PS5 Pro - The Game Assessments - Part 5
For anyone who might be considering dropping the $1199 AUD required to pick up a PS5, you’re going to want to know that the purchase is justified. Well for all that there are numerous technical upgrades present with the console, you also need the software to support those additions. I’ve been checking out 20 different PS5 titles, all now with Pro support, to share the changes that I’ve noticed and hopefully help you to decide whether the console upgrade is worth it. Here’s today’s line-up of titles
Demon’s Souls
Even though it has been four years, Demon’s Souls is still one of the best looking games on the PS5, and while the game might be a bit older that most games on the platform, it hasn’t diminished the value of the upgrades for the game’s newly added Pro Mode, in fact, it perhaps enhances them. Pro mode gives you the delightful performance bumps of the Performance mode with the game running at a rock solid 60FPs, and then it gives you the perks of the Quality mode, however you can add to that some pretty incredible ray tracing and lighting effects as well. I’m no Souls fan, but I stuck around a bit longer with this one, and died a few extra times, just so that I could see the improvements in as many ways as possible. Demon’s Souls already looked outstanding, and now it looks and plays even better.
Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade is a visually stunning game. Shaun addressed this with his review earlier in the year, and I was super impressed when I jumped in, and as I just noted, I’m not a Souls-like fan at all. I felt like Stellar Blade was already pushing the limits of the base PS5 in terms of how it looked but the PS5 Pro update brings a couple of new additions in the form of Pro Mode and Pro Max. Pro mode is a suped up version of the Balanced mode that was initially found in the game, while Pro Max puts everything into framerate. I loved being able to switch on HDR, and put extra stock into the HFR (High Frame Rate) mode to push the limits of the game. The console handled everything well and the game looked and played incredibly well.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Mirage was already a pretty stunning open world title, but now it’s looking even better and playing even more smoothly than before with its PS5 Pro updates now online. Quality Mode is now essentially a balanced mode with the game being impressively ratcheted up to 60FPS in that mode while retaining the impressive visuals that come with Quality mode. PSSR upsamples the game to push everything up to 4K resolution as well, and I could really see the improvements present in the games’ draw distance, and even the way shadows are cast. This is a big, impressive serious of changes.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the newest release of all 20 games that I’ve covered and I held this one off to the last minute because I unfortunately noticed some rough edges that emerged with the addition of the PS5 Pro updates that weren’t present when I played the game previously on my standard PS5. There is now some weird blur on hair, shadows are acting weirdly and texture pop-in has been something of a problem on my end since the update and console launched. I popped the disc into my standard PS5 again to check only to notice none of the aforementioned problems. I think Dragon Age: The Veilguard will soon be singing on the platform, but as of this moment, Bioware has a little bit of tweaking to do to get the game running just right on the new hardware.
That concludes our Day 5 look at the various games to have received PS5 Pro upgrades. If you have some titles you want me to check out, then please reach out via social media to let us know what games you’d like a report on.
