A while ago I wrote a piece on three PS5 Pro Enhanced games that “make it worth the money” – the content of which is hopefully fairly self-exploratory. But the more time I’ve spent with the upgraded PS5, the more impressed I’ve been by the improvements it makes to certain games.
And considering Sony has slashed the price of its flagship console as part of the Black Friday sales, with retailers around the world offering it with big money off, I thought I’d revisit the library to find another trio of great reasons to buy one.
So here are three more PS5 Pro-enhanced games that might just seal the deal – especially at the current, limited price.
Ghost of Yōtei
The sequel to one of the PS4’s biggest success stories is a looker on whatever PS5 model you’re fortunate enough to play it on, but there’s no doubt that it’s at its best on the Pro.
Set in early 1600s feudal Japan, 300 years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei follows a brand new protagonist, Atsu, on her quest for vengeance against the “Yōtei Six”, who murdered her family.
You explore the sprawling Ezo region (nowadays known as Hokkaido) to find clues about your enigmatic adversaries, before hunting them down in whatever order you choose. Like its predecessor, Ghost of Yōtei elevates itself above a slew of similarly structured open-world games with its cinematic combat and incredible presentation.
And this is where the PS5 version really comes into its own. The game features a number of graphics modes, but on the Pro there’s an exclusive Ray Tracing Pro mode, which targets 60fps with ray tracing and pin-sharp image quality, which it’s able to maintain thanks to PSSR upscaling.
This mode is the best way to appreciate the frequently stunning sights of Ezo without sacrificing performance.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Kojima Productions’ follow-up to one of the weirdest AAA blockbusters ever released moves the action to Australia, as post-apocalyptic postman Sam Porter Bridges continues his mission to reconnect mankind while ideally avoiding the angry ghosts that roam what’s left of the Earth.
Like its predecessor, Death Stranding 2 is a game about walking, interspersed with (much improved in the sequel) combat sections and lots of very long cutscenes featuring Hideo Kojima’s A-lister pals, who play characters with ridiculous names. And it’s great.
There’s a pared-back beauty to Death Stranding 2’s empty landscapes and mountain vistas, and the game looks amazing on both PS5 consoles. The advantage the PS5 Pro has over the standard model is that it doesn’t make you choose between fidelity and frame rate.
On the base PS5, there’s a noticeable reduction in the level of detail and overall image quality in the 60fps performance mode compared to the 30fps quality mode. On the PS5 Pro, you get the same two modes, but the presentation is virtually identical each time.
This means you can select performance mode on the Pro and enjoy the rock solid 60fps smoothness of the gameplay without wondering if the graphics could look a little sharper if you gave up some frames.
Horizon Forbidden West
There’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about Horizon Forbidden West’s gameplay, which builds on Horizon Zero Dawn’s compelling robot dinosaur-slaying and post-apocalyptic adventuring in a predictably sequel-y way. However, if you liked the first one, you’ll almost certainly enjoy spending another 40 hours in the company of the now accomplished warrior, Aloy.
And there’s one area that marks out Horizon Forbidden West as a game like no other, and that’s its visuals. Especially if you have a PS5 Pro.
Like all of these games, Forbidden West was already an absolute stunner on the standard PS5, but on the Pro it might just be the most graphically impressive console game ever made. Just spend a few minutes marvelling at the water, let alone the views from the top of the Tallnecks, and tell me I’m wrong.
The Performance Pro mode basically looks as sharp and bursting with detail as the 30fps resolution-focused mode on the PS5, but without asking you to give up any frames.
It results in a game that looks astonishing at pretty much all times, while still feeling great to play. If you want the best possible image quality you can still play in 30fps, but when the performance setting offers so few tradeoffs on the more powerful console, it has never made less sense.