rockhardrooster

No, my understanding is that it will still have the same issue. The point is that the read speed from the HDD is too slow, thus the result is noticeable pop-in. By using the play disc AND the HDD, they get maximum HDD read speed in addition to the DVD read speed, thus avoiding some pop-in. By having it all in one 16GB download, you still have the same HDD read speed limitation, thus pop-in.

@jakemoore1106: Depends very much on what you're looking for. To me, my Vita is amazing, because of all the great PS1 games (and some PSP games that I missed out on).

But the actual Vita games are not quite as hot. There are a few that I like; Gravity Daze, P4G of course, Soul Sacrifice, Dragon's Crown (won't be getting that one, but it's a quality game if that's what you're looking for, I gather), Metal Gear Solid Collection, Muramasa, PSO2 (PSO2 PC is better though, in every single way. But grinding away at it while lying in the couch sure beats sitting in front of a computer!), Lumines (though pretty much the same as every other Lumines game), Spelunky on the Vita, and a few others I can't remember the names of...

So I'd say: got a PSP backlog and/or love PS1 games? You could almost get it just for that, along with P4G and/or some other Vita games. If you're not so hot on older games for a new system, unless you REALLY want to play some of these few good Vita games, maybe not so much.

If you do end up getting one get the 32GB memory for it though! Pricy, yes, but you'll thank yourself later when you don't have to swap cards or keep deleting/redownloading games.

Edit: Personally my Vita is tied to the Japanese PSN, by the way, so I don't get games like Guacamelee for it. There are tons of indie games and cool stuff that EU/NA gets, but I want to play my games in Japanese because I'm crazy, and they don't get half the cool shit we do. (And games are fucking expensive in Japan, dunno if you heard)

Aye. I buy most of my stuff from the US PSN store, mostly because it's cheaper. Really grinds my goddamn gears that NOTHING is region locked except P4A, and they don't bother to tell you. grumble

Also the selection is just much better there. One thing that really does matter though is PS1 games (and ps2 games in the EU store as far as I know) - those fuckers are still 50hz PAL-locked. I'd recommend getting the US version for any europeans out there, to get the good fucking version. God damnit, Sony.

@mwng: Dunno if I misunderstood you, but Persona 4 Arena was the first region-locked game on the PS3. Funny story; I bought P4A from the US PSN, and I have a EU PS3. The game was not out digitally in EU but was in stores, but I was all "I ain't going to no store, fuck that" (also the digital Ultimate Edition comes with all DLC etc etc)

Sure enough, it let me buy it and install it without even MENTIONING any region lock. And when I try to start it "Dude, wrong region" shows up. Thanks, Sony, for drawing attention to that fact before letting me pay 50 dollars or whatever for the game.

In the end I had to talk to support like three times. First I told them the truth and they were all "Not our territory, talk to EU support" and they in turn said "you're breaking the rules, so we can't help you". Then I hit them up again and told the lady "I just moved to the US!" and got a refund. Moral of the story: lying is good.

Anyway, as for importing this game... Now that we're on PS3 I'm not so sure, but I remember that Odin Sphere was updated with some stuff when it came to EU territories. For example it had a better framerate overall (was criticized for it in US reviews, never saw any slowdown in my game) and still supported 60hz, so it was the superior version then. Now on PS3 they could technically patch that in, but dude, it's a Japanese dev and publisher, who knows what they'd do.

@lebkin: Fuck yeah, better Siri. I love speaking Japanese to my phone and having it work. It feels like the future. A lot more so than speaking English to it, somehow...

@Petiew: Oh. Well, that's just fucked up then.

@mrcraggle: I'm pretty sure that's not how money works.

Games are 60 dollars in the US new. In sweden, they are about 600 Swedish crowns. Now, 60 dollars is more like 400-450 crowns if you exchange it, but that's not the point.

If you buy something in the US which costs 10 bucks, then it costs around 100 crowns here. Sure, some things are more expensive, and some things are less so, but the point is that the prices make sense in the countries where the product is sold.

10 bucks are worth around 100 crowns. Presumably it's worth around 10 pounds. It's also worth around 10 euro. But the exchange rate between all these currencies is nothing like that.

The one real exception to all this, that I know of, is Japan, where I've seen digital downloads for about 7000 yen in the Vita store. Again, 1000 yen is worth around 10 bucks, but the exchange rate is different.

I hope this stuff makes sense. If I'm wrong, please let me know, but this is something I've been thinking about a bunch lately. Thing is, I've been buying my digital stuff from the US PSN for a while now, since even though when you buy those point cards online, they throw on a 'tax' or something (20 dollar PSN card is 25 dollars online, ends up being about 160 crowns, thus effectively saving me about 4 bucks off of every 20 dollars I spend).

Again, anyone, if I'm wrong please explain. Not picking a fight or anything, just curious. Also I know I suck at explaining stuff.

Odin Sphere. No reason to ever take that disc out!