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"PC to PS2 conversions - why do most developers just not bother trying?"

Why do all conversions from PC games go bad on the PS2. Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were not very good conversions, the core game was good, but in comparison to the PC game and the Xbox conversion they were bad. Giants Citezen Kabuto was made worse on the PS2 by getting rid of the FPS bit. No Lives Forver was made worse with a serious dumbing down of the graphics but the core game was still fun, if a little ugly. I won't even start with Star Trek Elite Force. The only really good one that i can think of offhand was Half-Life.
Why do most developers just not bother trying for the PS2?
Can you think of any other bad conversions? or good conversions? or even why the conversions are so bad?

Bonus wrote:
> The game would require an entire rewriting of the engine specific for
> the PS2. It would require a repackaging of the art, models and
> textures to be mor eefficient on the PS2 and it would require the
> company doing to portcompletely writing certain things from scratch,
> not permitted by a porting budget.

Yeah, i suppose, but the developers should do that because not everyone buys a game from the hype it got on the PC some do read reviews. They should get the ported game out at full price and rewrite the engine like the Call of Duty developers are for the consoles.

~i want socom 2 for PC as i can't be bothered to get internet for PS2 and socom 2 is a good game.

~i want gran turismo on the PC to, so i can play it online,

~i want some light gun game on the PC to for online purposes.

The game would require an entire rewriting of the engine specific for the PS2. It would require a repackaging of the art, models and textures to be mor eefficient on the PS2 and it would require the company doing to portcompletely writing certain things from scratch, not permitted by a porting budget.

Because they know people will buy them anyway after the hype the games got on the PC.

In an ideal world, yes.

But like what the guy said down there, I'm sure dev houses priorities lie within finishing their work in conversions. Of course, if they're given the time to optimise the game, I'm sure they would.

The conversions of anything to PC are easy because the PC is so much better than them i suppose so the performance doesn't have to be dumbed down, but developers should take their time and rebuild the engine for the console market, but with the same game.

Clazon wrote:
> philipbl wrote:

> i'm pretty sure that it's easier to make a ps2 game to pc rather than
> vice versa.
>

It's even more easier to convert an Xbox game to PC, but that's a different matter :)

In addition to what ppl have said here, time anf finance constraints also play a major part. Though it varies between publishers, most just want you to complete it in the most efficient way possible - so it's basically just making sure the changes between systems work i.e. not optimising anything for that specific machine.

philipbl wrote:
> Why do all conversions from PC games go bad on the PS2.

i think it's a one way street. unless you intend for a game to be on more than one console, it's hard to match the making of it on one console to another. each different console has different capabilities and a different way of making the data.

i'm pretty sure that it's easier to make a ps2 game to pc rather than vice versa.

ps2 to pc:

PES3
Vice City

Flockhart wrote:
> I was hoping this was going to be about the lack of stategy games on
> the consoles, but never mind.

lol they really don't work on consoles. they are far more easy to work and useful on a pc. get a link up cable to the tv if you want a bigger picture.