Portability or Power?

[RaptorChrist]

KBG29 said:
Playing Need For Speed Most Wanted on PS Vita again today, and it reminded just how amazing Vita is and was. As others have said it comes down to each indiviual game, as to whether I prefer Portable or Power.

Need For Speed Most Wanted was perfect for me on the Vita.
1. Events take 2 - 3 Minutes.
2. Swapping between events and vehicals takes about 10 seconds.
3. It leaves the system open for other activities, with the game in the background.

A typical NFSMW day on Vita used to consist of Music Unlimited streaming me music, Skype in the background ready to make or recieve calls. If I want to check something on the web, PS Button, Game Pauses, Music Keeps Playing, two clicks of R1 and I'm in the browser. Get a message, PS Button, Hit the Notifications Bubble, fire off a response, PS Button again, and back to the game. Get a Phone call, Game and Music Pause, end call, Game and Music resume.

Those were the best times ever, because as much as I love and prefer being at Home with my TV, Controller, and Couch, or more recently, VR and Motion, reality is, I still have to go to work. Having one device that I could take with me, that gave me an enjoyable expereince, and handled all of my priority needs was incredible.

Now days, I have my 4G Flip Phone and the Vita. Many new Vita games have dropped support for background functions, the ability to make and recieve calls ended last April. There is no music streaming service available, so I am limited to what is on the Memory Card. PS Now which worked over 3G has now been dropped. I love remote play, when I am at the airport, waiting around for meetings, or at the hotel, but it is not viable for 15 min breaks.

There are so many great pick up and play games on PSN for PS4, that I can not justify playing at home, but would be absolutely perfect for a Mobile PS4. For me it feels like Mobile peaked in about 2014, and has been declining ever since. I would love to have another device come out that offers the expereince the Vita was delivering 4 years ago, before support started dropping. No device on the market today offers as rich of an expereince, which is sad with how much tech has grown since Vita. Android and iOS are crippled by buttonless slabs, and terrible OS designs, and Switch lacks priority features.

So, I guess I have been spoiled. I had Power and Portability, and I have never been happier. Now I just want to get back to where we were, and continue to progress from there. We don't have to choose between Power or Portability, because we can have both. It already happened, and tech is even more viable for it now. Hopefully, at some point, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Google, Apple, or some other company, will once again make it so we have the option for both, and then we can all play the way we want, or the way that fits or lives.

Very interesting read, my friend. You are very well spoken. All these years and I've never owned a PSP or Vita. It sounds like much of what made the Vita experience so good is now gone. I missed out on something pretty cool. This really makes me wonder why the Vita wasn't more successful. From the perspective of someone who never owned one, it looked far superior to the original PSP. The UMD drive held me back from getting an original PSP, but the Vita had everything I would have wanted at the time.