Transition to Portable Gaming

Having been a console gamer for most of my teenage to adult life, it's hard to imagine playing a game on anything smaller than a 32 inch screen.  As things around you change, so might your gaming style.  No longer can I dedicate 40 hours into a JRPG or spend days on competitive multi-player.  If I could take a quote from Solid Snake, "War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines".  In the context of gaming styles for me personally .. "Gaming has changed.  It's no longer about high definition graphics, disc formats, or online gaming.  It's about accessibility and being able to find the time to play among-st the call of duty of a career, being a husband, and being a father".  Gaming has changed, for me.

What are the options?  As an owner of the iPhone, I have downloaded a few titles to play on the go.  However, I can't get past the fact there aren't buttons for me to press.  There is potential and Apple has found a way to capitalize on smaller entertainment experiences that do not require buttons or triggers. All the best to them but I'm certainly not on that boat.

Despite owning both a PSP and a DS, very little time has been invested on them.  Reason?  There was still a huge time investment with the 360/PS3 with an average of 6-8 hours a week.  This coupled with the release of 3DS and the announcement of PSVita, both systems will most likely continue to collect dust.  The release of 3DS is much welcome with a substantial uptick in specs in comparison to the DS.  A previous blog of mine questioned the price of entry for 3DS.  I still stand by it.  As of June 8th, 2011, the system still costs $249.99 and the catalog of games is bare bone.With the announcements of new titles for the 3DS along with an expected price cut to compete with the entry price level of PSVita, this is a definite purchase in the near future.

There is much excitement with PSVita.  Maybe excitement isn't the right word.  There is much hope in PSVita.  First of all, we can finally say that it's a console experience in our hands.  The graphical fidelity that I expect with home consoles are now gloriously displayed on a 5 inch OLED screen.  This, combined with a set list of community features, trophy support, and backwards compatibility with existing digital PSP titles, makes for a solid purchase on release date.  A justified purchase with a cost of $249.99 for the wifi only model.

Let me clarify in saying that there is still a place for console gaming in my house.  It's just not going to be at the frequency of yesterday.  Life has changed, and so has my preference of how to play the game.