For more than 25 years, Sony’s PlayStation has been synonymous with gaming. It’s given players experiences like God of War, The Last of Us, and Final Fantasy VII alongside technological innovations from CD-ROMs all the way up to 4K, VR, and cloud gaming. There have even been attempts at portable gaming with the PSP and Vita. Across multiple generations the company has been a pioneer, starting with the original PlayStation and continuing with the PS5.
Remember the Dbrand Darkplates that pissed off Sony and eventually let you make your PS5 retro-translucent? You can now buy a $60 black version for PS5 Slim that unifies the original split panels — and for $70, it’ll come with a self-aligning magnetic stand.
Stand doesn’t work without panels; panels don’t work with Sony’s tiny stand.
The Go! Explore PSP GPS accessory for directions still works today, and even looks surprisingly modern, as Jon Cartwright shows in this Good Vibes Gaming video. He says it worked well.
But also, I never knew that Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops had a GPS feature! I miss that era of Sony.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, because that era of 3D platformers haven’t necessarily aged well — but I’m feeling some nostalgia well up anyhow! The three-game Tomb Raider collection is coming February (trailer below), while Jedi Power Battles (trailer here) is coming January.
As Reddit, Push Square, and others are pointing out, the very good 2022 game is suddenly sporting a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” badge. Sony hasn’t yet confirmed a patch, nor do we have details on how the game might get enhanced.
As reported by friend of The Verge Cameron Faulkner for Polygon, the refurbished consoles, revealed last month, are now on sale. A digital PS5 costs $349.99 (half the price of a PS5 Pro!) while the model with a disc drive costs $399.99.
Grab the game and any DLC you might want before they go away on October 31st, 2024. If you already own the game and any content for it, you’ll still be able access that after everything is delisted.
Sony shut down the game’s servers earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the original game has been delisted on Steam, Polygon writes. (You can still get it in a bundle with the remaster, which requires you to link a PSN account.)
Sony introduced the same requirement for God of War: Ragnarök earlier this year, and unlike with Helldivers 2, it hasn’t taken that decision back.
Rise of the Ronin, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Last of Us Part I, Spider-Man Remastered and Spider-Man Miles Morales. If I’m counting right, we’re up to 25 confirmed games.
Sony revealed the new ones in this monster blog post where developers also discuss what you can expect from the patches. We’ve also got a whole hands-on PS5 Pro preview about that!
Here’s what to expect from PS5 Pro Enhanced games.
Alan Wake 2 was already the scariest game I have ever played, and the new trailer for the second DLC expansion, The Lake House, looks even scarier. (Warning: there’s a jump scare.)
Alan Wake 2 was also one of my favorite games I’ve ever played, so I’ll almost certainly be facing my fears when the expansion comes out in October.
Monster Hunter Wilds will be released on February 28th, 2025, Capcom announced today. While the game got a new trailer during PlayStation’s State of Play, it will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X / S, and PC.
During today’s State of Play, Stellar Blade is getting a long-awaited photo mode, enhancements for the PS5 Pro, and its soundtrack will be available on a streaming platform near you. Speaking of... Sony also announced that Eve will team up with another scantily clad android when the Stellar Blade x Nier Automata DLC launches sometime later this year.
While some of us regret our purchases, there was one token PSVR 2 game in Sony’s presentation today... and Hitman World of Assassination looks good! A bit bloody, fair warning. If I owned the headset, I’d probably buy it. More details here. It’s coming December as a $10 upgrade for the base flatscreen game.
Sony has finally revealed a release date after first announcing Lego Horizon Adventures in June. The game is coming to the PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Preorders open October 3rd. Also, there’s a new split-screen mode for Lego Fortnite.
In 2021, Hironobu Sakaguchi released Fantasian — a luxuriously beautiful RPG that uses handmade dioramas for the game’s backgrounds — exclusively on Apple Arcade where it has remained sequestered to the lament of JRPG enthusiasts everywhere. During today’s State of Play, Sakaguchi announced that a console port of the game will debut on PS5 December 5th. The game is also coming to Switch, PC, and Xbox.
These good old games can cost serious money to play on genuine discs, even assuming you’ve got an old console — so it’s great Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete are coming back! Sony announced them today for PS4 and PS5 but they’ll hit Switch, Xbox and Steam too.
They’ll have “Updated visuals, widescreen mode, and more” when they arrive as the Lunar Remastered Collection, in spring of 2025. More details here.
A new gameplay trailer for Hell Is Us shows how you’ll have to go about defeating the faceless supernatural beings that have taken over your world. The game will come to PlayStation, Xbox Series X | S, and PC next year.
Astro Bot kicked off today’s State of Play presentation with a sneak peek at the game’s forthcoming DLC. We got a glance at snippets of the five new speedrun levels and the 10 new bots Astro will have to rescue including some Helldivers and Eve from Stellar Blade. Curiously, Team Asobi did not provide a release date for the DLC, sticking with the nebulous “Fall 2024” window.
The company’s State of Play presentation starts today at 6PM ET and will feature a slew of game announcements ostensibly to advertise the new PS5 Pro. Sony says the event will last roughly 30 minutes and feature over 20 games for PS5 and PSVR2.
Get all the details for how to watch here, and tune in with us below.
I already showed you my hands-off photos, but here’s some video of Sony’s PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection and normal PS5 Pro too. You’ll see two different PS5 Pros in here, plus a throwback grey PlayStation Portal, DualSense, DualSense Edge, and PS5 Slim. No retro USB-C cable though; I asked!
The PS5 Pro’s USB situation has baffled me. Sony showed CNET a console with one USB-A and one USB-C (in a USB-A cutout) on its rear, but a commenter mentioned a render on Sony’s site shows two USB-A.
Sony didn’t respond when I asked, but Sean’s photos confirm it’s two USB-A like prior models so I’ve updated our comparison.
