Yesterday I told you about my venture into Vita-land. I thought it would be nice to take you along on my exploration, maybe someone who is a newby too can benefit from it in time. First of all, what I noticed searching the news sites and forums, is that I’m having a difficult time to find all I need to know being a first time user. No NintendoLife to help me out or Club Nintendo. No easy to use quick instruction guide depicting images of what to do in the box, but there was one online: http://www.playstation.com/manual/pdf/PCH-1001_1101-1.0_2.pdf
The Vita feels very slim, maybe because I’m used to holding the 3DS XL. It’s much thinner, the screen is nice and large, and the colors and graphics are amazing. I’ve heard that the screens on the older version where even more amazing, but I’m happy with these. Not as sturdy to hold though as the 3DS, that might take some getting used to. Holding it with your fingers on the grips at the backside doesn’t feel very safe to me, so I tend to hold it with my fingers on the touch screen on the back. Not always a good idea, as some games make use of that the touchscreen.
Installing it was quickly done, as I never had any Sony device I made my Sony Entertainment Acount first, so I could connect the Vita to it. ( You can do that here: http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/nl-nl/home/) There’s no need to connect credit card data to your account, that can be done later should you want to buy an online game. Plus Sony has redeemable cards too to add funds. Be sure to put a micro SD card in of the special Sony brand, normal SD cards don’t work here. Installing it and connecting to the Internet was easy, and when that’s done, you are good to go.
The Vita leads you to Welcome Park first. It has a number of mini games to let you get acquainted with the device. Would you believe I didn’t even know it had a touch screen like an iPad? I learned that there, how you can pinch and zoom the screen, how you can make puzzles from your pictures (it has a front and back camera lens) The camera allows you to make video’s and panoramic pictures, and there’s a microphone to record sound. Welcome Park teaches you the use of tilting the device and using the back touch pad. I played only a little of the mini games, but if you like bettering yourself with new records all the time, you can have some fun there.
Like in the 3DS you can add friends on the device, you can see their scores and online status. But the Vita lets you send direct messages to them and you can include your own pictures too. Might be nice! The various apps and games are depicted as little circles on the screen. Holding one of them for a few seconds let’s you move it, and it shows a dotted line next to it. Clicking on the line you can easily delete it, put it in a folder or see some info about the title. Feels like maneuvering around on the iPad.
Well enough for today. I’m not at all disappointed about the device. If truth be told, I’m pleasantly surprised about all the Vita has in store. Next time I’ll tell you about my first gaming experiences.
Looking at the lower picture made me think of one tip I would like to give you (maybe you have found out about it by now on your own).
You can take screenshots by pressing the Vita button and the Start button simultaneously.
The only exception I know of would be PSP and Play Station One games, pretty much everything else should work though.
Maybe that will come in handy if you want to add a certain picture to a blog entry.
Have fun!
Thanks for the tip, as you had gathered I didn’t know!