Digital Foundry says Sony's new PS2 emulator is disappointing

When the first wave of PS2 games arrived on the PS Plus service, emulation had numerous issues, from difficulties in changing the screen size to incompatibility between PAL and NTSC.

With the arrival of a new version of the original PS5 emulator, improvements were expected. In the latest analysis of Digital Foundry, the portal unfortunately points out that Sony's new PS2 emulator is just that “Another disappointing attempt”.

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After being used in games like Sly Cooper, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the new emulator still presents many of the problems found in the PS4 version, which have not been resolved after two years.

Digital Foundry says the PS5 emulator ends up presenting a problematic upscale version, making the image almost as blurry as the original game. The HUD elements are also far from perfect, as they have been stretched to fit the new size. Bugs still exist, such as some levels not playing background music.

“Given that third-party upscaling tools like RetroTink 4K can make the game look even better on native hardware, it's alarming to see how inaccurate the measurement is here on PS5 hardware.”The channel was suspended. PSP games are also problematic, with erratic frame rates

Ultimately, it's hard to accept Sony's efforts when the legacy hardware community has collectively solved a lot of the problems here — most notably developing a set of good upscaling methods and filters that you might want to use.

Since this knowledge is available in the legacy community – and no doubt also in the Sony offices – it seems that Sony simply does not want to waste time presenting its classic titles at their best. It's as if someone opened an emulator with default settings and just handed you control. Sure, you can play it, but wouldn't you rather have someone who knows and loves the game in question set it up properly?

Despite the issues, the emulator release for PS5 still brings some improvements. Some of the moments where crashes occurred on PS4 no longer occur on PS5, with games like Sly Cooper running at a steady 30fps.

The presence of native PS5 menus is also a welcome addition, as you can choose between the NTSC and PAL versions, customize the controls, rewind or save the game at any time.