Here is the official price list for the PS Vita in Kuwait:

PS Vita Console (wifi) KD89
PS Vita Console (3G) KD116

4GB Memory Card KD7.6
8GB Memory Card KD13.3
16GB Memory Card KD18.9

Uncharted: Golden Abyss KD17.2
Little Deviants KD10.8
Reality Fighters KD10.8
Wipeout 2048 KD13.6
Everybody’s Golf KD13.6
Modnation Racers: Road Trip KD13.6
Unit 13 KD13.6

The official release date is February 22nd.

Update: X-Cite have started pre-orders [Link]

I was invited by X-Cite and Sony to attend a preview of the Playstation Vita in Dubai. The even would give us an intro on their new portable gaming console as well as preview some games and more importantly allows to play with the device.

Introduction
The GM of Sony MENA, Robert Fisser stated that the Vita will have the strongest line up of launch games for a Sony console which is possible since the first party and third party games lined up for the Vita’s February 22nd launch is fairly strong.

When you purchase a Vita among the included items will be 56 WAAR (Wide-Area Augmented Reality) cards that you’ll be able to use with AR (augmented reality) games which you’ll be able to download for free from the PSN store. What differentiates these AR games from others is that these games will be a lot more advanced, sophisticated and use a big area for game play. There are also two social services that Sony are pushing in Vita called Party and Near. Party lets you voice chat with friends on the Vita at anytime, even if you’re playing different games while near lets you see all your Playstation Network friends status’s and what they’re playing (or have played). You will also be able to see if their are other Vita gamers in your proximity and invite them to play a game. Finally you can also unlock gifts, or give gifts to your PSN friends.

Another big feature Sony talked about was sharing save files between your Vita and the PS3 and cross-platform play which basically mean you’ll be able to play head-to-head between the Vita and PS3. They showed us a demonstration when one of their Wipeout 2048 game designer who was using a Vita raced against a producer who used a PS3.

Reality Fighters
Sony previewed a game called Reality Fighters, which is an AR fighting game that uses real world environments as the levels in the game. Mitsuo Hirakawa, who is a producer on the game, stated that the game doesn’t use a card marker (like the 3DS AR cards or the WAAR cards), which has never been done before; he also stated that characters scale up depending on where you are. So if you’re standing on a roof of a building and point your Vita downwards to the streets, your characters scale up to you, so you can have massive characters, Godzilla size fighting each other. The game will also come pre-loaded with 360-degree panoramas of popular areas around the world, like the Pyramids which you can use as your game environment. The game also features over 400 character customizations including costumes, over 50 different kinds of weapons and various fighting styles. You can also take a picture of your face so your character looks just like you.

My Experience
I was able to spend some time with the Vita and it was pretty impressive. I played Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Everybody’s Golf, Little Deviants, Super Stardust.

First thing I noticed just as I held the Vita in my hand is that it’s not very portable so don’t expect to be able to put this in your pocket. Besides the fact that it’s pretty big for a portable device, the analogue controllers stick out. Both those factors make it impossible to store this device in your jeans pocket. The second thing I noticed is how surprisingly light it was. It’s quite deceiving because when you look at it you expect it to be slightly heavy while it felt nearly as light as an iPhone.

You navigate through the Vita menus by touch-screen swiping left-right, up or down and pressing on the icon you want. It’s quick and responsive. I tried Uncharted: Golden Abyss first since I had just beaten Uncharted 3 on the PS3 and was curious to see how different the game would look visually and I wasn’t disappointed. There were two chapters to choose from, the first showed off how crisp and detailed the visuals were with pretty impressive lighting effects. The game is visually as close to HD as you can get on a portable device. The character animations are pretty great as you could expect from Uncharted. The level featured climbing and jumping over things while showing off the gyroscope since I had to balance myself on a wooden beam.

The second chapter I played was called “That Makes Three of Us” and it featured more of the shooting aspect of the game. Without spoiling it too much, I had to save my companion from a bunch of enemies by sniping them before they shot my friend. Sniping in the game is pretty fun especially with the use of the touch screen. You zoom in and aim by holding the L1 button and you can adjust how close you want to zoom in using the sniper-scope via the touch screen. Sliding your finger up brings you closer while sliding your finger down zooms you out. This is basically the perfect portable version of the Uncharted franchise.

I wanted to test out the second touch-pad on the back of the device because I was curious to see how comfortable it would be to use so I started playing Little Deviants. In Little Deviants you have to help your character roll around by deforming the environment (using the back touch-pad) to collect stars and other items. It took a few minutes to get used to the back touch pad but when I got the hang of it this game was a lot of fun. The back touch pad was very responsive and it was very weird to visually see how the land responded to your touches. It’s difficult to describe and impossible to take a video of since I needed to hold the Vita with both my hands. The closest thing I can think of to describing it is that it’s like molding clay in your hands.

I really wanted to play Wipeout 2048 because it was a favorite franchise of mine back when I owned the Playstation 1 and I when I did get my hands on it I wasn’t disappointed. The races are fast, intense and enjoyable, visually the game is really nice to look at and the developers obviously focused on the little details because everything in the game looked good from the small details on vehicles to the environments and the explosions. I was only able to choose from a few tracks but the full game will have 10 new tracks and 20 vehicles to choose.

Super Stardust is a game that mixes gamplay elements from Geometry Wars and Asteroids, it was a nice little game to try out. Another game I tried was Everybody’s Golf which was nice looking but a sport I’m not into even though it was fun.

At the end of my game time with the Vita I was pretty impressed, I liked what I saw and what I played. Surprisingly the screen was pretty much free of my finger prints and there were no smudges. The AR features are also great and more advanced than what Nintendo has shown us with the 3DS. Graphically it’s a pretty powerful little system, more powerful than the Wii, but obviously not as good as a PS3 or 360 (but pretty close). The quality of the OLED screen was also great, there was glare from the lighting in the event hall and even with all the glare, I could easily see what I was doing on the screen. The Vita felt great in my hands as well but I would imagine someone with smaller hands might have trouble playing comfortably. The launch line-up suits the North American and European audiences and if Sony and third-party developers continue to support the Vita, I can see it being very successful, a lot more than the PSP.

First-party launch games:

Third-party launch titles:

Pre-Ordering in Kuwait & Pricing
You’ll be able to pre-order the Vita from the X-Cite website probably by this week (if not, definitely next week) and after the first week of online pre-orders you will be able to pre-order from their stores. When you pre-order the Vita online or at the store, it will come bundled with a memory card and a game. There is an incentive for pre-ordering it online from X-Cite, most probably a discount and the incentive for pre-ordering it in-store will be Vita merchandise, a bag or something of the sort.

The pricing of the Vita is as follows:

Wifi price: 1,149 AED (87 KD)
Wifi & 3G: 1,499 AED (114 KD)
SW Titles: 129 AED – 199 AED (10 KD – 15 KD)
Memory Card: 99 AED – 349 AED (7 KD – 26 KD)

The prices were listed in Emirati Dirham but I was told the prices in Kuwait will be very similar, the release date will be February 22.

Posted by Patrick

Sony is holding a PlayStation Vita event tomorrow in Dubai where they will be previewing their new handheld gaming system to the media. I was invited to attend the event but since my brother is a bigger gamer and runs his own gaming blog he’ll be going instead.

The event schedule is going to be the following:

11:00am: Media arrive and are greeted by PS VITA event staff
11:45am: Media are taken around the different stations for a quick tour
12:00pm: Event staff offer light food and refreshments
12:30pm: Sony PlayStation ME representative welcomes everybody, explains a bit about the USP’s of VITA and introduces SCEE speaker and game developer
12:45pm: Presentation starts followed by panel discussion and Q&A with all speakers
1:45: Post presentations one on one interviews
1:45 – 4:00pm: Hands-on with Vita

Since he’ll be having an extensive hands-on session with the device and attending the Q&A session, if anyone has any questions about the PS Vita or is curious about something leave it in the comments below and he’ll try to get them answered for you.

According to the Lurkerz blog the PS Vita is now available in Kuwait in Rihab complex. According to his post the PS Vita (Wifi+3G) with two games is being sold for KD230 and KD180 without any games. For more information check out his post [Here]

I have no idea what this game is but I hope it involves driving down the Gulf Road with an uzi chasing down assholes. [Link]

Digumz is helping KACCH (Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital) collect video games (PS3 & Xbox360) for children all around hospitals in Kuwait. The idea started on the United Nations Universal Children’s Day but they’ve now made some adjustments to their campaign to make it even easier for people to donate games. Here are the options available:

Option 1
If you have 5 or more games you would like to donate (used or new), you can call Digumz on 25733040 and they will come by and pick up the games from you. If you have less than 5 games you can still donate them but you need to drop it off yourself at their store in Salmiya.

Option 2
You can purchase games from the Digumz Online Store by using the coupon code UNCHILDREN. When you use that code you will automatically get a 10% discount and the games will be accepted as a donation for the children and held at the store with the rest of the donated games before being sent out to KACCH.

Note: The coupon code works on PS3 and Xbox360 games only since those are the two systems available to the children. Also, the coupon is entered at “Step 5″ in the payment process. You need to enter the coupon if you want to donate the games.

Here is the link to the Digumz Online Store [Link]

Last night Qaiss, the owner of Digumz called me up and he told me he wanted to offer my readers a limited time deal on the occasion of Eid. After a bit of discussion we agreed on a deal that would be cool for my readers while still being fair to him. Starting today and for 3 days only he’s reduced the KD15 monthly membership price down to just KD10. The offer is available starting from now and for the following days:

Thursday, November 3rd
Friday, November 4th
Saturday, November 5th

KD10 a month will allow you to rent as many video games as you would like as long as its one video game at a time. Your membership will also continue to renew at the special offer price of KD10 a month and not KD15. If you’re interested, here is the link to sign up [Link]

Digumz is a local video game rental website which I posted about back in March. Three weeks ago I decided to sign up and try them out and I’m really loving them so far.

Registration was a pretty simple procedure and I had two options for payment, K-net but I would have to leave a deposit or credit card and no deposit. I opted for the credit card payment and once the account was setup proceeded to order my first game. I went with Gears of War 3 and they managed to deliver it the same evening. They drop off the games and pick them up when you’re done and there are no delivery charges which is fantastic.

Their website is really easy to use and practical. Ordering a game is pretty simple and quick. You flip through their site, find a game you want and then click on the “Rent Now” button and it will be added to the queue list. If you don’t have anything on that list the game will be dispatched to you immediately. You could then continue to add games to your queue list and arrange them according to your priorities.

When you want to swap a game you go to your “Games I have” list and click on the “request game exchange” button and the next game on your list gets dispatched. In case your first choice isn’t available they will dispatch your second, if the second isn’t available the third and on and on.

Now there really aren’t any negatives, at least not for me since when I signed up their prices started at KD7 a month. For that price I can rent as many games as I want per month but only 1 game at a time. A couple of weeks back though they increased their prices and now the most affordable package starts at KD15. Lucky for me and everyone who signed up before the price increase, our memberships will continue to be renewed at KD7 a month which is great. At KD15 a month I don’t think I would have signed up since I am probably going to be renting only 1 game a month. For KD15 a month I might as well buy a game a month instead of renting. If you are planning to rent at least two games then KD15 a month would make more financial sense. They also have other packages in which you could rent more than a game a month but of course those packages also cost more.

Here is the link to the Digumz website [Link]
They also have another website where they sell games, here is the link to that website [Link]

At KD7 a month I’m really loving Digumz.

Nearly everyone who grew up in Kuwait at one point in time must have had a Sakhr (MSX) or at least had a neighbor or knew someone who had one. I lost practically all my toys during the Iraqi invasion except for my Sakhr which I was able to take with me to Lebanon and then bring back to Kuwait after the liberation where it’s been with me ever since. I decided to take pictures of all my games (there are a few I couldn’t find like Rambo) in the hopes of bringing back good memories to people familiar with the games so here they are below.

Update: I found Rambo plus 3 other games and added to the gallery above.

Not to be confused with the Pandora music station, this Pandora is something completely different. I love old gaming systems and I still have a bunch hidden away in boxes but the thing is it’s a headache to take them out and get them working. This is why I ended up getting the Pandora. It’s basically a super tiny laptop with game pad controls built in. It runs the Linux operating system and it allows you to install whatever emulator you want onto it. Pandora was actually created by four guys who wanted something better than what was available in the market. With the help of a gaming community they went ahead and created Pandora with the primary function being to run video game emulators. It costs them $400 to build each Pandora and they sell it for $500. It’s kinda like selling cupcakes from your home except they’re selling this incredible portable gaming system.

Pandora can run a ton of emulators including N64, Neo Geo, SNES, Sega CD, MAME, Sakhr, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Dos games and even Quake 3. I’ve been playing a ton of old school games on it since I got the Pandora with my favorites currently being the Dos version of DopeWars, the best racing game ever which is Neo DriftOut and The Castle, an old Sakhr game that is still crazy hard over 20 years later. If you want more information on the Pandora click [Here]

I’m a Street Fighter fan but don’t think I’m good enough to play in this tournament and I don’t think anyone wants to watch a 30-something gamer getting his ass kicked by a tween. Here are the details if you’re interested:

Date: July 15th at 6pm
Location: Freeze Club Arcade, 360 Mall (4th floor)
Entry Cost: KD5

Prizes:
1st place 150kd
2nd place 100kd
3rd place 50kd

Best of 3, Double Elimination. Finals best of 7.

If you’re interested in taking part you need to go to the Freeze Club receptionist and ask to enter.

Yesterday I posted a video taken at Flight Experience in 360 Mall, well there is another place that’s officially opening tomorrow (April 20th) that has a wider range of flight simulators available. The place is called Kuwait Flight Simulation Center and they are located in the basement of Discovery Mall in Kuwait City. I originally passed by them yesterday to take pictures but wasn’t allowed to since there was a miscommunication but the owner told me I could pass by today and take pictures which I did except I didn’t have my camera with me today just my iPhone 4 so apologies for the quality of the shots.

The place looks like a large plane fuselage from the outside. Once you walk in you have 7 simulation capsules on the right hand side, 3 combat stations on the left and right next to them you have a large enclosed room which is a proper full scale flight simulator similar in style to the one at 360 Mall. You also have a small coffee shop, a small shop that sells scale models and another shop that sells flight simulator accessories for PCs.

Today the place is open but it’s invite only, starting tomorrow though it should be open to the public. For more information you could visit their website [Here] or Facebook page [Here]

That’s how the inside of the capsule looks like

The 3 machines on the left are the fighter plane simulators

I think the fighter plane simulators actually move and give force feedback

Thats the inside of the full sized simulator