Ever since Sony announced the PS5 DualSense controller, the company has emphasized the peripheral's subtle tactile feedback. While it will be difficult to determine how the DualSense differs from the DualShock 4 until we get our hands on it, a new commercial gives us a good idea of how sensitive the new controller is. From locking buttons during gun jams to mimicking the feel of different surface materials, the DualSense seems to be able to do more than just vibrate.
A post on the PlayStation Blog goes into more detail about how DualSense will work in various PS5 games. Mary Yee, Vice President of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, gathered various developers' perspectives on DualSense and how the PS5 controller will enhance upcoming games. Different views were expressed.
Perhaps the most striking example of what can be done with DualSense comes from Dinga Bakaba, director of the dual-protagonist shooter Deathloop. (This game was originally slated to be a PS5 launch title, but has since been delayed.)
"'Deathloop' is a first-person shooter, so we've done a lot of different things to make the weapons feel different from each other," Bacaba said. One of them is to block the trigger when the weapon jams, giving the player immediate feedback even before the animation plays, prompting the player to unjam it in a physical way."
Bacaba specifically demonstrates what the DualSense could not do for previous PlayStation controllers. No amount of vibration can physically stop a player from pressing a button, but DualSense can match what is happening on the screen with what the player feels with his or her hands. Whether this is immersive or uncomfortable depends largely on the player, and it will be interesting to see if the player can disable this feature.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has a similar feature, with Marcus Smith, the game's creative director, stating:
"The Enforcer is a double-barreled shotgun-like weapon. When you pull the trigger, it fires from one barrel and you can feel the resistance around halfway down the trigger," he explains. 'Need a bigger blast? Pull the trigger past that point of resistance and both barrels will fire at the same time."
Another impressive potential application of DualSense comes from Nicolas Doucet, studio director at Japan Studio, where Astro's playroom is being developed.
"We use tactile feedback throughout the game. Most striking are the surfaces, which players will notice within the first few seconds." Astro's footsteps can be felt running over plastic, metal, sand, and even splashing water.
Surface-specific vibrations are not a new idea, but the radically different feel of walking or running in different environments has never been seen before.
DualSense's advanced haptics can even warn you which direction your enemies are coming from in "Spider-Man: Miles Morales," according to creative director Brian Horton.
However, some comments were ambiguous: Mathijs de Jonge, game director for "Horizon Forbidden West," said that Dual Sense "makes the weapons more unique and more comfortable to use. Similarly, Keith Lee, CEO of Counterplay Games, the developer of "Godfall," said only that DualSense "allows you to feel which weapon you are holding without looking at the UI."
While it will be difficult to judge DualSense until we get it in our hands and try it out, PS5 developers seem to think it has potential that the DS4 did not. The controller will be released at the same time as the PS5 console.
Comments