Sony PlayStation 5 Review & Comments

Counting down the days to plug this into my CX and play Spiderman.
 
Try to convince my wife that we need this space ship in the living room :laugh: Will PS5 comes in black at all?
The white panels are removable. Sony just shut down a 3rd party who were marketing different colour panels. That action tells me Sony plan it to be customisable with alternate skins and they have hinted black being an option at a later date.
 
I've yet to hold a PS5 controller but as the d-pad looks to be unchanged I suspect I'll dislike it. That original segmented d-pad was the result of a legal issue with Nintendo owning the classic + design, so Sony had to go with something different and fundamentally broken. They could have fixed it long ago, but I guess it's now iconic so they have to keep it, blisters and all.

I've always liked the PlayStation controller, mainly because I like the level thumbstick orientation more than the Xbox approach, but yea, that d-pad is horrendous. It's been a while since I played something like Street Fighter, but I imagine hadoukens etc would be thumb-wrecking!
 
Also, it looks like Microsoft might have sidled up to Dolby, as the Dolby gaming page only talks about the Series X.

I'd been dead set on getting the PS5 first (I'll definitely get both eventually) as I really like the look of the haptic controller and there are some legacy games (e.g. The Last of Us) I wanted to try on the PS5. However, the fact it won't have games in Atmos, whereas the Series X does already, has probably killed off that idea. Looks like I'll be getting a Series X...

To be fair shouldn't that be a very small consideration? It sucks it does have Atmos for sure but if you want to play the decent PS5 exclusives you need a PS5.

Same for the Xbox, normally the games dictate your console.

I'd much much prefer to play Mario on the Series X but it's not there so you buy a switch.
 
10tflop vs 12tflop. The Series X CPU is quicker too. That's significant, it's not hype.

And I'm more than a consumer, I work in game dev.
Very good... You are still a consumer, and the gap is less than my previous examples. Call it what you want, but in recent history, bigger gaps than that have been less than significant in application.

To reiterate my original point, the power difference is recognised - it's just not a massive difference.
 
Another top review. Lucky git getting both new consoles to review!

The AV aspect is interesting with these consoles.

It's not like with the earlier consoles, the age we are in now, are people still looking at these as an all in one solution for 4K UHD, 4K streaming etc? I would assume most would have fully 4K smart TVs for Netflix/Amazon etc.
 
10tflop vs 12tflop. The Series X CPU is quicker too. That's significant, it's not hype.

And I'm more than a consumer, I work in game dev.
XBox 1 X was more powerful than PS4 Pro but it didn’t move the needle. MS need to capitalise on the extra power with truly outstanding games. So far what shows this power advantage? Making old games load faster?
 
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To be fair shouldn't that be a very small consideration? It sucks it does have Atmos for sure but if you want to play the decent PS5 exclusives you need a PS5.

Same for the Xbox, normally the games dictate your console.

I'd much much prefer to play Mario on the Series X but it's not there so you buy a switch.

It might be a small consideration for some people, but for me it isn't, because I want to play games that have immersive audio. And that requires support for an immersive audio format. Other people are free to prioritise that consideration however they please.

To give one particular example - overwhelmingly, I tend to play CoD and FPS games. By and large, these come out on multiple platforms. So, if on one platform it has Atmos and the other it doesn't, the platform that supports Atmos will provide me with a better audio experience.
 
To be fair shouldn't that be a very small consideration? It sucks it does have Atmos for sure but if you want to play the decent PS5 exclusives you need a PS5.

Same for the Xbox, normally the games dictate your console.

I'd much much prefer to play Mario on the Series X but it's not there so you buy a switch.
But as I say, it's really about what I get first ... I'm totally going to buy both - as I have with almost every console generation since the NES! :D
 
They'll never beat this beauty

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gutted no DV and ATMOS from 4k UHD's. Was hoping I could start a disc collection
 
gutted no DV and ATMOS from 4k UHD's. Was hoping I could start a disc collection
Nothing to stop you collecting the discs :blush:
 
It might be a small consideration for some people, but for me it isn't, because I want to play games that have immersive audio. And that requires support for an immersive audio format. Other people are free to prioritise that consideration however they please.

To give one particular example - overwhelmingly, I tend to play CoD and FPS games. By and large, these come out on multiple platforms. So, if on one platform it has Atmos and the other it doesn't, the platform that supports Atmos will provide me with a better audio experience.
But as I say, it's really about what I get first ... I'm totally going to buy both - as I have with almost every console generation since the NES! :D

I originally ordered both but got a RTX3080 ordered ready for my PC and it seems most games will be on pc this gen which is super nice.
 
So currently with a Dolby Atmos setup you have to upscale DD 5.1 I assume. Such immersive audio is even more of a benefit in games than it is with films. I've also read elsewhere that the PS5 doesn't do ALLM or VRR, all features that even the Xbox One X had. Oh dear.
 
To give one particular example - overwhelmingly, I tend to play CoD and FPS games. By and large, these come out on multiple platforms. So, if on one platform it has Atmos and the other it doesn't, the platform that supports Atmos will provide me with a better audio experience.
Sony have their own 3D tempest engine. It might be (although nobody knows yet) superior to Atmos for games.
 
So currently with a Dolby Atmos setup you have to upscale DD 5.1 I assume. Such immersive audio is even more of a benefit in games than it is with films. I've also read elsewhere that the PS5 doesn't do ALLM or VRR, all features that even the Xbox One X had. Oh dear.
No VRR/ALLM would be madness. Presumably they have an alternative? In my experience VRR made a huge difference.
 
Sony have their own 3D tempest engine. It might be (although nobody knows yet) superior to Atmos for games.
AV receivers aren't geared up for it though.
 
Sony have their own 3D tempest engine. It might be (although nobody knows yet) superior to Atmos for games.
Totally agree with this.

Actually, when I heard about Sony's Tempest engine I got excited about what it could mean for the future of 3D audio in gaming. I hadn't thought about what that would mean in practical terms - that it wouldn't be supported, at least initially, by AVRs, and that it poses competition to Dolby/DTS, so that means no Atmos/DTS:X support for games.

If it does take off though, it could be really promising.
 
Rik discusses the PS5 vs the Xbox Series X in our podcast here
 
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No VRR/ALLM would be madness. Presumably they have an alternative? In my experience VRR made a huge difference.
The review on Eurogamer said no VRR and game mode had to be manually engaged.
 
XBox 1 X was more powerful than PS4 Pro but it didn’t move the needle. MS need to capitalise on the extra power with truly outstanding games. So far what shows this power advantage? Making old games load faster?

One X arrived too late to make any difference, the battle was already lost.

As I said, it'll be an interesting battle this time. Much, much closer than before.
 
@Rik Henderson have you tested the PS5 with a USB DAC?

While Sony are pushing wireless headphones and HDMI, some people will have USB DAC audio systems

Asking now of course gives you the chance to try this before tonight's podcast :p
 
Of interest to those who are PC Gamers and were planning to sit a PS5 next to it and dual use their monitor; I understand that the PS5 only offers native 4K & 1080p, so if you have a 1440p monitor, it will be an upscaled 1080 image and not 'true' 1440p.
 
AV receivers aren't geared up for it though.
Not yet no. But surely CoD and other FPS gamers play with headsets 99% of the time, far more immersive.
 

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