It did not take long, but the microphone of the PS5 DualSense controller exceeded its welcome – and we can all thank Destruction AllStars for that.
Until last night, every time you started a game, you were forcibly moved into a game conversation with your teammates, whether you liked it or not. And then you feel the terrible impact of Sony’s decision to put a microphone on its new controller, which, in my opinion, is turned on by most users by default.
Before I could even understand what had happened, Destruction AllStars took me back to 2005 when I decided to try Xbox Live for the first time. My ears were bombarded with a cacophony of noise that consisted of clicks from the controller, random screams, babies crying, god awful background music and of course horrible insults. I could swear I was playing Project Gotham Racing 3 again.
Open microphone evening
Fortunately, developer Lucid Games has acted as fast and you will no longer be stunned by the voices of a thousand aliens when playing Destruction AllStars. In fact, it turns out that this nightmare that causes social anxiety to put you in a mass party was actually a mistake.
Thanks for all the feedback so far! We are aware of the issues surrounding voice calls in Destruction AllStars and are working hard to resolve them! In the meantime, you can mute a party conversation by pressing the PlayStation button and then the square on the party. card or make a private party chat.3 February 2021
To save you and your precious eardrum, you first had to press the PlayStation button and then Square on the party card. You had to do this for every game you played, but luckily the madness is now over thanks to the latest update.
Alternatively, you could create a private conversation with people you actually want to talk to, and who have no doubt been put under pressure to buy a dedicated headset by their peers.
Silence is golden
Now I’ve thrown every superlative I can think of into Sony PS5 controller since I got my hands on it in November. I absolutely love the haptic feedback and customizable triggers, and this is comfortably the best controller Sony has ever made. If you have not already done so, try picking up the DualShock 4 again – how strange does it feel now?
Nevertheless, for all that DualSense manages, the inclusion of a built-in microphone has always amazed me. It seemed completely unnecessary at the time, especially since the consequences were obvious to anyone.
I find no pleasure in saying that my fears are only guaranteed with the built-in microphone, and for me it will simply serve as another battery-draining feature that I can definitely do without, just like the DualShock 4’s maligned light bar.
Bommer Party
While some people miss the days when people would communicate more openly online – something for which party conversations have come to an end – it can be easy to forget in a pit of foam and villains that can quickly descend into an open chat lobby. I sat there and listened in amazement to how I suspect a grown man who snatched away another player, who was obviously a child, while boasting in the first place, and how the child was a ‘royal garbage’ wash.
To quote President Joe Biden: “Come on, man!”
Listening to people spitting bile at each other is one thing, but the quality of voice conversations when using DualSense is significantly worse than when you have a dedicated microphone, mainly because it absolutely picks up everything. The fact that it generally always goes on for players as well (that was for me until I entered the PS5 settings to ensure that there was almost an orange light on), you can hear people not even knowing that they are broadcasting themselves. (I once unknowingly trampled on the ears of a group of gamers while chewing loudly through an entire bag of Maoams while the controller’s microphone was on.)
Hey, listen!
However, I will admit that Sony’s idea is an admirable idea on paper. Players do not have to spend extra money to buy a headset to chat with their friends, and it adds a little extra value to the DualSense, which I think is more expensive than the DualShock 4. In practice, however, it is a microphone on a controller is just a headache. Nintendo also first did this with the Wii U GamePad – just say.
While I think Destruction AllStars is a pretty enjoyable vehicle fighting game, it will now serve as a constant reminder why party chatter is comfortably one of the best innovations mankind has created since we discovered fire, and why built-in microphones on a controller is one of the worst.