Sony Needs To Fix PlayStation 5 Games Defaulting To PS4 Versions

The backwards compatibility of the PlayStation 5 is pretty impressive. Fire up the console, sign in to your PlayStation Network account, and navigate to the Library screen, and you can see and easily download just about every PS4 game you own in a digital format. But the user interface gets a little more confusing when you’re trying to download a game that’s available with both a PS4 and a PS5 version–and it’s actually pretty annoying.

If you’ve got a game like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales that’s available on both consoles, you can choose which version you want to download. For some reason, though, the PS5 consistently defaults to downloading PS4 versions of cross-generation games when they appear in your library. It’s something that seems likely to get a patch, because there’s a very good chance that if you’re not careful, you might end up playing the last-gen version of some of the biggest next-gen games on the console right now.

Highlight a cross-gen game in the Library tab and you’ll almost always see the PS4 version, and not the PS5 version, at first glance–although this fact is not made clear at all. You have to hit the button with the three dots that appears when you select a game in order to pull up a menu where you can choose between and download each version. But it’s not at all obvious that this is where you need to go to look for that information, and you can’t tell which version you have selected until you open that menu. A lot of times, if you just hit “Download” on a game, you’ll learn only later that you installed the wrong version–and then you have to delete it and start the correct download all over again.

The interface has issues even after you download games, though. On the PS5’s home screen, you’ll see the last few games and apps you interacted with spread across the screen. Repeatedly during pre-release testing, we had PS5 games that we’d already played switch over to PS4 versions on the home screen. That means that, the next time you go to select a game that has switched over, you’re prompted to start a download of the PS4 version rather than just start playing the PS5 version. It seems like this issue might be tied to the games getting automatic updates, but again, if you’re moving quickly through the UI, you can start a download accidentally that you then have to deal with deleting. If you have both versions of a game installed, it’s very easy to start the wrong one and not realize it.

It’s possible to switch between versions of a cross-gen game with the Options button from the home screen menu, but frankly, it’s a weird pain to expect to launch a game and accidentally start a download. It’s also just a strange quirk that the PS5 seems to favor last-gen versions of games over the current ones. And it’s possible to see how accidentally downloading the wrong versions of games could be troublesome to people who have data caps on their internet service or are hurting for space on the PS5’s internal solid-state hard drive, where PS5 games must be installed in order to run.

So PSA: Double-check your PS5 games before you start that download and make sure you’re getting the right version. It’s completely possible to download and fire up the wrong version of a game on Sony’s new console and miss out on all the benefits of its increased power. And hopefully sometime in the future, this will be something PS5 owners won’t have to double-check every time they go to download or play a game.

Now Playing: PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X Load Times Comparison

PS5: What You Should Do First With The New Console

If you managed to snag a PlayStation 5, then there are a few things you may want to consider doing before you immediately jump into Astro’s Playroom, Demon’s Souls, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, or whatever game you’re planning to play first. And we mean more than just making sure your TV settings and console settings match in order for you to get the best experience possible.

The PS5 is a departure from the PS4–unlike the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One that exist in the same console ecosystem, the PS5 uses a different UI and supports brand-new features and tech. You should know what to disable or enable prior to playing a PS5 game. In fact, there’s something you should know before you even download your very first game.

Download Your Cloud Saves

You probably don’t want to start over from scratch on the games you’ve already started on PS4. To grab your save data, head into the settings and navigate over to “Saved Data and Game/App Settings.” Here’s where you can find all of your saved data for both PS5 and PS4 that’s been saved to the cloud.

To actually pull the PS4 data, you’ll need to click on “Saved Data (PS4)” and then choose “Cloud Storage.” From here, you can see the individual saves for your PS4 games, which you can download to your PS5 in order to keep playing right from where you left off.

Set Your Default Download Location For PS4 Games

PS5 supports backwards compatibility with select PS4 games. Yay! PS5 also doesn’t have much space to work with (667GB to be exact) when it comes to your games. Boo! But you can mitigate that problem by designating what gets saved to the internal SSD and what is saved to an external storage drive (if you have one).

Ideally, you should only be using the internal drive to install your new PS5 games, since you can play PS4 games off of an external drive but not PS5 (or PS5-enhanced) games. Change your settings so the default download location for your PS4 games is an external drive (load times may vary depending on your drive, however). You can’t even store your PS5 games on an external drive at this point anyway, so you might as well reserve the internal SSD exclusively for them.

Download The Right Version Of Your Games

When you buy a digital game, you may notice that your PS5 is downloading more than one version of the game. That is because you bought a game that is available for both PS4 and PS5 (like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Bugsnax) and since the console can play both, it’s downloading both versions of the game. You don’t want that.

So as soon as you buy any game from the PlayStation Marketplace, don’t use the Download All option. Instead, go into your PlayStation library and specifically pick out the PS5 version of the game and start the download (which you can do by using filters to only show PS5 games). Outside of the fact that you want the version of the game that’s been best optimized for PS5’s hardware, you want to save as much space on the console’s SSD as possible. The PS5’s solid state drive isn’t all that big (considering the size of certain games), so you want to prioritize space where you can. And to that end…

Disable Automatic Trophy Videos

Yup, another tip to save on your storage space. Trust us, you’ll thank us later. With games getting bigger and bigger, finding ways to save on storage will only help you in the long run. When you first turn on your PS5, go into the settings and disable automatic Trophy videos.

See, the PS5 automatically records a short 15-second long video whenever you unlock a Trophy. Though small in size, these videos do add up over time–so unless you really want the memories of when you got that Platinum in Demon’s Souls or whatever (kudos if you do, by the way), we suggest you disable this feature. You can always manually record a video or take a screenshot yourself with the Create button.

Turn Off Your DualSense Mic

This advice is more for those of you who regularly play multiplayer games, like Apex Legends or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. If you don’t want everything you say or do to possibly be broadcast to your entire in-game squad, then you have to make sure to turn off the mic on your DualSense controller.

The DualSense is a wonderful piece of hardware, and the mic allows you to navigate the PS5 UI or easily communicate something to teammates without actually putting on a headset if you don’t want to. We like that, we do. But the mic unfortunately starts as “on,” so unless you turn it off, your entire party is going to hear whatever you say. Maybe you’re okay with that–heck, maybe you want that. But if that isn’t the case, take a moment to remember that you need to turn off your DualSense mic before jumping into a multiplayer game.

Now Playing: PlayStation 5 Video Review

Nintendo Switch Sold Incredibly Well In The US Through October

The Nintendo Switch is showing no signs of slowing down. In October 2020–the month before the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 dropped–the Switch sold a staggering 735,926 systems in the US, Businesswire reports. This figure is split between the hybrid model Nintendo Switch and the portable-only Switch Lite.

This represents a 136% growth on October 2019 sales, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons moving Switch units throughout 2020. Worldwide sales figures of the system, as of September 30, hit 68.3 million units. This new number takes the system’s known total to over 69 million.

The Switch has now been the top-selling system in the US for 23 months in a row.

The previous all-time best October sales for a console were for another Nintendo system. In October 2008, in its second year, the Wii sold 807,000 units in the US. That year saw the release of Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit, and Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Nintendo’s next official worldwide total likely won’t be revealed until 2021, covering sales from October-December. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S have just launched, but due to stock shortages, the Switch is still likely to be the holiday season’s top-selling console.

The next major Switch exclusive is November 18’s Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Now Playing: Nintendo Switch Holiday Gift Guide 2020

Destiny 2’s Trials Of Osiris Won’t Return Until November 27

The Beyond Light expansion is now live for Destiny 2, bringing a bunch of changes to the game, including the removal of some old content. As is usually the case with Destiny expansions, it has also brought a few unforeseen problems. One of those issues affects the Trials of Osiris, Destiny 2’s toughest multiplayer competition, and it’ll be a while before it’s fixed.

Bungie announced on Twitter that Trials will be out of the game for a few weeks. The multiplayer event, in which teams of three Guardians try to win seven competitive matches in a row without losing one, usually runs during the weekend. The first Trials of the new Destiny season would have started on November 13 and run until the weekly reset on November 17. But Bungie says Trials won’t kick off this season until November 27.

It’s not clear what the problem with Trials is, but there have been a few problems and bugs cropping up since the release of Beyond Light on November 10. Some players immediately found they could farm a particular Lost Sector in the EDZ region to sprint through the leveling grind, which Bungie fixed. And two weapons, Rose and Witherhoard, had to be disabled because of problems with them. Rose is a hand cannon whose firing speed was supposed to be adjusted down along with a bunch of similar guns, but somehow was missed, while the area-of-effect grenades of Witherhoard were killing players in the multiplayer Crucible, even when they weren’t standing in the grenade radius. We’re not sure when those weapons will be fixed or re-enabled in the game.

In its This Week at Bungie blog post, the developer also outlined a few other known issues, like season passes that weren’t activating properly after being purchased. It issued some guidelines on how to fix those issues so players can get into the game.

While Trials won’t be around for a bit, there’s still more to look forward to in Beyond Light after the first few days. The events of the Season of the Hunt start rolling into the game with the weekly reset on Tuesday, November 17, while the expansion’s new raid, Deep Stone Crypt, goes online on November 21.

Now Playing: Destiny 2: Beyond Light – Official Launch Trailer

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has A Lovely Reversible Cover

The PlayStation 5 comes in two flavors, including a cheaper digital-only version that does not allow you to play discs. Now, one PS5 launch game has reminded us of one of the major advantages of physical releases–beautiful reversible covers. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has some different images inside the case, and it looks great reversed.

GameSpot’s Evan Langer has picked up a physical copy of the game, and shared some images of what the cover looks like reversed. There are two pictures inside the cover–one of Miles pulling his mask down over his face, and one of Miles, mask off, looking serious. This is from the PlayStation 5 version, but it’s likely that the PS4 version features this art too.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales reversible cover
Spider-Man: Miles Morales reversible cover

The game launched alongside the PS5 on November 12 as a cross-gen title. The sequel to Marvel’s Spider-Man earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales review.

The other side of the cover.
The other side of the cover.

Earlier this year, Final Fantasy VII Remake pleased fans with its own reversible cover, with the logo over a plain black background. That was pretty elegant, but this one is nicer.

The PS5 is available now in many regions. Its launch titles include Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Demon’s Souls.

Now Playing: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Video Review

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Half-Life: Alyx Now Has Audio Commentary From The Devs

Half-Life: Alyx has received a major update, adding audio commentary from the game’s development team. The VR game, which released in March this year, is now full of anecdotes and information about its own development process.

When commentary is turned on, tracks will appear throughout the game as headphone nodes, which you can pick up and “wear” by putting them on your head. The update is free for all owners of the game.

There are three hours of commentary in total, and in the trailer below you can hear some snippets. According to the update notes, this commentary was delayed when COVID-19 made recording it all in-studio impossible. “Like much of the world, we are all working from home, which means that rather than using our comfortable high-quality recording studio at the office, we have been recording our commentary voice overs in closets and blanket forts around greater Seattle,” it says.

The commentary seems to cover many different aspects, including how the liquid physics were put together and other technical aspects, narrative choices, playtesting feedback, which sections were particularly challenging to make, and more. There are also some visual overlays toggled by these commentaries to better explain some of the topics covered.

The update also adds new localizations for numerous languages: Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.

In GameSpot’s Half-Life: Alyx review, the game scored a 9/10. “Not only has Half-Life: Alyx made good on its shift to VR, it has elevated many of the aspects we’ve come to love about Half-Life games,” wrote reviewer Michael Higham. “It may not be as bombastic as previous games, but the intimacy of VR brings you closer to a world you might have thought you knew over the past 22 years.”

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Every New Upcoming DC Show We Know About So Far

For all the ups-and-downs of DC on the big screen, the studio has a long and successful track record on TV. From the classic Batman and Wonder Woman shows in the ’60 and ’70s to Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville in the ’90s and ’00s, the company’s legendary superheroes have found a natural home on the small screen. And that’s not to mention its animated output; many fans consider the ’90s show Batman: The Animated Series one of the best-ever screen versions of the Dark Knight.

In 2012, a new series focused on the Green Arrow–simply titled Arrow–premiered on The CW. The success of this show helped inspire an entire connected universe, as it was joined by The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. The so-called Arrow-verse even featured annual comic book-style “crossover events” where the characters teamed up. Then, the launch of DC Universe in 2018 saw the premiere of DC shows aimed at an older audience, such as Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and the animated Harley Quinn.

However, a lot has changed on the TV landscape in the last couple of years. With rivals Marvel on the verge of launching a series of shows connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+, the focus of DC has shifted to parent company Warner’s streaming platform HBO Max. Several new DC shows were announced in advance of the service’s launch in May, and there have been others reported since then, including spin-offs of big upcoming DC movies.

Not every new DC series is being made for HBO Max of course–the Arrow-verse is still going strong, and animated shows made for younger viewers are more likely to end up on Cartoon Network. But there’s no denying HBO Max is the focus. The service needs big shows to grow its subscriber base, and the iconic heroes of the DC universe are perfect for this. So here’s every new upcoming DC show we know about so far–most of these don’t have premiere dates yet, and many are still in development, but it is nevertheless an exciting time to be a DC fan. And once you’ve read this, check out our guide to all the DC movies on the way over the next few years.

Disney Boss ‘Disapointed’ In California’s ‘Arbitrary’ Theme Park Re-Opening Standards

Disney, like so many of us, is having a rough year. The company makes a huge part of its yearly income from theme parks, and the COVID-19 pandemic means that some of those parks have are closed. The California state government has been especially strict about re-opening, and the studio has consistently blamed the state as responsible for its continued park closure. Disney CEO Bob Chapek called the state’s re-opening restrictions “arbitrary” and accused the state of destroying local small businesses after nearly eight months of closure.

“We are extremely disappointed that the state of California continues to keep Disneyland closed,” Chapek said during an investor call during a Q4 earnings call. “Despite our proven track record, our health and safety protocols are all science based and have the support of labor unions representing 99% of our hourly cast members. Frankly, as we and other civic leaders have stated before, we believe state leadership should look objectively at what we’ve achieved successfully at our parks around the world, all based on science as opposed to setting an arbitrary standard precluding our cast members from getting back to work while decimating small businesses in the local community.”

Disney parks have re-opened elsewhere, including Florida, China, and Japan, while its park in France remains closed. In a normal year, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure draw around 18.7 million visitors to the park and, consequently, businesses in the city of Anaheim. The park had added the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge expansion to the park just last May, too, which likely only increased that number.

The studio and park proprietor laid off 28,000 employees last month, blaming California’s restrictions in part for the decision, earning the ire of Senator Elizabeth Warren in the process. Interestingly, the company isn’t blaming COVID for its streaming-focused re-org.

Why Pixar’s Soul Will Be Free For Disney+ Subscribers, Unlike Mulan

Because movie theaters have been closed in 2020, movie studios have had to pivot, either pushing back movie theater releases or going VOD. The latest film to pivot in this way is Pixar’s Soul, which will arrive on Disney+ on December 25. Disney’s Mulan also released on the streaming service, but at a premium price. So why is Soul going a different route?

During the Q4 earnings investor call Disney CEO Bob Chapek discussed why this decision was made. “From a studio content standpoint, we were very pleased with the results of Mulan as a Premier Access title, and as you remember, that was our very first foray into strategy like Premier Access,” Chapek explained. “Unfortunately, that title met with some controversy, both in the US and internationally shortly after we released it.

“But we saw enough very positive results before that controversy started to know that we’ve got something here in terms of the Premier Access strategy,” Chapek continued, and he said he’ll explain a bit more about that strategy in December. “In terms of Soul, we also realized that part of the lifeblood Disney+ is providing great content to the base level subscribers that are in there. So the idea is that we thought it was a really nice gesture to our subscribers to take Soul during the holiday period and provide that as part of the service.”

So while there is a bigger strategic plan behind what will and will not be on Premier Access in the future, Disney is essentially giving Disney+ subscribers a Christmas present on December 25. While the company is having an issue with its parks staying closed, at least loyal subscribers and fans are getting a little something extra next month.