Speaking of PS5’s proprietary features, I got a chance to play ESO with Pulse 3D headphones.
Really, DualSense support is a non-starter here which is a shame because it ends up feeling like a missed opportunity. There isn’t much integration of these features at all into the upgraded PS5 version of ESO, but you get pretty standard DualShock-style vibration when landing heavy attacks or sprinting with your mount. One of the key features of the PlayStation 5 is its beefy DualSense controller that offers haptic feedback and adaptive triggers - triggers that give you contextually appropriate resistance when you try to press down on them. Unless you told me that my frames were dipping below 60, I wouldn’t have noticed. Impressively, there were no frame drops here for me, despite the draw distances struggling to render everything. It began to feel like ESO was randomly popping stuff in from the distance as I approached, but the PC version has always struggled with this zone in pretty much exactly the same way. Here, I began to see the PS5 pushing the limits of ESO’s draw distances. After visiting those areas, I figured I needed to throw something heavier at it, so I went to Stormhold and crossed the river from Wayrest to the western portion of the zone. Neither Western Skyrim nor its underground Blackreach zone noticeably dropped my frames even in the slightest. In my test period, I even ventured to zones that are notorious for tanking frames on PC. Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t benefit that much from higher frame rates than that, so 60 FPS is the perfect balance to strike between resolution and frame rate. Not to mention, consistently hitting 60 FPS in upscaled 4K on an HDR screen is a treat. In that mode, I was able to appreciate reasonable draw distances and speedy texture loading times, even with many other characters and effects jolting in and out of my field of view. The fantastic performance-to-quality features that I ascribe as my reason for wanting to ditch PC entirely are found in Performance mode only. There are two visual modes, but I suggest ignoring the one that favors quality if you care about frame rates. I also went to Port Hunding, Wayrest, and Davon’s Watch because I’ve always thought those were visually striking locations. In order to test the new PS5 upgrade that I peskily needed to navigate some menus in the PlayStation Store to acquire, I checked out each of the major expansion zones and explored unevenly - meaning that I completed quests and filled out bits of each map at my own pace, slowly branching out across Vvardenfell, Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, Summerset, and Blackwood.
In fact, given that I’ve been a PC player for so long, there should be some weight to my words when I say that I wish I could transfer my characters and progress and switch - entirely - to the PlayStation 5 version of ESO. Luckily, the PS5’s next-gen update gives proper justice to ESO.
Now, let me say that it’s wonderful that Zenimax is still even supporting The Elder Scrolls Online for the current PlayStation consoles, given that The Elder Scrolls is now very clearly on its way to becoming a solid property of Xbox under Microsoft’s new ownership.
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