Wow a low score for an Assassin's Creed game from Nick, very surprising. You must of been very disappointed in this one.

By "price drop" I got it for $29.99 at Newegg . With the advent of retail on eShop with this title I wonder how fast this will get a sale. Though with the game of the week sales and month of Mario it looks like Nintendo is warming up to sales or discounts, which is always a good thing.

Nick, with the North American version the PS Vita version is free but you pay for the PS3 version, so for North American owners if you get the PS Vita version, you do not automatically get access to the PS3 version.

The European version is if you buy one version you get both. This came from comments of Sony employees in the blog.

"Scion have sponsored the free download for a limited time in the US Store.

In Europe you can get both the PS3 and PSVita versions for £4.79/€5.99 as per the “pay once get both” offer."

"You’ll get the Vita version for free; The PS3 version is $9.99 ($7.49 with your Plus discount)."

This is why the bad art Mega Man wins:   best prologue ever

So how was this supposed to sound good on paper in the first place? This game came out of nowhere to me and its staying there.

Nick, I'm not sure you're aware of this but Stonekeep is based off of a 1995 game that was released for DOS bearing the same name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonekeep

Part of it is because the 3G versions of PS Vita all have GSM chips in them since GSM is a common globally used cellular technology. The big 2 GSM providers in the US are AT&T and T-Mobile. It probably would of been more costly for Sony to make a Verizon or Sprint compatible CDMA model only for the US market. 

Regarding the partnership, a scenario like that would only be plausible in a perfect world. In reality, the partnership is that Sony creates a model that works with AT&T's network and that's about it, if you want to use it then great.

But my big turn off from the 3G model is that the 3G connection only allows you to push updates, browse the internet, and use stuff like GPS and Twitter. According to some sources, you can't play online multiplayer over 3G and only features such as leaderboard updates are utilized. That and I don't want another monthly data bill since I get one for my cellphone and that's more than enough.

Just shows you how you get results by complaining enough.

Joaquim,

Outside of the PSN game, I don't think much of it has to do with Sony but with  AT&T, since you would utilize AT&T's network for 3G you have to follow their terms of service.

In my opinion why would you need a GPS or 3G for your PS Vita? If you have a smartphone then you would typically have some form of 3G. If you really want portable internet access for your PS Vita, you might as well either get a tethering plan for your smart phone which would be cheaper or get a portable hotspot device which would not only work for a PS Vita but it would work with your laptop, 3DS, iPad, Android tablet, and so forth.

Nice to see NFC since it's going to be a tech that will get a big push. Google Wallet is a big proponent of that where you tap a phone next to a reader and it reads your credit card info for instead of swiping it. Here in NJ and NYC I saw a lot of Google Wallet enabled readers at stores and some "smart billboards" where you tap your phone and it gives you a special coupon.

With this in mind there can be some nice applications of this, like for example a preorder figurine that if you tap them near your Wii U controller you get something extra in your game, so you get a physical and digital pre-order or promo item wrapped in one package. Though with the proliferation of collector's editions publishers can pull some exclusive BS or DLC through this method (not like they do this already), or will have a field day with  games that will have "DLC figurines".

If you look at the fine print its interesting yet worrying, especially the highlighted parts  make this a not so great deal.

"Promotional Offer expires May 31, 2012.  Redemption code must be used within 90 days of issuance and is not  transferable, nor redeemable. Limit one per customer.  Offer for purchasers of Sony PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi only. Your promotional 250 MB session automatically starts upon expiration of your 1st session plan, if you have activated the redemption code.  Offer redeemed is for 250MB DataConnect Pass session only, regardless if you are on the 250MB or 3GB DataConnect Pass plan.) AT&T not responsible for taxes or lost redemption codes. Plans automatically renew, so after your  promotional session expires, automatic renewal of your 1st DataConnect Pass plan selected will take effect and you are responsible for charges, unless you cancel auto-renewal before the plan renews.  DataConnect Pass Plan: Time begins expiring immediately upon purchase/activation whether you are using the service or not. Once your time expires or your allotted data is used, whichever occurs first, your data access will cease.   Coverage not available in all areas.   For information on prepaid data plans, visit att.com/buyasession and for full terms, see Session Based Wireless Data Service Agreement at att.com/wirelesslegal."

Sign up today and receive a free game:

1. Select and sign up for an AT&T DataConnect Pass plan.
2. Login to your PlayStation Network account on your PS Vita.
3. 30 days after your DataConnect Pass activation, you will receive a game voucher code redeemable on the PlayStation Store.
*For details and limitations go to us.playstation.com/psvita

It's probably because publishers doesn't want anyone bumming off demoes and to just have people get the full game. Also probably a Nintendo requirement.

A max of 30 tries is quite alright, but this isn't news to me. What person plays the same demo 30 times to begin with?

Though one rediculous one is the Ace Combat demo which only has 3 tries. I guess 30 is the default but a publisher can adjust it.

"To qualify for the MIA treatment a game must not be on any current generation console or currently in development"

Sorry but according to that sentence, this article shouldn't exist then. Sony did release 2 Medieval games this generation. Medieval Resurrection on PSP back in 2006 and Medieval Moves: Deadmunds Quest for PS3/PS Move one month ago.

EA....Call Of Duty..... what a total mess up on this article. Where is PixlBit's editors and proof readers to catch even the most obvious mistakes?!?!? As a former staff member I am disappointed.

You might want to put this as a rumor due to the 40% discount number, in my opinion it should be worded up to 40%. In Japan digital PSP games receive a small discount and some smaller US publishers do the same such as Xseed, but really the discount is the equivalent of $5 - $10 US when they launch with their physical counterpart.

Also, there is no way in hell that Activision would launch a physical copies of Call of Duty PS Vita for $39.99 and the digital copy version at $24.99.

I'm sorry but this rumor to me is bunk. You also have to realize that IBM did announce that Wii U is going to use a Power 7 variant processor (http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/ ) which is a couple of generations beyond the Xenon processor that the 360 has.

The rumor essentially says that the Wii U uses the same processor architecture as 360. 768MB - 1GB (as in bytes) of embedded DRAM is just crazy and crazy expensive, especially if its on the same die as the CPU. Wii has about 3MB of embedded DRAM and the 360 has 10MB. Maybe they ment 768Mb as in megabit rather than megabytes, but still 768Mb is rather high since that would equal 96MB (as in megabytes). I can probably see 32 - 64MB eDRAM max, but your guess is as good as mine.

Also the ATi part is just laughable since the ATi name is gone for a good while when AMD bought them and rebranded everything that was ATi to AMD.

I found one more thing not mentioned, these supposed specs are from March 2011, which is most likely underclocked specs. (seriously though, why doesn't PixlBit credit their sources, this article reads a lot like the Wii U Daily article http://wiiudaily.com/2011/12/wii-u-has-quad-core-3ghz-cpu-768-mb-of-ram/ but much more vague.)

By theme and graphics, to a little extent I guess you can say yes. By gameplay, dear god no. The gameplay in DeathSmiles and other Cave games are practically unrivaled in the genre.

For me the price of Vita Memory cards have a bigger impact than this. I never made a JPN PSN account for imports so this has little bearing to me. I have a feeling this was implemented to combat game sharing, and the fact that a portable is more of a "personal device" and a console is SUPPOSED to be a social device.

The Tak Fuji effect got you Jason ;)

BTW I think you ment to say Otomedius Excellent rather than Otomedius Extreme at the tail end of the review ;).

Death Smiles is one of my favorites on 360, I was going to write a review for PixlBit when I was on staff but some stuff didn't pan out. Anyways, the top SHMUPS on 360 that is available in North America are Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Death Smiles and Deathsmiles 2. Treasure and Cave own the genre IMO.

It's a shame that Otomedius is a middle of the road game since it falls under the Parodius lineage. I do still want to get a copy of this but maybe during a sale.

What a shame, this looked neat but I guess it fell for the same fate that Flip's Twisted World had.

I didn't know that Blockbuster dropped their rates to rent a game, the Blockbuster that I used to work at still charges $8.55 for a rental. ($7.99 + NJ tax).

This article is a bit incorrect. At launch PS Vita is not compatible with Game Archives (which include stuff like PSone and TurboGrafx 16). Key point is that it's not supported AT LAUNCH and according to Sony's FAQs, Sony will share details later for future support.

http://andriasang.com/comz3m/