PLAYSTATION 5

The rollout for this gen has been a bit scrappy, but this next-gen behemoth is worth the wait .

Finally. after months of teasing, Sony revealed a 19 November release date and price for the PlayStation 5 and hopefully got a pre-order sorterd. And the new generation is surprisingly affordable. It’s unclear quite how much Microsoft’s competitive pricing reveals the week before Sony’s announcement made a difference but, regardless, the result is a level next-generation playing field. Well, other than the Series S but we’ll get onto that in a bit.

If you’ve moved your PlayStation library into the binary realm over the past few years then the Digital Edition is an especially enticing prospect. The only difference is the absence of that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. In short, if you’re not fussed about all that dust-gathering physical media, there’s no sacrifice in performance. Sony’s Jim Ryan has confirmed that both consoles share the same custom processor, ultra-fast SSD, 4K visuals and ray-tracing support. It’ll just have a slightly slimmer form factor under your television.

And what a launch line up too. While third-party games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077 were playable on PS5 on day one, there’s also a slate of PlayStation exclusives. The Demon’s Souls

remake, shown off in crunchily beautiful form at the last PS5 event, was a day one title, as was Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. This follow up to Peter Parker’s 2018 adventures is, according to game director Brian Horton, “an important, heartfelt, emotional and essential experience”.

Destruction All Stars was also a launch day release, as well as a fresh adventure for everyone’s favourite hessian hero with Sumo Digital’s Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

Plus, fellow lovers of Sony’s adorable robot pals can rejoice as Astro’s Playroom

comes installed on PS5. While this exclusive line up initially seems thin on the ground, it’s important to remember that PS5 is backwards compatible with PS4 games and will also now include what Sony is calling the PlayStation Plus Collection.

In a clear move to compete with Xbox Game Pass, all PlayStation Plus subscribers were able to digitally download 18 triple A titles from PS5 launch day. These include Sony first party heavy hitters such as Uncharted 4, Bloodborne and Days Gone, as well as Resident Evil 7 and Fallout 4. It’s not quite up to Xbox Game Pass’ lofty heights but is an exceptionally solid free add-on for a day one release. There will be no shortage of games to play but remember you’ll want to load up Demon’s Souls or Spidey to truly test the PS5’s beefy mettle.