When I play my PS5, I want PS5Pro - here's the reason

When I play my PS5, I want PS5Pro - here's the reason

I finally got my PS5 and after using it for a few weeks I realize that I am already ready to purchase the PS5 Pro.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy with my purchase. I would not trade my PS5 for anything else. Yes, I know you guys are playing the smallest violin for my dilemma, and given the difficulty in getting PS5's back in stock, I was lucky enough to get one, but I already have major complaints. Boo freaking hoo.

However, two of the best games on the console, Control: Ultimate Edition and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, have shown me how the PS5 will change console gaming (at least for me). Now we have a choice, and while some may appreciate that choice, I'm sitting here wanting to have my cake and eat it too.

If you've actually and finally gotten your hands on a PS5 but find the experience leaves you wanting a little more, fasten your seatbelts. Let's talk graphics settings.

Control Ultimate Edition is the game I was most looking forward to playing on my PS5. That's because the performance of Control on the Xbox One X (the 4K-capable console I was hoping for more of) was less than stellar; the more elements the Xbox had to process at once, the worse the performance degraded.

Then I heard how smoothly the new Ultimate Edition for PS5 runs, and that it also adds ray tracing. However, these two features are in two different modes: graphics (ray tracing) and performance (60 frames per second). You cannot have both at the same time.

Ray tracing, for those who may not know, is a technique that makes reflections and other lighting-based elements appear more realistic. When you walk around the glass window in "Control", you can see your reflection in it. It's fantastic.

When I first encountered this setup, I chose the graphic mode, thinking I knew what I wanted. But when I noticed how the light bounced off the marble floors of The Oldest House, a moving building with a Brutalist architectural aesthetic that I navigate in Control, I realized that the protagonist, Jesse Farden, was still moving a bit slowly in the stream of sky I noticed.

The graphics mode was not bad. It just didn't feel like we were in the "next generation.

So we turned on performance mode. And seeing Jesse actually glide down the hallway made me feel really alive (or as alive as I feel when I spend 90% of my day in the same room).

But the magic of ray-tracing reflections and lighting was still so cool that I found myself switching back and forth between the two modes. And as I looked at the graphics mode, I began to feel strange.

As Redditor timeRogue7 pointed out, there is a slight delay in ray tracing lighting that is so noticeable that it is "disorienting." For this reason, I returned to Performance mode and stuck with that mode. I feel that Performance mode is better suited for shooting down the possessed flying guys, the hisses, that haunt every corner of the Old House.

"Spider-Man: Miles Morales" and "Spider-Man: Remastered" attempt to provide an appropriate compromise. In this mode, the goal is 60 frames per second with ray tracing enabled, with minor visual tweaks.

Specifically, the Performance RT mode modifies screen resolution, the quality of reflections (the aforementioned ray tracing), and the density of pedestrians on the New York City streets where Miles is swept up.

This is probably the best we can get for now. Performance RT mode is great for some, but I'm actually sticking with the regular performance mode. I want both 60 frames per second and ray tracing, but I don't like how the layout of the game looks different from what I intended.

This may just be a nitpick, but as a daily viewer of the streets of New York City, the city has been more sparsely populated than I would have liked since the pandemic began.

The PS4 version of "Spider-Man" was a success for me because the city felt properly alive; playing in PS5's Performance RT mode, I can tell (or at least feel like I can tell) that New York is not where it should be.

Also, I've become so accustomed to the performance mode of the controls that I'm sure I'll continue to use it down the road. It certainly feels like an evolution of the next generation machine.

But knowing that I have to make that choice creates a little itch in the back of my brain that wishes the PS5 Pro would turn it off.

I realize why I feel this frustration, because my entire life has been spent as a console gamer, and the PS5 and Xbox Series X are finally opening up console gaming to the performance setting dilemma that PC gamers have long faced

However, the PS5 and Xbox Series X are not the only ones that have done this.

But I'm more worried about how I'll react to the next advancements in performance. Eventually, my addled brain will have to settle for the advantages I like best and just keep playing.

As a console gamer who is still rooted in the idea of "just go ahead and play anyway," I don't need to decide on a performance setting." I don't want to think, "Wait, it looks better.

Of course, this desire for better performance is what got me fired up to actually get a PS5. And it's also why I'll most likely pre-order the PS5 Pro.

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