I’m putting a lot of my old games on my steam deck by buying their PC ports whenever they go on sale.
It got me wondering, is anyone aware of games where it’s actually better to run the console version through an emulator than play the native PC version?
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Both Tales of Symphonia and Chrono Cross got abysmal PC ports.
Playing the originals in an emulator is definitely a much better experience
Chrono cross had a PC port?!
Looks like there is a recent port on steam.
Yeah I fell for that Symphonia port. Big sadge.
It’s apparently gotten better with updates, but I’ve not tried it in awhile and I’d rather just emulate it.
i vaguely recall the retail box version of silent hill 2 or 3 for PC being not all that amazing, and later emulating the Ps2 version was a better option, not to mention the easiest option since both games for PC are not common finds. then again the PC I played Silent hill 2 on wasn’t all that beefy at the time.
maybe any games that originally were for console ported to PC with Denuvo hit this criteria. interesting question!
Silent Hill 2 is a special case. They lost the source code and original asset library for the game, so it’s a remake using assets ripped from the PS2 release copy.
A very, very poorly done and buggy remake that was also underfunded and rushed out the door.
Thanks for jogging my memory! I completely forgot about that core fact 😓.
Final Fantasy VII. The PC port is kinda bad and PSX emulators are very very good.
I’ll add FFVIII since the controls are better on PSX. If I remember correctly they lost the source code. In PC you can only move the character in 4 directions or maybe 8, but on psx they can move in full 360 degrees.
VIII’s especially egregious. They should remake it instead of IX purely because it’s the PSX version or a bad port.
This is what I came here to respond. If I recall, there are some good hi-res mods for the PSX emulated versions.
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Holy shit, I have not heard that name in many years. Definitely a +1 for reminding me of all the fun I used to have in this title
Sometimes the controls are just better on the Emulators at least on older PC ports as they would do dumb stuff like require a mouse / keyboard for menus etc.
On the steam deck in particular when getting steam versions of games with lower steam deck compatibility ratings it often comes down to odd menu issues or controller support.
Persona 3 Portable
I bought Rayman 2 on GOG a few years ago, and it had a hard time recognizing controllers. I even tried launching it through Steam, which usually fixes all controller problems, but it still didn’t work. The Dreamcast version still looks good enough, and your controller will definitely work.
Due to licensing issues, Crazy Taxi 2 has a different soundtrack on the PC from the original Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version is the one with The Offspring.
Sonic 3 has also had music licensing issues, so the version included in Sonic Origins has a different soundtrack. Sonic Origins was also buggy at launch, but I hear that’s fixed now. Sonic Origins also adds a bunch of new features though, so this one may be a tossup.
Question for y’all: did anyone buy the recent PC port of Metal Gear Solid 2? It seems to have both a lot of praise and a lot of complaints.
The console and PC versions of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter are entirely different games, and personally I think the console version is more fun. It emulatable.
How has nobody mentioned Sonic Colors yet?
i would recon this is true more often than not for attempts at 1:1 ports. glitches are more often introduced than fixed in the porting process, so if it isn’t deliberately a remaster or offers extra content, you’re probably better off with the original in an emulator. if you’re interested in mods, it’s also worth thinking about where the reverse engineering efforts have been focused- a lot of native PC ports have been picked apart and put back together with bugfixes and new content after the fact
sonic adventure is an example of all of the above. if you want the absolute worst version possible, just buy it off steam. if you want the best version possible, buy it off steam and mod the shit out of it. fan efforts to fix an abysmal port of a port ended up creating an experience that arguably surpasses the original before even getting into all the extra bells and whistles you can mod in
fan ports are also increasingly becoming a thing, so i guess the moral of the story is this: as far as official offerings go, emulation is probably going to be better than a native port, but if a game has enough enthusiastic hackers, then they may have frankensteined something even better together
Extreme G 2 on pc loses the analog steering from N64, which turns out is a big deal. Throwback Entertainment made a port-of-a-port and introduced a speed hack in the launcher menu where you can slow down the game a bit, which helps, but doesn’t fix the issue.
In some other cases like Hexen, there were alterations on console that I find generally more appealing, like an ost remaster or lighting effects.
The Genesis game Zero Tolerance and Dreamcast version of Expendable are games I prefer on console simply because of the control schemes on pc.
Never thought I’d hear someone say anything good about Zero Tolerance’s controls…
Now imagine that, but on a keyboard. No mouse. That’s pc controls for ZT
Spider-Man 2 (the Sam Rami movie one) is almost a totally different game.
There is also a ton of between-consoles differences from the SNES/Genesis generation, where games with the same title are sometimes radically different. Jurassic Park, Star Trek TNG, and the Power Rangers brawler come to mind.
I always preferred the SNES version of SimCity to the original PC version. The graphics and music are way better and the gameplay is exactly the same.
Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 (and their console remasters, DX and Battle).
Mods fix them up and make them better than emulation though.
Wait, is there a SA Mod Manager type of thing / installer / recommended mods for Sonic Adventure 2?? Is the Steam version any good (compared to the Dreamcast version)? Or does it have all the colors wrong and audio messed up?
