Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.
We may earn a commission from links on this page

16 Things Every New PS5 Owner Should Try Or Consider

The best tips and tricks to make the most out of your Sony hardware

We may earn a commission from links on this page.
A PS5 looms over a checkered background full of starter tips.
Image: Sony / Kotaku

So, you got your hands on a PlayStation 5. Congrats! You’re officially in the next generation of console gaming, a member of an exclusive club allowed to play games about malicious space tentacle monsters and whatever the hell a lombax is. The PS5 might seem like a straightforward (if oddly shaped) gaming console, but it’s also somewhat of an enigma with a maze of menus nestled within menus. Here are 16 things you should do to get the most out of your new PS5.

Play Astro’s Playroom

Every PS5 comes with a preinstalled version of a game called Astro’s Playroom. Since it’s a freely bundled platforming game, you might be tempted to write it off. Don’t. Astro’s Playroom is a charming, wildly inventive action title that, debatably more than any other PS5 exclusive, shows off what the console can do. That’s not to say Astro’s Playroom is the most visually intensive game around (though it is quite pretty). Rather, it’s a bona fide tech demo for the console’s snazzy DualSense controller.

Advertisement

Read More: We Finally Played A PS5 Game, And It Literally Feels Like Something New

Advertisement

In your hands, thanks to the controller, you can feel the crunch of sand as you stroll down a beach. During certain levels, you use the controller’s triggers to jump, but they generate resistance; the harder you push, the higher you jump. Shockingly precise gyroscopic controls dictate your movement at parts. Astro’s Playroom singlehandedly proved that haptic feedback can be a whole lot more than a mere vibration to indicate collision. (In the year since launch, just a handful of games, including Housemarque’s Returnal, have pulled off a similar feat.)

Advertisement
Astro runs down a beach away from purple enemies in Astro's Playroom on PS5.
Astro’s Playroom.
Screenshot: Sony

Beyond the impressive showcase, Astro’s Playroom is a walk down memory lane—an interactive museum for key moments from two and a half decades of PlayStation history. Definitely worth perusing for those who’ve played PlayStation for years.

Advertisement

Activate automatic updates

Seeing as modern games are updated with regularity and often without warning, having automatic updates on is essential. On PS5, you’ll want to double-check two things in your system’s settings:

  1. In “Saved Data and Game/App Settings,” scroll to “automatic updates.” Make sure both options—“auto-download” and “auto-install in rest mode”—are turned on.
  2. Next, go to the “System” menu. Scroll down to “power saving,” then click on “features available in rest mode.” Make sure you’ve checked off the option that allows your PS5 to stay connected to the internet. (Bonus tip for the energy-conscious: This menu also allows you to decide how long your PS5 will charge anything plugged into its USB ports while resting.)
Advertisement

Consider a storage capacity upgrade

Fact: Games these days are bigger than ever. On paper, the PS5 has an 825GB solid-state drive (SSD). But a chunk of that is occupied by the operating system and other system-essential files, leaving about 667GB for your own use—in other words, like, two Ubisoft games plus half a Call of Duty. And you’ll likely lose some to the elusive and unspecified “other” category of your storage capacity.

Advertisement
A PS5's storage menu shows 67.4GB of space occupied by "Other" storage.
The “other” field, which does not have an official description, can easily eat up 10 percent of your available storage space.
Screenshot: Sony / Kotaku

You can invest in an external drive, but it comes with limitations. Though you can store PS5 games externally, you can’t play them off USB storage, and will have to move them back to your console’s storage to play—faster than re-downloading from scratch, but still slower than clicking the “X” button and waiting 10 seconds for the game to load. (PS4 games work just fine from USB storage, albeit load a bit slower.) To really beef up your storage capacity, you should install an SSD upgrade. It’s not as challenging as you’d think. All you need is a screwdriver, a compatible M.2 drive, and about 10 minutes of free time.

Advertisement

Read More:?How To Install A PS5 SSD Upgrade (Easier Than You’d Think)

Turn off your notifications

Between email, texts, social media, calendar pop-ups, and any other apps you avail yourself of on a daily basis, face it: Modern life is a deluge of notifications. You don’t need more from your gaming console. By going to the PS5’s “Notifications” menu, found near the bottom of the settings, you can customize the frequency of the PS5’s 15 various notification types, from game invites to friend requests to unlocked trophies. (Definitely turn off trophy notifications, since they always seem to pop up at the worst possible moments, like boss fights and emotional cutscenes.)

Advertisement

You can deactivate them en masse or individually. Or you can choose the circumstances in which notifications can pop up—if you want to see updates about your download queue while you’re playing a game but not while you’re, say, watching the latest Witcher season.

Tweak your capture settings

The Create button (that’s the tiny one to the left of the central trackpad) lets you snap screenshots and capture video clips without the need for an auxiliary recording device. There are a variety of presets, which you can find by opening up the settings, scrolling down to “Captures and Broadcasts,” and clicking on “Shortcuts for Create Button.”

Advertisement

It’s obviously a matter of preference, but if you, like me, are the type of person who prefers to preserve gorgeous scenery over wild gameplay moments, “easy screenshots” is the one for you. With that setting on, pressing Create once snaps a screenshot, pressing it twice saves a recent clip of gameplay (the length of which is customizable from thAe same menu), and holding it down pulls up the screenshot overlay menu, where you can start and stop gameplay recording, and quickly tab over to your capture gallery, which shows your latest captures and tees up sharing options, including to your social media accounts.

Bonus: Turn off the save confirmation

By default, when you snap a screenshot on PS5, you’ll see a small check mark in the upper-right corner—a pox, if you’re trying to snap multiple screenshots in a row. You can turn this notification off in the “Shortcuts for Create Button” menu.

Advertisement

“Capture and Broadcasts” also allows you to change the formats of your recordings too. You can choose whether or not screens are saved as JPEGs or PNGs. And you can further decide whether you want to capture video in 4K (pretty, space-intensive) or 1080p (not quite as pretty, but won’t take up nearly as much space).

Make sure the damn thing is set up correctly

There are clear instruction manuals in the packaging that will show you the two official ways (vertical or horizontal) to orient your PS5. You can also refer to promotional art and images. Here, for the record, is how not to set it up.

Advertisement

Get a free trial (or a one-month sub) to PS Plus

Sony’s monthly PS Plus subscription allows you to play multiplayer games online, gives you two or three “free” games every month, opens up the nifty “share play” feature, and grants you access to 100 GB of cloud storage for save data (far, far more than you’ll ever need, given how comparatively small save files are). It’s a helpful service, but by no means necessary for getting the most out of your PS5, save for one bonus perk: the PS Plus Collection.

Advertisement
Kratos and Atreus walk on a snowy mountaintop in God of War on PS4 playing on a PS5.
God of War (2018).
Screenshot: Sony

PS Plus Collection, a perk only available to PS5 owners who subscribe to PS Plus, opens up a library of nearly two dozen well-regarded PlayStation games from last generation. You can likely finish some of the shorter games—Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Remastered, and the 2016 Ratchet & Clank reboot—with a two-week trial code, which sometimes comes included with PS5 bundles. The meatier games, like God of War, Fallout 4, and Final Fantasy XV, are probably best reserved for those who get a whole month ($10). In any case, PS Plus Collection is a terrific way to catch up on last-gen’s highwater points.

Advertisement

Be warned: When you sign up for PS Plus, automatic renewal is on by default. You can turn it off by opening the “Users and Accounts” menu in the settings, then click on, in this order, “account,” “payment and subscriptions,” “subscriptions,” “PlayStation Plus,” and “turn off auto-renew”. (Sony, uh, does not make it easy.) Alternatively, you can turn off your sub via web browser.

Download some free games

In the PlayStation Store, scroll all the way to the bottom. You should see a tile for “free games,” which will show you every game you can download for $0.00. All of the battle royales du jour (Fortnite, Apex, etc.) are on there. But you can also find some other hits, including the base edition of Destiny 2 and the starter pack for Hitman 3. And if you haven’t availed yourself yet, you can find free trials for PS Plus and PS Now, Sony’s games-on-demand subscription service.

Advertisement

Fiddle with the game presets

Under the “Saved Data and Game/App Settings” menu, you can mess with a bunch of game presets. Basically, these presents universally apply settings across any game you play (in theory; it generally works fine, but Kotaku hasn’t tested the entire PlayStation catalogue). You can set it so subtitles turn on by default for all games. You can invert the camera, both on X- and Y-axis, for your entire library. You can tweak the default difficulty to the hardest possible, or the easiest. And you can set it so, wherever possible, games default to either performance mode (higher frame rate at the cost of resolution) or resolution mode (sharper resolution but usually no 60 fps).

Advertisement
The PS5 main dashboard shows an option to move Astro's Playroom to an external USB device.
If you need to quickly move stuff from your PS5 to an external device, you can do so from the main dashboard.
Screenshot: Sony

For PS4 owners: Port your data over

There are various ways to move your PS4 games and save data over to your PS5. The first, and simplest, is to use the PS5’s built-in function for exactly that purpose. In your settings, under the “System” menu,” click on “system software,” then “data transfer.” Doing so kicks off a series of prompts that’ll allow you to carry over your games and saves via a local network. If you subscribe to PS Plus, you’ll be able to make use of cloud storage; any save files you’ve ever uploaded to the cloud can be found in the “saved data and game/app settings” menu. Just navigate to the “saved data (PS4)” option. Of course, this route doesn’t carry over any games. You can find any digitally owned games in the game library, or you could move them over manually with an external drive, a process outlined in the guide below:

Advertisement

Read More: How To Move Your PlayStation 4 Stuff To Your PlayStation 5

Finally—and this only works for those with the standard edition of the PS5, which comes with a disc drive—PS4 discs work on PS5 via backward compatibility.

Advertisement

Also for PS4 owners: Check out your playtime stats

For the entirety of the PS4 generation, it was impossible to check your playtime stats on a system level. That’s no longer the case for the PS5. Better yet, you can even see playtime data associated with your hours spent playing PS4. First, go to your profile (the furthest right option on the PS5’s top icon bar). Click on “profile,” then tab over to “games.” You’ll see a rundown of every game played on your PlayStation account, with relevant playtimes rounded to the hour.

Advertisement

One last one for PS4 owners: Nab free game upgrades

As we’re still in the liminal space between console generations, certain PS4 games have been upgraded for PS5. Some, like Ghost of Tsushima, are fully new versions that cost a premium. Others, like God of War, haven’t officially been upgraded to PS5 but have received significant performance improvements on the next-gen console, allowing for higher frame rates and sharper resolutions. And there are more still that offer totally free cross-gen enhanced versions, including, but not limited to [deep breath] Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Borderlands 3, Bugsnax, Far Cry 6, Ghostrunner, Hades, Outriders, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Advertisement

You can see whether or not your owned games have an available PS4-to-PS5 upgrade by going to your game library and tabbing over to “your collection.” If a game’s icon displays both a PS4 and a PS5 logo, then you can upgrade your game. Click on the tile and the system will ask you which generation version you want to view.

Customize your control center

Tapping the PS Button (the one that looks like the PlayStation logo) pulls up the control center, a string of icons that allows for instant access to various system functions. This is customizable. By pulling up the control center and tapping the Options button, you’ll be able to swap the order in which icons are displayed, or even remove some entirely. Just hover over any icon you don’t want, tap “X,” then drag it to the bottom of the screen.

Advertisement

For instance, if you’re not planning on streaming, you can move the icon that looks like a radio antenna to the bottom. If you’re not playing any VR games, move the PSVR headset icon down. Play with the bar’s icon to declutter as needed. Note, however, that there are four icons you cannot purge: the home icon, the notifications icon, the power switch button, and the eternally useless switcher function.

Two Sony PS5 DualSense controllers charge on a charging dock.
The DualSense charging dock in action.
Photo: Sony
Advertisement

Consider peripheral gear

Getting a new console so often means getting new gear to go with it. The PS5 has a ton of peripheral gizmos that can significantly improve your experience.

Advertisement
  • 罢丑别谤别’蝉 the PSVR headset, of course, which allows you to play virtual reality games like Beat Saber and Iron Man VR. (Note: PlayStation’s VR is still old tech. A true next-gen version is in the works, planned for some time beyond 2021, so if you really want bleeding-edge VR, you may want to hold off for a bit.)
  • 3D may sound like a gimmick—until you hear it. The Pulse headset is revelatory, particular when used with games that make use of its full 3D audio capabilities. It’s like a full surround sound system, except on your earbuds.
  • Finally: the DualSense charging station. Yes, yes, it sounds silly. After all, you can just…plug in your controller to the PS5’s charging cable. But there’s something to be said about minimizing the number of cables in your living room, and the option to dock your controller when you’re done playing, then pick it up the next session with a full charge, is one of those quietly savvy features you never knew you needed.
Advertisement

Tone down your DualSense

The DualSense controller is no doubt a revelation. But it can also be pretty intense, both sonically and visually, and its vibration feedback can be a lot. You can tone all of this stuff down by opening up your settings, going to the “Accessories” menu, and scrolling down to “Controllers.” Personally, I’ve found it best to set the vibration intensity to weak, and the controller indicator brightness to medium. (On bright, the DualSense’ standard brightness setting, it practically glows like an infinity stone.) You can also futz with the trigger intensity, but note that, if you plug in headphones, it’ll automatically dip down to the lowest possible level.

Advertisement
Selene stares at a devil enemy in Returnal on PS5.
Returnal.
Screenshot: Sony / Kotaku

Play some dang games

Of course, futzing with all this stuff is secondary to the primary activity you’ll use your PS5 for: playing video games! Among Sony’s first-party offerings alone, you have a ton of terrific options to choose from:

Advertisement
  • Returnal is third-person roguelike set on a hostile exoplanet overrun by monsters inspired by the scariest place in the galaxy: earth’s ocean. Very challenging. Very rewarding. Lots of ancient Greek themes and iconography, if you’re into that.
  • Anyone who’s played any of the prior Ratchet & Clank games might not find much new to chew on in Rift Apart. But a new-to-the-series protagonist helps first-timers ease into a series steeped in decades-long legacy, and it’s hard not to be charmed by the series’ signature mix of humor and bombast.
  • The Demon’s Souls remake remains, more than a year after release, one of the best-looking console games around. That it’s also a bone-crunchingly solid action-RPG—and generally faithful to the original, at that—is all the more reason to check it out.
  • Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut is the definitive version of one of the greatest open-world games to hit the PS4. Plus, it comes with an expansion that, while not exactly envelope-pushing, offers more of what made the base game such a standout.
  • Yes, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales technically exists across generations, but the PS5 version far eclipses the PS4 one. It loads faster, looks better, and makes surprisingly innovative use of the DualSense’s unique haptic feedback, with the triggers tensing up at the apex of every web sling. Also: cat suit.
Advertisement

Of course, that sampling barely scratches the surface of what you can play on PS5, especially when you expand the purview to include third-party offerings like Assassin’s Creed and Resident Evil. For a broader list of recommendations, check out our list of the best games on the PS5. Enjoy!

?

universo-virtual.com
buytrendz.net
thisforall.net
benchpressgains.com
qthzb.com
mindhunter9.com
dwjqp1.com
secure-signup.net
ahaayy.com
soxtry.com
tressesindia.com
puresybian.com
krpano-chs.com
cre8workshop.com
hdkino.org
peixun021.com
qz786.com
utahperformingartscenter.org
maw-pr.com
zaaksen.com
ypxsptbfd7.com
worldqrmconference.com
shangyuwh.com
eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com
playminecraftfreeonline.com
trekvietnamtour.com
your-business-articles.com
essaywritingservice10.com
hindusamaaj.com
joggingvideo.com
wandercoups.com
onlinenewsofindia.com
worldgraphic-team.com
bnsrz.com
wormblaster.net
tongchengchuyange0004.com
internetknowing.com
breachurch.com
peachesnginburlesque.com
dataarchitectoo.com
clientfunnelformula.com
30pps.com
cherylroll.com
ks2252.com
webmanicura.com
osostore.com
softsmob.com
sofietsshotel.com
facetorch.com
nylawyerreview.com
apapromotions.com
shareparelli.com
goeaglepointe.com
thegreenmanpubphuket.com
karotorossian.com
publicsensor.com
taiwandefence.com
epcsur.com
odskc.com
inzziln.info
leaiiln.info
cq-oa.com
dqtianshun.com
southstills.com
tvtv98.com
thewellington-hotel.com
bccaipiao.com
colectoresindustrialesgs.com
shenanddcg.com
capriartfilmfestival.com
replicabreitlingsale.com
thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com
gkmcww.com
mbnkbj.com
andrewbrennandesign.com
cod54.com
luobinzhang.com
bartoysdirect.com
taquerialoscompadresdc.com
aaoodln.info
amcckln.info
drvrnln.info
dwabmln.info
fcsjoln.info
hlonxln.info
kcmeiln.info
kplrrln.info
fatcatoons.com
91guoys.com
signupforfreehosting.com
faithfirst.net
zjyc28.com
tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com
nhuan6.com
oldgardensflowers.com
lightupthefloor.com
bahamamamas-stjohns.com
ly2818.com
905onthebay.com
fonemenu.com
notanothermovie.com
ukrainehighclassescort.com
meincmagazine.com
av-5858.com
yallerdawg.com
donkeythemovie.com
corporatehospitalitygroup.com
boboyy88.com
miteinander-lernen.com
dannayconsulting.com
officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com
forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net
generictadalafil-canada.net
guitarlessonseastlondon.com
lesliesrestaurants.com
mattyno9.com
nri-homeloans.com
rtgvisas-qatar.com
salbutamolventolinonline.net
sportsinjuries.info
topsedu.xyz
xmxm7.com
x332.xyz
sportstrainingblog.com
autopartspares.com
readguy.net
soniasegreto.com
bobbygdavis.com
wedsna.com
rgkntk.com
bkkmarketplace.com
zxqcwx.com
breakupprogram.com
boxcardc.com
unblockyoutubeindonesia.com
fabulousbookmark.com
beat-the.com
guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com
magie-marketing.com
kingstonliteracy.com
guitaraffinity.com
eurelookinggoodapparel.com
howtolosecheekfat.net
marioncma.org
oliviadavismusic.com
shantelcampbellrealestate.com
shopleborn13.com
topindiafree.com
v-visitors.net
qazwsxedcokmijn.com
parabis.net
terriesandelin.com
luxuryhomme.com
studyexpanse.com
ronoom.com
djjky.com
053hh.com
originbluei.com
baucishotel.com
33kkn.com
intrinsiqresearch.com
mariaescort-kiev.com
mymaguk.com
sponsored4u.com
crimsonclass.com
bataillenavale.com
searchtile.com
ze-stribrnych-struh.com
zenithalhype.com
modalpkv.com
bouisset-lafforgue.com
useupload.com
37r.net
autoankauf-muenster.com
bantinbongda.net
bilgius.com
brabustermagazine.com
indigrow.org
miicrosofts.net
mysmiletravel.com
selinasims.com
spellcubesapp.com
usa-faction.com
snn01.com
hope-kelley.com
bancodeprofissionais.com
zjccp99.com
liturgycreator.com
weedsmj.com
majorelenco.com
colcollect.com
androidnews-jp.com
hypoallergenicdogsnames.com
dailyupdatez.com
foodphotographyreviews.com
cricutcom-setup.com
chprowebdesign.com
katyrealty-kanepa.com
tasramar.com
bilgipinari.org
four-am.com
indiarepublicday.com
inquick-enbooks.com
iracmpi.com
kakaschoenen.com
lsm99flash.com
nana1255.com
ngen-niagara.com
technwzs.com
virtualonlinecasino1345.com
wallpapertop.net
nova-click.com
abeautifulcrazylife.com
diggmobile.com
denochemexicana.com
eventhalfkg.com
medcon-taiwan.com
life-himawari.com
myriamshomes.com
nightmarevue.com
allstarsru.com
bestofthebuckeyestate.com
bestofthefirststate.com
bestwireless7.com
declarationintermittent.com
findhereall.com
jingyou888.com
lsm99deal.com
lsm99galaxy.com
moozatech.com
nuagh.com
patliyo.com
philomenamagikz.net
rckouba.net
saturnunipessoallda.com
tallahasseefrolics.com
thematurehardcore.net
totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com
velislavakaymakanova.com
vermontenergetic.com
sizam-design.com
kakakpintar.com
begorgeouslady.com
1800birks4u.com
2wheelstogo.com
6strip4you.com
bigdata-world.net
emailandco.net
gacapal.com
jharpost.com
krishnaastro.com
lsm99credit.com
mascalzonicampani.com
sitemapxml.org
thecityslums.net
topagh.com
flairnetwebdesign.com
bangkaeair.com
beneventocoupon.com
noternet.org
oqtive.com
smilebrightrx.com
decollage-etiquette.com
1millionbestdownloads.com
7658.info
bidbass.com
devlopworldtech.com
digitalmarketingrajkot.com
fluginfo.net
naqlafshk.com
passion-decouverte.com
playsirius.com
spacceleratorintl.com
stikyballs.com
top10way.com
yokidsyogurt.com
zszyhl.com
16firthcrescent.com
abogadolaboralistamd.com
apk2wap.com
aromacremeria.com
banparacard.com
bosmanraws.com
businessproviderblog.com
caltonosa.com
calvaryrevivalchurch.org
chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com
cheminotsgardcevennes.com
cooksspot.com
cqxzpt.com
deesywig.com
deltacartoonmaps.com
despixelsetdeshommes.com
duocoracaobrasileiro.com
fareshopbd.com
goodpainspills.com
kobisitecdn.com
makaigoods.com
mgs1454.com
piccadillyresidences.com
radiolaondafresca.com
rubendorf.com
searchengineimprov.com
sellmyhrvahome.com
shugahouseessentials.com
sonihullquad.com
subtractkilos.com
valeriekelmansky.com
vipasdigitalmarketing.com
voolivrerj.com
zeelonggroup.com
1015southrockhill.com
10x10b.com
111-online-casinos.com
191cb.com
3665arpentunitd.com
aitesonics.com
bag-shokunin.com
brightotech.com
communication-digitale-services.com
covoakland.org
dariaprimapack.com
freefortniteaccountss.com
gatebizglobal.com
global1entertainmentnews.com
greatytene.com
hiroshiwakita.com
iktodaypk.com
jahatsakong.com
meadowbrookgolfgroup.com
newsbharati.net
platinumstudiosdesign.com
slotxogamesplay.com
strikestaruk.com
trucosdefortnite.com
ufabetrune.com
weddedtowhitmore.com
12940brycecanyonunitb.com
1311dietrichoaks.com
2monarchtraceunit303.com
601legendhill.com
850elaine.com
adieusolasomade.com
andora-ke.com
bestslotxogames.com
cannagomcallen.com
endlesslyhot.com
iestpjva.com
ouqprint.com
pwmaplefest.com
qtylmr.com
rb88betting.com
buscadogues.com
1007macfm.com
born-wild.com
growthinvests.com
promocode-casino.com
proyectogalgoargentina.com
wbthompson-art.com
whitemountainwheels.com
7thavehvl.com
developmethis.com
funkydogbowties.com
travelodgegrandjunction.com
gao-town.com
globalmarketsuite.com
blogshippo.com
hdbka.com
proboards67.com
outletonline-michaelkors.com
kalkis-research.com
thuthuatit.net
buckcash.com
hollistercanada.com
docterror.com
asadart.com
vmayke.org
erwincomputers.com
dirimart.org
okkii.com
loteriasdecehegin.com
mountanalog.com
healingtaobritain.com
ttxmonitor.com
bamthemes.com
nwordpress.com
11bolabonanza.com
avgo.top