New PS5 DualSense Controller Haptics is No Gimmick After All

• The DualSense controllers have been one of PS5’s most significant selling points.
• Some gamers have accused the features of merely being a gimmick.
• If the controllers work as well as Sony claims, they could change the way we play video games.

Sony has made a big deal out of the PS5’s new DualSense controllers. Not only where these controllers a big talking point during the reveal event, but they’ve been the focus of the console’s first major advertising campaign as well.

DualSense has been accused of being a gimmick by some , but if anything, this amount of power being put behind it shows that it’ll have some real functionality behind it.

If The Claims Are True DualSense Could Change How We Play Games

Since the PS5’s new DualSense controller was revealed, we’ve been filled in on a few of the details of how it’ll work . The haptic feedback allows the controller to emulate everything from different weapon recoils to the feeling of being punched supposedly.

As well as the haptic feedback, the DualSense featured adaptive triggers that can increase or decrease resistance as you use them. An excellent example of the sort of thing it’s possible to emulate would be the pulling and firing of a bowstring.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales creative director Brian Horton revealed:

“The haptic feedback precision allows us to do all sorts of new things. In Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, we’ll be hinting to players which direction attacks are coming from by providing haptic feedback from the appropriate direction on the DualSense wireless controller.

What does it feel like to use Miles’s stealth ability? How does a Venom Blast feel? Because of the high resolution of DualSense wireless controller’s haptics system, we can really push the dimensionality of the feedback.

For instance, as you hold down Square to do a Venom Punch, you feel Spider-Man’s bio-electricity crackle across from the left side of the controller, culminating in the right side on impact.”

Dinga Bakaba, director of Deathloop – a hotly-anticipated FPS game that will also be available on PC, revealed how the game mechanics will go a step further in ‘locking’ the trigger altogether.

“One I like is blocking the triggers when your weapon jams, to give to the player an immediate feedback even before the animation plays out, which prompts the player in a physical way that they have to unjam their gun.”

In the first major TV spot for the PS5, a lot of focus was given to how the DualSense controller helps the player to ‘feel’ the game. Watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6AUuRs1A4

That Doesn’t Mean PS5’s New Controllers Won’t Have Problems.

As exciting and groundbreaking as the PS5 DualSense controllers are, they still have some potential issues. We have no idea right now how long these controls last, both from a battery perspective, and just their overall lifespan.

With all that fancy tech, they’re probably going to be expensive to replace. If haptics or adaptive triggers cause breakages at any point, it’s going to mean shelling out a lot of money to fix. DualShock 4 controllers won’t work on newer games, and all that tech has to get power from somewhere so battery life might take a hit too.

The final and most significant potential issue for PS5’s killer feature is how well it’s going to be implemented. Is it easy for developers to access and program these features? Do they add a level of immersion to games that we’ve never experienced before? In the end, DualSense needs to a unique proposition for PlayStation fans.

About the Author

William Worrall

William Worrall is a professional writer based out of the UK who has been writing about video and tabletop games for over a decade and has covered industry events such as EGX and UKGE. Contact him at [email protected], see his LinkedIn profile here.

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