Sorry to keep reminding you about the Vita Hill Social Club LA , 2803 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90405, but I just experienced it for myself the other day. The place is up and running until the 27th. Just a note, it seems that times vary form the earlier post I gave on them, based on events and there is no way to contact the people working there when it's open.
Now what I found truly amazing was that the place has been around since the 18th of January, but before that there was another free PlayStation social club on the Third Street Promenade nearby that I also didn't know about. It was called PlayStation Headquarters and was basically the same thing as Vital Hill Social Club where you could try games for free. It was open from November through December of last year. It seems that Sony kept it open after a initial good weekend, that I think I reported on way back when it first opened. However, I can't recall Sony or any other site reporting it was still open, because I would have reported on that to you, I guess it was Sony's loss of free publicity.
Now what I found truly amazing was that the place has been around since the 18th of January, but before that there was another free PlayStation social club on the Third Street Promenade nearby that I also didn't know about. It was called PlayStation Headquarters and was basically the same thing as Vital Hill Social Club where you could try games for free. It was open from November through December of last year. It seems that Sony kept it open after a initial good weekend, that I think I reported on way back when it first opened. However, I can't recall Sony or any other site reporting it was still open, because I would have reported on that to you, I guess it was Sony's loss of free publicity.
Now for the actual set up it's pretty darn cool. Anyone can walk in and sign up, which lets you possibly win something (more on that later). After you sign in, you can check from the game menu what you want to play.
The staff was incredibly helpful to whoever came in, they set up the games for you and you can ask them anything about how to play them. They are taking pre-orders for everything coming out. There is some healthy snack and drinks to try for free ... I'd bring your own drink.
The Vita itself is easy to hold and everything on it looked great. It has two cameras, one on front, the other on the back that you can't even tell is there. It has a d-pad and joysticks and bumpers making it pretty accessible. The touch screen on the front works fine, the one on back I didn't really get to test, because there was only one game there that used it.
My favorite games were Soundshapes and Reality Fighters. Soundshapes is a musical platformer and Reality Fighters let's you take a picture of yourself and puts you in the game as a fighter. The name for this title is awful, but it's quite fun to customize yourself to look like a robot and beat your friend in a virtual world.
The only game their that takes advantage of the two touch screens of the Vita was Little Deviants and I outright hated it. The first cross platform game that Sony has been promising since the PS3 came out Wipeout 2048, also a stupid name, works incredibly well with the PS Vita, too bad the game is boring. It's a very boring racer.
Little Big Planet for Vita plays great as does Uncharted, if I didn't mention it anything else it's because it didn't even matter to tell you about.
I'm sad they didn't have Touch My Katamari, they might be getting more games in the future, but nothings set in stone.
Back to winning prizes, every time you sign in, which can be daily, you get a ticket with a code in it, you enter in on a computer there and you can get a key to lock box wall with goodies in it. Here's some lucky winners,
For another chance at a ticket you can find all the clues in the picture below while at the social club, if you find them all you get another ticket.
The set up of the store is incredibly enticing, it feels like entering a gentleman's club with plenty of places to sit back and chill or like a upper class opium den of today.
Love some of the art with Playstation in mind.
