And I disagreed with them being awful ports. So GTA3 had a broken widescreen mode for you? You can always choose to play it in the unbroken 4:3 aspect ratio, just like you probably played the PS2 version (unless you like to watch a streched 4:3 => 16:9 picture with fat characters).

I am pretty sure the PC versions can be configured to use gamepads too, albeit I chose to play them completely with kb+mouse.

That still doesn't make the PC port automatically awful, especially back when the PC port was released and PS3 didn't exist.

You are comparing apples to oranges when you complain about a Win95 game having issues with Win8 PCs, and then saying you'd rather play the PS1 version on the original PS1 hardware.

Can you play the original PS1 Blood Omen on PS3 (without having to rebuy it from e.g. PSN, if it is even available there)?

This. The loading times were tremendous back then because you were playing for 10 minutes and BÄM!!! LOADING SCREEN because the levels were plenty but short. Furthermore I couldn't identify myself with Freeman because you never saw him and he never spoke a single word. Some players may like that but I hate silent heroes.

The small physics puzzles and graphics were nice but apart from that there was nothing special about that game which demands 10 out of 10 or +90% rating.

Overrated:

Some (perhaps all) Legacy of Kain games. The gameplay is often very frustrating as it is difficult in a bad way.

I remember being somewhat frustrated at times with Blood Omen 2 when I played it years ago, but now, I find the original Soul Reaver even worse.

I find the story and universe very engaging, but I probably won't finish it because of the awful camera, clunky controls and limited savegame options, not to mention some dubious gameplay elements (unlimited respawning tough to kill enemies while solving a cryptic block puzzle was the last straw for me).

Underated:

Most Indy games. They are recognized in some circles, but most of the mainstream won' t hear of them, at least based my experience talking with people about the games we play.

Yep, for me, the time spent mastering the combos is taken away from mastering the actual gameplay as otherwise, figuring out the counters to various moves can be pretty engaging.

I am seriously considering programatically inserting 1 button maps for all those crazy hash button mashes for Street Fighter 2 and Guilty Gear.

I sure miss saner beat 'em up like Streets of Rage.

A underrated game is Clive Barker's Jericho. The ending was crap, but it is not a bad game at all.

LOL glad you agree about SF2, I love Soul Reaver 1 though!

Oh also for overrated - Sierra, their entire adventure output (except for the Coktel stuff) They're all shit!
Haze may, very well be a fine PS3 exclusive FPS by the standard of other console exclusive FPS's but playing an FPS on a gamepad is like trying to eat with chopstick while wearing mittens so I think they're all rubbish!

Overrated:
HoMM3 - at first it appears to be a really fun and flavorful resource gathering/strategy game, but quickly turns into tedious game about collecting sulfur, its mechanics either lack depth or are not interesting enough to support large, few hours long scenarios which results in way too much downtime.

Braid - the problem I have with this game is that I cared more about first few introductory stages which were mostly about showing off the game's main gimmick than actual, more complicated puzzles later in the game, also I had no interest in its story or the message, it still had a pretty cool ending though.

Underrated:
Arcanum - maybe it's not so much underrated as it is overlooked, excellent, deep RPG with interesting story, characters and cool, original setting.

Sacrifice - another largely unknown game, a lot of this has to do with the fact that it was possibly the most demanding game there was in its time. Features some of the most unique and freaky world and characters designs, that make it look really good even now, over ten years after its original release.

Exactly I did not know its actually a Fantasy Setting in the 18-19 century esque setting until I bought it. That is interesting all the Fantasy settings always take place in the Medieval setting that you never question, "do these people ever advance and leave the medieval age into the future"

And it looks interesting seeing Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Half-Orcs dressed in Victorian Era clothing.

But the PS1 existed and it was already superior to the PC version.

Yep. The PS3 has full compability with PS1 games. And yes, it is available on PSN. Old PS3 models like mine even have PS2 compability (I prefer playing on the original PS2, though). Heck, even the PSP and the Xperia Play phone are compatible with PS1 games.

Not to mention PCs running ePSXe.

But emulating sucks if you aim for 100% correct rendering. I prefer to play on the console on which the game was meant to be played. I tried a lot emulators and a lot games but that nostalgic feeling goes out the window, not mention possible glitches and other errors which cannot be eliminated entirely and have to be expected.

This might sound weird, but LA Noire actually feels a bit underrated. I won't say its the best game I've ever played, but I do feel it replaces many games in terms of where the bar should be set in comparing future titles. Seems like people missed what this game accomplished in lieu of a few small issues that agreeably should have been fixed.


I'll also kick the dead horse of Deus Ex: IW again as I felt it was overrated.


The book of unwritten Tales feels underrated for its charm and entertainment value. It found its way very high on my list of favorite adventure games.

IGN had a video today with their picks for the most overrated games.

They chose:

Grand Theft Auto IV
Minecraft
Uncharted 3
Majoras Mask

Like Filben mentioned, no emulator will ever be 100% accurate, not even the one made by Sony (the PS2 compability with the PS1 is hardware based though, not software based, also the first PS3 models have hardware based backwards compability with the PS2). Contrary to popular belief, emulators are not perfect, games do not run the same way they do on the original hardware. Not even emulator for old consoles like SNES and Genesis are perfect. Take zSnes, for example, every game runs differently than it would on an actual SNES. In most cases, some parts run either faster or slower than the original hardware. Emulators usually go for speed rather than accuracy. There is one SNES emulator that aims for accuracy called bsnes, and it needs a very powerful PC to run.

The "emulation rulez" myth needs to be debunked already.

Read this article if you want more information: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/

http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/2712-why-perfect-hardware-snes-emulation-requires-a-3ghz-cpu/

Then we have quite different experiences apparently. With most of the emulators I've used, most of the time I honestly can't tell a difference compared to the real hardware, at least for worse.

Ok in some cases I don't have the original hardware anymore to make a side-by-side check, like my first computer TI-99/4A, but when I play Munchman, TI Invaders or Parsec on the Win994a Simulator, it feels exactly the same I recall playing those games as a kid. If there are some glitches, apparently they are so minor that they don't affect the overall experience.

This also includes lots of arcade games emulated through MAME, the games I've tried playing through ePSXe etc. If there are any differences, they are usually for the better, like the ability to enhance the graphics in ePSXe, or the ability to save anywhere. Having played Silent Hill both on my real PS2 and ePSXe, so far I don't really see any reason not to do it on the latter.

Not to mention DOSBox of course. If emulation was so bad you suggest, I guess GOG users would be constantly complaining about the DOSBox games in GOG. I still have the option to play DOS games on a real Pentium 133 machine, but I hardly ever see the need to do that anymore. In fact, I have a better success rate running lots of problematic games through DOSBox, than trying to optimize that old Pentium machine to run them. There are several old DOS games I've been unable to get to run on that retro PC, but which run fine in DOSBox. Go figure.

It also delights me how well Munt nowadays emulates Roland MT-32/CM-32L. A year or two ago it sucked badly as there were so many inaccuracies and glitches in the sound output, but suddenly they released version that for me makes owning the real CM-32L pretty much useless. In fact, in some cases the Munt seems even superior to my real CM-32L, because I have an early version of CM-32L with a glitch that can cause scratchy sounds on some MT-32 games (I think it is the volume clipping issue in early CM-32L units, most notably in the Wing Commander intro's fireworks, but even worse in Inferno's title music). Munt (with CM-32L ROMs) plays them fine and clean without such glitches (at least the Inferno music, haven't tested the WC intro yet).

And the problem with the old hardware is that it will die, sooner or later. And naturally having a dozen emulators installed on your PC is also much simpler than having dozen old hardware units hanging around.

Well, if you're a purist you will also need several vintage TVs for the older systems (with some games making pretty clever use of the characteristics of the TVs of their particular period) but some self-declared "retrophiles" aren't even aware of that and stop at using an adapter to connect an old system to any TV which is why I usually don't take them seriously. And the truth is - you're closer to the original experience with a good emulator that takes these things into account and i.e. emulates CRT screens on an LCD screen than by plugging a vintage console into any fairly modern TV. And some emulators actually do that kind of stuff, aside from aiming at 100% correct rendering, of course.
As far as I know some games actually exploit these glitches of earlier models for achieving certain sounds and apparently these games don't sound too well on MUNT (or later versions of the original hardware, for that matter).