"Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut" upgrades one of the best PS4 releases to PS5, and while most players are excited to explore Tsushima for the first time and return for the new DLC "Iki Island," some are not so unsatisfied.
Owners of the PS4 version of "Ghost of Tsushima" are facing controversy because they will not receive a free upgrade to the native PS5 version of the game. owners of the PS4 version of "Ghost of Tsushima" will not receive a free upgrade to the PS5 version, but instead will receive a custom-made of the next-generation console version, they will have to pay a $10 fee if they want to receive all the benefits that come with the next-generation version.
This has become the latest minor inconvenience that the Internet has latched onto and declared unfair. In reality, however, $10 is not an unreasonable price for a slight but very welcome improvement to the game. Ghosts of Tsushima is a great game, and the PS5 version is the best way to experience it.
Before I get a barrage of angry comments about how wrong I am, let me explain why the $10 PS5 upgrade fee for "Ghost of Tsushima" is no big deal and people need to stop complaining.
In early July, Sony announced Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut would be available on both PS4 and PS5. The centerpiece of this refreshed version of the popular open-world samurai game is the Iki Island expansion, which adds new locations to explore and new quests.
Sony announced that PS4 owners of Ghost of Tsushima can upgrade to the PS4 Director's Cut for $20. However, those wishing to upgrade to the Director's Cut on PS5 will have to pay $30; those who purchased the Director's Cut on PS4 and want the PS5 version at a later date will have to pay an additional $10
. The entry fee for the Iki Island DLC is effectively set at $20, with an additional $10 charged to those who wish to play the game on PS5.
This is not unreasonable pricing once broken down. If anything, the real sin is that Sony has made the upgrade process so complicated that it would take a spreadsheet to track everything.
Whereas the PS4 Director's Cut ends with the addition of the Iki Island DLC, the PS5 Director's Cut has some small but surprisingly nice additions.
Most importantly, the PS5 upgrade fully supports dual-sense controllers. This means that the next generation of pad features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers will be fully utilized. This may seem insignificant at first glance, but it is a game-changing addition.
I had a hands-on with the game myself this week, and being able to literally feel the wind blowing through tactile feedback is a feature that is practically worth paying $10 for...arguably the best use of a PS5 controller since "Returnal". The best.
The Director's Cut also adds lip-sync to the Japanese audio track. This is another small addition, but appreciated.
The package concludes with enhanced 3D audio, improved loading times (though the game was already well behind in this area), and a decent 4K resolution option; I think there are enough improvements to justify the $10 price of admission.
I agree that Sony's decision to charge to upgrade "Ghost of Tsushima" on PS5 looks bad in comparison, as several other publishers have chosen to offer next-gen versions of their games to players for free.
"The Avengers," "Final Fantasy VII Remake," and "No Man's Sky" all offer PS4 owners upgrades to their native next-gen versions at no additional charge. This is definitely a practice that all publishers should emulate in an ideal world.
We should also remember that Sony has already technically upgraded "Ghost of Tsushima" to PS5 for free.
When playing the PS4 version of Ghost of Tsushima on the PS5, the game will run in Game Boost mode. This backward compatibility feature allows the PS5's powerful hardware to enhance the experience of playing a variety of games.
Game Boost will allow the standard version of "Ghost of Tsushima" to run at 60 fps and will also improve load times on PS5. This frame rate boost is more significant than the one offered in the Director's Cut version and is completely free.
If you already own Ghost of Tsushima and don't want to pay the extra $10 for the additional PS5 features, Sony has already provided the most important upgrades possible for free. But from where I stand, I think $10 is a very fair price to pay for a definitive way to experience "GHOST OF TUSHIMA."
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