By: Richie Mroz Layout Designer
O
n November 12, 2020, Sony released the PlayStation 5 and promised the best graphics and performance of any console before it. Production of the PS5 was hindered by COVID-19 and the consoles that are being produced are commonly bought by scalpers looking to make some money. Needless to say, the console is hard to find. I was lucky enough to find one in December. Since then, I have put in a little less than 50 hours on the machine and I have to say that the PS5 is Sony’s best console yet.
care taken with the design of this controller. The controller has the same black and white color palette as the system itself. Again, I think it is the sleekest controller to date. The motion sensing and touchpad technology is back as well as a slew of other new features such as haptic feedback, a builtin microphone and my personal favorite, adaptive triggers. According to Sony, the DualSense’s haptic feedback feature allows the player to “feel physically responsive feedback to their in-game actions with dual actuators which replace the traditional rumble motors. These dynamic vibrations can simulate The design of the PS5 is the sleekest to date. The the feeling of everything from walking in different black main portion of the console is encapsulated by environments to the recoil of different weapons.” two white panels. Two LED light strips reflect off of The adaptive trigger feature provides resistance to the panels and give the machine some ambience. The the R2 and L2 trigger buttons, which allows the panels themselves can easily slide off, which allows player to be physically connected to their actions. An for easy access inside of the console. According to example of this feature being used can be found in Prima Games, third party manufacturers are already the first-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops selling custom panels to give users the option to Cold War. In this game, the player can fire different customize their system the way they want. The guns and the way each gun is fired is unique. The system can be placed vertically or horizontally via the player must pull harder on the trigger when shooting stand provided in the box. The PS5 also comes in an assault rifle or shotgun rather than shooting a two different versions: the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition handgun. When shooting an automatic weapon, and the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition. The PS5 Digital the trigger bounces back and forth to simulate Edition is on sale for $399 but does not include a disc recoil when firing a real gun. Another game that drive. This means the user can only play games by makes good use of the DualSense’s features is Astro’s downloading them virtually via the PlayStation Store. Playroom. The PS5 Standard Edition is on sale for $499 and does include a disc drive. I opted for the Standard Edition for reasons I will get into later. Both systems have an HDMI port, a power port and an ethernet port. The systems also have 4 USB ports- two in the back and two in the front. An HDMI 2.1 cable is provided and has the capability of transmitting 8K quality. One negative aspect is that there is no dedicated audio output port such as digital optical or coaxial for connecting to a receiver in a home theater system. The new DualSense controller is also provided with the system. I thought the PlayStation 4’s Dualshock 4 was the best controller I had ever used until I held the DualSense for the first time. The overall build quality of the DualSense is beefier and of higher caliber. I could tell right away that there was more time and
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February 26, 2021
Photos courtesy of Sony Entertainment Studios
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