Other feature

 

 

GPS

The system has a GPS that allows us to mark our location and is used mainly by an application included in the console called «Near» that allows us to locate other users of the Vita within a radius of a little more than 1 km around, being able to also see their games and scores. While this application may seem interesting to connect with other players who play the same game as us, the interface and the use of Near is far from intuitive. I had to touch many buttons without achieving what I wanted and I looked for instructions on the web and they all say the same thing: it is poorly designed, it has no clear use and for now it only serves to check that the GPS is working well.

Accelerometer

 

The motion sensor of the console is very precise and allows in conjunction with the cameras to make use of augmented reality to show us digital characters in real environments. In the video below I show you the free game "Reality Fighters", which not only allows us to put our face in a fighter but also allows us to use any furniture or flat surface that we have around us to function as a stage for battle.

 

As you can see, the effect is extremely real and fun, showing that the possibilities of creating original games that make use of the sensor are very wide. The console also includes some AR cards (augmented reality cards) similar to those of the Nintendo 3DS but they were not provided so I cannot comment on how they work.

 

Games

At last we come to what the true gamer cares about when buying a portable console: games. The power of the Vita is due to the 4 ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore cores running at 1.5 Ghz and 512 MB RAM of memory, the same that can be found in systems like the iPad 2. The graphics are powered by the 4 SGX543MP4 cores that It runs at 300 MHz and has 128 MB of VRAM, which makes it graphically superior to any current portable device.

 

All this power serves to make the experience of playing on a Vita closer and closer to that of using its older sister, the PS3. Proof of the might of the notebook is without a doubt one of Sony's exclusive titles: "Uncharted Golden Abyss" developed by Bend Studio.

 

The game surprises with its quality and production values, which have nothing to envy to the 3 previous titles of the Uncharted saga, the cinematics are first-rate, the dialogues have the same voices, the gameplay is fun and dynamic and the Graphics surprise for their colors, textures and for the number of frames that never fall, regardless of the amount of elements on the screen.

 

The game tries to make use of the tactile possibilities of the console, so we can make our character climb the platforms by tapping on them, and sliding the finger to move along. Other actions in which we can use our fingers is when we find objects that we must clean with our finger, or pass a pencil over a paper to trace reliefs of ancient civilizations. There are several other things that can be done, but most are optional since we can also use the buttons to climb platforms, something more practical than swiping.