There are comparatively few worthwhile native games. Emulation is the ticket. I would focus on portable consoles - from GameBoy (mostly GBA) to PSP - since the design of titles for these systems is better suited to smaller screens and shorter play sessions.
How different is it from the predecessor in terms of gameplay? That one felt very derivative, a near carbon copy of the Ubisoft formula. I usually consider those games a guilty pleasure of mine, but HZD felt too repetitive and clunky. It’s a shame, because I really like the setting.
The PSP was a fantastic system for racing games, despite the lack of an analog throttle. If you want to get into this genre, this console is a great starting point:
Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast: Perhaps the best version of Outrun to date and an ideal game for people not that used to the genre. Easy to learn, hard to master. It’s gorgeous to look at, the arcade-style gameplay loop is perfect for a portable system and so much fun that you don’t really mind if you lose.
FlatOut: Head On: A very different take on the arcade racing genre. This one blends challenging stock car racing with over the top minigames that involve drivers being used as virtual bowling balls. It all makes sense, just try it out, if you don’t mind the generally high difficulty. Head On is a near 1:1 port of Flatout 2/Ultimate Carnage, just slightly simplified visually to run on the system.
Colin McRae Rally 2005 Plus: As the name implies, this is an ever so slightly reworked port of the PC and console game. It’s near 1:1, with only some modest visual downgrades. This is where Codemasters’ rally games peaked prior to Dirt Rally - and unlike Dirt Rally, which is a bonafide racing horror game, this title is accessible to players of all skill levels, with only players who are really into simulations being miffed about the lack of per-tire simulation. Career progression from modest FWD cars to spicy Group B monsters is absolutely exemplary and tracks are a delight, both visually and in terms of design.
WipeOut Pure: This might just be the best game in the series. Perfect controls, perfect track design, perfect career mode. The only flaw is that on original hardware, the frame rate isn’t always stable. I would highly recommend Pure as an entry into the series.
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge: One of those “concession games” for older systems as the new generation was already out, releasing for PS2 and PSP - but it’s actually more fun than the mainline games, at least in my opinion. It makes perfect use of the hardware, the vastly different vehicle classes and their strengths and weaknesses are tons of fun, just like in the mainline series, and the track design is wonderfully vertical. It also looks magnificent, which seems to be a trend among PSP racing games, now that I think of it. The developers were so confident in the tech of this title that they included a photo mode, which I don’t think all that many PSP games have.
Gran Turismo: Everyone expected this to be a mobile port of Gran Turismo 4, but it’s not. While it retains the presentation, large roster of licensed cars, real-world and fictional tracks and highly refined simcade driving physics, there is no conventional campaign. Instead, you create your own racing events and can only buy from a small selection of cars each virtual day. It’s an interesting concept. Do try it out just for the wow-factor of having a game this photorealistic on the PSP and perhaps stay for the fun you can create yourself. If you lack the creativity, people have created random event generators: sites.google.com/site/gtpspcampaigngenerator/ Gran Turismo is also to this day - and someone correct me if I’m wrong - the only mobile racing game that features a full 1:1 recreation of the iconic Nürburging, which alone makes it worth playing.
Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition: Classic Midnight Club on the go, but this time with customization. What’s not to love? Controls are so accurate, every other arcade racer will feel sluggish by comparison, it looks great (again), the cities are huge, there’s tons to do, it has just the right difficulty, challenging without being unfair and it perfectly encompasses this bygone era of early to mid 2000s street racing, even better than any Need for Speed of the time, in my opinion. Like all of the Midnight Club games, this one is also great for just randomly driving around without any goals in mind.
Test Drive Unlimited: Speaking of randomly driving around, this game represents perhaps the very peak of this idea. Shrinking down the entire island of Oahu at 1:1 scale with its real-world street layout (and some creative liberty in regards to buildings), this one is truly a miracle of optimization. The result may not be the prettiest racing game on the system, but the bouncy, responsive driving physics - which so closely mimic that of Gran Turismo 2 that I’m convinced they straight-up copied them - more than make up for any visual shortcomings. This also means that this cut down version of the 360/PS3/PC game (visuals, some vehicles and customization) is more fun to play than the big version, which has comparatively flat driving physics that straddle the line between arcade and simulation nowhere near as well. If you like the idea of living the idea of living the life on a Hawaiian island, buying homes and cars to fill their garages with, racing down long coastal straights and maneuvering through twisty mountain roads, then this might be right up your alley.
The game itself clearly doesn’t, going by the character creator. Some of the money made from it does end up in the hands of a virulent transphobe though, that’s true.
I’m a big fan of Indies as well and have been for far longer than the advent of the modern Indie game, but occasionally, I want to use that humongous RTX card for more than just machine learning and offline renders, indulge myself in the wasteful spectacle and grandeur of big AAA productions. Large open world games in particular are outstanding for virtual tourism. For all its faults, Hogwarts Legacy does provide this in spades.
Ah yes, the confusing world of ports that aren’t ports, but entirely different games. There were a number of those on PS2, especially late in the system’s lifespan, during the cross-gen days, when it was lucrative to cater to the huge existing install base.
On top of my head, Splinter Cell Double Agent was a completely different (and according to some, better) title on sixth compared to 7th gen consoles and PC, although I have played neither version myself.
Test Drive Unlimited on PS2 and PSP had the same enormous game world as the 360/PS3/PC-version, the entire island of Oahu at full scale, but ran on a different engine with very different driving physics, which feel bouncy and direct, nearly identical to Gran Turismo 2 of all games, making it more fun to play than the “next-gen” version, which attempted more realistic physics that feel flat by comparison however. I consider GT2 to be the peak of simcade driving physics and thus am a huge fan of this version’s driving physics as well. Graphics are obviously much worse than on seventh gen, customization features, game modes and many vehicles are missing and the GPS is buggy, but it is nonetheless a very interesting and enjoyable version. In my opinion, the visuals have actually aged rather nicely, on PS2 at least, where it even has pleasant-looking car reflections and surprisingly detailed interiors. It has a low-poly charm to it, with just the right amount of detail. Both versions are outstanding at just randomly going on a relaxing drive, since you’ll never run out of twisty roads to explore.
That was a good example. A bad, but fascinating one is the Alone in the Dark reboot. The next-gen version was by the same developer as the next-gen version of Test Drive Unlimited, Eden Games, an attempt at using the latest tech and tons of innovative and immersive mechanics as well as scale never seen before in a horror game. It didn’t work at all and fell flat at practically everything it tried, from physics to narration, not to mention, it manages to be a horror game that isn’t scary at all, except for the terrifyingly bad controls, but it’s a very interesting train wreck to behold. By comparison, the PS2 version, by a different studio, feels like a demake made by someone who got the rough outline of every scene over a bad telephone line and then tried to cobble something vaguely similar together in six to nine months on a budget of whatever was left from the catering bill of the developer of the costly next-gen version. Sometimes, it just uses screen-recordings of real-time cutscenes from the PS3/360 version. It’s awful to play, but also very interesting, especially next to the overambitious next-gen version.
Worth mentioning that almost every time, the PS2 is the worst platform for multiplatform titles, simply due to how weak the system was compared to both other consoles and contemporary PCs.
There are a small handful of exceptions. GTA San Andreas has complex lighting and effects (which took advantage of the unique hardware and were not possible on other systems at the time, not even PCs), as well as many details that are completely lost on every single other version. The downside is that the PS2 version has primitive shadows, poor frame rates, a low resolution and a very short draw distance. Thankfully, you can mod the PC version (which was actually downgraded even further several times over the years) to add in all of the missing effects and details, making it the best of both worlds. Don’t underestimate just how much of a difference this makes. The lighting alone turns this otherwise bland-looking title into a game that can provide surprisingly atmospheric and even stunning moments, despite the low poly count and low-res textures. The more recent remaster tries to unsuccessfully emulate this look, but I would stay away from it as far as possible.
Another example is Need for Speed Underground 2: Only the PS2 version has complex lighting and color-grading effects. They were never ported to other platforms, because just like with GTA SA, they were not technically possible elsewhere at the time.
If anyone knows more games this applies to, feel free to reply.
I should add that due to the low resolution of the system, it’s usually a far better idea to emulate PS2 games than to play them on native hardware. On PC, PCSX2 is the gold standard and on Android devices, AetherSX2 is near equivalent, provided you have a beefy enough phone or tablet (lower-end devices might struggle). This also makes it far easier to explore ROMhacks (or should we call them ISO-hacks?), like this upcoming one of Gran Turismo 4:
If you want to stick with original hardware, make sure to use a Component cable instead of Composite cable, if you aren’t already. The difference in image quality is massive, even if it’s rarely ever great due to the messy, highly aliased output of the system in in all but a small handful of titles.
There’s a spectrum among F2P games as well. There are games that are designed to coax the player into constantly spending increasing amounts of money by either inconveniencing them (wait times, slow or nonexistent progress) or by providing them with massive advantages against other players. Towards the softer side, there are titles that are solely selling cosmetic items - but they can be so incessant with it that people, especially kids, feel pressured into purchasing them, sometimes even out of peer pressure (see: Fortnite). Finally, the mildest kind are games that have a free mode that is little more than a demo, but you can make one-time purchases to permanently unlock more content, which isn’t too dissimilar to expansion packs of the olden days. Prime example for this: The Battle of Polytopia, a Civilization-lite. On mobile, you can permanently unlock more tribes and thus larger maps and multiplayer with very small one-time purchases.
Don’t be overdramatic. It’s a good game, certainly above average. Just because it’s not the game you expected it to be doesn’t make it terrible. This reminds me of the ridiculous hyperbole surrounding Cyberpunk 2077, that it was a terrible game, even “one of the worst games of all times”, because it wasn’t the second coming of Christ either, just a good RPG with teething issues.
That’s why Sega was so notorious for shutting down fan projects as well in the past (they have since softened their stance however, provided projects are non-commercial), although I don’t think it’s the entire story. Sony lost against the groundbreaking Bleem! emulator back in the PS1 days and I’m not aware of them being litigious in this regard since.
Epic pays flat fees, not per download or play. The latter two would be too risky and could be manipulated, whereas flat fees are safe and predictable. For a title as large as Control, they probably handed over to a few millions - or in other words, perhaps a couple of hours worth of Fortnite revenue.
Hi Fi Rush had 3 million players, including Game Pass. Starfield had over 12 million players, including Game Pass. It was one of the most successful releases last year, the single best selling game in the US the month it came out. That’s not what tanking looks like.