Google … or Gemini …says:
To disable automatic game updates on a PS5, navigate to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Automatic Updates and turn off both “Auto-Download” and “Auto-Install”. This will prevent the console from automatically downloading and installing game updates when they become available.
Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I understand, it’s quite a thing to get started. 
No time for this right now unfortunately. I did however get a chance for some multiplayer on Saturday and it was a great session. No issues, just fun.
The Generation Zero online community is one of the most positive and respectful I’ve come across yet. There’s something about the game that really seems to attract good-natured, thoughtful players😁
I guess, it’s a matter of our generations. It doesn’t just attract us. It let us stay.
I feel most of the younger players already moved on to other titles. That could be the reason why some less positive and respectful members haven’t been active here for a while…
I completely agree, the pace, atmosphere and even 80s setting of Generation Zero seem to resonate with the more mature players. It rewards patience and attention to detail, which doesn’t always appeal to younger players. There’s a perseverance and appreciation for detail that the game rewards, and that’s often not what younger players are looking for. The kinds of discussions we have here too about lore, locations, mechanic’s etc just don’t seem to hold their interest in the same way. Most tend to move on quickly; though saying that I have met a few in their twenties who’ve really surprised me with a thoughtful, even philosophical take on the game. It’s refreshing to see!
It is a pity then, if “our generation” doesn’t represent a market of sufficient size to make a game like GZ profitable. I agree with your thoughts about this being a generation thing, but I think that the studio tried to accommodate a larger audience through polls on what the players wanted from the game. They have to make the development rentable so that makes perfect sense.
But perhaps the game then becomes more like a patchwork of features instead of following an initial design concept and carry it through to the end. It would have been fun to imaging what the game would have been like without these (what I assume to be) compromises.
I was 2 years and 1 month old when the 1980’s ended, but I still feel nostalgic towards that decade! 
I didn’t try to play old GZ, but I once had started a new game on steam.
Now with a better Laptop I started to continue to play on PC.
Some of my observations so far compared to my first start years ago… I’m currently doing the first missions on vesslan bunker:
I’m sick of getting so much of everything. I already have so much ammo for every gun I own… That’s sick.
I remember, especially for 7.62 and .243, they were quite rare at the start. Same for rockets.
I can never run out off health. I already have about 200 simple, 50 Standard, 10 advanced first aid Kits and 15 adrenaline. I can’t remember ever to have so much this early.
There are more enemies. Not just groups of maybe 3 runners as it was before… Sometimes there up to 12 in a group, partly Prototype, partly Military.
And, I already have 6 high leveled rivals in archepelago region. I never had so many there!
Oh, I’m currently lvl 7 so far.
Edit:
One thing I noticed… Just once, but it happened:
I had no möller in my inventory, but I still got .32 acp from a box somewhere. That shouldn’t have been possible.
So that’s how u upgrade storage. I’ve wondered why I can’t get More storage back then
Lvl9 now.
I’m standing at the safehouse before Måsskär, haven’t been further north than the church, yet… So my meetup with the first tank and harvester is close.
I’m armed and prepared.
A 2c AG4, 2c HP5 with about 3000 bullets each, a 2c Meusser with 500 rounds, 2c 12G with about 1000 shots, a 2c klauke with hundreds of bullets and a 1c Granatgevär with about 50 rockets.
250 simple, 75 Standard, 30 advanced first aid kits and about 25 adrenaline shots are ready.
1c Älgstudsare, 2c möller, 3c kpist, 1c AG5, 1c Magnus, 1c Ai76, 2c bat are there, too.
Just the pvg and the two LMGs are missing, aren’t they?
(Btw Inventory+Plundra)
Hey, again, I haven’t even met the first tank and harvester yet, already killed 5 rivals and I’m armed to the teeth.
That’s crazy. Btw. I don’t have any dlc on steam, so it could be even more crazy.
Where is the original feeling? 
Edit: forgot the sjöqvist and the sledgehammer, but after visiting Måsskär I got a 1c sjöqvist, a 1c sledge and a 2c pvg, so just the two LMGs are missing in my armory… And I still didn’t leave archepelago. (And remember that the two LMGs were introduced at the time of Alpine Unrest dlc.
Not sure if anyone can get the same feeling again after being a experienced player for years now.
You might wanna try one of the early updates of GZ on Steam, maybe that will bring back the feeling you are searching for.
No, thx, I’m fine.
It’s just again the question, if no one of who is responsible for these changes ever tested it.
I’m fine with the changed introduction, with Therese and pontus. They give the game more depth somehow. Yes, we’re not totally alone any more, but we’re still on our own. And those two have the same questions we have.
But I can’t really imagine how it makes sense to give us access to almost everything just in the first region. I’m lvl10 now, have every weapon except of two, a motorbike and a companion and I could have even more (weapons and items) if I would own all the dlcs on steam.
Crafting is a thing, which isn’t a thing in early game and doesn’t matter that much currently because you find so much of everything except some certain ressources which you need for crafting.
Exploration isn’t as rewarding any more, too. Yes, you still may find for example some weapons in the world which can be better than what you already got, but most is scrap. There are no receips in the world any more which give you immediate access to a special type of ammo or similar…
Just some useless collectables for the completionists.
But loot in general always is the same shit and just depends on what you already carry, not what you really need or don’t already have that much.
For example I found a 1c Älgstudsare. I just had a hand füll of bullets in it so it was quite useless… Besides of that my 2c Meusser already was stronger. But to be prepared to switch the weapon if I find a better version of the gun (hoard some ammo for it) I have to carry the gun with me… And it’s not the only one.
That’s not well balanced which let’s me think that no one really tested it for logic, balancing and so on… Maybe just for if it works or has bugs.
And that’s sad.
Looting has bothered me for quite a while, actually. And for the reasons you mention, @Madchaser . It slowly became a “duty” to open these crates and bagpacks just to discover … well, nothing and the occasional adrenaline. And its funny, because when they introduced the Semla - nothing fancy or exceptional - it just worked. It was something new and refreshing.
It is sad that they didn’t do something similar to looting like adding small surprises like trinkets, badges, toys, notes, etc. It breaks the monotomy of the game IMHO.
Looting has become just a way to refill some certain ammo or items.
Need some 7.62? Put a weapon with 7.62 in your inventory and open some ammo boxes.
Need flares or repair kits? Open some tool boxes.
Need some simple or standard first aid kits? …
It’s always the same and usually nothing surprising.
Attachments or weapons are the only surprises from time to time, in weapon boxes where you can expect them to be, or in machine loot.
But there are too few different items that you can get and most times they are not better than what you already have.
So most of them end as recycled materials which you can use for crafting.
So finally the focus just turned on crafting instead of rewarding exploration and that sounds lazy.
When the game came out it was so much harder to get good guns and ammo. Trading even used to be a somewhat popular thing because high tier guns were so rare. And back then it was a bit more of a horror game too, so people didn’t go around grinding tanks for loot like we do now, and most players preferred to do as many missions as stealth as they possibly could, which meant less loot, which made the game harder and a lot more fun. It also made it more intense when you did have to fight. It’s a bit of a shame how the game has kind of lost its balance with looting now.
I was 24.
My group of friends still game regularly online and still actively enjoy pen and paper RPG’s etc.
Right now Helldivers 2 is our preferred game, but I am back to GZ multiplayer with another mate. Very happy with that.
Hi @dogcoffee , if you’re still playing, could I ask you to do me a favor? Please go to the campsite at the very top of of the main mountain in the mountain region, and check if you can light the campfire.
It is the only fire, I’ve ever been able to light, and I wonder if it was initially intended to be so for all campfires. However, next time I visited, I couldn’t light it again, and I never got confirmation from others, that they could light it (as I remember).
Maybe just a feature for the final scene of showdown update?
Never heard that before, too, nor tried it.