PS2 games which over performed and could pass as ps3 games?

[Amag0k1]

What ps2 games where developed so well that they where ahead of their time, pushing the hardware so hard, that they could pass for ps3 games or even hold up today?

For me, i think Final fantasy 12, Metal gear solid 2 and 3, Onimusha 2 and 3

 

[iamthemilkman]

Black's the only one I can think of. It was doing some pretty advanced things for a PS2 game.

 

[Amag0k1]

Black's the only one I can think of. It was doing some pretty advanced things for a PS2 game. View attachment 62602

This looks super impressive for a ps2 game, and makes me want to grab it just to have a look around in game. Another example of awesome programmer skill!

 

[Stare best girl]

Digital Devil Saga 2 and Xenosaga 3 are just Gamecube and OG Xbox games running on PS2

 

[Amag0k1]

Digital Devil Saga 2 and Xenosaga 3 are just Gamecube and OG Xbox games running on PS2View attachment 62621View attachment 62630

Very impressive stuff for the time for sure! And some of my all time favorite titles.

 

[Stare best girl]

Very impressive stuff for the time for sure! And some of my all time favorite titles.

I wonder what the hell happen with Persona 3 and 4 and Raidou games(well, they are low-budget games because Atlus started to reduce the production cost of their games just to give more money to SMT IMAGINE)

 

[Amag0k1]

I wonder what the hell happen with Persona 3 and 4 and Raidou games(well, they are low-budget games because Atlus started to reduce the production cost of their games just to give more money to SMT IMAGINE)View attachment 62631

Oh man, deep cut! i miss SMT Imagine, i used to love that MMO. And i will have you know what money they spent on it, was not enough! Towards the end, there was one admin and she was maintaining the whole game.

Beyond that, Raidou and Persona3 and 4 i still enjoyed, but i get what you mean, not the most graphically impressive.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Rogue Galaxy looks great as well as Onimusha 3 and Fatal Frame 2 and 3 are the few I could thunk of. Add to that the Ace Combat Games and the Gran Turismos.

 

[Stare best girl]

Oh man, deep cut! i miss SMT Imagine, i used to love that MMO. And i will have you know what money they spent on it, was not enough! Towards the end, there was one admin and she was maintaining the whole game.

Beyond that, Raidou and Persona3 and 4 i still enjoyed, but i get what you mean, not the most graphically impressive.

yeah, I enjoyed them but damn, it was a downgrade compared to Nocturne and DDS duology

 

[Frickinfrik]

Persona 4 and God of War 2. Possibly the first God of War as well.

 

[solnK!]

Persona 3 and 4, Shadow of the Collosus, and Zone of the Enders the 2nd runner

 

[nobitakun]

Ps2 had a bunch of games that were very impressive, like Jak & Daxter, Onimusha 3, Silent Hill 3, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII, Auto Modellista or Tekken 5. I believe if you replace the textures with 720p resolution / textures those games could look like early PS3 games for sure, like the screenshot of Xenosaga.

 

[solidbatman]

i feel like almost none would really simply because ps3 era games had this weird clay-like appearance for many characters that I can't think of existing really for the PS2. Maybe if you remove foliage and characters and examine just background environments (scenery in the distance) then you could have some good points of comparison.

many ps2 games that we say hold up today tend to have a film grain effect thingy going on, or have such a strong artistic identity that is covers for the lack of high res models and textures, something that i think was kind of rare during ps3 era.

Passing as a PS3 game and holding up today are two very different things imo.

 

[Amag0k1]

Persona 3 and 4, Shadow of the Collosus, and Zone of the Enders the 2nd runner

I think ZoE 2 could be done with cut downs, but that game in my view pushed the ps2 hardware, so it would not be like for like by no means. Heck, if Koji pro bothered with the DC, i wonder what his team could have achieved.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

There’s very little difference in graphics between PS2 and PS3 tbh.
Only the more budget stuff has the dreaded “PS2 graphics”

That said, you could easily say Nocturne was a PS3 game and convince most people

 

[Creature667]

Black's the only one I can think of. It was doing some pretty advanced things for a PS2 game. View attachment 62602

Definitely Black... I was managing a Game Crazy at the time when that gem of an FPS dropped and I damn near had to leave work early for soiling myself. lmao. In fact, thinking back to it, with the level of detail that Black was able to achieve, I think Vicarious Visions could have figured a way to isolate the dynamic lighting to just reflecting off the environments and ported a slightly more graphically scaled down version of Doom 3 to the PS2. Then again, I'm not well versed in the technical abilities of the PS2 vs what is necessary to handle what Carmack was able to achieve with the lighting at the time. I've seen some pretty amazing things done through software rendering over various consoles through the years though, so who knows? Worst case scenario, a port of Doom 3 to the PS2 might have ended up just as muddy as the Doom 3 based IoS rail shooter, Doom Resurrection. But to it's credit, that IoS title didn't look too bad considering that it's mobile tech from around 2012, just 6 years after the PC and Xbox release. So, perhaps PS2 could have pulled off a pretty sick port of DOOM 3?

Aside from Black being a showstopper, the only other title I can really say impressed me on a similar level wasn't so much what it achieved graphically, but what it achieved in general. Neversoft's GUN, which was Red Dead Redemption before RDR was even a glint in Rockstars eye. Some others that were impressive as well were Primal (if anyone remembers that cult classic) as well as the God of War titles. Though while impressive enough to possibly be mistaken for PS3 titles by the uninitiated, I personally don't feel like they hold up to that level under any informed scrutiny.

 

[Doc X]

G-Force.
It was released pretty late in the console's life but always looked fantastic for a PS2 movie tie-in game:

 

[Creature667]

This looks super impressive for a ps2 game, and makes me want to grab it just to have a look around in game. Another example of awesome programmer skill!

If for whatever reason you don't have a PS2, there is a digital copy of the OG Xbox port of Black available on the Xbox store. And to my recollection there is virtually no difference graphically even though the Xbox was significantly more powerful than the PS2. The game still impresses me all these years later with what it was able to pull off with the hardware limits of the time.