Powerwash Simulator is perfect for the casual PS5 gamer in your life

Powerwash Simulator, releasing today for PS5 and PS4, is the perfect game for introducing casual gamers — like a partner or a family member — into the wider world of PlayStation gaming.

The Powerwash Simulator PS4 and PS5 release date — January 31st, 2023 — is upon us. While many of us will relish the opportunity to hunt down those Powerwash Simulator PS5 trophies solo, it's very rare that a game so perfect for sharing with others comes about — especially if they're not as into gaming as you are. That's why we heartily recommend playing Powerwash Simulator on PS5 and PS4 with the casual gamer in your life.

Introduce your partner to gaming with Powerwash Simulator on PS4 and PS5

Powerwash Simulator is very suitable for new PS5 players

If you strip it to its bare essentials, Powerwash Simulator might still seem a little daunting in the eyes of true casual gamers. Sure, we can all agree it's a game about something relatable — cleaning stuff — and that it's hardly like that time you failed to sway your little cousin into trying Kingdom Hearts. Sure, we all think we can sway them with the presence of Disney's Donald and Goofy, but not even Disney can soften the one-two punch of a demanding action RPG that's also extremely Japanese. At least people know what they're in for here — a simulator of powerwashing, simple and clean.

For the casual gamer, Powerwash Simulator's biggest hurdle is that it's a 3D first-person shooter at its core. It certainly might be one of the best FPS games on PlayStation when it launches, but if you're not used to the genre, it can look from the offset like they've swapped out enemies in Call of Duty for stubborn grass stains. The casual gamer's first instinct might be to immediately shoot Powerwash Simulator down — but they really shouldn't worry.

Come on, it's a shooter.

Powerwash Simulator is one of the most inviting and accessible PS5 games around (or will be when it comes out), and that's thanks largely to an absence of pressure. Powerwash Simulator has no timers, deadlines, or scripted story events — you finish each level at your own pace, and you can still play other levels even if you didn't finish the one you started. If your partner or game-averse parent finds it difficult to twiddle with the analog sticks of a controller without feeling some sort of cosmic shame, it helps to be playing a game where there are no wrong answers. In Powerwash Simulator, dirt is everywhere — which means you simply can't miss it.

When I introduced my girlfriend to Powerwash Simulator, her having come from an intolerable life deprived of video games, one of the big hang-ups going into the game was a fear of gaining control in a 3D space. Having not trained herself from a young age to use analog sticks naturally, she found herself regularly oversteering the camera onscreen, making it tricky to powerwash with any precision. The easiest solution for this: go into the settings, and turn the camera sensitivity all the way down.

Before long, she was finding her turn speed a little too slow, so gradually we bumped the camera sensitivity back up until it was almost where it had started. She had certainly tried to play first-person 3D games with a controller before (apparently, one of the Modern Warfare games), but the chaos of first-person shooters completely overwhelmed her, and she struggled to adjust to moving the two analog sticks simultaneously. After a month, she expressed wanting to try something a little harder, so to spell it out: Powerwash Simulator is the kind of game that gets casual gamers into tougher games.

The potential of Powerwash Simulator.

Powerwash Simulator is one of the easiest games to share with others

The structure of Powerwash Simulator also makes it an easy PS5 and PS4 game to share with other players, and we're not even talking about the multiplayer. Yes, Powerwash Simulator has up to four-player multiplayer, but it's online-only. Seeing as we're talking about casual gamers here, it's a little unlikely they have their own personal gaming console — although it's great news if they do!

You'll need a copy of Powerwash Simulator each to go online, but Powerwash Simulator crossplay means you can play online with anyone who owns a copy on PS5, PS4, Xbox consoles, PC, or Nintendo Switch. The game is also currently available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass — good news if your friend(s) owns a decent PC or Xbox and doesn't want to buy the whole game. Connecting your games online and cleaning things together is the most direct way to share Powerwash Simulator with others.

Get the gang together.

Let's presume though that you only have one console to work with — in fact, let's go one step further and presume you only have one account to play Powerwash Simulator with, so you have to share the same save files. That's when the game's job structure comes in handy. Each cleanable location is listed in Powerwash Simulator like a job you can undertake for your imaginary powerwashing company. There is technically a story, complete with Powerwash Simulator lore that can be missed out if you play out of order, but we recommend not worrying about it, picking a job each, and then sticking to whichever jobs you call dibs on.

If you've ever shared a book of word search puzzles or something like that, you'll know what we mean by this — just split the game up between the two of you (or more, if you have that many casual gamers in your life) and play it that way. The game has plenty of locations to clean (at least over 20) plus vehicles, and there's more coming alongside the game's PS5 launch with the free Powerwash Simulator Tomb Raider DLC. Just don't be mad if your mother gets greedy and cleans your skate park job while you're not looking or something.

An example what jobs look like in game.

Of course, it would all be for nought if the game wasn't any good, so just to be clear, Powerwash Simulator is a remarkably good PS5 game and you should play it when it comes out. Cleaning things is fun, relaxing, addictive, and it helps that Powerwash Simulator provides you with lots of fun scenarios and options to mess around with to ensure you keep having fun with it. Let us know in the comments below if you're looking forward to playing one of the future best PS5 games with someone now that it's out.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), one eye on the past (PS Plus Premium, recent Sony news), and his secret third eye on the junk he really likes (Sonic Superstars, Final Fantasy XVI). Then he uses his big mouth to blurt out long-winded opinions about video games.