My 1st year with the PlayStation 5!

One year in and I’m a satisfied customer.

Last year I wrote a post about my first week experience with Sony’s fancy ‘next-gen’ toy, the PlayStation 5. I got my hands on the console pretty unexpectedly and wanted to share the anecdote alongside my first impressions. Now we are a year later and, not so little inspired by Scott the Wozz’s yearly Nintendo Switch retrospective, I want to talk about my experiences with the console and its ecosystem. To be clear, my experiences and not a general overview of the year for the PS5. I invited that stain of thought with my Scott the Wozz comparison so I have to squash it right now.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

Games

What do you buy a gaming console for? The games, so let’s start with that. The PS5 is the first PlayStation console in the house since the PlayStation 2 and the first PS console that I actually own. I missed out on quite a big library of games so I didn’t just buy the console for the PS5 games. I bought it so I could play PS4, and PS3 titles ported to the PS4, games I missed out on. And that’s what my 1st year with the console has mostly been about: playing PS4 games I never had the chance to play before now.

Tomb Raider 2013, the game that started my interest in getting a non-Nintendo platform was one the 3rd game I played and I loved every minute of it. I played Rise of the Tomb Raider as well, finished that up only a few months ago, and I’ve got Shadow the Tomb Raider lined up for early next year. Yep, I’m very happy to finally be able to play the modern Tomb Raider games.

Before I cracked open Tomb Raider though I did play 2 actual PS5 titles. The first title, the game I christened the console with, Was Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Unlike Deathloop, I was completely fine it was part of the soft bundle I got the console with. It was on my list and I like Miles Morales better than Peter Parker anyway. It was a good game to start with. Not only was it fun to play but it was a good showcase of what the PS5 was capable of, tech-wise. The graphics, the load times etc. I also played Spider-Man it's DLC later and while I liked it, I do prefer Miles Morales over it.

Astro’s Playroom was a good showcase of the dual sense controller. That game really made use of every bit of tech in the controller. The ‘haptic feedback’ aka rumble, touchpad, adaptive triggers etc. It was cool but I liked Astro’s Playroom, not because of the controller tricks or even the plethora of PlayStation easter eggs but because it was just a fun 3D platformer. Short but sweet.

Next up was a big one: God of War (2018), my 2nd most wanted-to-play title. God of War was never on my radar until I learned of this entry from the Game Awards. The Norse mythology angle was what did it for me. Always had a sweet spot for it so getting to explore it in an award-winning video game was a prospect I couldn’t pass up. And yeah, it was awesome. An excellent game thanks to its incredible story and is supported by its solid and entertaining gameplay. At the time of writing, God of War Ragnarök is ready to go and I can’t wait to have the time to dig my teeth into it.

A big part of my gaming this year was the Horizon series. Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. And you know what’s funny about that? I didn’t even think I would like the games going in! The first exposure I had to the series was an item in a Dutch entertainment programme my mom likes to watch (because you know, Guerilla studios is Dutch). It was about its loss to Breath of the Wild at the game awards and from what I saw, I wasn’t impressed. From the quick snippets, it looked like your standard SPS but with a sci-fi twist, I thought. When I bought my PS5 I quickly learned of Horizon Forbidden West and got a better idea of what it was really about. I still didn’t think much of it but for 10,- in a Black Friday sale, I thought I’d ‘represent’ my country and buy the title.

I’m so happy I did because boy was I wrong! I’ve absolutely fallen in love with these games, with this world. Both are darn good games. Well-crafted AAA open-world games that are thoroughly enjoyable with their well-written narrative, breath-taking world and fun gameplay. Not the most innovative or ambitious titles but I think that’s excusable. Not every game can reinvent the wheel.

Horizon Forbidden West is my current game of the year. If it will be my Game of the Year, I don’t know with God of War Ragnarök still ahead of me and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 still not done, but it is a good indication of my love for these games. Oh, and I also bought the Lego Tallneck set! Getting me to buy merchandise, any merchandise, is a tall (ha!) order yet Horizon managed it.

Assuming God of War Ragnarök or Xenoblade Chronicles 3 don't beat it and/or I fail to finish them before the year is out, Horizon Forbidden West will be my Game of the Year 2022. I like it that much!

In terms of PlayStation games that are in my library but have not yet played AKA my PS backlog, I managed to keep it relatively small. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as I said, I keep in reserve for early next year. Not a fan of marathoning games and getting worn out by them by the end. The Last of Us Remastered and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey I picked up for 10,- each in different sales. I really don’t like zombies and the like but The Last of Us is considered one of the best games of all time so I feel I have to play it someday. Someday.

I bought Assassin’s Creed Odyssey because I once had a vague interest in the series when I was in High school when the series had its (first) peak. A friend told me that the Action, a chain of discount shops, was offering a selection of PS4 games for sale. Unexpected but I checked it out and for 10,-, I picked up Odyssey. Looking forward to playing my first Assassin’s Creed title.

Media

When I wrote my post about my first week with the PS5 I said the following: “Internet here is pretty bad. My laptop loses its Wi-Fi connection at least once a day, sometimes failing to reconnect for up to an hour. […] So, no PS5 internet for me. Oh well. Hasn´t stopped me from enjoying my fancy new toy.” That has, thankfully, changed since then. Thanks to two ‘Wi-Fi boosters’ I finally have a strong enough internet connection that my Switch and PS5 can connect to it. Now I can get updates and download stuff easily as well as make use of the PS5’s media features. 

I´m mixed on those. On the one hand, streaming Netflix and Disney+ through my PS5 to my TV is very handy. The PS5 throwing ads in my face now that I’m connected to the story and all the activity log stuff is not. I know I won’t be able to get rid of the store ads and stuff. Isn’t there a way to turn the activity screen off? I’m not interested in them and I’d rather see the game’s own box art on screen. 

Hardware

On the hardware front, I’m satisfied but I do have two problems. The controller and the internal memory. Sony loves to market the PS5 controller, the dual sense, as one of its console's most distinctive features. They are right, the Xbox controller is pretty tame in comparison, but I can’t say I’m actually very impressed by the darn thing. Perhaps it’s because I’ve played mostly PS4 titles, that I haven’t really gotten a chance to experience it in full but what I have experienced didn’t impress me.

The controller feels very nice, very comfortable in the hand, but I can’t say I’m impressed by it. The haptic feedback feels nothing special; been playing games with rumble for over 9 years now. The adaptive triggers I find annoying. The idea that the triggers react differently depending on the in-game action is a novel one, but half of the time I don’t like the ‘feeling’ the triggers have. The battery life isn’t very good as well. When it ‘full’ use, the batter last about 10-12 hours. That’s a lot less than the 40+ hours the Switch controllers have. Also annoying: you can’t charge the controller through a normal outlet and every time you want to charge it you have to reset the console. If your battery runs out during a play session you have to go out of the game to start charging. That’s annoying. I mostly keep the controller plugged in when I play so I don’t have to worry about the battery life that much.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think the controller is bad. I just don't think it lives up to all the promises Sony makes in its ads. I don't think it's really anything special or groundbreaking. 

The last bit is internal memory. Or, rather, the need to install every single game on it. These PS4/PS5 games are crazy big: sometimes as big as 100 GB. That fills your internal storage fast, requiring you to delete titles to clear up the room. I never had to do anything like that on my Wii or Switch and I quite honestly don’t understand why some of these games don’t play directly from the disc like games always have. It’s not like most of these titles are too large to fit. If I don’t want to delete games, I would need to buy an expensive SSD. This isn’t just an annoyance, but a problem that seems to be quickly developing in the gaming industry, but that’s a story for another day.

..........

After a year with the PS5, I’m satisfied with the console. I’m not impressed with all the extra ‘fluff’ the controller and I do have annoyances when it comes to the system memory for one, but I’m happy I’ve been able to play a bunch of games I always wanted to, a bunch of new titles. 

In regards to the future; there isn’t a lot Sony has revealed for the PS5 but when stuff like The Witcher remake comes out, I have a console to play it on. I do hope Sony comes with a showcase soon that tells us exactly what they’re planning for 2023 (plans that I really hope include Horizon Forbidden West DLC) but for now, I’m satisfied with playing PS4 stuff I never had the chance to play before now.