Even after a full year, it’s hard to get your hands on a PS5

It was a wonderful morning when I got an email saying that the Playstation 5 pre-orders will be up in a couple of minutes. I was already up and working from home so I just clicked on the link and kept refreshing the page.

It was around 9:30 AM when the page went live and I kept doubting whether to get the digital or disk version. I even crossed my mind to even wait for noon before making my decision.

Fortunately, though I did choose the all-digital version at around 9:40 AM and pre-ordered it. At 9:45 AM I got messages from some friend that ALL the stock was sold out. On every major and minor web stores all across the country!

That was one year ago and still until this date some of my friends still did not get their hands on a PS5! Scalpers and chip shortages are a real pain!

First Impressions

As an enthusiastic gamer and geek, I couldn’t wait for the release of the PS5. At the release date worries arose inside me that the delivery company would lose my PS5 or someone at the company would just steal it. After all, it’s a highly anticipated and sought-after product with way too little stock across the globe.

When the door finally rang I rushed out and gladly accepted my PS5. My first reaction to the box was WOW, that thing is HUGE!. After opening the box, seeing the PS5 I got the exact same reaction. The console itself has a futuristic design which is nice but it’s just too big for my liking.

The next thing I checked was the controller, it fits in my hands nicely and has a sturdy and quality feel to it unlike the previous versions of the controller. The only downside to the design in my opinion is the white color. You will only be handling the controller with your hands, which won’t always be the cleanest. The controller being white means that every trace of dirt and whatever will be visible.

The Controller

Let’s talk controller while gaming! This thing is truly taking the whole experience to another level! You’re walking on ice? Cool here’s an icy feel. Walking on dirt? No worries got that for you! Swimming? Feel this, feels like water doesn’t it?!

Whatever the surrounding is, the action or even ground is. The dual sense will make you experience it like you’re actually doing and feeling it in real life!

In the intro to Spiderman Miles Morales, you’re seeing the main character on the train listening to music. The dual sense actually has you feeling train tracks beneath you and I just could not get over how realistic it felt.

The free game that comes with every PS5, Astroboy is a great game that makes you experience every ability the controller has to offer and also some nice trips down memory lane, definitely check it out when you get your hands on a PS5!

In Call of Duy Vanguard, the adaptive trigger effects are on point. When pressing down the trigger you can see the finger in COD also going halfway or fully. The trigger itself also vibrates and offers resistance.

Revolvers have a different kick to it than an assault rifle or bazooka! It all has another feeling and this just makes the whole experience a lot more intense.

For story-driven/single-player games this effect is beautiful and immersive but when I played multiplayer with the adaptive triggers enabled it will just offer so much resistance after a while my finger would hurt. It also slows your response time so I myself won’t be using it for competitive online games.

Curious how it looks? Check out this short video where the adaptive triggers are demonstrated in Vanguard!

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The controller really creates a feeling of entering a new generation of gaming. The haptic feedback is immersive and extremely nice, as are the adaptive triggers. After a year the controller is still working great, had no issues with the haptics, vibrations, or sticks that drift at all for now.

Controller: 9.5/10 — Would be a 10/10 if it would come in full black!

Lightning SSD

Another feature that separates the PS5 from the competition is the ultra-fast optimized SSD. Sometimes when I wanted to start up a certain game on the PS4 I just wouldn’t because I knew I had to wait a full 5 minutes or more to finally get started in the game. This was a major threshold for me and I can imagine more gamers across the world that have little time to actually start a game with long loading times.

Those days are well past us! The new SSD is deleting the loading times of games like snow melting in the desert! Getting into my story in Miles Morales in just SECONDS! Need to fast travel way across the map? No worries, PS5 got you doing that almost INSTANTLY! It’s unbelievable.

PS5s’ SSD also enables games to be compressed more which means the same game will take less space on your PS5 than it would on a PS4 or Xbox or PC.

The speed and compression of the new SSD worked out great in reality and even after a full year of intensive use, it’s still working lightning fast. The only bummer is that the SSD is not 1TB or larger.

You will have around 811GB on the SSD available. I think on the box it says 850GB but the system software will reserve around 40GB of those 850.

SSD: 9/10 -Extremely fast but unfortunately a little small

Games & Gameplay

Most important of all, how are the games, and how does it run games? Let’s start with the availability of games. During the first year, a decent amount of PS5 games were released

I have played lots of PS5 games like Miles Morales, Astroboy, Deathloop, Vanguard, BF2042. But also PS4 games that have been optimized for the PS5. The whole experience is fast, smooth, and amazing. Some games also support 4K 120hz which is smooth and beautiful. Competitive games like Rocket League at 120hz and COD at 120hz just give you that extra edge on the opponent which can mean a lot in these kinds of games.

Story-driven / single-player games not only look stunning but with a minimum of 60hz, the whole experience is just next-gen for a console.

The only bummer is that the PS5 still does NOT support 120hz on QHD monitors. I don’t know why this is or why it still hasn’t been addressed/patched yet but know that if you game on a QHD monitor you will only ever get 60hz at this point in time on the PS5.

Games & Gameplay: 9/10

TL:DR

The dual sense controller and Playstation 5 look aesthetically pleasing and perform amazingly. Making the player really experience what next-gen gaming really is and opening infinite possibilities for the future of gaming.

The whole experience and combination of the next-gen controller + new SSD + next-gen visuals + 120hz 4K just make and feels really next-generation in gaming for the console gamer.

I am definitely recommending the PS5. It’s impossible to experience the feeling while watching or reading a review of the PS5, you just need to get one or try it at your friends’ house to be able to appreciate the new dual sense and PS5.

Playstation 5: 9/10