“COULD PS5’S CONTROL CENTRE HELP MORE OF US REACH THE FINISH LINE?”
Nobody likes to hit a wall. Activities and guides keep you moving
Brewing a good cup of tea takes a few minutes. How do you spend that time? If you’re anything like me, you load up the brand-new PlayStation App on your phone and browse your trophy list. I love checking the trophy unlock percentages on my favourite games. If you’ve done the same, you’ll know that it’s a very rare game that has a high percentage of trophy unlocks for beating the game.
Often the ones that a lot of people have completed are games like Marvel’s SpiderMan. That one’s great, full of moreish collectibles that give you ample reason to keep the serotonin ride of webswinging around New York City going. But also, everyone appreciates a frictionless package (and we don’t mean what’s tucked away in the Spider-suit). Spidey on PlayStation is a game that just feels good to play.
This sense of easy enjoyment is only enhanced in the PS5 Remaster, and it’s present in sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales too. Tap the PlayStation button on your DualSense to access the Control Centre on your PS5 and you can instantly pull up recommended Activities to try out, which load in instantly thanks to the SSD. Side-activities such as clearing out Kingpin’s construction yards can be started instantly from the main menu, and there’s something to tempt everyone back into the game.
Spider-Man’s not the only game to make use of Activities; others, like Sackboy: A Big Adventure, also feature them. You can see which stages you’ve yet to fully master and hop straight in, rather than trudge around the world to reach them.
Both these games are on PS4 as well as PS5, but on PS5 Activities enable you to dip into the bits you most enjoy, while the story mode still provides enough incentive to explore the open world on top. The benefit is noticeable when you look at cross-gen games that use the feature less, such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where collecting things you missed once you’ve finished the game feels like much more of a trudge. HELPING HAND But if all you needed to finish things was to start them, then I’d have baked thousands of cookies by now rather than simply gorged myself on cookie dough. PS5’s Activities mean you never leave a game half-baked, because they don’t just allow you to hop into challenges, they can also help you finish them thanks to guides specific to each card (providing devs have added them, and you’re a PS Plus member, that is).
They are especially handy for tracking down those last few collectibles in the likes of Sackboy or Astro’s Playroom, where you’ve masses of items to pick up. You don’t even have to entirely spoil the story for yourself either. For hidden secrets, a glance at the thumbnail once you’ve clicked through can suggest the area where you should be looking, and in games like Demon’s Souls the text on the card gives a little hint before you watch the video.
Not every game will feature Activities and guides as usefully as this, but players will be most likely to stick with the ones that do. After all, you don’t want to have to force yourself to persist with a game, you just want your hands to keep moving over the controller, playing without coming up against walls, and that’s what the Control Centre is doing with its smartly designed interface.