The PlayStation Portal is still flawed, but I’ve learned to love it as a new dad

When it was first announced, PlayStation Portal was a joke. The Nintendo Switch has been a huge success, and many PlayStation fans have long hoped that Sony would respond with a new handheld console of its own. It happened…in the form of a $200 peripheral that can only stream games online and requires you to already own a PlayStation 5. Instead of a successor to the beloved and famously neglected PlayStation Vita, we got a PlayStation version of the Wii U GamePad.

My colleague Devindra Hardawar called it “baffling” in our PlayStation Portal review, and many of his criticisms still stand two years later. I was happy to ignore the portal as a result. Plus, I already owned a set of devices that covered every way I wanted to play. The PS5 and PC were for “pretty” games that I wanted to sit down and enjoy on my screen, while the Switch and Steam Deck were for gaming away from my desk. This combination has worked for me.

Then, a few months ago, my wife and I had our first child. It’s great, and we’re happy. But pre-childhood life often conflicts with post-childhood life. My old routines and any pretense of personal time were gone. And while this may be the single least important aspect of my life that has changed since becoming a father, going from “a man in his mid-30s who spends a lot of time thinking about video games” to “a man in his mid-30s who He wants “To enjoy his hobby but now he is responsible for raising a child” I was completely turned on by the gate, which my wife had gifted me a few months before the birth of our child.

To be clear, I’m not here dying to play games all day instead of bonding with my daughter. But every parent needs a break sometimes, and any “free” time I get these days is inherently sporadic. It’s not just regular changing, feeding, monitoring tummy time and diaper pail maintenance; It’s 20-30 minutes of setup and clean up that often comes with each of these things. Load up the formula dispenser here, and run out of extra baby wipes and laundry detergent there. Spend 10 minutes moving her legs so she can fart.

All of this has been a lot more fun than it sounds, but for gaming purposes, it means I’ve turned almost exclusively to things I can play in short bursts. It was a lot of Balatro,There are a lot of multiplayer games with clear timing such as Rocket Leagueas well as some slower single-player games that allow you to save and quit at any time. These types of games have always been better suited to mobile devices, and so they are the games that the portal has helped me enjoy again when we put the baby to sleep.

Yes, I can only use the Switch or Steam Deck. But I lost $500 on that damned PS5 in 2020. I have more games in my PlayStation library than any other platform. I want to (slowly) work my way through exclusives like Ute ghost. I don’t want my fancy console collecting dust, and as silly as it sounds, finding the energy to sit down at my desk and give my full attention to the game is tough after a day of work and raising kids. Most nights, I prefer to sit on the couch with my wife, and I need to be near her to lend a hand or change a diaper. Portal allowed me to do just that, and kept my PlayStation from turning into a funky-looking paperweight in the process.

The Portal fills this niche mostly by being just a handheld device, but it has its own benefits. The controls are great, essentially splitting a regular PS5 controller in half. It gives everything an “official” feel that you can’t replicate with a smartphone controller as a workhorse. I wish the 8-inch screen had a more colorful OLED panel, but it’s still good for LCD, wider than my phone’s screen and sharp enough at 1080p. I’m a wired headphones guy, so I can live with its lack of Bluetooth audio, as in this one. And while I no longer pay $160 a year for PlayStation Plus Premium, those who do can now stream certain games directly from the cloud without having to turn on their console. This worked well in the short time I tried it.

My entire experience with the portal is based on the fact that I live in a modest apartment with good Wi-Fi. It’s still a streaming device, so there were some hiccups here and there. Use it for shooters or fighting games It’s just asking for frustration, and things start to get destabilizing if we have multiple currents running through the house at once. But under normal circumstances, I was able to play competitive multiplayer games like rematch No devastating lag, and I didn’t experience the crushing connectivity issues that some people experienced with single-player fare. As long as you keep your PS5 in sleep mode, everything will turn on and eventually work as it should.

It’s weird: I still wouldn’t recommend Portal to most PS5 owners, and I wouldn’t change all that much for our initial review. Of course, receiving it as a gift distorts my view. However, it has become easier to introduce some games into my new life. Taking care of a baby has been one of my greatest joys, but it is definitely exhausting. With Portal, I can still enjoy the platform I’ve invested heavily in – provided I don’t pass out first.