This review has spent 3,000 words talking about the PlayStation 5, which is the most I’ve written about anything. It’s as good a video game console as there has ever been. The combination of ultra high-definition video, increased framerates, high-end graphics techniques like ray tracing, and the lightning-fast SSD make it feel like a real-deal, next-gen successor to the PlayStation 4. And if you’re not ready to give up on the previous console, the PlayStation 5 reliably runs a vast majority of the PlayStation 4 library, with many of those games receiving upgrades to fidelity, framerate, and loading times.
But I’d be remiss to ignore all the reasons not to be excited for the PlayStation 5.
The world is still reeling under the weight of the covid-19 pandemic. There are more Americans out of work right now than at any point in the country’s history, with no relief in sight. Our health care system is an inherently evil institution that forces people to ration life-saving medications like insulin and choose suicide over suffering with untreated mental illness.
As I’m writing this, it looks very likely that Joe Biden will be our next president. But it’s clear that the worst people aren’t going away just because a new old white man is sitting behind the Resolute desk—well, at least not this old white man. Our government is fundamentally broken in a way that necessitates radical change rather than incremental electorialism.
The harsh truth is that, for the reasons listed above and more, a lot of people simply won’t be able to buy a PlayStation 5, regardless of supply. Or if they can, concerns over increasing austerity in the United States and the growing threat of widespread political violence supersede any enthusiasm about the console’s SSD or how ray tracing makes reflections more realistic. That’s not to say you can’t be excited for those things—I certainly am, on some level—but there’s an irrefutable level of privilege attached to the ability to simply tune out the world as it burns around you.
-Ian Walker
Monetization/micro-transactions and the focus on multiplayer have largely ruined games in general. I have friends that play sports games and they've been ranting about this for over a decade now with how Madden has turned into a racket. All the focus is on multiplayer now and people paying for those stupid card packs to build a fantasy ultimate team and then destroy people in multiplayer matches. My friends are still playing the old NFL 2K5 and Tecmo Super Bowl with mods cause they refuse to buy another Madden.
The micro-transaction stuff even got into the Fire Emblem franchise and really ruined the Fates games. You had to spend $40 on two separate games (Conquest and Birthright) then an additional $20 to get the third game and unfortunately, all three of them were pretty mediocre (Conquest had some great map design though).
EA took Star Wars Battlefront and turned it into a racket with the loot box crates. Battlefront 2 ended up having so much more content and that game was made in 2005. I posted on here last month that one of the reasons I think Doom 2016 was such a success was cause it was the first singleplayer based FPS game we got in a long time, and for that alone it was a breath of fresh air.
Gaming was so much better in the 90s and up to the mid 2000s. There was so much more creativity in the industry back then and an actual focus on single player. Grand Theft Auto is another series they ruined by focusing on multiplayer and micro-transaction BS. GTA 5 was such an empty lifeless game, you could tell they poured most of their focus to the Online mode rather than the single player.
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