PS5's Successful Yet Limited Launch
Sony's Playstation 5 has released for the few that got the opportunity to order one
By Riley Fink
Sony's Playstation 5 has released for the few that got the opportunity to order one
By Riley Fink
Two days after the new Xboxes, the Playstation 5 hit store shelves on Nov. 12, or rather website shelves, as no retailers will have in store stock until at least 2021 to prevent people from camping outside during a pandemic. With online launches come bots and scalpers, so for anyone looking to get any of the next generation consoles this holiday season, it will undoubtedly prove to be a difficult or expensive process. That being said, I managed to nab one in the six minute window where they were available at Target, so let’s get into my first impressions with the system.
In terms of hardware, you’re more than getting your money’s worth. I won’t bore you with the details, but this is a pretty powerful system for its $499 and $399 price tags for the models with and without a disc drive. The PC equivalent would run you about $1,465 by my research, hiked up by the PS5’s unusually fast solid-state drive or SSD. The console runs nearly silent except for the disc drive, due to its gigantic intake fan and heatsink. There are some rumors about the console’s RAM running a little too hot for comfort, but it’s nothing to worry about unless we start seeing a significantly higher console failure rate. |
Since the advancement of gaming hardware has slowed down these past few generations, the main upgrade most people should be excited for is the aforementioned SSD. With it, everything loads insanely fast. PS4 games get a moderate boost in speed to their load times, but the few games available made for PS5 take almost no time at all to boot up, at 10-15 seconds, with quick reloads like fast travel between areas coming in at around three seconds tops.
The unfortunate price for such power is an extremely small storage space, at 667 Gb available for games. Unlike the PS4, you can’t upgrade that space yet either. You can put PS4 games on an external SSD or hard drive, but PS5 games are restricted to that small internal SSD until Sony allows third party SSDs to work in the console’s expansion bay. Though it’s a disappointing flaw currently, their method of expansion outclasses Xbox in theory, since theirs isn’t proprietary, a fantastic departure from Sony’s infamous price gouging storage expansions.
Another exciting improvement is in the new controller, the Dualsense. Other than its clear physical design change, which I personally think feels better than its predecessor the Dualshock 4, the controller has extremely impressive haptic feedback, giving game developers a lot of control over the frequency, location, and intensity of the controller’s vibration. It’s hard to explain without getting your hands on it, but when I get hit with an arrow in Demon’s Souls with my eyes closed, I can tell you where the arrow came from based on the vibration I feel on the controller. It manages to improve most games without coming off as distracting, which is quite impressive. Though its haptic feedback is a clear improvement on the Nintendo Switch’s controllers’ “HD Rumble,” the Dualsense does have an entirely new piece of tech it gets to call its own, being its adaptive triggers. The mechanism in the controller’s triggers can push back at you as you press them down, again programmable by developers. When I fire a minigun in Astro’s Playroom, the right trigger is able to jerk back at me with every bullet fired, attempting to simulate the recoil of a gun. Both features of the controller are interesting on their own, but when put together, it creates an extremely cool, and at times immersive, effect that’s worthy of the name Dualsense.
Despite my clear partiality towards all the new tech in the console and controller, they’re all mostly irrelevant at the end of the day. What really drives console sales is exciting exclusive games, and thankfully Sony’s got this one down pat as well. The main game people will likely buy alongside their console is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which, though priced at $50, comes with a remastered version of 2018’s Spider-Man if you get the $70 ultimate edition. Both Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered are definitely worth the price of admission. The former falls a bit flat in narrative and length compared to Spider-Man, simply because it isn’t quite a full sequel, but it’s a fantastic experience regardless. As a side note I highly recommend playing both games in performance mode in order to get the best gameplay experience. Also available at launch is Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls remake, a fantastic visual overhaul for the cult classic PS3 original, and Astro’s Playroom, a free 3D platformer that shows off the features of the Dualsense controller.
All PS4 games work right out of the box on PS5, with plenty getting patches to improve their performance on the new console, some highlights of which being Dark Souls 3, Final Fantasy XV, God of War, Kingdom Hearts 3, Monster Hunter World, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Bluepoint’s previous remake, Shadow of the Colossus. If you’re subscribed to Playstation Plus, you get a big chunk of the best PS4 games for free in the Playstation Plus Collection, far too many to list here. Regardless to say, there’s a ton to play at launch, and the future of Playstation is looking extremely bright with the future lineup of exclusive games including Horizon: Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, Final Fantasy XVI, and Gran Turismo 7. After Sony rebuilding their good reputation during the PS4 generation and the successful launch of the PS5, there’s never been a better time to be a Playstation fan.
The unfortunate price for such power is an extremely small storage space, at 667 Gb available for games. Unlike the PS4, you can’t upgrade that space yet either. You can put PS4 games on an external SSD or hard drive, but PS5 games are restricted to that small internal SSD until Sony allows third party SSDs to work in the console’s expansion bay. Though it’s a disappointing flaw currently, their method of expansion outclasses Xbox in theory, since theirs isn’t proprietary, a fantastic departure from Sony’s infamous price gouging storage expansions.
Another exciting improvement is in the new controller, the Dualsense. Other than its clear physical design change, which I personally think feels better than its predecessor the Dualshock 4, the controller has extremely impressive haptic feedback, giving game developers a lot of control over the frequency, location, and intensity of the controller’s vibration. It’s hard to explain without getting your hands on it, but when I get hit with an arrow in Demon’s Souls with my eyes closed, I can tell you where the arrow came from based on the vibration I feel on the controller. It manages to improve most games without coming off as distracting, which is quite impressive. Though its haptic feedback is a clear improvement on the Nintendo Switch’s controllers’ “HD Rumble,” the Dualsense does have an entirely new piece of tech it gets to call its own, being its adaptive triggers. The mechanism in the controller’s triggers can push back at you as you press them down, again programmable by developers. When I fire a minigun in Astro’s Playroom, the right trigger is able to jerk back at me with every bullet fired, attempting to simulate the recoil of a gun. Both features of the controller are interesting on their own, but when put together, it creates an extremely cool, and at times immersive, effect that’s worthy of the name Dualsense.
Despite my clear partiality towards all the new tech in the console and controller, they’re all mostly irrelevant at the end of the day. What really drives console sales is exciting exclusive games, and thankfully Sony’s got this one down pat as well. The main game people will likely buy alongside their console is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which, though priced at $50, comes with a remastered version of 2018’s Spider-Man if you get the $70 ultimate edition. Both Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered are definitely worth the price of admission. The former falls a bit flat in narrative and length compared to Spider-Man, simply because it isn’t quite a full sequel, but it’s a fantastic experience regardless. As a side note I highly recommend playing both games in performance mode in order to get the best gameplay experience. Also available at launch is Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls remake, a fantastic visual overhaul for the cult classic PS3 original, and Astro’s Playroom, a free 3D platformer that shows off the features of the Dualsense controller.
All PS4 games work right out of the box on PS5, with plenty getting patches to improve their performance on the new console, some highlights of which being Dark Souls 3, Final Fantasy XV, God of War, Kingdom Hearts 3, Monster Hunter World, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Bluepoint’s previous remake, Shadow of the Colossus. If you’re subscribed to Playstation Plus, you get a big chunk of the best PS4 games for free in the Playstation Plus Collection, far too many to list here. Regardless to say, there’s a ton to play at launch, and the future of Playstation is looking extremely bright with the future lineup of exclusive games including Horizon: Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, Final Fantasy XVI, and Gran Turismo 7. After Sony rebuilding their good reputation during the PS4 generation and the successful launch of the PS5, there’s never been a better time to be a Playstation fan.