Gaming thoughts of the day

[Bluecast]

I can forgive some bad controls sometimes. Really depends on other factors in the game if they make up for it. Tho I'm sure Dorian and hell me and a few of us have bashed a certain game for it's controls then have a total bias for a game we love and has it's own issues. Also in the 90's you gotta remember PSone was getting like 40-60 new games per month at times.tho most the time was maybe around 20-30. Not even joking. So good or bad controls many games got overlooked in that era.

[Riku Rose]

I tried play the original Silent Hill about a week ago but the controls put me off big time. People always say how the controls add to the scary experience but I just found them annoying. I'm all for making things difficult but there is a difference between difficult and annoying.

[Kenny]

It's a good point. I personally haven't played anything I'd really consider "unplayable," but then I still haven't played Superman 64.
Either way, my point was more about some games having alternate qualities that make them worthwhile, such as a particularly interesting story or atmosphere, or some manner of expressive intent. A game like Superman 64 doesn't exactly succeed in anything like that, far as I can gather, so it's not unreasonable to just qualify it as a bad game.

Superman 64's flight segments in open spaces are actually the only playable thing in it. Anything dealing with picking things, fighting, or flying in doors are a nightmare. They fixed alot of that in Superman Returns (but it didn't prevent that game from being boring).

As far as anything dealing with a lush atmosphere or story, I never experienced really bad interactivity issues. Any bad interaction stuff is mostly yester-year, I bet they play test the fuck out of these things to make them bearable now. Then it's all nit-picky once they get to the consumer market.

[Spokane]

Even as a 8 or 9 year old I could tell Superman for the 64 was bad and I didn't notice things like that as much back then. It's crappiness has stayed with me all this time.

Edit: Thankfully it was just a rental and my brother didn't buy it.

[Dorian]

I can't believe people are still playing with shitty PSX emulation via various PCSX recoding projects.

Just look at how fucking horrible PSX games actually look with all those "advanced" effects:

[Bluecast]

^ I fucking love Virtua Racing.....wait...

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Considering how "fucking horrible" a lot of non-RPG PS1 games look these days, surely it's an improvement?

[Dorian]

Considering how "fucking horrible" a lot of non-RPG PS1 games look these days, surely it's an improvement?

Nope. PSX games look the best via the PSX hardware/official Sony emulation on CRT TVs. All these GPU plugins for various PSX emulators only make those games look much worse by intensifying simplicity of the PSX graphics. Plus, many PSX games use pre-rendered backgrounds and/or HUDs and those will always look unbearable when scaling of any kind is used.

[Bluecast]

I have to agree with Dorian. They look better on the PSone

[Dorian]

There are things you can't fix when using such emulation. Like 3D object's placement in games with pre-rendered backgrounds:



(PSX) Emulation is just too troublesome in most cases. Of course, if you don't care about proper graphics, then you can enjoy it, but that's kinda sick IMO. It's like butchering of games.

[Kenny]

I love the look on the original console too but I also love playing some games on emulation, particularly the N64 games.

Mario 64 is too awesome in high-res. Plus I have an adapter that allows me to play it with my N64 controller. Total bliss. But for other games like Turok, it just exposes them for the really ugly empty games they really are. They're better when hidden behind fog and muddy textures.

[MiTT3NZ]

Considering how "fucking horrible" a lot of non-RPG PS1 games look these days, surely it's an improvement?

Nope. PSX games look the best via the PSX hardware/official Sony emulation on CRT TVs. All these GPU plugins for various PSX emulators only make those games look much worse by intensifying simplicity of the PSX graphics. Plus, many PSX games use pre-rendered backgrounds and/or HUDs and those will always look unbearable when scaling of any kind is used.

I'm half in agreement here on both quotes. The emulators do tend to go overboard, but many older games benefit from improved resolution, but only slight increases. Best example is Zelda: OoT & MM on the Gamecube. The screenshots Dorian posted just make the games look awful though.

Has anyone checked out the PC re-release of FF VII btw?

[Dorian]

I'm referring strictly to the PSX emulation.

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Was aware of the pre-rendered issue, hence the no comment about the RE3 shot. The Colin McRae Rally screenshot though, that game looks REALLY bad now. Even the first Gran Turismo game, which was probably the best looking (actual 3D) game on the PS1, looks really bad and dated now. CMR wasn't really an "artistic" game either, was actually pretty barren and basic, so there is no "mood" to be lost really with the jazzed up emu graphics?

(Though GT was fairly artistic and had pleasing colours as far as racing games go)

[Dorian]

PSX software really isn't good when using upscaling, smoothing and other graphical effects typical for emulators.

Even fully-3D PSX games will look like shit when using these "enhancing" emulators (mainly PCSX in its various forms). Why? Because such PSX games look too barren and blocky in high res and the advanced filters only underline their weak sides.

Not to even mention a lot of small bugs that rear their ugly heads deep into the experience...

I pray that my PSX won't crap out on me as I can't afford a new one in this shitty life situation.