This is the best thing about the PS5 — just ask my girlfriend

(Prototype credit: Tom'south Guide)

My PS5 arrived on launch twenty-four hours....well, a calendar week after launch twenty-four hours for American readers thanks to the staggered release, but on 'day ane' for U.K. buyers. My pre-order was drama-costless, as I bagged one as presently as the opportunity arrived in September, and thankfully it wasn't replaced with true cat food as some British purchases were.

It is, no uncertainty, a bright car. But I wouldn't be too sad if you've nevertheless all the same to get one. After getting all the trophies on Astro's Playroom and hitting a brick wall with Demon's Souls, I've found that the best thing most PS5 is technically something I could have done a whole lot cheaper – and vii years ago, to boot.

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When I upgrade to a new console generation, the old model tends to enter a period of semi-retirement on the bedroom tv set. The PS3 has sat in that location equally a glorified DVD thespian and streaming device for the by four years. And with my shiny new PS5, it looked like the time had come for my PS4 Pro to put its virtual feet upwards. Only for its dreams of an easy retirement to be shattered.

The reason for this is Sony'due south fantastic decision to non just enable backwards compatibility on the PS5, but to brand multiplayer games cross-compatible. There are three PS4 games that I still plow an unsettling number of hours into: Hunt Showdown, Spelunky 2 and Rocket League.

With the exception of Rocket League, multiplayer requires 2 or more consoles. That meant with our sole PS4 Pro, my girlfriend and I could only savour co-op with friends beyond my flat'southward iv walls. (Yeah, technically Spelunky 2 has local co-op besides. But the couch play co-op is a poor imitation of the real thing.)

That all inverse with my PS5 arrived. My girlfriend was already a Spelunky 2 Pro, but now that nosotros tin play the game at the same time on two dissimilar consoles, we're working our way through the game with more than advanced strategies, trying to uncover every one of its many secrets. I've also blooded her on the incredibly punishing 19th-century PvP shooter Hunt Showdown, and she regularly plays with me and my friends. It's pretty astonishing given the nature of the game that there have been no relationship-ending arguments to engagement; thus far things have been pretty clear despite an bad-mannered incident with an angry immolator.

Even Rocket League has been improved. Where we used to play split-screen with friends for a weekly match day, beingness on ii headsets and sharing a screen caused an irritating repeat equally we chatted with distant pals. Being in different rooms gets around that trouble in an instant, besides as ensuring I'thou no longer roundly mocked for my over the top goal celebrations.

When we've exhausted these three games, at that place'south also the PS Plus Collection to mine for multiplayer gems. It's a generous library of PS4 classics available as gratuitous downloads to early PS5 adopters with active PS Plus subs. So peradventure we could observe some more games to play between generations at that place. Surely the undead in Telephone call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombie Chronicles will be a cinch after dealing with the deliberately clunky one-shot rifles of Chase Showdown?

This, obviously, won't be a major selling point of the PS5 forever. At some bespeak, these games will fall downwards our playlist, and titles also powerful for the PS4 will replace them (though non for some time if the thousands of hours I've put into the original Spelunky are anything to go past).

Just for now, the surprising all-time thing about the PS5 is that it plays nicely with the last generation, giving the PS4 an unexpected and extremely welcome new lease of life in its twilight years.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are plant all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When non weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more probable, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.