Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

@LtSarge There's really not a whole lot left to add, but I will say good luck if you do end up taking the plunge tomorrow (today technically). I have a handful of issues with the UI, in particular Sony forcing the Activity cards on us as part of an update last year, essentially taking away the game artwork and replacing it with a screenshot in some games. I know that may not sound like much, but it's unnecessary when the Activity cards are right underneath the play button anyways, and I like the game artwork rather than the activity info and a screenshot. The Games page has also been unreliable pretty much since launch, but the latest update where they added your playtime to the Home page for each game may have finally fixed that. Your playtime for a game would sometimes not register properly, with it sometimes not registering for multiple days. I have had 0 issues over the last week or so.

I know that may sound like I am frustrated with my PS5, but that's not the case. Obviously I would like those two things changed/ironed out to make it an even better experience, but overall I have been very pleased with my PS5. The load times are a significant advantage, and obviously 60 FPS as an option for a lot of games is another nice plus. The included stand isn't the greatest, especially if you are planning on having it horizontal since it only is screwed on if you have it vertical, but it is what it is. The PS5 isn't perfect, but all in all I'd still recommend getting one for sure.

(Will reply properly to you guys once I have more free time)

So I bought a PS5 today. They only had the GoW: Ragnarok bundle but I figured I just want to get a PS5 so I didn't mind paying extra even though I already have the game. I might sell the code to someone later on. Anyway, the setup went smoothly and I didn't have any issues getting everything to work. Luckily I had a month of PS+ Premium and noticed that the service does actually have some PS5 games, including Returnal and Demon's Souls. I decided to give Returnal a try since I'm rather interested in that game.

Holy **** this game is awesome! I've had my Series X for over half a year but nothing has made me feel like I was playing a next-gen game. PS5 manages to make me feel that in just an hour from setting it up. The way the controller is used while playing the game is brilliant. The triggers are like two buttons and I love how they can lock up. The graphics are phenomenal and the idea of a third-person rogue-lite experience is great. I don't mind dying, the game is just so much fun. It just feels overall like a game I couldn't play on my PS4. I'm glad that I gave it a try and now I'm going to go order the game so I don't have to keep subscribing to PS+ Extra in order to play it. I'll be checking out Demon's Souls next and I'm sure I'll enjoy that game as well.

I haven't even checked out Astro's Playroom, but I will in due time. I just wanted to check out some games beforehand so that I can order them in time for them to arrive before the weekend.

Not to mention that I feel like I want to play more of my PS4 games now that all (or most of them) run better on PS5. I can finally start up titles I bought on PS4 such as Spider-Man Miles Morales, Sackboy A Big Adventure, Gran Turismo 7, Kena, Sifu as well as third-party titles like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Control Ultimate Edition, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and so on. There are so many games that will run better on PS5 that I'm glad that I waited to play them.

One issue I have with PS5 is its small storage. Having just under 700 GB really sucks, but that's why I'm glad that I have a Series X and also my PS4 for the extra storage space. I genuinely don't feel like upgrading my hard drive after having spent almost €800 on a new system.

All in all, I'm absolutely in love with the PS5. I love it so much that I regret not buying it instead of the Series X. Some may recall that I was rather disappointed after buying the Series X because I didn't have anything new to play on it. The PS5 has that in spades with titles like Returnal, Demon's Souls, Sackboy, Miles Morales, Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray, God of War Ragnarok and more. Jesus Christ I'm going to buy so many games for my PS5. I want to play everything on it now lol. I haven't been this excited about something gaming related in forever! Absolutely fantastic system!

@LtSarge Glad you are enjoying Returnal! You mirror my thoughts on how next gen the game feels. The 3D audio is probably the best I've experienced also.

The PS5 uses compression technology to reduce file sizes, so you will be surprised how much you can fit on the HDD. I hear that the price of the memory cards has dropped a bit recently, which I'm led to believe is not the case with the options available for the Series consoles.

@LtSarge Glad you are enjoying your new toy. I've had mine since day one and have always been a ps plus subscriber but upgraded to Extra last august as there was enough content that I hadn't played. Returnal, Death stranding, Ghost of T, Demons souls (played the PS3 version previously) Miles Morales so I certainly got my monies worth within a month or two.
I really enjoyed Returnal despite being very unsure of it prior to playing and even after I started playing, after a particular run was cut violently short I did select Delete Game but when asked "Are you sure?" I just couldn't do it as I love HouseMarque but it was a very close call.

TBH I don't particularly like the subscription model but do think PS Plus extra has been awesome so far.

@LtSarge Great to hear you’re having fun

Returnal is my favourite exclusive so far I think and it really does get quite addictive. The audio is great too, especially through headphones with the 3D audio. Having the community on here discussing it so much really made the game even more special too for me.

It also utilises the adaptive triggers really cleverly, as does Ratchet and Clank so have fun with that one too when you get it!

And definitely don’t overlook Astro as it’s a fantastic little platformer and is brilliantly nostalgic for the whole of the history of PlayStation.

@LtSarge Oh, oops… I read your the other thread first but I see you actually tried Returnal and have experienced it’s awesomeness. It’s probably the hardest game I’ve completed but one of the best gaming experiences in recent memory. The dedicated thread has some good advice scattered throughout. I will say that the first boss is a huge stumbling block, but once you get past that, it’s a little easier, although there’s plenty of difficulty spikes afterwards. Still, the first boss was the point at which I was tempted to quit the most, but after that, it’s hard but you really want to stick with it because you know you can do it if you keep trying.

I'm trying to learn how to upgrade physical PS4 games to the PS5 versions and I'm really struggling right now. Miles Morales is obviously one of those games, but I can't seem to find anything on the menu that will let me upgrade it. I even installed the game and it told me in-game that I could upgrade it on the hub but there's nothing there. Is it because of my PS+ Premium subscription that's somehow ruining it because the game is also available on Extra?

@LtSarge Normally everything is hidden behind the "..." menu option. So from the Miles app on the task/game bar, select "..." and there should be a PS5 option, select that and download.

@CaptD That seemed to do the trick, but at first I thought it meant I was downloading the game separately through PS+ Extra. As I'm downloading the PS5 version, it's showing up with a disc symbol next to the name. So I'm guessing that if my PS+ Premium runs out, I'll still be able to play the PS5 version as long as I have the disc in my system.

@LtSarge Yes the disc icon means it is linked to your disc and that is required to play, this is to stop you selling the disc on and using the ps5 version. Annoying but makes sense.
If you select it and the disc isn't present then it will say insert disc. It isn't tied to your PS+, that would be denoted by a PLUS in your library (far right on the app bar).
You can also select Install from the Extra catalog if you wish and there would be another license on your machine but the disc one will still be available. Sony recently changed things so it won't do another download if you do this. However it probably isn't worth the effort for Miles as it is a short game.

PS. Be sure to delete the PS4 version that you installed as you don't want that taking up precious space.

Enjoy the game, it is very good.

@CaptD Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate the help! It's been rather confusing but I think I get how things work now.

@LtSarge No probs, happy to help and it is confusing but I was thinking the other day that a smart delivery system on PS5 wouldn't work, mainly because of PSVR1 and that you need to run the PS4 version even if a PS5 version exists.
But yeah it does trip up quite a few people which is why I think Sony starting plastering PS4/PS5 next to the game icon so people now exactly what they have selected.

Hey everyone! Has anyone heard about Ubisoft lately? I haven't played anything from them in a long time. It seems they were only working on Valhalla for a while and then nothing... One less AAA studio out there?

@RenanKJ A quick Google search brings up the following.

Skull & Bones
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Assassin's Creed Mirage
Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland
The Settlers: New Allies
The Crew Motorfest

So far from dead, but they have been quiet recently.

Well it's the weekend so I have finally time to go through all of your replies!

@BAMozzy Yeah it makes sense that PS5 Pro will be at least just as expensive as a PS5. Either way, from what I've played on my PS5, I definitely feel like I got my money's worth considering I can't stop playing games on it!

@RogerRoger Appreciate the help regarding the list of PS4 games that won't work on PS5 or won't work completely well on it. I'll have to play Assassin's Creed Chronicles on my PS4, so it's a good thing that I'm still keeping it around (on top of the extra storage that is).

@Thrillho I actually used PS+ cloud to transfer my save files as I thought it was the most convenient way for me. The only annoying part was that it took over 10 minutes before my PS5 could calculate how long time the download would take and start downloading. But I just needed to do that once so it wasn't a big deal.

Haven't played many PS4 games yet on PS5 where I've experienced a huge difference. But it's definitely going to be nice to try out games and see if I can notice a difference. One game I'm looking forward to try out is MGS V. I finally have a good reason to start playing it again.

I think DualSense is my favourite PlayStation controller. Like you said, it's meatier and I like that. It feels great to hold. I haven't been impressed at all by the haptic feedback but the adaptive triggers are really cool!

@Th3solution I'm definitely looking forward to giving The Last of Us Part II a go on PS5. I'm just so glad that I waited on playing all these games that have come out the past couple of years on PS4. If I had played them on PS4, I probably wouldn't like them as much as on PS5. There's just something about playing on a new system that offers improvements to a game that makes the experience that much special. I'm playing Miles Morales now and I'm actually enjoying it way more than Spider-Man (2018). It's fundamentally the same game, but it's much more fun to play on a new system.

@KilloWertz I agree, I'm not a huge fan of the UI either. It's absolutely insane how small the game icons are! They definitely shouldn't be that small. I also don't like how you have to hold the Home button in order to get to the main menu. Because if you only press it once, you get all these random cards. Do you know if there's a way to switch those two inputs?

I actually like the stand! I have the system horizontally and it makes things so much easier to rotate it whenever I want to connect/disconnect cables on the back.

@JohnnyShoulder I read about how certain PS5 games take up less space than Series X games due to its compression technology, which I think is really cool! That will definitely make me think twice before deciding which system to buy a game for.

@CaptD Oh PS+ Extra is great, for sure. I'd definitely consider subscribing another month just to play a bunch of compelling games that I don't have. But the thing is that some games, like Returnal and Demon's Souls, would probably take me at least a month to play through and at that point I'd rather just own the game so that I can take my time playing through them. Being subscribed to a service means that I have to constantly "force" myself to play something just so that I can be done with it in time before my subscription runs out.

I recently played Matterfall and that was probably the most difficult game I've played in recent time. But I was determined to beat it and I did, albeit with some help. So I think I'm ready to tackle Returnal. It seems like one of those games I'd love to play for an hour or two after coming home from work.

@Thrillho I seriously have so much to play now on PS5 haha. On top of all these games, I have the PS+ Extra titles that I want to get through before my subscription runs out in a couple of weeks. But yeah, Returnal, Astro and Miles Morales are tons of fun. It's been such a long time since I enjoyed myself this much with games. It's like being a kid again!

I do hope that Sony decides to make a full-blown game with Astro. It's just such a great platformer that oozes with creativity!

@Th3solution That's reassuring to hear! I'll keep trying until I beat the first boss and hopefully the game will click for me then. From what I've played so far though, the game is just awesome. Even if I die, I'm still having a great time. As a person who's pretty much grown up with Housemarque games, I'm very impressed with what they have created with Returnal.

@RogerRoger I've been playing so much on my PS5 this week and it's been great. This console has truly reinvigorated my interest for gaming overall. For a long time now, I haven't experienced any compelling games. Then I got PS+ Premium, played Stray (which was fantastic!), then bought a PS5 and now I'm playing all these phenomenal games! I think I've come to the conclusion that I am first and foremost a PlayStation player. Regardless of what better things Xbox and Nintendo have to offer, PlayStation games just never disappoint. I've had some of my greatest gaming experiences on Vita and PS4, and I'm sure I'll have even more great experiences on PS5. PlayStation is simply the best.

@LtSarge Regarding Miles Morales, it is true that the PS5 polish adds a lot of enjoyment and extra pizzazz to the experience through haptics, better visuals and performance. But beyond that, the game is just a better paced and more focused experience in my opinion. I really like Spider-Man, but MM is another level because it doesn’t mess around with pace-breaking puzzles and stealth sections.

@LtSarge I actually don't mind the size of the icons. I get the complaint, but it's been something I've been able to shrug off. I don't believe you can change anything with the inputs.

If Sony would have just let some of the UI alone, mainly the forcing of the Activity Cards being something they should have never done, it would be ok at least. I will likely always prefer the PS4's UI, but some little things they've done have helped (like making the Explore page much more useful by adding Friends and Trophy info on it). The Explore page was completely useless at launch.

We can agree to disagree on the stand. Not to sour you on it, but the main problem if you have it horizontal is that it's easy for the stand to just come right off the system if you move it. Vertical it's functional, but even then it could probably use a second screw. Nothing major in the end obviously as it serves it's purpose. It just could be better.

@Th3solution I actually didn't mind e.g. the stealth sections in the first Spider-Man. It was a nice change of pace for me, but that's obviously not how the majority sees them.

The side content is still uninteresting, but the story is great and I like how different Miles is as Spider-Man compared to Peter.

@KilloWertz Yeah I definitely prefer the PS4's UI as well. I just miss the bar above the games, i.e. the one you get when you press the Home button on the main menu where you see who's online and such. It was better on PS4. Having to press the Home button to access it is rather cumbersome instead of just pressing up once.

I tried to see if I could put my PS5 vertically but it's just so damn tall, it doesn't fit anywhere on my table that way. But it does look better vertically in my opinion.

@LtSarge People wanted something brand new probably largely because they wanted something snappier, but you put the PS4 UI on the PS5 and it would have been just that. It wasn't the UI. It was the hardware not being fast enough to load it any quicker. It's not that I hate the PS5 UI really. It's fine, and would be even better if they had just left it alone instead of forcing the Activity Cards on us, but I do miss the What's New page and the ability to check for updates from your Library rather than just the 10 games on your Home screen.

As for the Home button, suck it up man. Don't be so lazy! Seriously though, you'll get used to it. It's something that doesn't even cross my mind and this is my "new normal". I guess it doesn't hurt that I've had the PS5 for almost 2 years now, so I would hope using the PS5 would be second nature by now.

I get it. Given how different both current gen consoles are compared to the normal shape of basically every console before them, it's about however they fit more than how you prefer to display them. I guess I am lucky that I can have my PS5 and Series X both vertical, but at least the PS5 still looks fine horizontal as well (I did try it that way at first). I think the Series X looks horrible that way, but obviously some people have to do what they have to do. I didn't care for the look of either system at first even vertically, but they have grown on me. I do wish the light went further around the system like the light going down the whole middle of the original PS4, but oh well.

I wonder what games will be added from Outright Games on PS5.
I still waiting for more upcoming kids games on PS5.