TPA for PSVITA, a recommended buy?

[bavelb]

Ok, here's the beef: I'm really interested in buying a VITA to play (at least) both Zen 2 and TPA. The fact you can use the tables you buy on both PS3 and vita is very attractive to me. My Ipad 1 isn't as portable and nudging isn't optimal, plus it suffers from some framelag (and a lot of lag on Zen Pinball). So for gaming on the go, the Vita seems the best. I however have a few questions to ask in regards to the VITA version:

1) I plan in playing Landscape mode, because thats the only way you can have access to both flippers AND control nudgedirection at the same time I think. (Even if they change the controls so you can use X or triangle or [ ] or whatever, you'd have to have backtouch to nudge, or take your fingers of a flipper to nudge with a stick and neither seems optimal to me. But how are the graphics in Landscape? Do you see enough of the back of the table in Locked view? Can you for instance see the lighted lanes in Ripleys Or TOM in the back well enough? Or what the rollover-reward is in the back of Black hole?

2) Say I do play in portrait mode, can you control the nudging direction on the backscreen (so left/right/up?) or is it like the IOS where you touch and the table nudges "wherever"

3) I hear stuff that the phsyics on VITA are not as good as PS3/360. Any comments on that?

4) What would the disadvantages be for having a US PSN account on my EU Vita (other than needing to buy US PSN points whenever I want to buy something).

 

[RetroBlast]

Lets see if I can address some your questions here.

I love playing TBA on my Vita, it actually plays faster on the Vita than on the PS3 ... this may be an optical illusion as the ball has to travel less of a distance on a smaller table.

1. I play only in landscape mode on my Vita ... the reason is that the use of the back touch screen to nudge is horrible. You can not hold the Vita without touching the back touch screen. How the nudge is supposed to work is this .... put finger on back touch screen then swipe in a direction for either left or right nudge.

I use the analog stick to nudge for landscape mode ... it is very intuitive and you do not have to take your finger off it at anytime ... here are the control options for landscape mode

Flippers - L / R BUTTONS ONLY (THESE ARE THE TOP LEFT AND RIGHT SHOULDER BUTTONS ON THE TOP OF THE VITA - VERY INTUATIVE AND COMFORTABLE!)
TOUCH SCREEN ONLY
BOTH TOUCH AND L / R BUTTONS

Plunger - RIGHT STICK ONLY
TOUCH SCREEN ONLY
BOTH RIGHT STICK AND TOUCH SCREEN

Nudge - LEFT STICK ONLY (you can nudge the table in any direction!)
REAR TOUCH PAD ONLY
BOTH LEFT STICK AND REAR TOUCH PAD

Tilt - ON
- OFF - ONLY IF 2ND WIZARD GOALS COMPLETED - NO SCORES UPLOADED TO LEADERBOARDS

GRAPHICS IN LANDSCAPE:
Because I usually only play the Black Hole table, let me address it this way ... in locked cam 2, which is the best for seeing the most of this particular table, the only thing you can not see is the special lit up at the top of the screen. The other two in the semi loop are visable. On the rare occasion I am not sure if it is lit, I unlock the cam while the ball is on the way up, take a peek, then relock it immediately. Mind you, you can do this with your thumb very easily and remember, it is your pointing finger that controls your flippers.

PHYSICS:
The only difference I see that the game appears to be slightly speeded up ... ball physics / flippers, everything. Consider this ... if you had the exact game being played on the PS3 and the Vita at the same time and ball was moving from the top of the sreen to the bottom of the screen in the same amount of time, the ball on the vita would have to move faster as it is less of a distance.

US / VRS EU PSN ... THAT I HAVE NO IDEA, THERE WE DO NOT USE POINTS ON PSN WE SIMPLY USE DOLLAR AMOUNTS ... BUY A $20.00 CARD, YOU HAVE $20.00 IN YOUR WALLET. The only advantage I can think of is that if your Dollar is worth more than our Dollar and you convert your money and buy a game via US PSN, it may be a little cheaper but then again, Sony probably has accounted for this and charges each country what it needs to. But one other difference might be if you were a playstation plus member ... each country may offer different free or discounted games each month.

If you do pick up a PS Vita I would not go for the 3G model unless they are offering you a much better plan than they offer here, get the WiFi version.

Pick up the PS VITA HAND GRIP by CTA - it makes playing every game so much more enjoyable and it a cheap hand grip. You can not charge the Vita while using it or insert a game cart but it takes about 2 seconds to remove it or replace it. but even with these two slight drawbacks, it is hands down the most comfortable grip around and here it costs 12 bucks.

 

[djwille]

I play it on portrait mode. I like it and i think the tables looks beter that way. On landscape everything is so little.
On the beginning it's difficult to hold the vita in portrait mode. But with a little practice it's getting better and better. The only thing what i can't use is the nudge.
It's very difficulte to tilt it with the tough screen on the back. There for i hope farsight wil make a portrait mode in the other direction. Than we can use the x and de triangle buttons for the flippers and the stick for nudge.
The tough screen for pusching the bal into the game.

Sorry for my bad englisch........

Greetingzzz

 

[RetroBlast]

I never directly answered you if i Think you should get a PS Vita or not. I say YES! The Vita is really a beautiful and powerful machine, it feels good in your hands, the controls are top notch and there is already a decent amount of good titles to choose from. There are many aspects of the Vita which have not really come to life yet such as remote play and more cross platform gaming. But as the unit stands now, even without being fully developed to its potential, it is the best hand held video gaming device ever made and I say that having owned a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DSI, Nintendo DSI XL, and a Game Gear. One other thing to note is that of the three cross platform games, I have two of them, Pinball Arcade and Hustle Kings and I like playing them more on my Vita than on my PS3 due to the controls. More and more we will see the Vita develop as a gaming / entertainment device but as it stands now, the Vita already has NETFLIX and SKYPE (VIDEO & VOICE CHAT). When you look at the negative things people are saying that own a PS Vita, 99% of the time they are not complaining about the unit as it is now, they are complaining about how they want the Vita to be. For example, a few weeks ago everyone was complaining how the Vita didn't have SKYPE, but now it does. Realize that there is no way the Vita can get any worse, it is great already and it can only get better as time goes on.

 

[djwille]

good speechs retroblast. I agree with you. The vita is a wonderfull peace of hardware and this year comes many good games for the vita.
I a'm very happy that i bought one and i play a lot of pinball arcade on it. More than on my ps3.

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Hmmm. I want pinball arcade for ipad and ps3. But was thinking about the vita, because of the controls. But last night i saw some videos on youtube, and i was shocked how it looks compaired to the IOS version. Maybe a youtube thing, but any guys around here that have ipad 3 and a vita with both games?

How do they compare to each other? Playability, looks and bugs.

 

[djwille]

Yes i have and i must say that the ipad 3 is looking beter than the vita version. But you can buy them both.
So you can sponser Farsight. I play it 50/50 on my ipad and my ps vita.

 

[djwille]

And now i playing pinball arcade on the android hahahha... The new tables looks great!!!!!

 

[Peter NYC]

I have the PS3 / Vita version and the iPad 3 running Pinball Arcade. While the iPad 3 looks fantastic, I find the current implementation of nudge controls to be unacceptable whether it is touching the screen or shaking it. Of the three platforms I am familiar with, I think the game looks and plays the best on the PS3. When I play it on the Vita, I play it in landscape mode and the controls and nudging are fantastic. Of course, the Vita has a significantly lower resolution than the iPad 3. But as much as I love the iPad, the limitations are fairly significant when it comes to gaming. If they implemented something like two finger touch to indicate nudging, that may help a bit. Ultimately the game plays great on all three platforms.

 

[djwille]

I agree with you Peter NYC. But i prefer player on portrait mode because it's a little bit small on landscape. But that's personal.
Also i love the vita version and i played it a lot.
The ps3 version is also very nice and play wel. Bigger screen en no touch screen!

 

[RetroBlast]

I can only speak to PS3 vs Vita ... Obviously, the game is going to look better and clearer on the PS3 ... but that does not mean it does not look great on the Vita! When it comes to controls, I choose the Vita hands down simply because the vita feels better in your hands and the shoulder buttons feel more comfortable as well. When it comes to nudging, your thumb naturally covers the left analog stick on the vita and because the stick is not as prominent or tall as a PS3 controller, it feels less awkward. Although I love playing games on the big screen, my highest scores have always come from the Vita and I believe it is because of the controls.

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

Absolutely, no doubt about it. The game plays fantastic on the Vita and feels very comfortable and natural. I have really been impressed by the system as a whole, but having such high quality pinball action really puts it over the top quality wise. Hopefully we can start getting the new tables out soon since I am down to only 1 wizard goal on RBION.