Home Features Six hidden features on the PS5 that you may have missed

Six hidden features on the PS5 that you may have missed

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The PlayStation 5 has been out for a few weeks now, and the consensus around the console is pretty much universal at this point for the lucky few who have them: The games look fantastic, the SSD makes a gigantic difference, and the DualSense controller shows plenty of haptic feedback potential to create more immersive gaming experiences.

There’s more to the console than just what you see on the surface though. Buried beneath the elegant menus are a bunch of other features, all designed to make your personal time with the unit more enjoyable. It’s also hardly explained, but here’s a quick breakdown on those handy options that you can easily take a look at right now on Sony’s next-gen console.

You can track how much time you’ve spent in a game

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As someone who likes to see just how much of my life I’ve thrown at a collection of interactive pixels on my screen just so that I can inform people during my review, this is one heck of a handy feature. All you have to do is navigate to your profile icon, click games and there you go. A running log of how much time you’ve spent playing every game that’s currently connected to your PlayStation account.

This one works for both PS4 and PS5 games, and it also makes me wonder how the heck I’ve managed to play Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot for 61 hours so far. That’s a lot of powering up.

Manage your console from your phone

There’s no denying that space is at a premium on the PS5. Even if you just install games to an external drive, PS5 games by default are going to gobble up the available 667GB of SSD storage very quickly. Fortunately you can manage this easily, and you don’t even need to be near your console to do so. All you have to do is have your PS5 in rest mode, download the PlayStation App to your phone and start cutting away at games you don’t need saved on the console. Handy stuff, for very specific instances.

Wishlist games

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There’s no shortage of games on offer these days, but at this point of the year, there’s definitely a shortage of brain cells available which can memorise the names of titles that look tempting to you. No worries! Each game has a Wishlist box that you can check, saving it in your PS Store for when you’ve got the cash to spend on it.

Voice to text typing

Sure you can send a voice message to chums, which would explain why Geoff keeps sending me snippets of audio telling me to go choke on a bag of sausages, but if you happen to have an indecipherable voice/are Scottish, a text message is also handy. Typing them can take a while, but if you have a bit of lengthy prose you want to get out the way, just use the built-in microphone on the DualSense controller.

It’ll automatically translate your mad ravings into text, which you can send to friends and random strangers afterwards.

Game presets

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Head on over to the settings, select saved data and game/app settings, and you’ll spot a game presets option. From here you can start tailoring games to start with a selection of options by default. In this case, imagine being able to download, install, and start a game with subtitles enabled or inverted controls because you were dropped on your head as a child. That’s neat, and another example of the PS5 getting you into your games quicker than previous generations ever did.

Spoiler warnings

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A PS5 game-specific feature, if you’re worried that you’re going to see some spoilers you can get a warning ahead of time. Hit up the settings menu, navigate to save data and game apps again, and there’ll be a spoiler warnings option that you can toggle on and off. With that selected, you won’t have to worry about that bit in Spider-Man: Miles Morales when Mephisto raises Aunt May from the dead and transforms her into the latest Ghost Rider. Erm, oops. Sorry?

Last Updated: November 26, 2020

4 Comments

  1. OddSockZA

    November 26, 2020 at 13:37

    7th feature people missed: Being able to fucking find stock

    Reply

    • JacoZAB

      November 26, 2020 at 14:14

      Underrated comment. LOL

      Reply

    • Original Heretic

      November 26, 2020 at 17:44

      That’s a bug, not a feature.

      Reply

  2. Chris

    November 27, 2020 at 07:27

    I’m just waiting for that other dude to comment on this article. Why don’t you list the xbox hidden features. This is clickbait.

    Reply

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