1. The Witcher 2: Assassins Enhanced Edition (NE)
2. FIFA Street (1)
3. FIFA 12 (2)
4. Kinect Star Wars (4)
5. Mass Effect 3 (2)
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (5)
7. Battlefield 3 (8)
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (7)
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (9)
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (6)

Number in brackets denotes last week’s position. NE denotes a new entry.

Source: GFK Chart-Track

Some missions require stealth

Developer Zipper Interactive are responsible for the largely excellent SOCOM games. In fact, two of my favourite titles on PSP were the Fireteam Bravo games. The usual shooter canon of earning XP is present here, with multipliers available for headshots, kills and completing objectives. There are six different classes of soldier, each with their own loadouts and bonuses, and each can be levelled up to a maximum level of ten. While the game does automatically recommend the soldier you should use, you can choose whichever one you want. In personal experience, it is sometimes beneficial to deviate from the game’s suggestion, and it is probably a good thing to find the soldier that is right for you, and stick with him for the majority of missions.

The in-game map shows enemies and objectives

There are thirty six missions in the single player game, not all of which are available from the start. Instead, these unlock as you progress through the game. In addition to these missions, there is also a Daily Challenge, a different mission with global leaderboards. You can only complete these challenges once, so make sure you are good enough to get those multipliers up! There are also HVT, or High Value Target, missions, which are more difficult than the normal missions, and have no checkpoints. Die, and you have to start again. While this is frustrating at first, it really adds something to the game, and keeps you coming back for more. These HVT missions are unlocked via stars earned in the singleplayer, or via NEAR Game Goods.

Unit 13 does have faults, though. The AI for starters is questionable. On covert missions, if you go with the recommended operative, you are equipped with a silenced gun. Yet for some reason, sometimes when you take out a soldier on on floor, another one miles away is alerted to your presence, yet sometimes you can take out a guard with his mate stood next to him seemingly oblivious. And covert missions offer a non-lethal bonus, yet sometimes you have to take out a soldier, therefore reducing said bonus. For example, on one level, you have to infiltrate the warehouse. To do this, you have to get past two guards outside. Getting past the first one is easy, but the second one spends the whole time staring at the door you need to go through, giving you no option but to take him out!

Verdict

While Unit 13 is not perfect, it is a good, solid shooter, and offers plenty of shooty goodness in the launch lineup. The sad thing is, with Zipper Interactive being closed down just a few weeks after the game came out, we will probably never see a sequel, and the potential DLC we could have seen will also never surface.

1. FIFA Street
2. Mass Effect 3
3. FIFA 12
4. Kinect Star Wars
5. Tiger Woods 13
6. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3
7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
8. Battlefield 3
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
10. SSX

Source: GFK Chart-Track

Game’s Faults

There is no doubt that Game haven’t helped themselves, and are probably largely to blame for their recent problems. Of course, there are multiple reasons for their demise;

Online Retailers: With the advent of online retailers like play.com and amazon, who sell their games for at least £10 less than Game. Of course, they only have one premises to pay for, and therefore a lot less staff and overheads than Game retailers. The fact that they have been clever in their location, setting themselves up in Jersey, doesn’t help either.

Pricing/Stocking: Game tend to focus on only the big name titles, whereas you can find the lesser known games with the online retailers. Of course, Game only have limited shelf space, and therefore have to push the games that they know will sell. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help the smaller developers and publishers get their games noticed. Game also don’t seem to reduce prices too often, whereas the online retailers often have sales and offers if you don’t have to have the game on release day.

Digital Downloads: The rise of Steam and the emergence of OnLive are also making a dent in retail sales. In fact, most Game stores don’t stock many PC games now, as Steam offers such a reliable and fast download service. They have the pricing right, too, with digital games cheaper than boxed retail games, and sales that offer top titles at “impulse buy” prices. I myself downloaded Football Manager 2012 for £7.99 a few weeks ago, even though I was perfectly happy with last year’s version!

Supermarkets: With the huge buying power of the big supermarkets entering the videogame market, specialist stores like Game were always going to struggle to stay competitive. And when they offer a huge discount on the top games when you do your food shop, what chance does any other retailer have? They have already done huge damage to the clothing and music businesses on the high street, and it looks as though the game industry is now feeling the pinch created by the behemoth supermarkets.

Eliminating the Competition

Perhaps the biggest mistake Game made was buying their biggest competitor. In 2007, they purchased Gamestation from U.S. company Blockbuster for around £80million. This appears to have been the start of their downfall. Gamestation used to be a unique retailer, one that not only sold the big Triple A titles, but also had a good retro business too. Upon the takeover, Game said they would not change Gamestation. However, just a few months later, and the two businesses were carbon copies of each other. Gone were the retro games, replaced by just the current generation consoles and games. They also seemed to expand the preowned business, seemingly to the detriment of the company as a whole.

It turned out to be a monumental error. By buying Gamestation, they immediately doubled all their costs; rent, wages, purchasing and other overheads doubled overnight, but their profits didn’t follow suit. Why buy your competitor, and then make it a complete clone of your own business? Especially when there are branches of both stores in most high streets? There has been little sympathy for the company, but there has been for those that found themselves unemployed pretty much overnight.

The Solution?

Some good may come from this. Of course, a lot of people have lost their jobs through the closures, and that is unacceptable, but maybe this will cause Game to now readdress the way it conducts it’s business. And maybe, just maybe, we will start to see independent stores creep back onto our high streets, staffed by people who are passionate about games.

Maybe Game should take a leaf out of Waterstones’ book. The chain of booksellers has started to make the process of buying a book more of an experience. You can now buy a coffee, and sit and read the books before buying them, or ask the staff for advice. Staff who, by the way, are themselves avid readers and have their own specialist areas of expertise.

Would more people go into a branch of Game if they were a more welcoming place? A shop where you could go in, spend half an hour or an hour trying a game on any of the consoles out there, maybe grab a drink while doing so, and get some quality advice from staff who were themselves gamers? Would that even persuade customers to spend an extra tenner on the game compared to if they went to a soulless supermarket? I think it might tempt me.

As you can see, the Vita is not much bigger than a Dualshock

However, after using the machine for the last few weeks, I have to say I love it. Absolutely love it. It is slimmer than the first PSP, but has a larger surface area. The screen is an absolute delight, bright colours and sharp HD visuals jumping out of the display. It feels comfortable in the hand, and even after a lengthy play session it doesn’t leave you with the discomfort that the old console did. In fact, as you can see from the picture, the Vita is not much larger than a Playstation 3 controller.

The biggest thing, of course, is the twin sticks, and boy do they make a difference. Gone are the says have having to try and spin around using circle, x, square and triangle! Just that simple little second stick, coupled with the fantastic power of the Vita, means you are playing a proper console in the palm of your hand. It has been marketed as a pocket PS3, and it isn’t far from it.

Shop Around

I didn’t go for one of the packages you see in Game or HMV, or any other retailer. I got mine from ASDA (other supermarkets are available!), and I got lucky. They were on sale for just £197 at the time, some £33 off the RRP for the wifi only model. That immediately meant I could get a game. I opted for Unit 13, partly because they had sold out of Uncharted, but it had been on my wishlist also. I also got a 4gb memory card and the official Sony Starter Kit, which comprises a case, pouch, wrist strap, screen protector and game case. Altogether, it cost around £270, and I felt I had got great value compared to some of the packages out there, not all of which include a memory card. And you need a memory card, and they are specific to the Vita. Shame on you Sony! Make sure you shop around, and not just go for one of the arbitrary packages out there.

Features

The touchscreen is very responsive, easily on a par with the screen on Apple’s products, and the display is bright and vivid. The dual sticks feel very comfortable, and the whole thing feels really natural in your hands. The rear touchpad is a bit of a gimmick, and while playing the demo of FIFA, I did inadvertently touch it several times, ruining a promising attack (the rear pad can be used to shoot at goal). This may be because I have large hands and fingers, but it is a little annoying all the same. The slots are easily accessible, although it does feel a little old fashioned swapping out game cards in this age of digital downloads. Being able to have several games downloaded from the store on a single card is definitely the way forward, but Sony do need to address the pricing of full retail games available for download.

Which Model Should You Buy?

I chose the wifi only model because it is hard to justify having to pay for a 3G contract on top of the extra initial outlay for the 3G and wifi model. I also have an iPhone 4S, which can be used as a personal hotspot. So my advice would be to just get the wifi only model unless you really need the 3G capabilitites. And in this age of always connected smartphones, who really needs Twitter or Facebook on their Vita?

Verdict

Playstation pin-up Nathan Drake looks great on Vita

Overall, then, I can highly recommend Sony’s latest handheld device. One of the main reasons for my confidence of it’s success is the launch lineup of games, and the titles in the pipeline. Uncharted is a brilliant portable version of the bestselling series, with an original storyline, rather than just being a port. Games such as Lumines, Wipeout 2048 and Unit 13 really show what the console can do, and there are also some excellent titles on the store too. Motorstorm RC and Super Stardust are both must have downloads. The fact that there are new IP’s at launch like Unit 13 and Escape Plan to name just two, really shows that Sony are keen to succeed with this venture. That feeling never came across with PSP. In the pipeline are titles such as Resistance, Bioshock, MGS and Call Of Duty, all huge names, and it can only be a good thing that Vita is getting them. Of course, titles like this weren’t around when PSP came into being, but the fact that developers and publishers are prepared to support Vita points to a bright future.

What do you think of Vita? Get in touch and tell us what model you got, and what games you’re playing.