this review is only considering what this game offers over the predecesor, missing totally the point for all the users that have never played the Wii one. And 6 is an incredibly low score for any game, a 6 means this is just plain trash when it is just the very opposite.

Japanese commercials, same quality as japanese games, but probably there it will be ground breaking one.

Which is a radically supid move from Capcom, how many units could they sell for PS360 compared with these for WiiU? 100 to 1 ratio during the first year? Had Nintendo paid them so much to compensate?

There are companies that tend to go with story driven games with lots of cutscenes, which are like small fragments of big films and expensive voice acting. And this doesnt result into any AAA. Then you have other companies that just use already created game engines and that focus just on gameplay. Remove all the Hollywood like fragments of a game and see how much money do you save, but for the rest you might pretty well need an i7 and 4GB of RAM. You program the AI of one unit once, and you can model a unit only once, now place 1000 of these in a map and lets see how much power do you need (in exchange of minimum development effort). Model five types of trees, then use an island creator program to generate a map with 10000 of these, you may do it in a weekend, then set visual range to 10Km and try that in a PS3, lets see if you get more than 2 frames per second. More power is not equal to more effort, usually it is the very opposite.

@CrissCross87, that's not the point about power. That's the feeling you might have if playing only on consoles, that only graphics can be improved. The reality is a bit different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olEt30pd6o0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zhS4DuML5Q
1000 AI units at work at once, be ready to put a battery of 10 PS3 working in parallel to handle that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KK6Fo3Y0AU&feature=related
1500 AI
It is not just about graphics at all.

Technically it seems generations ahead of any MH, but it is also a so different game that any comparison betweem them will be faulty. There are many games where you need to kill big bosses, but is that MH really goes about hunting.

The PS4 already exists, companies are already creating games for it and Sony cannot downgrade it from which ever grade it has already without ruining current works in progress. If any, they can upgrade it. About the price, it will depend on what it gives. Curiously I got 3DS and Vita at launch time for very similar prices, few weeks after acquiring the 3DS it was quite clear for me how incredibly overpriced it was, I have not the same feeling with the Vita.

monster hunters are excellent games, but only really popular in Japan. I dont think that's a "bullet" big enough as to have any noticeable global impact.

@ShogunRok, the same applies to PS3 and 360, the problem is that millions of Wii users are actually moving to HD as Wii is plain dead, and they cannot wait until autum 2013 to renew. if they go for PS3 o 360, they will have a HUGE game library since day one, if the go for the WiiU they will have just few titles until the arrival of the next generation devices, and then they have the risk to be forgotten forever. So it is much more "profitable" to become obsolete in 2013 after having at least a full year enjoying a lot of HD games that were not present for the Wii with a PS3 or 360.

@Sanquine "Who is stupid enough to play kinect?"
My kids, who are "allucinating" with Kinect while leaving the two Wiis they have taking dust. Meanwhile I use Kinect only for console and Skyrim voice control. BTW, if you wave to the screen and nothing happens it is because you have not calibrated it, or you have calibrated it wrongly. That thing detects me even playing at night with the only light source of the big TV.

Recently I've got a new Slim 360 for some of its exclusives like Fables, Mass Effect 1, Skyrim plus a lot of outstanding XBLA and old XBoX tittles, it was the 250GB version with Kinect, Gold Live account and two games for 299€. I was also considering a PS3, but the added value per € of MS was better. A 160GB Slim PS3 for 199€, if true, will become in another acquisition. WiiU adds nothing atm, perhaps sometime in the future.

Said that, this article is missing something important. Many many Wii users (me included) as well as many new console users are moving to the HD considering PS3 and 360 as primary options, the main adversary of the 199€ PS3 is not the WiiU, but the 360. The WiiU doesnt seem to represent any important step forward from current generation and it lacks the hundreds of games present for the other two.

I want it in retail and in the EU and now.

Sony must take into consideration these millions of potential users that doesnt have and will not have a PS3. PS3 ports to Vita are also a must.

Well, they can sell millions creating a game to splash greeny bugs and selling it on Mars, not that I do care at all.

XBLA indicates it is HD. Is that it is upscaled and smoothered or just upscaled and pixelated? (just in case some of you have it for 360)

PSN Store (Vita EU) doesnt list any single Castlevania

@rjejr, remember that Wii is plain dead now while PS3 is in full strength thanks to the western market. 3DS limitations compared with Vita are really extreme and Vita will assist to 3DS burial sooner or later, it is just a matter of time. I'll be happy as long as Sony focuses on western market while absolutely ignoring Japan, I hope Sony is smart enough to do not waste any effort on the eastern market.

It is clear they want to consolidate the western market first. The tricky part is that usually whatever sells well in Japan doesnt sell well anywhere else.

While this article is mostly aiming to social apps, there are many people that for one reason or other are quite fascinated by the mini apps, these that usually come with the device by default, free ones and simple ones. A calculator, notepad, address book and mini games, classic ones and again for free.

But you only can assign the four corners of the front touch screen mapped as the standard buttons, sadly you cannot map the back panel which would be a way better option. While you control the movement and the camera with your thumbs you would be able to use the back panel to perform any other action in monster hunters (for example).

@linkster55 , 3DS was incredibly overpriced at launch, which is not the case with the Vita. And for what it has, it is even quite cheap compared with a tablet.

I do expect a "message" from Sony just before the release of the WiiU, something similar it is said to be prepared by MS.

Cross buy for this one? Does this mean Vita and PS3 versions will be released at the same time?

A "bit" more of effort in the graphic side would not hurt the game. Looks like the crappiest looking smartphone game.

First Vita game commercial with a clear message: get this and show how smart you are. I guess this one will sell very very well.

That COD looks really really bad, and the gameplay in the video is anything but interesting. It might happen that Nihilistic Software is one of the very few options Sony actually has for third party support.

I hope they dont repeat the same as with Batman 2, complete versions for big consoles and truncated ones for 3DS and Vita.

Might be they should stop focusing on Japan, and take good care about the western market, this is where Sony may look for salvation.

Consider that these problems doesnt exist on 360 and PC versions and from there come the awards.

I really wish they figure out how to aleviate the problems with the PS3 memory banks. I finished this twice on PC and was going to buy a PS3 specifically to play it on the big TV, but after reading about the issues I bought a 360 with the Skyrim and Kinect past week. For me this game is a definitive system seller and a must for every big console (WiiU included), Bethesda has a gold mine with it and official DCLs as long as the game runs fine on all the platforms.

Japanese style games are really for Japan, their eardrums can survive that.

Another game that will boost Japan's market and will hardly sell any in the west.

Vita will hardly sell more units than 3DS because it is the most expensive. Remember that vast majority of 3DS users have it as a gift from another person (parents, familiars, etc) and that if the target is to buy a console for the kid (or for the granpa), the cheapest always wins, and the same applies for teenagers with low income even when they save to buy a console (the 3DS is 110€ cheaper than 3G Vita).

I already got it, but again, scoring a game comparing it with the version of another system makes little sense for me, even if the video cut scenes might have been better. Users with PS3 and Vita will choose not only based on which version looks better, but mostly deciding whether they want to play it anywhere or only when in front of the TV.

I think it is a mistake to judge a PSV game using comparisons with the PS3 version (unless you believe that all PSV users are also PS3 users).

1. [NDS] Pokemon Black 2 / White 2 <<< And that's what defines Japan's market

It is a must to have tittle, agree. But it was also over-hyped.

What for us might sound ridiculous in Japan might be a total success and viceversa.

@Savino, perhaps most Vita users are not PS3 users, or might be I'm an isolated exception. I have both, 3DS and PSV and for 3DS I play only MK7 and OOT, for my taste its game library is way worse than that of the PSV, and the PSV library is not great at all.

The game is really quite enjoyable, but it has bugs, got mine frozen twice (something that also happens from time to time with most Lego games for Wii).

RAM is pretty cheap and high definition textures alone require lots of it. Today it is common to have PC graphics card with 2GB and more, I see 4GB as the bare minimum for the following 8 years.

An extra option that Sony, as well as the others, should apply is to have a full set of mini games already installed within the console. Any PC or Smartphone comes with a set of preinstalled games ready to use, and with many others for free ready to download: sudoku, chess, solitaire, majong, minesweeper, etc. As well as a full set of mini apps.
Sony may also add an adapter for a card reader that the Vita may use as a backup media to sync files with the internal memory card (same as with PC and PS3) and to store music, vids, pics and docs so you can use the uber expensive internal card just for games only. The device would be much more attractive for many people this way.

Well, I guess MS will win in the long run when they unify PC, smartphone and console gaming under windows 8, but I dont think they will be ready to show any of these this year.

I guess that Sony will win it thanks to the PS3 unless Nintendo is able to demostrate that WiiU is really a generation ahead of 360/PS3. On the portable department there should not be problems, I have both, 3DS and Vita, and Vita is for sure several generations ahead of the 3DS and Sony cannot/should not fail demostrating that, the leap between these two portables is simply too huge.

RPG (without any J) is certainly missing, having Bethesda supporting Vita would be the most significative sign of future success for me. But a good option in the hands of Sony would be a dramatic price reduction of the memory cards, 87€ for 32GB is absurd. I guess they can compensate this reduction with the corresponding increase of PSN sales. Also, if they believe that if you have a Vita, then surely you will have a PS3, this will be a big mistake. Having the Vita with a performance close to that of the PS3 allows them to have multiplatform exclusives where one of the versions should be an easy port from the other.