One of the benefits of owning a PS5 is that it can play a significant number of older games through backwards compatibility. Mostly PS4 games, but also some titles from older consoles.
The thing is, it’s not very easy to work out which games are compatible with the PS5, or how they’re going to perform on the brand-new hardware. Fortunately, someone has done all the hard work and compiled a list with everything you need to know.
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Backwards Compatible features a list of older games that can run on your shiny new PS5. 577 titles are listed, and though most of them are PS4 games, there are some older PS2 games that will run. Just in case you ever got a hankering to play Twisted Metal Black, Manhunt, or one of the other supported retro titles.
Unfortunately, the list doesn’t seem to be totally comprehensive, as games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man do appear to be missing.
In any case, this is more than just a basic list you have to sift through manually. A search function lets you look up a game in an instant, while a comprehensive tagging system lets you see exactly how an individual game will run on the PS5.
That means you can instantly see basic information like whether it’s a VR game or Sony exclusive, as well as other crucial technical information. This includes whether it will run in native 4K, whether HDR is supported, whether you can uninstall patches and so on.
Perhaps most importantly, one of those tags flags whether there are any graphics issues. While there don’t seem to be many games that struggle on the PS5, it’s surprising how many popular (and recent titles) are listed. That includes Dark Souls Remastered, Fallout 4 and Black Ops 3, to name just a few.
The search feature also lets you filter by all of these tags, as well as a huge list of available resolutions and framerates. So if you’re looking for something that will run at 4K and 120 fps you can. You just have to make sure to choose the right option in each list, which is easier said than done.
As for the games themselves, opening up their respective pages shows you everything in one place, including how well they perform on older PlayStation consoles. Ghosts of Tsushima, for instance, will run at 1080p/60 fps on PS5, which doesn’t sound too impressive, but is obviously better than the 1080p/30 fps picture you’ll get on PS4 and PS4 Pro.
So before you bin that old PS4, make sure to give Backwards Compatible a browse and double-check you can still play all your old games on the new console. After all, nothing is worse than getting rid of it and discovering you can’t play your favorite older title without buying a remastered edition.
If you don’t have a PS5 yet, maybe seeing the contrast between all three PlayStation consoles will encourage you to look where to buy PS5 for yourself.
