Updated:
Readtime: 3 min
Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here.
- Sony claims GTA 6 plays best on PS5 with DualSense features.
- Continuous controller vibration is a gimmick most players turn off immediately.
- Tempest 3D AudioTech offers genuine, next-gen open-world immersion instead.
- Heavy haptics cause hand fatigue and severely drain controller battery life.
- Swap the hand-numbing buzz for actual sonic immersion on day one.
Sony and Rockstar Games have officially fired the first shots in the marketing war for Grand Theft Auto VI, locking in a pretty serious declaration by claiming that the game “plays best on PS5.”
But what does that mean (and how are they going to achieve it)? With the announcement of the GTA VI pre-order pricing overnight, Sony wants the DualSense wireless controller do the heavy lifting. They’re promising to put you in the centre of the action by delivering “responsive vibrations” and triggers that provide “dynamic resistance” right into your palms. Essentially, their “plays best” advantage is to make sure your hands vibrate every time Jason and Lucia steal a car.
This might sound exciting in a headline, but to those who have held a DualSense controller, the heavy kinetic rumble is mostly a gimmick that you switch off immediately. Diving deeper into the release, and we see that the real next-gen superpower here is Sony’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, which is a highly accurate spatial tracking system that’s genuinely useful, cool, and serves as the saving grace of the entire platform announcement. Let’s dive in and take a closer look to see if it’s worth getting a PS5 to play GTA VI.
Shifting our focus away from the controller and towards the console’s true strength—the field-tested genius of Tempest 3D AudioTech—we can imagine how the massive open world will sound through directional audio. We know this isn’t a marketing stunt because it has completely transformed the premier titles in the PlayStation library:
- Returnal: Housemarque used the Tempest engine to turn sound into a tactical map. You can pinpoint off-screen projectiles behind your head or trace enemies directly above you purely by ear, allowing you to dodge incoming threats without moving the camera.
- Resident Evil Village: Capcom relied on spatial tracking to make the shadows feel alive. You can hear floorboards beneath your feet, wind rattling loose roof tiles overhead, and the precise spatial tracking of heavy footsteps stalking you down a dark corridor.
- Gran Turismo 7: The tech isolates individual exhaust notes across the grid. Racing down a straight, you can hear a competitor’s engine note creeping up specifically over your left or right shoulder, telling you exactly which side they’re attempting an overtake on before they even enter your peripheral vision.
When you’re cruising through the state of Leonida, having that same spatial technology mapping out a living environment is going to be excellent. Hearing the roar of the ocean fade into ambient coastal traffic or the distant echo of police sirens reflecting off skyscrapers provides an authentic sense of scale that a vibrating plastic motor can never replicate.
Ultimately, how you configure your game is entirely down to personal preference, and there’s no doubt that Rockstar has poured an absurd amount of production value into tuning these controller profiles. But when you boil it all down, the controller gimmicks add unnecessary hand strain and turn your triggers into a finger workout when you just want to play the game. The Tempest 3D Audio, on the other hand, is genuinely, unreservedly cool.
Comments
We love hearing from you. or to leave a comment.