PS5 Pro: 5 games that will benefit from Sony's more powerful PlayStation
PS5 Pro: 5 games that will benefit from Sony's more powerful PlayStation
Sony's PS5 Pro will be able to enhance existing and future games, and these five titles will reap the benefits
The PS5 Pro is edging closer to an official reveal and it’s set to reinvigorate the console’s existing library of games thanks to its more powerful hardware.
Sony has reportedly laid out the requirements developers need to meet for a game to be classed as ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’, but what can we expect from the new PlayStation 5 console?
The PS5 Pro will be able to increase the target resolution of titles that run at a fixed or variable resolution on the PS5, such as allowing a game to hit 4K instead of 1440p. It’ll also allow developers to increase the frame rate for titles that may fall short of their target. Additionally, developers can add more ray tracing effects to PS5 games and improve overall performance.
There are plenty of candidates that will run or look better when played on PS5 Pro, then, but which titles spring to mind? These five PS5 games will all benefit from the power of the PlayStation 5 Pro, which is due to release later this year.
Gran Turismo 7
Gran Turismo 7 is already a graphical showcase for Sony’s console and one of the best PS5 games. However, the PS5 Pro could take it to the next level.
Even though the game supports 120Hz, PSVR 2, and takes full advantage of the PS5’s DualSense controller, it only features ray tracing during replays. The PS5 Pro promises to deliver up to a 4x improvement in ray tracing performance, which could finally let Polyphony Digital add ray traced reflections into races for the first time and rival the likes of Forza Motorsport.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one of the few PS5 games that isn’t capable of hitting 60fps, but could that change on PS5 Pro? There’s a chance that the additional graphical grunt of the PlayStation 5 could let Dragon’s Dogma 2 run at a higher frame rate if Capcom is willing to put in the work.
Running a game at 60fps has become the preferred option of many, especially as there are so many PS5 120fps games, too. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is thankfully an outlier when it comes to frame rate this generation, and hopefully the PS5 Pro can help it reach the 60fps standard we’ve all come to appreciate.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is an impressive graphical showcase on PS5, but it pushes Sony’s console to its limits. As a result, it doesn’t feature any ray tracing like on PC, which has a transformative effect on the game’s visuals. What’s more, the quality and performance modes fail to maintain a steady frame rate throughout, with image quality taking a noticeable hit when running the game in performance mode.
While adding ray tracing to Alan Wake 2 may be a step too far for even the PS5 Pro, the more powerful hardware should at least let the game reach a higher resolution and a more stable frame rate in the game’s two modes.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 looks great on PS5, but it doesn’t come close to the visual splendor that PC gamers get to enjoy. That’s mostly due to the console version’s ray tracing support, which only covers local shadows and is barely noticeable. Compare that to PC, where you can get ray traced reflections, lighting, and path tracing, and it’s like you’re playing an entirely new game.
To make matters worse, the PS5 version drops to 30fps when ray tracing is turned on, which isn’t worth it for some slightly nicer shadows. The PS5 Pro should allow Cyberpunk 2077 to run at a higher frame rate while retaining ray tracing support, and hopefully introduce a few more features to boot.
The performance mode resolution, which averages around 1008p to 1440p according to Digital Foundry, should also be able to hit 4K using PS5 Pro’s new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaling.
GTA 6
I’ve already made the argument that GTA 6 is the best advert for the PS5 Pro yet and that opinion hasn’t changed. Rockstar’s long-awaited follow-up to Grand Theft Auto 5 is bound to break all sorts of records when it releases in 2025 and it’s easily one of the most anticipated games of all time.
If Sony can confidently say the PS5 Pro is the best place to play GTA 6, that will be a huge incentive for some people to upgrade to Sony’s new hardware or purchase a PlayStation 5 Pro outright.
There’s no doubt that the PS5 Pro will be able to offer a superior version of GTA 6 compared to the standard PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X release, but don’t expect a dramatic difference. A higher resolution target will be the most obvious benefit, but we could see GTA6 added to the list of PS5 games with ray tracing support and maybe a 60fps performance mode if Rockstar taps into the power of Sony’s new console.