Once again I looked on twitter and saw we had a new conversation. The latest debate is the PS5 has no games. There’s people sharing all these memes and we need to discuss this.

Does the PS5 have games? Yes but I feel different about this gen. To me the quantity of games are there, but there’s problems with the direction of the industry. In other cases its a matter of quality.

This generation has disappointed me. Most of the games that have come out feel they could’ve been easily done on last gen. Then they also have come to last gen, meaning that the new console can’t be used to the fullest potential.  I’m kind of starting to miss when cross gen titles would have different dev teams, be different games and or have different stories. Now devs treat PS5 as an up-res and lod increase over their PS4 ports with some DualSense features added in. Then you get charged more for the next gen version of those games.

The DualSense has really been the best next gen feature I’ve liked. I’ve felt the feature has gone a bit underutilized in games. Astro Bot and Returnal are the two best uses of the DualSense. For other games, I’ve been expecting the haptics to feel as strong as it does on those. I remember in Returnal you could feel the raindrops hitting you across the controller.

When I think of next gen, I’m not necessarily thinking of resolution or frame rate. I’m thinking of new ways to play games, unique experiences and good uses of the new consoles horsepower. This would be things like improved AI or full destruction physics. A cool looking new console design is also a must. One thing that people forget was in the beginning of the last gen, you had cool things like companion apps for games. You could play mini games, access stats, look at real time world maps, play light multiplayer modes, and some let you play the full game. This is one of the ways Xbox Smartglass out did PS4, but it got abandoned. What does the current gen have?

Games like Ratchet and Clank weren’t possible on the last gen and not because of resolution. It looked like a Pixar movie. Levels were instantly being loaded in on the fly. Astro’s Playroom found new and cool ways to use the DualSense.

It also doesn’t help that most games have gone so cookie cutter. Most big releases are of generic open world games with skill trees and RPG elements. AAA devs aren’t willing to take risks or change a formula. When they do change a formula, there’s usually monetization or a scheme behind it.

Games have been really disappointing for a bit. The Horizons and Norse God of Wars look good but we’re not good games. Both were very generic and were chasing trends and checking boxes. Rise of Ronin was a poor man’s Ghost of Tsushima. Final Fantasy started so good in the demo and the full game was super boring. Forspoken had good movement but the rest of the game wasn’t good and should’ve been linear. Spider-Man 2 you could move faster, but it had boring spells, lackluster story and the first game was better. 

Then there’s the remakes and remasters. People are mad because we keep seeing them more and more. I’m not against them, but many aren’t needed. The issue I have is them taking center stage as part of a companies new releases. They used to be announced alongside new games and not marketed as heavily. Plus they were usually offered at a reduced price.

Having the congealing of genres in modern AAA games can give the impression of there being no games. The quantity is there but the generic genre blending in gaming is one of the reasons people feel this way. In a sense, with many games if you played one you’ve played the others, with a different coat of paint. Quality and a franchise sticking to what it does or did that made it popular, gives us the variety we’re looking for.