With all PS5 models currently enjoying a major price cut, a reader tries to answer the difficult question of whether they’re worth it.
The PlayStation 5 is currently cheap in the Black Friday sales and there’s been a lot of people asking about whether it’s still worth jumping in to get the console now, when its replacement is probably only a few years away. In my opinion, that’s not an easy question to answer because the PlayStation 5 has got all the problems and benefits of most sequels, when the series has been going on for too long.
There’s not many film franchises where the fifth one is the best, not unless you’re a big fan of Attack of the Clones or Friday the 13th Part V. Instead, what you usually get by that point is a lot of nostalgia, a lot of repetition of old ideas, and maybe a half-hearted attempt to do something new that falls on its face.
The PlayStation 5 isn’t nearly that bad, it’s more like a mid-level James Bond film, where you still enjoy the formula even though you know it’s not really trying properly. Except, obviously, consoles aren’t movies and even when it’s underachieving the PlayStation 5 can’t help but be an amazing piece of hardware.
I call it the best console I’ve ever had simply because it is more powerful than the PlayStation 4 and it has great backwards compatibility. There are lots of great games, by Sony and others, and the DualSense is a really good controller.
The DualSense is probably it in terms of the major innovations but as many complaints as there for what the PlayStation 5 looks like – and there’s no question it is too big – it’s very quiet. I don’t know if you’ve used a PlayStation 4 lately, but those things sound like a jumbo jet taking off.
All the online features of the PlayStation 5 are good, the SSD is very quick, and there’s a lot of free patches for PlayStation 4 games that makes them run better. You can call it a small upgrade, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but there’s no question that the PlayStation 5 isn’t the best Sony console so far, in terms of graphics, gimmicks, and features.
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The problem is that while it’s unquestionably better it’s by such a relatively small amount it’s very hard to get excited about. No wonder people are worried about the PlayStation 6, if that implies the improvement for that is going to be even smaller.
Most people always want to be playing with the best graphics but when the improvement is this minor you do question the price and the amount of effort Sony is making. But the worst thing is even those small improvements aren’t obvious in most games.
Ghost Of Yōtei and a few others look great but they’re rare and nothing so far has been worth buying a PlayStation 5 just to play them. It’s just about worth it, in my opinion, when you consider everything available on the console, but I’m not sure I could’ve even said that a couple of years ago, when there was less out.
Now that it’s five years old there’s just about to justify it, but the fact that it took that long says it all really. The PlayStation 5 has been a disappointment and underused in just about every aspect. But with the Xbox now dead it’s the only option for top of the range graphics and so many games are only available on it… and PC.
So, would I recommend the PlayStation 5? Yes, there’s almost no other choice. But do I think the PlayStation 5 has been a major letdown? Yes, that too.
By reader Gunther
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