Power Play
Sony’s new console makes a bold statement in the battle for our living rooms: innovation over iteration
PS5 makes a bold statement in the battle for our living rooms: innovation over iteration
When you have a head start in any race, your most dangerous opponent is complacency. It’s not unfair to say that in the past seven years, PS4 has left its nearest competitor choking on its dust – this August, unit sales surpassed 113 million, more than twice the number of Xbox Ones sold over the same period. And yet there have been signs of late that Sony might be at risk of letting its lead slip. Many have detected whiffs of PS3-era hubris in its mixed messaging around PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility, self-inflicted confusion surrounding the exclusivity or otherwise of games such as Final Fantasy XVI and backtracking regarding its ongoing support for PS4. Its giant stride into a new hardware generation seems a little more tentative now, and rumours suggest PS5 has come in at a lower price than originally planned in light of Microsoft’s aggressive strategy.
In a way, it’s surprising. As a format holder, Sony has always been proactive rather than reactive. But in a year when the usual rules have been thrown out of the window, maybe we shouldn’t criticise it too harshly for its willingness to adapt, to change its mind, to pursue a more player- and wallet-friendly approach. Releasing a console during a pandemic can’t be easy, so you can perhaps forgive Sony for not having its house entirely in order (and besides, he stepped down three years ago). As we said last month, the momentum is usually with the underdog. Yet if Sony is on the back foot, you wouldn’t think it from your first encounter with PS5. Big, bold and unusual, its design alone feels like a bullish statement of intent.
Still, it has at least one thing in common with its closest competitor. Big may not necessarily be beautiful in this case, but PS5 is beautifully quiet. Beyond ostentatiously reminding you of its presence, there are benefits to its bulk: a large twin-airflow fan inside keeps it cool, preventing the system from overheating and thus ensuring it stays almost silent. We pull our chair in closer, cocking our head to one side to actively listen out for signs of exertion, but we hear barely a peep from it. Granted, none of the launch titles appear to be pushing the hardware too much, but the generational difference is starkly illustrated when review code arrives for The Pathless. The older hardware (which, admittedly, is getting on a bit) sounds like it’s preparing for takeoff. The PS5 version looks better and runs more smoothly, and we don’t have to wear headphones or turn the volume up to neighbour-annoying levels to hear it. We might not like how it looks, but on balance it’s a trade-off we’re more than happy to make. True, it’s hard to determine whether that will stand up to scrutiny in five years’ time, by which point the likes of Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games and more will have put the console through its paces – although Sony has said it will later be able to optimise the fan through updates, thanks to internal temperature sensors that help control its speed. For now, though, while PS5 certainly wants to be seen, it’s evidently keen not to be heard.
The same can’t be said, however, for the DualSense controller, which perhaps explains why the console itself is such a behemoth: after all, how else are those internal speakers going to make their presence felt? The new pad, like the console itself, is appreciably heavier than its predecessor: in the hands, it feels comparable to the Xbox Series controller with batteries inside. The two-tone look is different, but the overall layout hasn’t changed significantly from its antecedent – but then why fix a controller 113 million players have grown accustomed to using during the past seven years?
Yet the few small design tweaks are all positive ones, barring the PS button being turned into a sheeny logo. The triggers and bumpers are a little larger; the small light glowing beneath the (marginally broader) touchpad is less distracting than the DualShock 4’s light bar; a built-in microphone array lets you chat without need of a headset. The Share button is now called Create (more on that later) and, along with the Options button, has been raised ever so slightly, making them easier to press. (Even if the default setting, bafflingly, has you hold the button to take a grab; we quickly
1 Weight difference aside, a DualSense feels similar in the hands to a DualShock 4 – until you turn it on. The step forward is all the more apparent when you return to the older model.
2 At 39cm tall, 26cm deep and just over 10cm wide, PS5 is even bigger (and, weighing in at 4.5kg, heavier) than the original Xbox, making it the largest console in modern times.
3 The Digital Edition is £90 cheaper, and the absence of a Blu-ray drive gives it a symmetry that makes it more visually appealing – although naturally that means forgoing physical media.
4 The rear is the most conventional part of the machine, with two USB slots alongside Ethernet and HDMI ports and AC input. Notably, PS4’s auxiliary port (for the PlayStation Camera) is gone. If you want to use your PSVR with PS4 games, you’ll need to order a free adaptor – the headset doesn’t play with the PS5’s HD camera add-on. Jim Ryan has hinted that VR may be in Sony’s plans at some point, but for the foreseeable it seems to have been set aside
switch to Easy Screenshots mode, as any rightminded person would.)
But there is more going on under the hood. As the pioneer of built-in vibration tech, it’s fitting that the PlayStation difference this time around involves force feedback of unprecedented fidelity. As with N64’s Rumble Pak, Nintendo got there first with Switch’s HD rumble functionality – and nothing so far has made us grin quite as broadly as the fizzy ocean of Super Mario Odyssey’s Seaside Kingdom. But the delightful pack-in freebie Astro’s Playroom deftly demonstrates a range of possibilities that suggest developers (at least, firstparty studios) are going to have a lot of fun experimenting with the tech. There’s a distinct grainy sensation as Astro walks into a sandstorm, while you can feel the bumpy topography of a patch of rock as you roll over it in a spherical suit. In conjunction with the 3D audio bursting forth from between your palms, it’s sensational stuff. Close your eyes as you trot around and you can probably take an educated guess at the surface you’re walking on, such is the attention to fine detail in how each and every footstep is communicated through subtle, precise vibrations. Likewise, when you harness Miles Morales’ bio-electric powers, you’ll detect a crackle of energy coursing through your palms. There are plenty of small improvements elsewhere, of course, but this combination of sound and touch delivers the next-gen shock of the new we’re all looking for when we shell out for new hardware; that exhilarating feeling of the future suddenly becoming the here and now.
And that’s not all. Both L2 and R2 feature adjustable trigger tension; in other words, they fight back, providing resistance to emphasise the physicality of certain actions. Again, of the launch titles we’ve played, it’s most apparent in Astro’s Playroom, particularly when you clutch the lever of a capsule machine and pull it downwards to release the prizes, which themselves are crushed in a robotic right hand, with golden capsules requiring a sharper squeeze than the booby prize of an empty can. Yet in truth, some of the subtler uses of the technology may go unnoticed. If, like us, you tend to squeeze the triggers all the way in when playing most games, you might not necessarily notice the extra tension (at least in the moment; your aching fingers may well let you know about it later). When we boot up The Pathless, for example, we don’t detect much difference from the PS4 version, and for a while we’re convinced there’s no extra functionality. We’re mistaken: as we apply a little less pressure with our right index finger, we can feel the trigger pushing back slightly, evoking the sensation of a bow string being pulled taut. We fully anticipate the likes of Horizon Forbidden West making more pronounced use of the feature. And it’s certainly not hard to imagine how it might be used to evoke the might of Kratos in next year’s God Of War: Ragnarok. (If nothing else, these features ensure the word ‘tactile’ is going to get a serious workout from critics this generation; we’re almost considering challenging ourselves by adding it to the banned-words list.)
However, with that extra effort on the player’s part comes the obvious risk of button fatigue. Communicating a sense of tension, weight and resistance is all well and good, but when it’s an action you repeat many times over longer sessions, that’s all going to add up. Not that we notice much difference after five consecutive hours of web-slinging across New York, though Insomniac uses it so subtly that after a while we almost forget it’s even there – which in itself makes us wonder how extensively it will be used elsewhere. With no great technological gaps between PS5 and Xbox Series X, when it comes to the big thirdparty titles that do use it, however, it might just tip the balance in Sony’s favour for those fortunate enough to afford both consoles. For some players it will naturally present more of an issue: those concerned will be delighted to know they can lower the intensity of these effects, and even switch them off entirely, leaving just the haptics for those who still want to experience some form of physical feedback. And yes, these can be turned off, too, if you’d prefer rumble-free play.
THIS COMBINATION OF SOUND AND TOUCH DELIVERS THE NEXT-GEN SHOCK OF THE NEW WE’RE LOOKING FOR WHEN WE SHELL OUT FOR NEW HARDWARE