Ok, so the PS4 got a few PS2 games that were running under emulation a few years back.
This emulation has a number of improvements over the original consoles, like trophy support, higher resolutions, better framerate and the like.
Here's a Digital Foundry video about the PS2 emulator on PS4:
However, even with these improvements, I've felt that the emulator was pretty lackluster, all things considered:
- Even with higher resolution, the games seem to only go up to 720p, instead of 1080p;
- Noticeable Input Lag for me;
- Some occasional stuttering (Probably due to these games running at 59.99fps instead of 60);
- Some very noticeable glitches compared to the original versions if you look for them.
But nothing really made me as sad as the lack of games for this service. The amount of PS2 games released is pretty low and for the longest time, I thought that Sony just didn't want to put in the effort for these games.
Well, earlier this year, Ace Combat 5 was released on the PS4 only as an early purchase bonus for Ace Combat 7, and surprisingly enough, it seems to use an updated version of the emulator:
- 1080p graphics (Wish it was 4K on Pro, tho);
- No noticeable Input Lag on my part;
- No stuttering;
- It's also using higher quality assets compared to the PS2 version (Very noticeable with text).
It's a way superior emulator compared to the previous version. And quite frankly, I don't get it.
Why just this one game that you can't even buy on the PS Store? How come they didn't even update the previous PS2 games to use this newer emulator? How come no newer were released? I don't understand why they put this extra effort into this one game.
Sure, if you were to ask me one PS2 game to put this extra effort, I would probably say Ace Combat 5. I still think it's one of the PS2 greats.
But with recent PS5 news, this really strikes me as extra odd. I can only hope they have more plans for the emulator on next-gen.
This emulation has a number of improvements over the original consoles, like trophy support, higher resolutions, better framerate and the like.
Here's a Digital Foundry video about the PS2 emulator on PS4:
However, even with these improvements, I've felt that the emulator was pretty lackluster, all things considered:
- Even with higher resolution, the games seem to only go up to 720p, instead of 1080p;
- Noticeable Input Lag for me;
- Some occasional stuttering (Probably due to these games running at 59.99fps instead of 60);
- Some very noticeable glitches compared to the original versions if you look for them.
But nothing really made me as sad as the lack of games for this service. The amount of PS2 games released is pretty low and for the longest time, I thought that Sony just didn't want to put in the effort for these games.
Well, earlier this year, Ace Combat 5 was released on the PS4 only as an early purchase bonus for Ace Combat 7, and surprisingly enough, it seems to use an updated version of the emulator:
- 1080p graphics (Wish it was 4K on Pro, tho);
- No noticeable Input Lag on my part;
- No stuttering;
- It's also using higher quality assets compared to the PS2 version (Very noticeable with text).
It's a way superior emulator compared to the previous version. And quite frankly, I don't get it.
Why just this one game that you can't even buy on the PS Store? How come they didn't even update the previous PS2 games to use this newer emulator? How come no newer were released? I don't understand why they put this extra effort into this one game.
Sure, if you were to ask me one PS2 game to put this extra effort, I would probably say Ace Combat 5. I still think it's one of the PS2 greats.
But with recent PS5 news, this really strikes me as extra odd. I can only hope they have more plans for the emulator on next-gen.
