Vita Half-Byte Loader - VHBL for Everybody's Tennis Released!

Following the announcement of the next exploitable game on the PS Vita, the Vita Half-Byte Loader (VHBL) for Everybody'a Tennis has been released. Currently, the exploit is only working for EU, US, and JP game versions, while there is currently no HK version fix available. For those of you looking to purchase this game, you are too late as Sony has already removed the game from the online store.

Unit 13 - Could have been better

Unit 13 is a tactical shooter for the PlayStation Vita from Zipper Interactive, the makers of the SOCOM series. It’s the closest PS Vita owners will get to a Rainbow Series game – that is until Ubisoft actually put out a Rainbow Six game for Sony’s latest handheld console. Unlike most story-based games, Unit 13 is divided into a bunch of stand-alone missions and the only thing explained to you from the get go is that you’re a new recruit with an elite task force called Unit 13 whose sole aim is to kill a lot of terrorists. I’m not a huge fan of this kind of a mission structure as it makes the game feel very disjointed, since there is no real story arc that’s persistent through all the missions.

On the plus side, it makes for a good pick-up-and-play kind of game where you don’t have to sit around investing multiple hours into the game. In Unit 13, there are around 35 missions to choose from. You have your stealthy infiltration kind where ideally you should dispatch your enemies silently without alerting anyone. Doing so gets you higher points that you can later on upload on to the game’s leaderboards. And then you have the kill everything that moves variant where you’re essentially running and gunning through the entire level like a man on fire. The other two types are essentially timed missions or missions with a very strict penalty where the mission ends once you die. Checkpoints are for wusses apparently.

Gameplay in Unit 13 revolves around a cover mechanic that seems pretty responsive. You press a key to snap to cover from where you can dispatch your foes or hide and eventually sneak past them. Shooting in this game is also your standard third person shooter fare where you can pop out and fire from cover. Zooming in on any weapon shifts the action to a first person perspective making it easier to take someone’s head off.

While I enjoyed the game’s stealth as well as its run-and-gun mechanics, the whole mission structure was a major buzzkill for me. For one, I never forged any sort of connection with any of the protagonists or their cause, because I could choose a new one for every mission. Also the stealth mechanics could have a bit stronger allowing me to hide dead bodies or even distract enemies a la Splinter Cell. Things also tend to get a bit repetitive and boring when you’re killing the same looking dudes in same-ish looking environments. After the environmental diversity packed into Rayman Origins, Unit 13 actually felt suffocating.

Still, if you’re a fan of tactical shooters, Unit 13 may be worth considering as its combat mechanics are rather solid. It also allows players to team up and tackle missions co-operatively online, which is always a plus point for action games. If only the game had been structured better and offered more variety, it would have joined Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Rayman origins as must-buy titles for the PlayStation Vita.

FIFA Football (PS Vita)

EA Sports’ FIFA games have gone from strength to strength with each home console iteration, building upon its rock solid brand of simulation football a little, each year. However, the PC and handheld versions haven’t always been as impressive, receiving step-motherly treatment as the developers focused primarily on the PS3 and Xbox 360. But, with the announcement of FIFA Football for the PlayStation Vita, it seemed like the tide was turning, and it gave handheld owners hope of a FIFA game that is at par with its home console counterparts.

For most part, EA has lived up to those expectations. FIFA Football is a solid handheld port of FIFA 12, minus a few bells and whistles. From the start screen, to the now-familiar Arena, to the menus, your first impressions lead you to believe that this is exactly the game you’ve been playing on your HD console. But start up your first match, and the differences start to show themselves. The visuals are an obvious step down, but still remarkable for a handheld console and miles ahead of what we’ve seen on the PSP and mobile devices. The animations are fluid, as you would expect and the sound effects and comments from Martin Tyler and Alan Smith are just as they are in FIFA 12. The biggest disappointment, however, reveals itself once a match gets underway. Intermittent frame rate drops often ruin the experience, causing you to lose concentration. The issue is compounded, if you’re playing using the touch controls.

Other big changes in the Vita version are the absence of features, such as the player impact engine, tactical defending and EA Sports Football Club, which debuted in FIFA 12. While the omission of Football Club is disappointing, the removal of the other features is actually for the better. The overly technical physics and defending systems of FIFA 12 would have been a little too daunting on a handheld device. Having said that, even without them, FIFA Football is challenging and fun as you would expect.

The most interesting aspect of FIFA Football is how it implements the Vita’s touch controls. The game uses the touchscreen for passing, where you can simply tap a player or an area of the pitch and the player in possession will pass the ball there. You can also string passes together. However, there are two problems with touch controls. Firstly, the Vita’s screen is too big to allow you to use it effectively for passing, while at the same time using the analog sticks to move. Secondly, you can’t use the touchscreen controls while defending, so you’ll constantly have to switch between the screen and the buttons.

For shooting on goal, you can use the Vita’s rear trackpad. Here, the four corners of the trackpad represent the four corners of the goal post. So tapping on a particular area of the pad will aim the shot in the corresponding spot in the goal. Shot power can be regulated by how long you hold your tap. This system, too has its flaws. Firstly, you will very often end up shooting when you don’t intend to, simply because your fingers rest and move around on the trackpad. Moreover, while shooting, only one finger must be in contact with the pad, without which the gesture won’t be registered as a shot on goal. All in all, the implementation of touch is a good effort, and it’s even fun from time to time, but you’ll soon find that the game is best played with the more reliable and comfortable traditional controls.

FIFA Football has most of the game modes you’d find in FIFA 12, including the career mode, where you can take up the role of a player, manager, or player-manager, and play as either the entire team or just one player in the Be A Pro format. It’s just as deep and there’s no compromise in quality. If anything, player interactions and transfer processes have been improved over FIFA 12, so this definitely isn’t a straight port. That aside, you can also play through various tournaments or create your own custom tournament. Like all FIFA games, you can create a Virtua Pro (your custom player) and use across all game modes. Online matchmaking is quick and gameplay is mostly lag-free, and while EA Sports Football Club is missed, other features, such as 11 vs 11 matches are present.

If your expectations from FIFA Football are of a game that mimics FIFA 12 on the Vita, then this is just what you asked for. But, if you’re looking for something more and hoped that the touch controls will deliver a new and more enjoyable experience, then you may be disappointed. This is a great first effort on the Vita, but some impractical touch controls and wobbly framerates stop it from being a must-buy.

Rayman Origins (PS Vita)

I’m not too proud to admit this, but Rayman Origins is the first Rayman game I’ve played - ever. The only thing I knew about this franchise was that it was a child friendly universe that gave birth to a whacky spin off in the form of Raving Rabbids. I did not, however, anticipate the sheer amount of joy that can be derived from this title on the PlayStation Vita.

For my brethren who’ve never dabbled with this franchise in the past, Rayman Origins is an old-school 2D platformer that perfectly blends combat with platforming in a very vibrant world. Story, of course is not an integral part of this game, but it’s there all right. You see Rayman and his band of friends have through their obnoxious snoring awakened the dead who now inhabit their turf, the Glade of Dreams. And of course, it’s up to Rayman to evict the new tenants.

The game starts off in a jungle-based level, but soon expands to include multiple game worlds, each of which can only be accessed once you clear the previous one. Each world is thematically different, so in one you could be floating around the desert on mosquito shooting birds, while in the other, you could be sliding down frozen slopes avoiding tricky glaciers and what I presume are piranhas. The game packs in so much environmental variety that you’ll never get bored, even though you’re almost doing the same thing in every level. Also I recommend playing each level multiple times, because it looks real cool when you know the map by heart and (near) flawlessly breeze through it. Plus you get to upload your score online, so that’s always nice for the male ego.

Every few levels you’ll have to rescue a nymph in distress after which she’ll bestow a special ability upon you like the ability to glide mid-air, dropkick stuff or even shrink in size to access certain areas. The levels that follow suit very cleverly put your new found abilities to the test. For example, once I earned the hovering ability, I was thrust into a game world full of air vents that made sure I mastered this ability to progress.

While this game looks very innocent, it’s also fiendishly tough at times requiring near perfect timing, razor quick reflexes and of course, tons of patience. It is, in fact quite ironic that such a kid friendly game made me spew out quite a few expletives at my poor Vita multiple times during my playthrough. However, none of these moments felt cheap and can be passed after a few tries. If for some reason you just can’t pass a roadblock, the game allows you to skip that level, altogether. However, if you do that, (and no one will judge you if you do), you may lack the required amount of Electoons to progress to the next level. In that case you’ll have to man up and complete the level or replay older levels to earn more Electoons.

Rayman’s transition from consoles to the Vita is flawless and besides Uncharted, this has to be the most visually appealing game I’ve played on the Vita. Its art style is a unique blend of hand-drawn levels fused with fluid animation and gorgeous 3D design. It is a game largely meant for kids, so naturally levels are very vibrant and cheerful and truth be told, it was a nice change of pace from all the gritty/authentic games, I’ve played recently. The only thing I had to tone down was the in-game audio, since the constant gibberish and annoying music got to me after a few levels.

If you’ve picked up a Vita for yourself, Rayman Origins is the perfect addition to your library. It’s fun, insanely addictive and is capable of challenging the most hardened of gamers. It also offers players a surprising amount of replayability and is the perfect fix for gamers who don’t have a lot of time on their hands, since it can be enjoyed for five minutes or five hours. We most definitely recommend it.

Sony to announce new Vita games next week

In case you picked up a Vita when it launched locally last week, you may be a bit miffed at the its launch line-up. Sure Uncharted: Golden Abyss is the bomb but after that there really isn’t any game that may scream out to you. All that could change next Friday as Sony are all set to unveil a whole new bunch of Vita games via their "Welcome! PlayStation Vita Game Heaven" broadcast.

According to Adrianang, this broadcast will include information about new Vita games, services as well as "new information about in-release titles", whatever that means. For more on the broadcast, stay tuned to this site on the 9th of March 2012. In the meantime, do check out our rather extensive Vita coverage to determine if Sony’s latest handheld console is meant for you.

PlayStation Vita games wishlist

Rainbow Six Vegas

Unit 13 has taught us that the Vita can handle tactical shooters pretty well and the Rainbow Six series is by far the best in that genre. It requires a certain amount of planning to get the job done but at the same time never feels overtly real enough to frustrate.

PAIN

PAIN is one of those games that don’t require a lot of time commitment. Fire up the game for even ten minutes and you’ll thoroughly enjoy throwing your character all over the place watching in glee as his limp corpse ragdolls across various obstacles. It’s the perfect handheld fix if you don’t have a ton of time on your hands.

Prince of Persia

Ubisoft’s reboot of the Price of Persia franchise was spot on blending action and puzzle solving with the perfect amount of platforming. The series may have lost its spark over the past few years but we’re pretty sure this franchise would feel right at home on Sony’s latest handheld.

Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain was one of the few games that concentrated more on storytelling than actual gameplay weaving players into an intricate and highly absorbing drama. The game’s rather unconventional adventure game-esque control scheme would sit real well on the PlayStation Vita with its motion controlled and touch-screen functionality.

Batman

Developer Rocksteady’s reboot of the Batman franchise took the world by storm appealing to Batman fans as well as fans of the action genre. It perfectly blended one of the most intuitive had-to-hand combat systems with tense stealth gameplay to create the perfect action adventure. And now that Rocksteady has been commissioned to work on this franchise, I’m sure they could churn out something real special for Vita owners.

PlayStation Vita games wishlist

So you’ve bought the PlayStation Vita and completed Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Now you’re thinking of what to buy since Sony’s launch lineup for the Vita isn’t particularly strong besides Drake’s handheld adventure and a handful of other games. Keeping that in mind we’ve devised our very own wishlist of games/video game franchises we’d like to see on the Vita ASAP. 

God of War

Well it’s God of War so there’s reason number one. Also developer Ready at Dawn showed us you don’t really need powerful hardware to make a good God of War game on handheld consoles as both their God of War games were stunning on the PSP. However, with the power of the Vita at their fingertips, it would be interesting to see what kind of insane stuff they could come up with.

Burnout

So far I’m not overly impressed with the racing games on the Vita. They’re nice sure, but none of them have particularly grabbed my attention. All that could change in a heartbeat if Criterion made a Burnout game for the Vita. Hell even if they don’t make a new one, I’ll be real happy with a Burnout Revenge or a Takedown port.

Def Jam

I might be in a minority here but to me, Def Jam Fight for New York was by far one of the most entertaining fighting games ever made. Now if EA can move pass the disaster that was Def Jam Icon, they could hopefully commission someone capable to work on a new Def Jam game for the Vita.

Grand Theft Auto

If we can have a full-fledged Grand Theft Auto game on smartphones (GTA III), I don’t see why we can’t get one for the Vita. In fact one of my biggest gripes with Grand Theft Auto III on the iPhone, the highly inconvenient control scheme, would be addressed with the move to Vita.

Trine

Trine and its sequel are highly accessible and enjoyable 2D action games that appeal to both the hardcore as well as the casual crowd. The game relies heavily on physics-based puzzles and platforming and in our opinion, both gameplay aspects would feel right at home on the Vita.