THE GAMES GLOW UP
PlayStation 4 hits replayed on PS5. This month: jet off to The Outer Worlds
In my review many moons ago, I noted how familiar Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds felt. Now there’s another reason to return home. DLC chapters Peril On Gorgon and Murder On Eridanos justify a revisit on their own but there’s a particular plus to embarking on PS5.
A 26GB patch released earlier this year makes playing this PS4 title on PS5 via backwards compatibility by far the best choice.
As you traverse Monarch’s rich red vistas, there are fewer things to distract you. First, there are those loading times. They weren’t Obsidian’s worst by any measure, but they do see some improvement here by virtue of the more sprightly new-gen hardware (though loading times will differ slightly depending on whether you’re loading the game from expandable or internal SSD storage).
Resolution also enjoys an upgrade. A base PS4 offers dynamic 1080p resolution whereas Pro has dynamic 1440p, albeit with definite drops. Playing on PS5, you get not only dynamic 1440p resolution but a more consistent experience, with far fewer noticeable drops in detail.
Both flavours of PS4 only managed 30fps, and the base model occasionally had trouble keeping up with even this. While this was largely a fine way to play on release day, we’re not going to say no to the 60fps now possible on PS5.
There’s a lot to appreciate about this patch, especially as a fully fledged PS5 release looks unlikely even though a sequel has been confirmed. That followup won’t be coming to PlayStation either. Obsidian Entertainment was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, meaning that the DLC stories and this performance patch are likely to be the last we’ll see of The Outer Worlds on PlayStation. Bearing that in mind, this performance patch is a fine compromise for any Strangers with a PS5.