PS5 gamers with a PS Plus subscription have a lot to look forward to this month. Not only are owners getting the new vehicular combat game Destruction All Stars and puzzler Concrete Genie, but also Remedy Entertainment's excellent Control: Ultimate Edition.
If Control sounds familiar, that's because it's an upgraded version of the 2019 psychological third-person shooter. But in the jump from PS4 to PS5, players are getting a whole slew of graphical enhancements that moves the game closer to the PC version.
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The folks over at Digital Foundry have put together a comprehensive graphical breakdown of Control, comparing the PS5 release not only to the PS4 Pro version, but the PC version as well.
The short version is that Control: Ultimate Edition is a huge upgrade from the PS4 Pro version. Not only are gamers seeing a 1.8x bump in resolution, there's both a performance mode that brings the action to 60 frames per second and a quality mode that adds in enhanced ray tracing effects. This console version of Control is very close to the PC version in most scenarios. So for those that can't afford to shell out $2,000 on a gaming rig, the PS5 version will play brilliantly on a 4K display.
On the PS4 Pro, the game ran at 1080p. It goes to show how graphically intensive Control was, as most PS4 Pro games ran at higher resolutions. On PS5, Control runs at 1440p, which is a sizable jump in pixel count.
The biggest upgrade in moving to PS5 is speed. Thanks to the new console's ultra-fast SSD, the game can load in seconds, with high-texture assets loading in immediately. On last gen consoles, sometimes textures would literally take an entire minute to load on.
While most gamers might prefer to play this high-octane action game at 60 fps with ray tracing off, there are some distinct graphical advantages in leaving it on. Ray tracing is an advanced lighting physics system that gives everything that next-gen realism. Even though the game will play at 30 fps, it's definitely worth it.
When compared to the PC version, the PS5 edition of Control has had to make some subtle cuts to ensure the game runs at a solid frame rate. Things like the resolution of reflections or far away assets will be lower. But unless you compare the game side-by-side, it'll be impossible to tell. Still, the PS5's fast SSD is still faster than what's available on PC.
If you're a PS Plus subscriber, you owe it to yourself to download Control: Ultimate Edition now.
