Late last night saw the official showcase for Sony's next-generation console, the PlayStation 5.

As well as confirming the price, the two versions of the consoles, and the launch date, the showcase featured a number of trailers and gameplay videos of some of the titles available on launch or after.

We'll kick things off with...

THE TRAILERS

The most talked-about part of the trailers in the showcase was undoubtedly 'Spider-Man: Miles Morales', which premiered a good chunk of gameplay footage. The graphics looked lovely and smooth, not to mention the fact that the gameplay looked fluid and slick - exactly what a game about a web-slinger needs.

The next trailer that caught people's attention was 'Hogwarts Legacy', a major open-world RPG set in the 1800s where you play a student freshly arrived from the world to the magical school made famous by JK Rowling's novels. Precise details were light, but it looks as though you can create your own character, have them join one of the houses, and set off on an adventure in the school and outside of the school. Will you be able to make a trans character in the game, perhaps? Who knows.

Other trailers shown included 'Fortnite', 'Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach', 'Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War', 'Oddworld: Soulstorm', 'Devil May Cry 5', 'Demon's Souls Remastered', and 'Resident Evil 8: Village', but the one we want to feature here - just because we're giant RPG nerds - is 'Final Fantasy XVI'. People were holding out for something on 'Grand Theft Auto 6', but we got this instead.

Take a look.

 

THE PS PLUS COLLECTION

This raised a lot of eyebrows at the showcase, and it's not hard to see why. If you have a PS Plus subscription, your PS5 will give you a free download of (deep breath) 'Detroit: Become Human', 'Batman: Arkham Knight', 'The Last Guardian', 'The Last Of Us Remastered', 'Until Dawn', 'Persona 5', 'God of War', 'Uncharted 4: A Thief's End', 'Mortal Kombat X', 'Battlefield 1', 'Monster Hunter World', 'Fallout 4', 'Ratchet & Clank', 'inFamous: Second Son', 'Days Gone', 'Bloodborne', and 'Resident Evil: Biohazard'.

That's it. Get a PS Plus subscription, and you get a free collection of PS4 games on the PS5 right away. That means if you've got a PS Plus subscription now, it'll transfer over to the PS5. So, yeah, not bad.

 

HOW MUCH IS THE PLAYSTATION 5 AND WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO VERSIONS?

The PlayStation 5 will come in two different versions - one is the digital version, the other is the disk version. The digital version is €399.99, and the disk version is €499.99. If you're a parent reading this and trying to figure out which one to buy for your child, here's the simple answer - ask your child.

Basically, the digital version has no disk drive in it, meaning all the games they play will have to be downloaded from the internet. They won't be able to buy or play second-hand games because there's no disk in the digital version. In terms of graphics, capability, everything, the two different editions are completely the same. There is no difference in quality between the two versions of the PS5 - just the addition of a disk drive in one of them. The disk drive, as well, plays Blu-Ray

This is in contrast with the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S - there IS a difference in capability between these two consoles, and the price reflects that more than it does here. But, that's another article for another day.

Now, you're probably asking yourself, why wouldn't I pay €100 less for a console if it does the same thing, minus the disk drive? Internet connectivity. If you live in an area that has patchy internet or doesn't have fibre broadband or anything like that - and there are good chunks of Ireland that doesn't - you're going to want the disk version, because you won't have to download the game from the internet. It will install from the disk.

Not only that, a lot of players regularly trade-in games when they're done with them, so some might argue that the €100 difference will pay for itself when you're trading in games and buying new ones. For example, you'll regularly see last year's sports games in places like CeX for way, WAY less than you would have paid for it when it was first available.

 

WHICH IS BETTER? XBOX SERIES X OR THE PLAYSTATION 5?

That's like asking - depending on your age profile - if the Rolling Stones are better than the Beatles, if Blur are better than Oasis, if Boyzone are better than Take That, or if 'Star Trek' is better than 'Star Wars'. It's really down to people's own tastes and opinions.

On a technical level, there's very little that separates the two consoles unless you're one of those people that gets into the specifications of graphics cards, GPUs, SSDs, and so on. If you are, odds are you're probably already playing on PC and wouldn't sully yourself with consoles.

Short answer? Depends on who you ask.

 

WHEN IS IT AVAILABLE?

The PlayStation 5 launches in Ireland on November 19th. It will launch in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea on November 12th, but will be available here from November 19th.

 

WHAT GAMES ARE AVAILABLE ON LAUNCH?

So far, Sony have confirmed to us that 'Demon's Souls Remastered', 'Spider-Man: Miles Morales', 'Sackboy A Big Adventure', 'Destruction AllStars', and the PS Plus Collection are all available on launch. The likes of 'Cyberpunk 2077', 'Assassin's Creed: Valhalla', and so on will be announced for the PS5 later on - but expect it to be into 2021.

 

And that's about everything we can think of. Got more questions? E-mail [email protected] and we'll do our best to answer!