I've never purchased a PS2 Classic off of PSN until the other night because I have pretty much every PS2 game that I want in physical form along with a fully backwards-compatible 60GB PS3. As most of you probably know, the 60GB PS3 has the PS2's hardware included inside, so no emulation is used when loading up a PS2 disc.
I'm wondering if that's the case when playing a PS2 Classic off the HDD, however. For all other models of the PS3, PS2 Classics run via a software-emulated solution given the complete removal of the PS2 hardware. Most of the time this doesn't have any impact on the performance of PS2 Classic games downloaded from PSN, but I've heard of one exception that piqued my interest: Odin Sphere.
From what I've seen claimed both on GAF and elsewhere, people have reported that the PS2 Classic version of Odin Sphere doesn't suffer from the egregious slowdown of the original disc release. Some people purport that this is because it's actually the PAL version ISO, and in that version the slowdown was mostly fixed. I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, however, because the PS2 Classic version that I got from PSN just last night features the word bubbles that were only present in the NTSC release. They were replaced by subtitles in the PAL versions.
I previously owned an 80GB partially backwards-compatible PS3, which used a hybrid of hardware and software emulation. I noticed that the disc version of Odin Sphere ran perfectly on that machine, with zero slowdown and super-quick load times. I suspect that the game simply benefits from running off of an HDD with software emulation probably helping even further. So, I theorize that this is why people are claiming that the software-emulated PS2 Classic version of Odin Sphere runs much better than the original release.
BUT when loading it up last night expecting to be greeted to a flawlessly-running version of Odin Sphere, I noticed slowdown typical to the original release in the first few minutes. What is happening here? Do 60GB PS3's default to using their internal PS2 hardware for downloaded PS2 Classic games? I thought that it used software emulation for these regardless of PS3 model, but now I'm not so sure. People were swearing that the slowdown was gone in Odin Sphere, but it's definitely not on my PS3.
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Any insight into this matter would be greatly appreciated. I want to figure out whether or not I just wasted $10 double-dipping on a PS2 game that runs exactly the same as my physical copy.
I'm wondering if that's the case when playing a PS2 Classic off the HDD, however. For all other models of the PS3, PS2 Classics run via a software-emulated solution given the complete removal of the PS2 hardware. Most of the time this doesn't have any impact on the performance of PS2 Classic games downloaded from PSN, but I've heard of one exception that piqued my interest: Odin Sphere.
From what I've seen claimed both on GAF and elsewhere, people have reported that the PS2 Classic version of Odin Sphere doesn't suffer from the egregious slowdown of the original disc release. Some people purport that this is because it's actually the PAL version ISO, and in that version the slowdown was mostly fixed. I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, however, because the PS2 Classic version that I got from PSN just last night features the word bubbles that were only present in the NTSC release. They were replaced by subtitles in the PAL versions.
I previously owned an 80GB partially backwards-compatible PS3, which used a hybrid of hardware and software emulation. I noticed that the disc version of Odin Sphere ran perfectly on that machine, with zero slowdown and super-quick load times. I suspect that the game simply benefits from running off of an HDD with software emulation probably helping even further. So, I theorize that this is why people are claiming that the software-emulated PS2 Classic version of Odin Sphere runs much better than the original release.
BUT when loading it up last night expecting to be greeted to a flawlessly-running version of Odin Sphere, I noticed slowdown typical to the original release in the first few minutes. What is happening here? Do 60GB PS3's default to using their internal PS2 hardware for downloaded PS2 Classic games? I thought that it used software emulation for these regardless of PS3 model, but now I'm not so sure. People were swearing that the slowdown was gone in Odin Sphere, but it's definitely not on my PS3.
______________
Any insight into this matter would be greatly appreciated. I want to figure out whether or not I just wasted $10 double-dipping on a PS2 game that runs exactly the same as my physical copy.
