Elite Dangerous on PS Vita

UserJong_2

Elite Dangerous on PS Vita (aka gratuitous "port-beggging")
This has been something I've been ruminating on for a while now and I just have to get these thoughts out there in the wild.

Having owned a Playstation Vita for a while now and having it slowly take over my life, I feel like a version of Elite Dangerous would work so well on the platform, almost moreso than any other console. Here's why!

Tilt/rotation functionality. This is the biggest feature I think, that could really make the Vita the second best platform to play Elite Dangerous on (after the PC). Basically I'm imagining being able to rotate the Vita around which would enable me to look around my cockpit and track other ships just like using a head mounted display like Oculus Rift. This would be so cool. Other games like Gravity Rush have used this functionality to great effect, and even Everybody's Golf lets you look around the golf course using it. It's very immersive.
Touchscreen. Imagine being able to tilt the Vita to the right and left so you can see the menu HUDs, which you can then simply scroll and select by touching the screen. Awesome. All in-game menus could just be navigated via touch-screen. Not to mention potentially selecting which ships you want to target by simply tapping on them when you see them.
Augmented reality. A bit of a gimmick but I think it could be really cool to be able to put down an AR card, then see a virtual model of your ship overlayed on real life for you to walk around and inspect!


There are some potential draw-backs, the obvious one of course would be it would have to take a graphical hit, but that's a small price to pay I think. It's still going to look a LOT better than it did on the Amiga, and I'll be satisfied with that.

There is obviously a fair bit of latent interest for Elite/Wing Commander inspired space sims on the Vita, with one just being released by the name of Starlight Inception (which was the result of a successful Kickstarter, but is apparently pretty bad ), and another one just announced that is HEAVILY inspired by Elite and Frontier, Drifter. So there's obviously a demand for this type of game on a portable system.

My fingers are crossed anyway. Thanks for reading

UserJong_2

Anybody know if elite dangerous will come to PS3 and PS4? I know they say its amazing on VR headsets, perfect show case for project morpheus.

duggan1

UserJong wrote: »

Anybody know if elite dangerous will come to PS3 and PS4? I know they say its amazing on VR headsets, perfect show case for project morpheus.

Frontier say they would like to, but only after they get the PC and Mac versions released. I imagine they will do a version of it but it is likely to be a cut down version to an extent.

I'd say don't expect it before summer 2015 at any rate.

AlecEiffel

The PS4 should be able to handle the games scope and graphics (I assume the graphics are scaleable on pc and Mac), my only concern would be mapping controls - not sure if the pc version has lots of hotkeys, but the original version didn't have too many.

PenguinJim

I think the Vita is not suited to Elite-style games. Here's why!

Tiny, tiny screen. Yes, you can play it on a big screen using a Vita TV, but then, why not just hook up a PC and play modded Freespace 2 or X3 or similar? I've tried playing these games on a laptop, and the loss of immersion was extremely surprising to me. Playing on a 5" screen does not make for a good "cockpit" experience.

Pad stick controls. There's a reason airlines haven't replaced their yokes with dual thumbsticks. It's not the cost.

Control options. Or the lack thereof. Don't like to use the thumbsticks? Tough luck.

Then again, maybe the Vita could be used as a secondary screen for a PS4 version? Just look at how well that has worked for the WiiU - and, of course, Riiiidge Racer!

If you want this kind of experience on a portable, there are already several options for you to try. Take your Android phone (with its 5"+ screen most likely at a higher resolution than Vita's 544P) out of your pocket and install "Galaxy on Fire 2". Want to use the touch screen controls? No problem. Prefer to use a dual-thumbstick pad? Again, no problem - just pair one up. But you're still stuck on a tiny, ~5" phone screen (although at least it's probably a higher resolution).

Let's move up to a ~£90 Android tablet - say, the 9" Nook HD+. Now we can play in 1900x1200 on a glorious screen. Same control options as above, but something's still missing... ah, well, there's only really Galaxy on Fire 2 (and a few lesser Elite clones) to choose from. Next!

How about a £250-400 ~10-11" Win8 tablet? The screen size is slightly bigger, but you probably won't get a higher resolution at that price. What you will get is roughly twenty excellent space sims, from the classic nebulae of Freespace 2 through the how-could-it-possibly-disappoint-oh-that's-how lineareality of Freelancer to the robust and distinctly German X3, with plenty of others in-between (including, oddly enough, Galaxy on Fire 2). Plus you'll have bumped up the controls a notch - want to use a keyboard and mouse? Plug them in. Want to use dual thumbsticks? Plug them in. Want to use the touchscreen? You're a masochist. Want to use a proper flight stick? Plug it in. The graphics detail can't go too high, but the gameplay should still translate (as much as it can on a screen you can carry in one hand).

Is that it? Ha! We're just getting started! Next we'll try the 15.6" laptop option! The main benefit of moving to a 15.6" device is the likelihood of it including dedicated graphics hardware, a nice screen, and a reasonable price. For example, my R7 includes Nvidia's GT 750M (the GDDR5 model, no less) and came in at under £600. Now we're talking detailed graphics ('High' settings) with headroom for the best texture packs and other mods, and a glorious IPS screen; a built-in keyboard and trackpad, and a touchscreen for those moments when you just need to quickly jab an onscreen control. The entire PC back catalogue and the horsepower to run it all.

And yet it's still a poor experience compared to being sat in front of a high-resolution 24-30" monitor and control your spaceship; have the joystick in your hand for skirmishes, and sat on the desk as you move to keyboard and mouse for docking and space-station bartering; grab your pencil and notebook and check the prices here compared with elsewhere; have your subwoofer shake the ground as a missile impacts your craft and you use not just the onscreen radar but also the surround sound to pinpoint the aggressor; use the Oculus Rift* to look around your cabin as you fly about (I've tried this with my own Rift, and it's... forgive the lack of imagination, but "immersive" really is the word); have a nice cup of coffee steaming in front of you.

So... yeah. I don't think those games translate too well out of your own, personal "cockpit".

On the other hand, two of my absolute favourite games during the past decade have been similar experiences that do translate well to small-screen gaming. The sadly overlooked Infinite Space (by the guys that brought you Bayonetta and Vanquish, for example) is, hands-down, the BEST 1D game I've ever played. I never thought 1D gaming could be so compelling. Great story, spaceship management... just go and take a look, eh? It's a Nintendo DS game. The other game I strongly recommend is F.T.L. - recently ported to iOS and coming to Android soon. Again, no first-person shenanigans, but a highly tactical race through space, hiring new crew, encountering anomalies, upgrading your spaceship and buying and selling weapons and systems, each time hoping that your next leap will be the leap... home.

*Why can't we use the Rift on the laptop? The laptop hardware can push out a passable 3D experience, but it's just not fast enough to keep the frame-rate high enough to avoid diluting the experience and (often) causing nausea.

UserJong_2

duggan1 wrote: »

Frontier say they would like to, but only after they get the PC and Mac versions released. I imagine they will do a version of it but it is likely to be a cut down version to an extent.

I'd say don't expect it before summer 2015 at any rate.

As its open world will all players on different formats be in the same game? Ie would a playstation player come across a pc player in some galaxy?

duggan1

UserJong wrote: »

As its open world will all players on different formats be in the same game? Ie would a playstation player come across a pc player in some galaxy?

No, it isn't really open world in that sense. It uses instancing so it's unlikely you'll run into any given player, even if you are in the same location. It's not clear yet if there will be a mechanism put in place to allow friends to play together.

It's also unlikely that the games will be identical enough to allow this to happen.

UserJong_2

duggan1 wrote: »

No, it isn't really open world in that sense. It uses instancing so it's unlikely you'll run into any given player, even if you are in the same location. It's not clear yet if there will be a mechanism put in place to allow friends to play together.

It's also unlikely that the games will be identical enough to allow this to happen.

I hope to fly together with friends on PC or xbox one but I want to play on my ps4.

I dont see why not, it may look better on some systems but it will be the same gme.