Transitioning from the eighth to the ninth console generation didn’t deliver a dramatic technical rupture the way the shift to 3D polygons did in the ’90s. Visual fidelity has reached a plateau: many PlayStation 4 and Xbox One titles from ten years ago still hold up impressively next to their PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts. What defines this generation is a string of refinements — real‑time ray tracing, dramatically reduced load times — rather than a single seismic change. Ironically, the most noticeable leap in experience has come in the hardware you hold, not the silicon under the hood.
Sony’s DualSense is, in many respects, the company’s strongest controller to date — a clear, thoughtful evolution of the DualShock 4, which could feel cramped and unwieldy. The DualSense is sleeker and lighter, and its ergonomics put it in the same comfort league as the celebrated Xbox 360 pad.
What elevates the DualSense are the adaptive triggers and rich haptic feedback. The first PS5 game I tried was Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, on the day my console finally arrived in 2021 after months of stock shortages. The moment-to-moment feel of the DualSense stood out instantly: the triggers offer tangible resistance when firing, producing a satisfying physical echo for each shot.
That tactile nuance appears in smaller titles, too. In the indie Baby Steps, the triggers register a gentle pressure with each step, while subtle vibrations on either side of the controller mimic the cadence and surface of the terrain beneath the character’s feet.
First-party developers lean into these controls even further. In Returnal, for example, partially depressing L2 behaves like a conventional aim-down-sights action, while a full press triggers an alternate fire mode — an elegant use of analog input that streamlines gameplay.
Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment via PolygonSony’s studios have experimented with the touchpad in imaginative ways. This autumn’s Ghost of Yōtei includes a quiet painting minigame: at certain moments, the protagonist sits and paints the surroundings, and you guide the brush by swiping the touchpad. It’s not as mechanically ambitious as Naughty Dog’s guitar sequence in The Last of Us Part II, but it’s a calming diversion that complements the game’s mood.
Ghost of Yōtei also uses the touchpad for campfire interactions — swipe to strike flint and kindle a spark — and offers an optional microphone feature that lets you blow on the system’s mic to coax the embers to life. It’s a small flourish, but one that shows developers embracing the controller’s expressive possibilities. See a demonstration on Reddit.
Haptic feedback isn’t unique to Sony — Xbox Series X pads rumble, and Nintendo’s Joy‑Cons include HD Rumble — yet the DualSense’s combination of precise haptics and adaptive trigger resistance often feels more layered and intentional. For many multiplatform releases I’ve preferred the PS5 build simply to experience those nuanced tactile details.
If the most notable advancement of this generation is a controller, that’s not a criticism so much as an observation: the DualSense doesn’t reinvent games, but it refines how they feel. In doing so, it turns touch and resistance into an often-overlooked highlight of the current generation.
Source: Polygon
