PlayStation 5 Initial Thoughts

Hey friends! Sorry for the quiet over the last few days but I have been dealing with some significant technical difficulties on the web host side. That however in theory should be resolved… so here is hoping that I can resume my regular schedule. Last night I got a box that I had been anxiously waiting for for awhile and I am super glad that it has finally arrived. Preordering through Sams Club was way more stressful than I would have wanted, and in truth it seems like Sams doesn’t exactly know what to do with the whole preorder experience. I managed to snag mine on September 17th… and then got zero updates at all about it until 11/9 when I was told that it would not be arriving until the 27th.

Not getting a PlayStation 5 on release day when I had managed to snag a pre-order was a bit of a bummer, but a late PS5 was better than NO PS5. On the 13th however I got an email telling me that my PlayStation 5 was on its way and would be there on the 17th. That eventually turned into the 16th which was even better. However even though FedEx claimed that the package was out for delivery by 6 pm it had not shown up. Around that time the status updated to “Pending” and “No Delivery Date Set” which caused more than a small amount of anxiety. We were dealing with the fact that the battery in my wife’s car had died and stranded her, so I didn’t have the spoons to freak out about it. By the time I got up yesterday morning it had been rescheduled and was once again flagged as “Out For Delivery”.

Given the on and off nature of this… I spent more than a small amount of the day watching the front door camera. Around 3:45 someone from FedEx and deposited this package on my doorstep, and within a few minutes I was whisking it away because it was absolutely NOT something I wanted a porch pirate to find. Around 4:30 I was unpacking and working on setting it up. This picture is it beside my Xbox One original model, PlayStation 4 original model, PlayStation 3 original model and now the PlayStation 5 disc model. Eventually I will probably move the PS4 elsewhere in the house since I can use it as a remote play unit for the PS5. I had seen comparisons before but I was not at all prepared for just how big this is. It legitimately looks like it is an Alienware Tower and not a gaming console.

I have to say this is probably the easiest console set up experience I have ever been through. Prior to receiving my console I went through the process of copying all of my saved game data off to a USB thumb drive. When setting up the console I was given the opportunity to set up through the PlayStation app. Inside the app there is an option for “Sign In PS5” and you essentially scan a QR Code that is presented on screen and then magic happens and your console authenticates and pulls in all of your information. I expected to have to go back through and set up my picture twitter account again, but nope all of that transferred across without issue. Within about ten minutes I was just left wit the eternal chore of downloading games.

As far as the controller goes, I think the Dual Sense is considerably more comfortable than the Dual Shock 4. Things feel a bit more spread out, which is good from the standpoint that my large hands feel considerably more comfortable using it. The negative however is that when your thumbs are on the sticks, reaching over to hit the DPad is a bit of a thing because I don’t quite have that muscle memory built yet. Not being an aficionado of rumble, I was not sure what I would think of this new fangled experience. The jury is honestly still out. It is better than standard rumble but it isn’t the earth shattering experience that I have been lead to believe.

Astro’s Playroom is built into the console and is essentially a test pad that shows off everything that the controller can do. The thing is that I legitimately think that this game could be a Mario quality experience if it spent more time trying to be a real game and less time just being a demo reel. There are moments that are genuinely phenomenal while playing the built in game. The rumble does add something to the experience but I am just wondering if my fingers are simply not sensitive enough or something because the way it had been described to me is not what I am experiencing. One of the early reviews indicated that the rumble felt differently depending upon which surface the character was walking on… and sure it does a little bit but it is a super subtle difference. I guess I just expected more.

I picked up Demon’s Soul because while I have never really gotten into the Soulsian experience, I keep hearing that this is one of the most next gen experiences on the console. The game is freaking gorgeous and honestly… I think I like it better than the other souls games I have played apart from Jedi Fallen Order. I’ve not made a ton of progress in this, but I do think I want to keep trying. Maybe this will be the time that it finally clicks for me.

I played a little bit of Bugsnax, but I have to admit that it did not grab me. It mostly felt like Muppet Skyrim for some reason, which wasn’t the most amazing experience. Maybe I would like it with a mouse and keyboard better? I will probably return to it at some point, but since it is the free game for the month through PlayStation Plus I wanted to at least give it a shot.

The game that I spent most of my evening playing was Ghost of Tsushima. I had paused my play through in part because I knew I would be getting a PlayStation 5 at some point. I am very happy to report that I was able to load my saved game from the PS4 without much issue. It did seem to have to go through some sort of a patch or conversion process. As soon as I booted the game up and attempted to load my saved game, a 30 minute download started. Once that finished however the game is working as expected. The load times are considerably more than everything else I have played with, so I am hoping that we get some sort of an optimization patch for the PS5.

All told, I am very happy to have my PS5. More than anything I am think I am happiest to not have to keep checking stock and following links in an attempt to snag one. I went through that with the Switch and I think in part why I was so adamant on trying to get a preorder is so that I wouldn’t have to go through it again with the PS5. Unfortunately I am still checking for those links in an attempt to help the friends that were not so lucky.