Bozo Beat — PlayStation 5: Five Months Later

It’s no secret that Sony’s PlayStation 5 occupied just about everyone’s minds in the gaming community five months ago during its launch. Between how highly the console was anticipated and how low its availability was, the PS5 was all the rage during the holiday season. Although it's still the center of much attention, I think just enough time has passed for the console’s initial shockwaves to have died down a bit. Five months after launch, I’m curious to see how this new console is faring. For what it’s worth, I think the PS5 is proving to be a great console with a lot of noteworthy innovations. Unfortunately, it’s not without its fair share of issues.

Design

The most prominent aspect of the PlayStation 5 is the console’s design itself. When compared with its predecessors, the PS5 is not only considerably larger, but also much stranger-looking. The console’s design garnered a lot of attention, both good and bad, around launch. Some have even compared it to internet routers and air purifiers. Despite its devisiveness, I find the console’s design to be extremely refreshing. For the past twenty years, most, if not all, consoles have succumbed to the design pitfall of simply looking like an indistinguishable black slab. I highly appreciate the PS5’s originality, even if it does look like an air purifier.

User Interface

While the PlayStation 5’s design is easily distinguishable from its predecessors, its user interface is very derivative of that found in the PlayStation 4. The two share very similar layouts and menus. Of course, this isn’t to say that the PS5 made no changes at all to its interface. Whether it's the fact that the online store is embedded into the home screen itself, or the new activity card system that provides shortcuts for loading into games, the console’s UI feels much snappier and overall more convenient than the PS4’s. Although it isn’t extremely innovative, I appreciate how the PS5 took the strong interface of its predecessor and near perfected it. However, I do sorely miss the customizable themes found on the PS4.

Controller

From all the PlayStation 5 has to offer, I’d say that its new DualSense controller is both one of the console’s biggest successes as well as one of its biggest failures. It seems as if PlayStation took a page out of Nintendo’s book with the DualSense’s haptic feedback, which is extremely similar to the Joy-Cons’ 3D Rumble. As a matter of fact, the haptic technology seen in both of these controllers was developed by the same company. The DualSense’s haptic feedback has proven to be a great addition that adds an extra layer of immersion to games, as it’s more deliberate and precise than the binary, motor rumble technology found in other controllers. It was as if I could feel the individual web fibers when swinging around in Miles Morales. Additionally, the DualSense controller further innovates with its adaptive triggers. Different guns in Black Ops Cold War offer different levels of resistance on the controller’s triggers. As much as I love these immersive details, the DualSense’s ability to provide them is entirely dependent on game developers. Although it’s basically guaranteed that PS5 exclusive games will extensively make use of the controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, I hope that third-party game developers will take the extra time to make the most out of these exciting features.

Unfortunately, the DualSense also shares the worst aspect of the Switch’s Joy-Cons: analog drift. Although I haven’t experienced this firsthand, many of my friends and countless PS5 users have reported that the analog sticks on their controllers have started to output information without taking any input. For example, my friends and I have lost a handful of Black Ops Cold War games due to my friend’s aim veering to the right despite him not touching the right analog stick. Not to mention, even the DualSense’s triggers have been reported to lose integrity. Aside from simply buying another controller, there isn’t a legitimate fix to these issues. For such an innovative controller, it’s a shame that the DualSense fails to deliver consistent build quality.

Performance

One of the biggest selling points of the PlayStation 5 is its much improved overall performance over the PlayStation 4. For the most part, I’d say that the PS5 delivers on such promises. One of my biggest gripes with the PS4 was its painfully slow download times, regardless of the WiFi quality. I’d often have to put the console in rest mode in order to make sure whatever I was downloading wouldn’t take hours. Thankfully, download times on the PS5 are exponentially faster. Additionally, load times within games are much faster due to the console’s solid-state drive. The notoriously slow loading screens of GTA V have been largely butchered on the PS5. Not to mention, games that are specifically optimised for the console, such as Miles Morales, load almost instantaneously. Unfortunately, the PS5 isn’t without its fair share of bugs and glitches. There have been a handful of times where my console completely froze for about a minute, driving me to initiate a force shutdown. Even when it’s in rest mode, I find that the PS5 will often crash. It’s obviously not uncommon for new consoles to experience bugs near launch. I just hope such issues are resolved sooner rather than later.

Games

As far as the PlayStation 5’s library is concerned, there isn’t much to say. I’m extremely glad that nearly every PlayStation 4 game is playable on the new console, given that the PS5 itself doesn’t have many games. Aside from Demon’s Souls, there aren’t really any PS5 exclusive games worth owning right now. Given that the console has been out for five months at this point, I can’t say I’m not disappointed. Right now, my PS5 is functioning more as a PS4 and ½. This, of course, will change over time, with next-gen exclusives such as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon: Forbidden West well on their way. Although it’s standard for consoles to only hit their stride a year or two after launch, I was still expecting more from the PS5’s initial launch lineup of games.

Verdict

In many ways, the PlayStation 5 succeeds and outshines its predecessors. In others, the console proves to be somewhat disappointing. However, the state of contemporary game consoles is never stagnant, as new firmware/software updates and game releases can change a console for better or worse. Therefore, it’s not fair to make any definitive critiques of the PS5 right now. Only time will be able to tell whether the console will be remembered fondly or sourly. Despite its few, yet aggravating, shortcomings, I think the PS5 has a lot of potential, leaving me optimistic for its future