Playstation Vita Rooms Round-Up

Today I went to Oxford Street in London for the final leg of the PlayStation Vita Rooms tour, where I had the chance to get hands on with Sony’s new handheld before launch.

They had plenty of launch title games available to play as well as showing off many interesting features of the Vita such as Cross play. Here’s a run down of some of my favourite titles from the Playstation Vita Rooms in London.

WipEout 2048

WipEout is going back to it’s roots with WipEout 2048. The game is set appropriately, in the year 2048 where Anti-Gravity racing has just been introduced. As so, most of the races are still taking place in streets and in the new metropolis up above. In this game you will be speeding through shopping malls, riding up the Empire State Building and racing at 400mph through a park. All the while trying to win and prevent your lovely ship being blown to pieces. This defiantly looks and feels like a WipEout game!

But the thing which is most interesting is its support of Cross Play with the PS3. The premise is simple, you can use your copy WipEout 2048 on Vita and race against players with WipEout HD and Fury on the PS3. I had the chance to play this at the event and it works brilliantly. The idea of having a friend round and letting them use the Dualshock 3 controller on the PS3 while I race them on the Vita or vise versa is good and allows more people to play the game at the same time with up to 8 players allowed to join in the action with any combination of Vita’s and Dualshock’s

Uncharted: Golden Abbyss

As I am sure everyone else is, I am looking forward to Uncharted on Vita. Whilst it was pretty much guaranteed, I was over the moon when I found out this title was definitely at the Playstation Vita Rooms. With Naughty Dog trusting Bend with their landmark hero I must say the game is looking to be another classic Uncharted adventure with Bend making full use of Vita’s capability’s.

For example when climbing, you can either use the classic controls or you can use the touch pad and ‘draw’ Nathan’s route for him t0 climb. Another use is melee combat. You can use the buttons as you normally would, or you can swipe the screen and watch as Nathan lay’s the smack down on whoever is in his way.

FIFA Football

Some of you may be thinking ‘Really?’ but honestly for once I have enjoyed playing a football game on a handheld! The graphics makes the game look like a direct console port but EA Sports have added a few extra Vita niggles.

Firstly there’s passing. You can use classic FIFA controls with X to pass or you can use the touch screen, whichever floats your boat. The same goes with shooting. You could use the O button to shoot or you could use the rear touchpad to direct specifically where you want your shot to go and how powerful you want the shot to be. I found this mechanic really good and once I was used to it, I was pulling of goals that would make Barcelona look like Shamrock Rover’s (Sorry to any fans of Shamrock Rovers)

Gravity Rush

But overall I think my game of the event has to go to Gravity Rush, purely and simply because this game took me by surprise.

In this game you play as a girl who has literally forgotten who she is and meets this cat that can make her alter the laws of physics. Literally. The presentation of the game looks beautiful and parts are presented in a slight comic book style. The game play is smooth and easy to learn and soon enough I was able to make gravity defying stunts which all felt very awesome. Combat is also good by being able to seamlessly switch between ground and anti-grav combat.

If there is one game you should get apart from your first choice (unless it’s already this) Then you should defiantly consider getting Gravity Rush. It was without a doubt one of my favourite games shown at the Playstation Vita Rooms. If you like action RPG’s then you will fall in love with this, the game has been so popular in Japan a sequel is already in the pipeline. And the price is rumoured to be only £9.99 as a digital download only title so for what your getting, it’s a steal!

Playstation Vita Rooms

To sum up then event, I found it great fun. It game me the chance to sit on one of their couches, crack open a Coke Zero, and play all the Vita game’s to my hearts desire. It also gave me a chance to properly check out Vita’s new Live Area interface. You haven’t missed your chance to attend Vita rooms yet as the event is running for a few more days with many more things going on such as the FIWC tournament and performances by Wiley and Tinchy Stryder. Also don’t be afraid to ask question’s as the event staff were all awesome and really friendly.

If you want to check out the full schedule for the Playstation Vita Rooms take a look at their Facebook page. Also, for some pictures from the PS Vita Rooms event, check out the gallery below!