Right, I’ve been fiddling with this for the last 4 hours or so, time for some initial thoughts…

Firstly, the reason I’ve stopped playing is that the damn thing has given me hand and wrist cramps, a problem I’ve never had with the DS or 360, but is a fairly regular thing for me on the PS3 with it’s tiny controller, and it’s a problem not fixed in the Vita. All the buttons are too close together, and I can’t find a way to have thumbs on the sticks, fingers on the triggers and not have my other fingers all over the touchpad on the back. Which completely spoils FIFA, as it keeps randomly shooting as it senses me moving on the back touchpad. Otherwise, FIFA looks good and plays fairly nicely – if there’s a way to turn off the back touchpad on it, somebody please enlighten me.

Uncharted looks nice, and for the most part plays nice. Unfortunately, they’ve shoehorned all the new controls in at every opportunity. I don’t want to keep rubbing the screen to do a charcoal rub thing. I don’t want to climb a rope using the back touchpad. I don’t want to use the motion sensor to get over a log. It’s OK in the places where you can choose to just control it properly, but in certain parts you have to use all the silly new controls, and for me they completely spoil it. Just like the Sixasis stuff in Uncharted 1 on the PS3, it does nothing but make the game annoying. They learnt from it and took that stuff out for Uncharted 2, but it’s all back with a vengeance in this one, and I’m not a happy bunny.

Lumines looks and sounds great. I’ve never played a Lumines game before, so no idea how it compares, but it’s my favourite of the launch titles so far. I’ve had a go on all the demos as well, and nothing really stands out apart from Unit 13. Uncharted would have been much more enjoyable if they’d have taken the same approach to the new controls as this. It’s mostly controlled just by the buttons, the dual sticks and triggers work nicely and really show off that this kind of game is now possible on a handheld. Every now and then it throws in a bit of touchscreen stuff, but only for things that would have been on the shoulder buttons, like throwing gredades and opening doors, etc. For me, this actually enhances the controls on the game, and considering the lack of shoulder buttons, is a very clever way of transferring console controls over to the handheld. Unfortunately it’s crazy hard, so there’s little point in me getting it…

Just downloading Motorstorm RC now, which has cross platform play with the PS3 version. Also, anyone who already has it on PS3 can download it for free on Vita, which is splendid.

Lastly, I had hoped I’d be able to play Final Fantasy VII on this just to shut Steve up, but although it’s compatible with the PSP, it isn’t available for me to transfer onto the Vita. Am I missing something?

All in all, the hardware is very snazzy, if a little light and flimsy feeling, and I’d have preferred the buttons slightly further apart, even if that meant a slightly smaller screen. The screen itself is very clear, and the touch controls work well. I’m slightly underwhelmed by the games, especially as there were several I had high hopes for, but I think if the developers calm down a bit with ramming all the controls into every game, which they don’t need to do, and figure out some creative things to do with the hardware (like my copyrighted bra game) then this could stick around. I think I like it…

by mr nick monkey

Many gadgets that we buy fall into the category of luxury purchase (I’m looking at you Apple TV) and some occasionally actually make our lives better and my new Kindle falls into that latter category.  After reading books pretty much every day since I was an adorable little cherub this new-ish eBook malarkey finally piqued my interest.  I got an iPad last year and as much as I found it excellent for reading magazines and newspapers it just didn’t work in regard to reading a book in the palm of your hand whilst sat on the throne.  Most important.

I came to the decision last year of asking Santa for one which he duly obliged though he continues to remove the money out of my account for my gifts since I became an adult.  I was initially quite unimpressed; the packaging, which is always something to savour with a new purchase, was terrible.  It looked like the cardboard Amazon send your Blu-rays in.  The device itself also looked quite cheap, it weighs nothing and when compared to an iPad feels like a calculator you will lose down the back of the sofa.

After turning it on though I suddenly became a little impressed, within five minutes I had connected it to my Wi-Fi network and found my Amazon account.  I could now start downloading books which I did, then I did again, then I did again for good measure.  The nice thing also being that the books download in less than a minute.

The books appear to be priced about right; around £6-7 for a new release and pennies for some of the older ones and there are literally thousands of them to choose from.  The battery on it is phenomenal and would easily last you two weeks on your summer holiday in Cleethorpes cowering from the rain.

The screen on it gives off no light so you can sit and read, (or in the case of that ridiculous advert, read whilst pushing a baby) for hours with no eye strain though you will need a lamp if it is quite dark.

So that’s it really i continue to use it every day and I can honestly never imagine buying one of those archaic book things ever again as after using this for tens of hours it has never once felt like I was using it just because it was new.