Metal Gear Solid - Dreamcast Vs. PlayStation 2

Post by **kevinski** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 pm

I recently posted a comparision video between Metal Gear Solid played on Dreamcast (through bleemcast!) and the same game being played on PlayStation 2 with texture smoothing enabled. Just thought that you guys might enjoy it.

Post by **GSZX1337** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:00 am

You know the PS2 doesn't really enhance the quality of the game visuals much, right? Bleem enhances the game visuals.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:52 am

Youtube doesn't really allow the truth to come out, being low resolution and all. Fact is, the game was a disaster on bleemcast. Yes the resolution was doubled, but the positives absolutely stop there. The higher resolution actually made a lot of things look worse, such as the infrared scanlines being unevenly laid out. Texture filtering did nothing but make the game ugly, as it does on almost all PS1 games. The textures just weren't MADE to be filtered. To this day, I still refrain from enabling it in ePSXe, because it simply ruins the graphics. It also smeared all the fonts, making them hard to read. There were also tons of emulation glitches, mostly in the audio. There was always traces of static in the speech and the music and sound effects never sounded quite right, as if they were missing reverb or something. I still own the Bleemcast version, and I did play through it entirely. No bias here. It's way better on it's native hardware.

Post by **vlame** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:44 am

what about tekken 3 and gt2? do any other games really work with these real 3 discs?

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:51 am

vlame wrote:what about tekken 3 and gt2? do any other games really work with these real 3 discs?

GT2 actually isnt bad. The fonts are shit again, but the textures filter fairly well because they were already so very detailed. Never got to try Tekken 3.

Post by **Dave Auto** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:43 am

Haven't tried it since I upgraded from a CRT to a LCD, but I really liked how Tekken 3 ran in bleem!Cast. The crisper resolution reminded me of how dazzled I used to be as a kid when I'd see razor-sharp Model 2 games in the arcades (yes, I know Tekken 3 didn't run on a Sega Model 2 board, I'm just saying that's what it makes me nostalgic for).

Post by **D.D.D.** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:22 am

I like MGS:Twin Snakes on the 'cube.

But out of the DC and PS2, I prefer the PlayStation 2 with texture smoothing enabled. It's not too much like I feel playing it on the DC is.

Post by **kevinski** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:11 am

GSZX1337 wrote:You know the PS2 doesn't really enhance the quality of the game visuals much, right? Bleem enhances the game visuals.

That's where you're wrong. PlayStation 2 does try to enhance the quality of the visuals if you change the settings accordingly. The textures are supposed to be smoother (which is yet another perk to using bleemcast!, of course). I don't see why PlayStation 2 doesn't implement anti-aliasing, though, especially since Dreamcast does anti-aliasing so well on MGS. The comparison is completely valid, as a result, and Dreamcast easily comes out on top in many respects. The game ultimately just performs much better on Dreamcast, at least, if you're using PlayStation 2's enhanced mode.

Mozgus wrote:Youtube doesn't really allow the truth to come out, being low resolution and all. Fact is, the game was a disaster on bleemcast. Yes the resolution was doubled, but the positives absolutely stop there. The higher resolution actually made a lot of things look worse, such as the infrared scanlines being unevenly laid out. Texture filtering did nothing but make the game ugly, as it does on almost all PS1 games. The textures just weren't MADE to be filtered. To this day, I still refrain from enabling it in ePSXe, because it simply ruins the graphics. It also smeared all the fonts, making them hard to read. There were also tons of emulation glitches, mostly in the audio. There was always traces of static in the speech and the music and sound effects never sounded quite right, as if they were missing reverb or something. I still own the Bleemcast version, and I did play through it entirely. No bias here. It's way better on it's native hardware.

Actually, the differences are clearly obvious on the high-quality version of the video on YouTube. I'll admit that some of the scenes are too dark to make a judgement call, but there are plenty of scenes in which you can clearly see that bleemcast! is doing a better job of enhancing the graphics. I plan on eventually doing an audio comparison. I was going to do that in the same video, but I just recently started using the video-editing software that I'm using now, and implementing side-by-sides took me a while. I wasn't about to mess around with the audio in the same video. I might just make a "video" that has no actual video footage in it, but alternates between Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 audio. I'll admit that PlayStation 2 wins that part, hands down.

The sound almost seems as though it was somehow filtered, thus doing away with much of the echo that should accompany most sounds. I believe that the same was done to the music, for some reason, causing some of it sound pretty bad in comparison. The only real negative that I can see about the bleemcast! version is that the saving is unreliable at first and eventually ceases to function once you get both endings or fill up the memory card with pictures taken with the camera. I'm not necessarily saying that the bleemcast! version is altogether superior; I did the comparison to show that Dreamcast can actually pull of PlayStation emulation pretty well and - it some ways - does it better than Sony's efforts.

vlame wrote:what about tekken 3 and gt2? do any other games really work with these real 3 discs?

I've never played either of those. The only reason that I own the MGS version is that someone sent it to me free of charge (along with a bunch of other Dreamcast games), simply because I told him about some video game sale that was going on at the time. Very nice of him.

D.D.D. wrote:I like MGS:Twin Snakes on the 'cube. But out of the DC and PS2, I prefer the PlayStation 2 with texture smoothing enabled. It's not too much like I feel playing it on the DC is.

Honestly, I was surprised at some of the graphical glitches that occurred with texture smoothing on PlayStation 2 enabled, such as the flickering at one point whenever Snake's looking through the scope. I didn't play the game much, but - given the fact that all of the cinematics use the in-game engine - I'd assume that the same happens during actual game play. I might compare more scenes in the future, but it'll always be cinematics, as those are the only ones that can reliably be synched up for the sake of comparisons.

Post by **peace4myheart** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:18 pm

I have played both and I really do like the enhanced graphics on the Dreamcast. However, that's all it has going for it on the Dreamcast. With all the glitches and horrible control with the Dreamcast, I don't know if it is better as far as the overall experience.

Post by **kevinski** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:01 pm

peace4myheart wrote:I have played both and I really do like the enhanced graphics on the Dreamcast. However, that's all it has going for it on the Dreamcast. With all the glitches and horrible control with the Dreamcast, I don't know if it is better as far as the overall experience.

I really don't see how the control is horrible on Dreamcast. Care to elaborate?