The PlayStation 5 is bigger, better, beautiful—and a little boring
Games Features For Our Consideration
Something strange happened on the way to the bright, new, blast-processed future: We actually got there.
That’s both the promise and the conundrum facing Sony and its shiny, new, popped-collar playboy the PlayStation 5—a console that stands as a luxury purchase even within a hobby predicated entirely on luxury purchases. The PS5—which we’ve been handling for the last week or so, since our review kit from Sony arrived—is undeniably faster, sleeker, and smoother than its 7-year-old successor, the PlayStation 4, could ever hope to be. But here’s the thing about the PS4: It already was—indeed, still is—perfectly fast, sleek, and smooth all by itself, representing the apotheosis of Sony’s long efforts to create a console that simultaneously functions as an online workhorse, a home’s key media device, and a high-end video game console. The PS5 does all that stuff, too, just as well as the PS4, and generally even a little better. And that’s the issue, really.
Some context: Our time with the PS5 was spent primarily with the two games made available to us ahead of today’s review embargo: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (read our full review here), and the game that comes with each new box, Astro’s Playroom. Credit where it’s due: Astro’s is a hell of a sales pitch for the new machine, just as the series’ previous game, Robot Rescue, was for the much-maligned (but still, thankfully for us early-adopter saps, supported) PSVR. Cute, creative, and brightly colored, the game puts the new, massive Dual Sense controller through its paces, which are pretty much the exact same paces applied to the PS4’s Dual Shock 4 back in the day: a built-in speaker that remains only marginally more interesting than it is annoying; refined haptic feedback that can produce the occasional interesting Rumble Pak effect; and the exact same stick-and-button layout Sony’s stuck with for the last several console generations (including the second iteration of the Dual Shock 4’s still occasionally baffling trackpad). The new tweaks are a built-in microphone (bringing the PS5 up to the lofty technical heights of 2004’s Nintendo DS) and adaptive triggers that can offer different amounts of resistance based on input from the games themselves. (Oh, and because we know it matters as much to you as it does to us: Battery life seemed completely normal, despite all the bells, whistles, and tremors; we got a full, long session of play out of every charge.)
But let’s dip back into Astro’s for a second, which is far more charming than a game that’s essentially a love letter to itself should probably be. A ludicrously beautiful spin on the 3D platformers of old, its four beefy levels run you through 20-plus years of PlayStation history, allowing your cute little robot to collect all sorts of winking nods to the franchise’s long history of titles and peripherals. (Just about any PlayStation exclusive, timed or otherwise, shows up in adorable mechanical form; we were especially delighted to see a little robot Norman Reedus carrying packages with his own little jar-fetus strapped to his chest.) If anything is going to provoke the presents-on-Christmas-morning feeling Sony is desperately hoping to evoke with the console’s November 11 release, it’ll be with Playroom. It’s as pure a dose of joy as the PS5 is probably capable of delivering—and we mean that in both a positive and a pejorative sense.
Due to various deadlines and embargoes, we won’t be able to talk about the nature of the full PlayStation 5 launch line-up until the console releases to the public next week. But it’s clear from what we can talk about that actual “PS5 games”—as opposed to multi-platform titles dropping on both the new box and the old PS4—are going to be few and far between, at least in the early going. All of which makes the fundamental nature, and, arguably, the chief flaw, of the PlayStation 5 readily apparent: This is, at its heart, an upgrade, not a revolution. To some extent, it’s simply the culmination of Sony’s steady adoption of the same approach to tech iteration that’s made Apple god knows how much money off of variously numbered iPhones over the years, an embrace of “more of the same but better,” instead of the unconventional or new.
And to be clear, those upgrades are significant, most notably in terms of load times, which were practically non-existent in either Astro’s or Miles Morales. (A quality of life boost it shares with its Microsoft competitor, also launching next week.) But also, the console UI feels smoother and less bulky. The graphics are undeniably prettier—not jaw-droppingly so, but the improvements are noticeable. Backwards compatibility to the PS4 works perfectly well, and even older games seem to benefit from the load speed increases heralded by the PS5’s switch to solid state memory. All of which means that we genuinely can’t, personally, imagine going back to the PS4, since the PS5 very deliberately does everything the original device did but better. But that same reliance on “more of the same” critically undercuts the entire reason for this shiny, swooping new toy to exist. Because the counter-argument is also true: The PlayStation 5 doesn’t do anything that the PlayStation 4 wasn’t doing for you already. (“What about the Cards?” we hear you cry, referencing the various helpful tabs and context-sensitive trophy notifications that now pop up any time you hit the controller’s PS button. Let’s put it this way: We’ve put in about 25 hours with the machine at this point, and we still had to go Google just now to confirm what the hell this particular feature was actually meant to be accomplishing.)
Outside some lovely Easter eggs and one very charming little robot, we just can’t shake the sense that there’s a certain, let’s say, soullessness to the arrival of the PlayStation 5, a burst of mercenary motivation from an industry that’s already almost all mercenary, all the time. Certainly, we can appreciate the technical merits, the quality of life improvements, the refinement and beauty of the thing—all of which are meaningful, and all of which will delight anyone who has the disposable cash ($499 for the version with the disc drive, $399 for the one without) to pony up for a generational upgrade that’s more of a gentle leapfrog than a monumental leap. But none of that can free the console from the feeling that Sony has played things so safe here as to be positively somnambulistic. The age of giants is over. The age of the comfortable upgrade is almost certainly here to stay.
21 Comments
Is there open bluetooth support for headsets?
I arrived late to the last console generation and I’ll be late to this one, too. The Demon’s Souls is tempting, but it’ll take a lot more than that to make the jump. I’ve got more than enough games on the PS4 and elsewhere to keep me sated for quite some time.
I’m gonna try to find one online soon after launch, but if I can’t find one I’ll be ok with waiting. I don’t reeeally need one right now but if I find one I’ll jump in. I have nothing better to do these days and honestly a little wild spending might help with the general anxiety of this year
If you’re in the US, Walmart tweeted that they’d make some available on the 12th at noon, 3PM, 6PM, and 9PM ET.
The PS5—which we’ve been handling for the last week or so, since our review kit from Sony arrived—is undeniably faster, sleeker, and smoother than its 7-year-old successor, the PlayStation 4, could ever hope to be.Predecessor.
William Hughes looks like the kind of guy who cries after sex.
kill yourself
Fast-forward to 2027, Sony’s big launch event. The PS5 is seven years old, and it’s time for a new generation. The big screen flashes:11/18(beat)PS4(beat)Again
God I hate that system design. Its looks like its just going to be inconvenient to put in a entertainment center. Sure the Series X is a giant black brick but at least a black brick fits easily into entertainment center rectangles.
It is however consistent with the “every other Playstation gets bigger and wider” style. So they get points for adhering to annoying traditions. (Also the 3 and the 5 are like the curvy awkward children of this strange series of boxes.)
“But here’s the thing about the PS4: It already was—indeed, still is—perfectly fast, sleek, and smooth all by itself” Speak for yourself – over the past few months miner’s starting overheating to the point where it can’t play any big games without just crashing (Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 manages for about an hour and seems to be the tipping point. MGSV, any Call of Duty or RDR? Forget about it!). And it seems to be a fairly common complaint without an easy fix. At least this is backwards compatible so when I finally give up playing anything bigger than Overcooked and find a way to afford one of these I can justify it as a replacement rather than a needless upgrade.
clean it.
Snark aside, I’ve tried that. Tried using a hoover on it and compressed air. No joy. Plenty of online responses seem to suggest opening it up is the way forward and I’m not technically confident enough to try that in case I just mess it up worse.
Its not hard to open. mostly just remembering which screw goes where.
Well its getting to the point where I’ve got very little to lose by giving it a go.
The load times are the revolution William…
It looks like one of those crappy wifi routers sold to the same crowd who installs LEDs in their PC desktops.
The biggest problem it looks like with the PS5 is that you could have written this review without ever having used it. Uninspiringly predictable and a step, not a leap, forward.
Thing is technological shifts arent necessarily a precursor to better games. It’s like criticising a film company for not embracing 3D. PS3 had some incredible tech but the cell chip was a pain to code for so rarely got taken advantage of. PS5 seems more about taking what works and making it better, allowing the new memory system to make the whole thing smoother and more immersive rather than trying to find new ways of mining out polygon calculations. Sure “loads things quick” isnt as sexy as “we can make this shiny in a whole new way” but games consoles spent years making things shinier. Now we’ve kinda hit a point if diminishing returns. Allowing devs to go further with ideas they may have had but were blocked on by tech limitations rather than trying to reinvent the wheel (and expecting others to make a new car out of it) might be the way to go
… soullessness … mercenary …Since the end of the SNES/Genesis rivalry, the dominant firms in the gaming industry (Sony, Microsoft) have consistently given me this vibe.When I was a little kid, Sega’s anarchic weirdness always seemed like a natural, spontaneous reaction to the cozy, restrained reverie of Nintendo, which is what made Sonic the Hedgehog such a convincing Bugs Bunny-esque counterpoint to Mickey Mario. Crash Bandicoot and the other 90s-attitude-infused, would-be mascots just screamed Woody Woodpecker to me—or Poochie from The Simpsons, had that been a reference point for me at the time.This is not to deny the tremendous progress, both technically and artistically, that developers have made via PlayStation and … subsequent PlayStations, but something about the dominant elements of the gaming industry outside Nintendo has just left me cold ever since I can remember.
This review has to be sarcasm. The PS5 is a failure on every level except controller design. It offers half the framerate of a real gaming PC (240 FPS, Sony is in the past, not the future), holds default space for only four games, and isn’t even advanced enough to allow AA batteries for its controller. Its hardware is a self-indulgent, hacked Alienware design that drains the energy from the room. And despite its controller being the most comfortable ever made, it drains batteries so fast you’ll spend more time charging than playing games. Not that you’ll be able to play any between the 3 hour downloads and having to remove games every two seconds to even hold any. And don’t forget, you can’t get around this. Physical copies are tethered online too and require a full download. So that’s not an option either. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Sony had a partnership with hardware companies.I watched a Playstation video explaining how to invest another $179 and add an SSD card to the console. It required a “Philips #1 screwdriver, soft cloth, and flashlight” in addition to a “sturdy table.” In this video, Playstation explains how to invest your own labor and money to make their barely functional console a little more functional. And it’s so stacked with bloatware and spyware that casual cloud gaming is a nightmare, too. And what is a console for if not all those things: To hold games, to play them conveniently and with little hassle, and to have a complete setup from day one with no real need to configure? If you’re going to invest your time and labor building something, start with a gaming PC rig. It’ll come with all the storage you need on day one and have twice the FPS. If your brain is stuck on playing with a controller, you can do that on a PC, too.To store even 20 games, you’d be up there at $1,000 investment to get half the performance and visual quality of a real gaming PC. Why would anyone do this?Every review headline should have read “PS5 Has Capabilities, but no Software Company Bothered to Use Them, and If They Did It Wouldn’t Matter Because You Can Only Store Four Games on This.” For any serious gamer who wants to build a real library of games and take advantage of the real gaming, a PC rig is best. This fails as a PC replacement and as a casual console on every level, with Sony asking you to do their job and finish building the PS5 yourself.Consoles are for convenience, for storing games, and for quick play. This fails on every level, and the only person who would buy it is someone who can’t afford better. And to those people I say: I’m sorry. Sony struck out on everything here, not just one. They’re taking advantage of a whole lot here and saving their own money at the expense of people who have stood by them for years even though they’ve gradually made the Playstation more and more unplayable and inconvenient with each new generation. If they don’t stop, they’ll be a controller company by next-gen. And eventually, all those collectors who buy thousands of these at once to sell them off later will be really disappointed when no one is even willing to pay market price for one of these, much less five times market price. After this experience, I’m sticking with PC gaming and Nintendo for Zelda.