Released on Nov. 12, the new Playstation 5 arrived on the scene costing $400 for the Digital Version and $500 for the disc.  A hot commodity, the PS5 generated more preorders in the first 12 hours of the drop than the PS4 did in its first 12 weeks.  Though, this makes the purchase a struggle for the average consumer.  The PS5 holds an extremely high resell value, ranging from about $700-$1300, which leads the market to be dominated by resellers who often use technology such as bots to buy loads of the PS5 making more than a year’s salary just in a few days.  Though, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one, helping provide a review for the potential buyers of the world in later restock situations.

My first impressions were obviously clouded by excitement from window watching the entire day, though I can’t say my opinion changed much.

Visuals

On the outside, the console is massive, an absolute beast, huge piece of technology that the every day person would definitely have to move some things out of the way for the console to have a place to live.  Listing at about 15.4 inches tall, 10.2 inches deep, and 4 inches wide, the PS5 towers over it’s previous generation.  So at first, I definitely saw it as a negative, it’s almost scary, but then again, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, I would prefer it to be smaller, but overall it looks pretty cool, like a spaceship, with a sleek white outside and a shiny black middle, it looks cool, the only downside would be the size.

Gameplay

Fast.  If I had one word to describe the PS5, it would be fast, or electric, cheetah like.  This thing MOVES.  Comparatively speaking to the PS4, the loading screens on the PS5 are quicker than a snap of a finger.  This is not an overreaction what so ever, the PS5 is so fast, clicking on an application and loading it up takes no time, in previous years on the PS4, you could be stuck on loading screens for several minutes, with the PS5, it’s less than seconds.

Layout

The layout of the PS5 is different to say the least, surely takes some getting used to.  Navigating the home screen and voice chats is kind of difficult.  They’ve taken away the old friends list and swapped it out with the “Game Base,” which combines parties, now called “voice chats,” with a list of the players you are friends with.  After a couple of days I got it down pact, but I certainly liked the PS4 home screen/layout better, it was more straight forward to say the least.  But of course, it comes with time and players can figure it out after a couple of days.

Controller

Probably one of the more cooler features for the PS5 is the controller.  Something new that they added this year are “adaptive triggers,” meaning the back buttons, R2 and L2, are interactive with the game that you play.  For example if you’re playing a shooters game, you might feel the recoil and pressure of the weapon you’re using on the triggers, or in NBA2k, you feel resistance on the triggers when your player gets tired, making it harder to sprint and move around.  Personally, I think it’s cool, it’s a cool feature, but I can’t play with it, I find it annoying, or like I’m about to break my controller when it’s giving resistance.  You can take it off in settings for each game, which I did, and my experience was better, probably because I’m used to not having it on, but hey, you can give it a try, maybe you’ll enjoy it.  Another cool feature for the controller is a built in microphone.  Players who don’t have a headset now have the ability to talk to other players through the controller.  Though, this has brought some potential for some awkward situations as well, unplugging your mic for your headset, doesn’t turn the microphone off anymore because of the built in one.  Yes there is a button for mute, but certainly it’s small and it’s another task after ripping the headset out of the jack, but again, really a minor issue.  Overall the controller is cool, but the features are almost pointless, they are good ideas, but it’s kind of just a shrug of the shoulders to a veteran video game player like myself, but again a new and cool feature nonetheless.

Overall Thoughts

I’ve been having the time of my life on this console the past couple days, it’s extremely fun, it’s fast, I have no problems with it.  It’s a really great console.  If you have a chance to get this console at a reasonable price, I would do it. I wouldn’t pay over a thousand dollars for it, because I think that’s just flat out unreasonable, but hey people will do it, and that’s why money rules the world.  But nevertheless, the Playstation 5 is a W, a fantastic console, 10/10, it’s fast, it’s clean, 4k picture.  It’s all you can ask for in a console.