Uncharted Golden Abyss has precision aiming on the PlayStation Vita

Trying to aim a weapon on a modern handheld gaming device isn’t easy.

But Sony’s demo of the Uncharted: Golden Abyss shows that the PlayStation Vita has a new way to aim more precisely. This sort of thing could be very important as a way to distinguish the Vita from other kinds of gaming devices that don’t have such sophisticated control systems. I tried it out this week at a Sony preview event and it works pretty well.

It’s called “Intu-Aim,” an aiming modifier. It takes advantage of the gyroscope chip in the Vita. You can use the analog sticks to position your character, Nathan Drake, in front of an enemy. Then you can hit the left bumper to bring up the aiming reticle. If the aim is off, you can then tilt the vita and the aiming reticle will move slowly in the direction you are tilting. It helps when you need just a slight nudge, maybe an eight of an inch or a quarter of an inch, to get on your target faster.

You can still aim in other ways. You can use the dual analog sticks to zero in on a target. You can fine tune with invert aim, sensitivity, and you can turn off Intu-Aim. You can use it for all weapons in the game, which will debut on Feb. 22 with the launch of the Vita in North America. The system debuts this weekend in Japan.

Check it out in the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1SsCunU2EpA]

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.