Emulating PS2 for my Steam Deck, would love any recommendations!
-
I herd they are remastering it. Hope so.
-
Some good ones that are not yet mentioned
- Ribbit King is Golf game with frogs for balls which get strategically shot around a map littered with bonuses and obstacles. Players alternate shots and try to have the most points after both players reach the hole. It's extremely cute and great local multi-player fodder
- Stuntman is tough as nails. You are a Hollywood stuntman pulling off increasingly complex stunts for movies being filmed. At the end of each shoot you get to see the movie trailer filled with clips of your own driving.
- Black is a big dumb loud shooter, and it has zero reservations or shame in that. That's what makes it so much fun to play
- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is excellent 3D brawling. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is excellent 3D brawling with co-op
- Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is a 3rd person shooter where you have guns and psychic powers you use in and out of combat.
-
All the GTA games (GTA III, GTA VC, GTA SA, GTA LCS, GTA VCS). There are some good Need for Speed games too, and a bunch of great Tony Hawk games. TimeSplitters, SOCOM, and Red Faction are great too.
-
Fuck yeah, making rocket tunnels connect from across the map.
-
Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle in EU) and Legaia 2:Duel Saga are my go to ps2 games.
-
Future Tactics: The Uprising
its a turn based shooter.
-
Fucking teeth gritted the entire time. I thought I was living on the edge.
-
How's PCSX2 performance on the Deck? I somehow get much better performance on my Ryzen 5 4500U laptop than I do on my Ally and that makes absolutely no fucking sense.
-
I don't have a steam deck but I bet Ape Escape would be the perfect series to play on it!
-
It's perfect!
Performance is tied to framerate, or at least was a loooong time ago. I notice a lot of users on EmuDeck write about this. Like...a lot! Not your issue, but I read a lot who think the game is playing in super slo-mo, but this is all tied to the framerate. Keep it at 60 Hz or above, and all is fine.
PCSX2 has a huge range of tweaks you can make, but there's also HD texture 'packs' you can download and apply, which re-do all the textures (yeah, I know you guessed that). Some of these can be huge like Silent Hill 2's coming in at 29GB, and some can be teeny-tiny like MGS2's which only re-textures the HUD and menu (because PCSX2 can upscale the native game's resolution well enough on its own!)
Long reply, for me to say it performs perfectly for me!
-
It was never lost!
-
Going Mobile from 2005? That was surprisingly fun. Apparently you can still find it as a JAR file and play it using a Java emulator.
https://ratchetandclank.fandom.com/wiki/Ratchet_%26_Clank:_Going_Mobile
-
Gitaroo Man
A unique rhythm game with a phenomenal soundtrack.
-
It's not perfect. Most games emulate absolutely fine, with only minor slowdown. One game I can point to which absolutely does not work fast enough to play is The Getaway which gets about 6 fps.
-
Hmmm, maybe you should try your resolution and texture settings, I've had not one issue playing games, no slowdowns for me.
But, never say never!
-
Final Fantasy X unless you want to do the HD remaster, which is a great way to play tbh.
Yeah, I’d argue that the HD PC port is actually the definitive way to play the game. They fucked up Tidus’ face, but virtually everything else about the game is better. And you can just install a mod to change his face back to the way it used to be.
-
Arc the lad 2 twilight of spirits is a cult classic
-
The first three Ratchet and Clank games (R&C, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal) were phenomenal. The first feels dated by today’s standards, but 2 and 3 are peak. Deadlocked is a divisive entry; Some players loved it, others hated it. Try it first yourself and see. It’s definitely different than the first 3 games.
Final Fantasy X has already been mentioned in the thread, but I’d suggest trying the PC HD remaster instead. It adds a lot of quality of life improvements.
Final Fantasy XII wasn’t well received at launch, and I initially agreed. But that was largely because it didn’t fit into my idea of what a Final Fantasy game should be. I gave it another try a few years ago with a more open mind, and ended up loving it. The gambit system seems basic at first, but eventually opens up into a very versatile system once you start unlocking new gambit combos for it. The Zodiac version is the definitive version, (it enforces a rigid job system, where each character is locked into a specific ability tree) but the original is still alright too.
If you enjoy the Castlevania series, Curse of Darkness is an interesting entry. It features Hector, who has the ability to summon creatures to fight alongside him. They level up based on which weapons you use in combat, so it encourages you to diversify your play style to level up your creatures in specific ways. The gameplay can initially feel clunky by today’s standards, but that’s true of most 3D hack-n-slash games from that era.
Speaking of clunky hack-n-slash games, I see you already have Kingdom Hearts 2. Do yourself a favor, and play the other games (KH1, then KH Re:Chain of Memories) first. CoM has some radically different gameplay, which many players hated. It seems like one you can skip… You can’t. You will be horribly confused for the rest of the series without it. At the very least, go watch the cutscenes on YouTube. In terms of gameplay, KH1 feels janky by today’s standards. CoM is very different. KH2 is where the series really hit its peak.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening. It’s a prequel, so you don’t need to play 1 or 2 first.
Metal Gear Solid. Play 3 (Snake Eater), 1, and 2 (Sons of Liberty) in that order. Snake Eater is an early prequel. Then 1 is on the PS1. Sons of Liberty is the direct sequel to 1.
GTA: San Andreas.
-
Silent Hill 2
-
I only read it somewhere since I only played the game on PC way back.
Supposedly, the PS2 version suffers from slowdown/FPS dips.
