PCSX2 Reveals Huge Improvements in First Update in Four Years

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The latest version of PCSX2 should let you hop back into classic PS2 titles with little to no issue

PCSX2, one of the few major Playstation 2 emulators out there has had its first major update in four years. With this monumental update comes numerous improvements that make games that were essentially unplayable just the opposite. If not that, software fixes have given some PS2 classics better graphics or resolutions than they originally had.

If you want, you can go through the numerous changes added to PCSX2, although you probably don’t want to. It’s laden with heavy programming jargon that your average layman won’t really understand (I.E, me). To understand what the latest version of PCSX2 brings, it’s better to simply see it in action.

As you can see below, the fixes range from huge graphical glitches to simply enabling shadows in a game. And although these may seem like small issues, resolving them takes a massive effort. It’s important to keep that in mind when thinking about the unpaid teams that make emulating old titles like this possible. PCSX2, like many other emulators, is a passion project. That, combined with the work that has to go into getting the smallest things fixed, could explain the four-year-gap between releases.

But the work being done by the PCSX2 team, along with teams for other emulators, carries more importance than just letting us go on nostalgia trips. It’s an often looked over part of gaming, that without, we would have little knowledge of our hobby’s history: digital archival. If you’ve ever emulated a title, you’ve already benefited from it.

As time goes by and technology gets more advanced, we leave behind the software and hardware of previous generations. However, for gaming, that older software is a font of history and knowledge, old games that carry more than just nostalgia. Playing these games is now getting harder and harder as backwards compatibility becomes limited to only some titles, or games are made unavailable entirely, locked in the vault of some developer or publisher.

That’s where the importance of projects like PCSX2 come in. They allow us to play games that may not otherwise be available. And as the years tick away, their job will only be more important.