When Sony announced that PlayStation 2 games would be playable on its latest console through the wonders of emulation, it stirred a sizeable portion of the gaming community. For me, as someone whose Facebook is largely free from the influence of game-related content, it was surprising to see the number of people chipping in on the topic, making PS2 emulation one of the social networks most talked about trends that week. Although some were more excitable than others, none of my friends could wait to dust off their shelves of decade old gaming goodness.
However, the dream of Sony simply allowing users to pop in old discs and relive their favourite titles on PlayStation 4 never came true. Sadly, what the company actually meant by emulation was a means for it and other publishers to repackage their ageing catalogue and sell them anew on the PlayStation Store. When the first wave of these enhanced PS2 games hit the digital store front there was a palpable sense of disappointment. Although keen to see the return of some PlayStation classics as well as some of the lesser known titles, their associated price tags left a bitter taste in the mouths of many, as they ranged from eight to twelve quid.
Despite being caught up in all the excitement, for me this put an early nail in the coffin for PS2 emulation. I don’t usually buy digital titles anyway, and to pay anything more than a fiver for a spruced up version of San Andreas of Twisted Metal Black just seems like throwing money away. Even some of the rarer PS2 games I have always been itching to play lost their appeal, with Rogue Galaxy being one of the more premium £11.99 offerings.
Dom thought more of less the same, having been eager to grab copies of Dark Cloud, Fantavision, and more. For him, the most he’d be willing to pay is four to five pounds for smaller PS2 games, with a couple of quid thrown on top for slightly bigger ones. Then again, Kris and Dave make the point that many of the big franchises from this era have been remastered on PS3 such as Metal Gear Solid, Ratchet & Clank, and God of War. Although even more expensive than their emulated counterparts, these updated versions have been given far more attention, with some going far beyond a simple visual top-up.
Tuffcub goes on to stress these points further:
Frankly I’m not all that interested, when you do go back and play PS2 games they look and sound ropey, and there are very few I would really want to play. None of the current crop of PS2 games are worth the money. A lot of the games I would really like to play again have already been ported to PS3, such as Resident Evil 4 and Kingdom Hearts, so I have no desire to buy them yet again.
That said, he would like to see some games make their way to PlayStation 4 via emulation. For one, he cites the lack of side-scrolling shoot ’em ups on the platform, calling for the return of R-Type Final. Secondly, there are hits such as Manhunt and The Suffering, though he fears that these won’t have aged well, even with a bit of polishing up.
Although miffed, I suppose that’s what is keeping me interested in the emulation line-up. There’s always the prospect of something incredibly obscure or offbeat turning up. If games like TimeSplitters 2 or X-Men: Legends were to suddenly turn up I’d have to seriously re-evaluate whether £10 is really a stupid price to pay. After all, it was games like these that really defined my childhood.
For all the negative things we’ve been saying about the PlayStation 4’s PS2 emulation, Teflon points out that the system has actually been doing a job in reviving older titles. Although PC emulators have been upping the resolution and frame rates of these games for a while now, the inclusion of trophy support as well Share functionality are smart tricks that definitely add value.
It seems that, for many, only time will tell whether PS2 emulation was worth all the initial hype. The two main obstacles are variety and price, though I suspect we’ll witness some sort of change within the next twelve months. Though some may call me cynical, I can definitely see Sony looking to inflate its monthly PlayStation Plus line-ups with emulated games, and in terms of the variety of games, this is something that will no doubt grow organically.
If so, it seems as though Dave has quite a few suggestions up his sleeve. Unlike the other staffers here at TheSixthAxis, pricing wasn’t a primary issue:
Honestly, the only thing that has been making it difficult to purchase any of the PS2 emulated games on PS4 has been the lineup. It’s full of games I either didn’t care too much about or games that I’d played to death on other systems.
If Dave ever got his way, he’d jump straight on under-rated hits like God Hand, as well as games like Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy XII, the Onimusha series, TimeSplitters 2, SMT: Persona 3 FES, and Katamari Damacy.
But where do you sit on the topic of PS2 emulated games? Are you eager to pick up classics and play them again, or have you been put off by the small selection and high pricing?
Crazy_Del
I have said this before and I’ll say it again….. I bought a PS4 for new games and not remasters or backwards compatibility
If I wanted to play old School games then I’d return to the PS1/2 which I still have and in working order. Got at least 50 Classics on the PS3 HDD maybe 30…. Don’t want old games to make an appereance on the PS4.
gazzagb
If they ported the right games, I’d buy them instantly. Battlefront 2 please!
ron_mcphatty
Oh yes. I’ve had a look for a used copy but it’s mental money now!
cam_manutd
Its not a bad option overall. I think people being too cynical underestimate the trickiness of backwards compatibility. The PS3 architecture did not evolve properly between the PS2 and 4 thus stands out like a black sheep. If the PS3 didn’t use Cell and was more like the 360, we would see bc with the PS3 not the PS2.
Having said that, the options available to players with those PS2 games is awesome. Share play, stream etc, rebindable controls (a godsend), upscaled 1080 graphics. Some are at a good price too. Rrogue Galaxy is cheaper than it is at CEX.
However, there are only a handful of games worth playing so far-Rogue Galaxy, Twisted Metal Black and Parappa The Rapper 2. Hopefully it involves to include some of the niche titles out there.
coruscant
I bought the Vader PS4 which came with the PS2 Star Wars games, and I must say I do like being able to play them on PS4 and earn trophies on them. I must say that I would probably not be willing to shell out money on PS2-on-PS4 games directly, as I don’t think it’s worth the prices. The one exception I would make to that is if they released Battlefront I & II, especially if they let you play online.
JR.
Not too fussed about bc on the ps4 full stop. Most PS1/PS2 games look awful on a hd tv and most of the games I would want to play have already been remastered on the PS3 and can be played on the Vita, where they look much better because of the smaller screen.
I still have a PS3 and there must be over 40 PSPlus games that ive never played. I keep meaning to go back and play them but I probably never will. I always choose to play the better looking PS4 games.
TSBonyman
With some of the best games getting HD remakes last gen, there really is only a handful of PS2 games left that i would like to revisit. I’m more likely to pick up a secondhand PS2 than buy into the approach Sony have taken with PS2 emulation but if Half-Life or The Getaway were to appear i might reconsider.
Devil2k
For me the PS2 emulation missed it’s mark. It’s not even the fact that you can’t use your own games which is just silly, but because now it just seems too little too late. PS2 is already 2 generations old and even though I think it was the best time of gaming ever, and the platform that spawned or refined countless amazing franchises, I now have no desire to play any of these games anymore. I used to… when we were on PS3, but now I completely lost interest.
Actually, since we have to pay for these “emulated” games so much, I would be more welcoming for more “remastered” HD Classic (if they were actually remastered and not just ported to 1080p).
Like someone above me said, emulation only really works one generation back. So as much as I was excited for playing my PS2 games on PS3 (which is why I was so tied to the launch 60 GB version), I would be super excited to play some PS3 games I missed on my PS4. Because why not?
And also – Jak & Daxter and MGS series, please port it to PS4 please? I completely missed them on PS3 and would love to play them again.
Paulo Vinicius Radtke
I wouldn’t mind paying for the right games. But the current lineup doesn’t interest me in the PS2 back in the day, no reason they’d set me on fire on the PS4. I’d play the classic shmups (Gradius V, R-Type Final, Castle Shikigami) and some other games (Viewtuful Joe and Gitaroo Man), if they were available. And I’d really hope the emulation was right. Playing Gradius V on the PS3 was a bad experience because of the constant slow down that wasn’t there in the original.
hazelam
i really don’t get the, they’re old so they’re crap, attitude.
i’ve spent over a hundred hours each in Final Fantasies VII and XII.
Okami was a masterpiece.
then there’s the likes of Rogue Galaxy, Dark Cloud and it’s sequel, Beyond Good and Evil.
to name a few.
just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s automatically no longer any good
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is still considered a masterpiece nearly 90 years after it was made.
the original Star Wars movies are considered some of the greatest movies today, in fact the versions with the old effects are preferred to the special editions with all new cgi effects.
anyway.
to the question at hand.
i get that they’ve added new features this time around, so if i was seeing things from their perspective, i could see why they’re charging for the game instead of letting us play them on disc.
but frankly, to hell with their side.
i might have been a bit more charitable if they hadn’t done the same thing with the plain bog standard emulation they did on PS3.
no special features there, just the exact same games emulated.
and even before they they decided to shit on eu customers by making us wait months for the machine so they could redesign it to take out some of the hardware used for BC.
and then spouted some bullshit about shortages.
yeah right, shortages, when they launched it with like a million fucking units in europe.
so we never actually got the option for a fully hardware bc enabled ps3.
so, no, it wasn’t worth it, in fact sony can shove their, sell you stuff you already own, version of bc up their fat arse.
that said, if they put Raw Danger up on the store i might consider buying, finding a pal copy of that for a non ludicrous prices in next to impossible.
freezebug2
Already picked up Vice City and if it bodes well, will likely go for the others in the series.
Would highly likely pick up GT3 and GT4 if they became available under the Emulation series for current gen….spesh with wheel support! ;)
Lambo_1989
Did you go for the uk store or usa store for vice city? Tempted myself but didn’t really want to make a second account to buy games off.
freezebug2
Picked it up from the UK PSN store for £11.99, even though I was staring at the original boxed classic in my bookcase of erm…classics!….well maybe that was the final prompt lol.
Hadn’t even thought of checking the pricing on the US store….maybe an oversight on my part :P