Sony PlayStation PS5

If you can afford PC, both in effort, time and money - it is obviously better choice. Two years ago I saw a cool game, Helldivers 2. It looked like a lot of fun but my old PC was not up to the task. I went to the store, got PS5 and in couple hours I was enjoying the game. It is so much fun, and so little hustle that I honestly can't imagine going back.

> I don't understand why anyone has been buying an XBOX after the 360 There are many valid reasons people still buy consoles. It's cheaper than a gaming PC, easier to use, has optimization for games, and consoles usually have many exclusives. I have both and I still prefer my PS5 over my PC.

Yup I can see that. My PC games always have a lot more issues and glitches than any of my PS5 games have had.

Well, PS5 has an incredible audio processing chip that can actually use GPU geometry directly - and it does its own equivalent of audio raytracing to model accurate behaviour of audio inside whatever room you're in, based on geometry and material properties. It's extremely cool and works pretty well, but unless you're an audio geek you won't notice. And actually, the "what has this hardware enabled" works kinda backwards. I work in video games and every single design that we come up with usually hits the wall of "oh that's cool on PS5/XSX, but how will we make this run on the Switch" - and the answer is we won't, so the feature gets scrapped. Increases NPC counts, better AI, multiplayer sessions with hundreds of people on the screen - these are arguably gameplay features that the current gen enables but because games are always made for the lowest common denominator they rarely get implemented. And yes, of course there are always tricks to do these things regardless, switch has some impressive games despite being positively ancient now. But I've been part of the discussion about so many gameplay systems that got scrapped not because they couldn't run on the PS5 but because they also had to perform well on lesser hardware.

This is what drove me to get a PS5. My xbox one would have 30 minute updates nearly every single night , and it doesn't allow you to access anything on the internet unless you let it do the updates. It was always inevitably at 7 or 8pm, when I'm trying to wind down after a day of work and just watch a show or a movie or something. It was a constant interruption to my daily routine - I like my shows before bed. And then sometime in the last year and a half or so it became nearly unusable, constant crashes, poor performance, it was just such a constant pain in my ass. Feels like Microsoft just don't give a shit.

The PS5 is great. We have a PS5 and PS5 Pro, both with disk drives (internal or external). But I really hate this policy. My brother comes over regularly to watch my pets, and he can simply bring a couple of his PS5 games over and play them rather than rebuying them and digitally downloading them. This breaks the in-person social aspect of gaming and game sharing that we've become accustomed to for decades.

One of the major reasons I upgraded to ps5 was because it would also allow me to play blu-ray movies. If the PS6 comes out with no disc player at all, not a chance I buy it. Also, that's a definite middle finger to second hand and physical stores then ? Hoping MS will make a bet in the opposite direction (but I don't see it) and the players will follow..

Definitely not the case with the PS5 version, which I can install and play offline to my heart 's content.

I really wanted a PS5 when it was first released, and I refused to pay the scalper tax to get one, so I spent a few minutes a few times a day over a couple of weeks trying to snag one from one of the many retailers selling them. Extraordinarily frustrating, I was not so interested in this process that I was going to script it or any such nonsense, I just wanted to eventually get lucky and snag one. I eventually did, and when it finally arrived at my doorman building I mentioned what was in the package to the doorman, and how happy I was to finally get my hands on it after the effort expended and he said "oh really? there's a guy on the 5th floor who's bought dozens of them - he sold me one at cost". At the scale of the PS5 release (I don't know how many they first shipped in 2020, but they're at >80M sold now so undoubtedly X million in the first year) - would an address match intervention have been able to differentiate my order from the dozens of orders the scalper on the 5th floor had placed, presuming some cooperation from the doorman to allow for variance in the details of the shipping address the scalper used? I'm reasonably confident the answer is no and I would have been caught in the net that attempted to prevent the scalper from scalping.

They still are. Any PS5 will play PS4 games. The PS5 Pro is a mid cycle spec bump that allows some newer games to have slightly better graphics. The games are still hard required to function within the expectations already set for the first PS5 model. I played Ghost of Yotei just fine on a non-Pro, and it targets the newer model. We're also nearing PS6 time in the next year or two. It's already six years old.

For one of our Samsung TVs, we were able to put the update on a thumb drive (we're old, we still have some around) and then use that to install the update on the TV. It's kind of funny, we bought these TVs because they were "smart" (when they first came out) but they were so clunky and unreliable we disconnected them and used either PS or Apple TV for other things. Now we wouldn't connect our TVs to the internet for anything, and only use PS5s for specific things. We mostly just use our Apple TV.

I was in a similar situation and ended up buying a PS5. It ended up being exactly what I wanted.

This system won't run FIFA, GTA Online, Battlefield, Valorant or CoD, it's a nonstarter for many. Sure you don't need to subscribe to PS+, but that's somewhat easier to swallow since PS+ gives you games with the subscription. I'm still interested in this for playing older games but I have a Steam Deck and it still isn't remotely as seamless as my Switch or PS5.

I don't game much, but as a parent, we have both a ps5 and a xbox. Frankly, console graphics are good enough for me. I don't see much point in having a gaming PC. Actually, I would trade visuals for better games. Most games nowadays are better enjoyed as movies than games.

I zeroed my (last ever) Windows gaming rig just yesterday. I’ve been eyeing Bazzite but ended up going with Pop, since I’ve previously had good experience on it with Nvidia. What finally let me do it was moving all my social gaming to PS5. Ime it’s really only games with anti-cheat requirements that can be a crapshoot on Linux. I can’t really recall ever running into other issues with anything on my (Linux-based) Steam Deck over the past couple of years. I’ve emigrated from my home country so gaming is important to me as a way of staying in touch with friends and family - something I wasn’t willing to risk by switching away from a working setup. A PS5 is a convenient and reasonably economical way to address that. Feels pretty great to know that after 40+ years of relying on it - some good but a lot bad - I’ll never have to touch Windows again.

It’s not a flex at all, just for reference. I get every console at launch, so I went from PS4 to Pro to PS5 to Pro. At launch I really enjoyed Demon’s Souls, which I never played in PS3, fantastic game. Then came out Returnal probably my favorite 1st party game so far, really looking forward to its sequel Saros next year. I also played Ragnarok, GT7 (with PSVR2 is fantastic), Horizon 2, and yes, all these came out also for PS4 but are undoubtedly better on the PS5. I’d just get a PS5 just because of the fast loading, it’s awesome. There’s also Spider-Man 2, Ratchet, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, and I’ll probably leaving others but there’s plenty of great 1st party exclusives. There’s also a bunch of great 3rd party exclusives as well. I don’t game on PC though, used to when I was younger but I prefer to play on consoles now and use the computers for work and other things.

My kids play the N64 more than the Wii because the Wii is quite frustrating to set up and maintain batteries and controller connections. The Switch is even more awful, but they’ll play it handheld. The PS5 is complex but generally straightforward. It helps that the controllers are big and we have a nice, clean charging dock for them. The Switch charging dock is finicky and annoying with the tiny controllers. I think my immediate feedback is that the game cards could be a lot bigger. Anyone out there want to make a ridiculously beefy SD card adapter and corresponding slot? Or maybe even one that interfaces like a puck/block with some keying and locking. But overall this is 100% on target for my 6 and 8 year olds. They want to play games, not operate a console. We take them to a Retro Gaming night every few months and I’ve noticed that the X-in-1 consoles (even the brand names) are rarely touched, and all have laminated cards desperately attempting to tell kids how to get into a game. The console UX is paramount.

Having had a PS4 and a PS5, I’d say even this has improved.