#22 24 hours with the PS5
My PS5 arrived yesterday and so it was inevitable that this week’s newsletter would always be about it in some form. But the last thing the world needs is yet another technical review of the PS5.
So this isn’t going to be one. I’m not going to dwell on frame rates, resolution or anything too technical.
Instead I want to focus on how the 24 hours I’ve spent with the PlayStation made me feel. Nothing scientific or objective - merely the emotional responses i’ve had - from it arriving at my door to me taking a break to write this newsletter.
Opening the box
My first thought when it arrived was probably identical to everyone else’s - “oh crap, it really is as big as everyone says it was.”
A quick photo taken next to my old faithful PS4 made for a fun tweet, but meant I continued dwelling on the thing’s sheer girth. Which led to a couple of thoughts - firstly: “Is my partner going to hate this taking over our TV stand and equally is she going to hate the wavy design?” This worry lasted for a good couple of minutes, before being replaced by a much more practical concern - will this even fit in my TV stand? Not exactly the thoughts you want to have about a brand new piece of tech.
Anyway, enough of that - it’s dull. You’re not interested in the minutiae of getting the console set up - you want to know what it’s like to play with. Was it worth the £450 and hassle it cost to get it delivered on day one?
Absolutely.
Feeling the future
You can read all you want about the new consoles and the visuals you deliver. And you can watch videos which claim to capture what next gen games look like. But until you’ve played one, it simply doesn’t sink in. Everything I’d read suggested it was a good, but not great improvement on what came before - and for me at least that couldn’t be further from the truth.
From the second I booted up Miles Morales I was transfixed. Not by the big things - these were as good as I’d expect. No it was the little things which grabbed my attention - seeing reflections in puddles, windows and mirrors which looked like your brain expects them to. That’s the biggest change i’ve noticed about the new gen already - my brain isn’t have to make allowances for ‘video game design’. Sure, the characters still don’t look quite human, but the wider world does. Swinging through NYC, really feels like you’re in New York itself, rather than a simulation of it.
And the new controller and sound offer the same level of immersion. I’d never noticed it before, but video game sound was always a bit crap. It lacked the depth and oomph of the best movies and TV and always felt like a bit of an afterthought.
The controller was the least exciting aspect of the new package for me before it arrived. More control over how hard you pressed the triggers and a more intense set of vibrations is the kind of thing which sounds good in passing, but is easy to gloss over in practice. And I'm still not completely sure that long term it's going to make much of a difference.
But on first impressions, it definitely has the potential to. Just feeling different parts of the controller vibrate with a different intensity immediately made the whole thing feel more real, while being able to push the triggers with different force and get different outcomes felt great.
Room for improvement
So that’s all great - the PS5 is definitely better for playing games than the PS4. Money well spent. What it’s not yet, is a like for like replacement for the role the PS4 played in our flat. Like every console launch ever, the PS5’s user interface still needs polish and its not yet ready to take over as our main media consumption device. Apps like iPlayer and All 4 are either missing or nowhere to be found and while apparently the Sky app is available if you look in the right place, i’ve yet to crack the code to find it. So definite room for improvement here.
None of this makes me regret buying it - it’s day one tech and it does what I bought it for. And it’s got me more excited about the true potential of next gen than I ever expected to be on day one. And it’s clear friends feel the same - my mates who’ve bought a console can’t stop talking about it, while I had a barrage of texts from people who haven’t got one who want to live vicariously through me. If you’re Sony, that’s job done.
Anyway, that’s enough for this week - I need to get back to saving New York. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, please consider giving this a share on social media. And if you’ve bought a PS5 or Xbox Series S/X, i’d love to know how you’re finding it - get in touch on Twitter or by replying to this email.