To close the circle of this new generation of consoles think about it Sony with PlayStation 5, arriving on November 19 in Europe (America and Japan will receive it already on November 12) at the price of 499 Euros for the version with the disc player and 399 Euros without. The Japanese company was perhaps the most cryptic, confused and late in describing and communicating the new platform, perhaps too sure of itself and its position in the market.
However, net of some ups and downs on that front we are finally there and after spending several days in the company of the next gen we can finally tell you about the PS5 experience in our review.
PS5 is huge and this is now a well known thing to the point of becoming almost a meme. So when you buy yours you will have to deal with a rather impressive packaging occupied mostly by the console, while everything else is dedicated to the HDMI and power cables, the base to put it upright or horizontally and, finally, the brand new Dual Sense, which we will explore shortly. On the age-old question of HDMI, awaiting official confirmation, it should be version 2.1, or the one that allows you to play on TVs that support 4K at 120HZ. Since we don't have TVs with those characteristics, we can't deny or formalize whether it's 2.0 or 2.1, but we're pretty optimistic.
On the basic question, however, we point out the lack of intuitiveness on how to apply it not so much in the vertical position as in the horizontal one, due to the extremely inconsistent design of the console and the convexities derived from the disc compartment door that do not allow it to stay flat on the surface. natural way and if its dimensions sometimes make it difficult to allocate it in the living rooms or in the gaming stations. Let's be clear, absolutely minor problems that find a solution in one way or another, but it seemed right to point this out.
Once launched and configured in the same way as the previous console, PS5 showcases its brand new dashboard, completely revised and supported by all its features. Unfortunately we cannot tell you everything about the dashboard, in particular we cannot tell you about the new interfaces of PS Plus, PS Now, the Media and Entertainment area and not even the PS Store, of which we can only tell you that it is now officially integrated with the interface user and therefore more accessible. For everything else, the dashboard now exploits the potential of consoles and hardware making navigation incredibly immediate and fluid, passing from one application to another or from one game to another. Unfortunately, PS5 does not have a Quick Resume, as the console only keeps one title in standby, but it allows you to switch from one to the other via a Switcher that keeps the last three games in memory.
Furthermore, taking screenshots or videos is even easier, as is accessing the trophy list or participating in the so-called "activities" in the form of "cards" or "cards" accessible by pressing the Playstation button. In fact, for all games that provide for it, it is possible to load directly from the game of the game you are playing an activity, not necessarily linked to a trophy, particularly useful according to the developers. In the case of Spider-Man: Miles Morales for example, you can directly undertake some secondary missions that provide a good number of experience points simply by starting the related Activities. They seem like minutiae, but in reality they create great involvement and interaction, especially given the speed with which these contents are accessed.
Furthermore, for some titles, we know that a sort of video tutorial will be available to overcome some challenges, but during our tests we have not yet had the opportunity to access this feature, so we will talk about it later.
But let's now come to one of the highlights of the PS5 offer, namely the Dual Sense: the new pad that promises to revolutionize the sensory experience while playing. Sony has historically always done it: the vibration in the first DualShock, the Sixasix in the DualShock 3, the Touchpad on the PlayStation 4. Although not all have succeeded and not all have been so original, the goal of the Japanese giant has always been to give new experiences while playing.
The Dual Sense completes this project by putting in the hands of the players a tool capable of making the games live in a whole new way thanks to a new concept of vibration offered not only by the pad itself, but also by the new adaptive triggers. Although it is not easy to explain, the result is to convey to the player the tactile and sound sensations of what is happening on the screen.
You will notice this above all by playing Astrobot, a sort of tech demo of the console that highlights all the aforementioned features of Dual Sense. In practice, is your little robot walking on a beach? You will feel the sand under your feet. Is swimming? You will feel the movements of the water. For example if he is skating on an ice surface - and this was the most surprising sensation - the pad was able to tactile the blade of the skate sliding on the icy surface, all in combination with the integrated audio that comes out of the controller. But that's not all: adaptive triggers, depending on how deeply they are pressed, are capable of replicating the resistance of a spring that is squeezed and then released, or even of a bow that is stretched.
The PS5 Dual Sense is the biggest surprise and discovery of the new Playstation generation. We hope it will be implemented more and more often in other titles as well. We can already tell you that in the case of Spider-Man Miles Morales will be used to give feedback of the strokes or the use of the web, but we would also like to see games in the future whose design revolves around the tactile feedback of the pad.
We also talk a little about games and exclusives, since Playstation first parties have always been the flagship of the Japanese company: since we have mentioned it before, Miles Morales will be the flagship game that aims to give a first real breath of next gen to Playstation 5 owners. Find on our pages the review of the game with all the details and insights about it, but here let us reiterate the technical work done on the latest effort by Insomniac Games.
The game takes advantage of the hardware in an important way, not only as regards the total reduction of loading times derived from the SSD (practically there is no single waiting screen), but also for the implementation of ray tracing in a context with resolution at 4K and 30FPS. The visual impact is off the scale, especially in a winter New York full of neon lights reflecting off buildings, puddles and car windows. Disabling ray tracing, on the other hand, we get a mode always at 4K, but at 60 FPS. Traveling around New York on a spider's web has never looked so good.
As regards backwards compatibility, Sony does a decent job of continuity with the previous PS4 titles, although it is not as effective in terms of numbers and performance as its Xbox rival. At the moment the games that benefit from the technical optimizations on PS5 can be counted on the fingers of one hand, we are talking about God of War, Days Gone and Ghost of Tsushima that allow you to reach maximum resolution of 4k or framerate at 60 FPS in the appropriate video configurations .
We tried other games like Avengers or FFVII Remake, but net of some reduced loading time, we could not detect any particular optimizations. In any case, it works and the console does what was promised, given that in any case we are talking about an almost total compatibility (we are talking about 99%) of the PS4 title park.
Net of questionable aesthetics derived from shape and size, the heart of Playstation 5 beats faster than ever. A contained line-up, but which aims precisely at the community of enthusiasts, confirms that the Sony exclusives are still the greatest fuel that powers the engine of success of the Playstation consoles. Furthermore, the work done with the Dual Sense is practically applauding and we only hope that it can become a standard for the future of video games. The new dashboard is also a welcome welcome when the machine is started, with a whole series of new non-essential, but certainly welcome features, which emphasize navigation in the user interface and make it really pleasant. We are sure that the best is yet to come but for the moment we are happy to promote the arrival of the PS5 generation.
