Category: Sony

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 26, 2025

Completed Ace Combat 3.
This wasn’t easy, but not because the game is hard. To get the True Ending, you need to beat all 5 scenarios, and save them on the same memory card. I didn’t know that, so I used two memory cards, and had to repeat at least one scenario. I was also afraid that I was missing some missions, due to the way save states and memory cards work in RetroArch. But it worked out in the end.
I know I complained a lot about boss battles in this game. But “Ouroboros 1” scenario is probably the best boss battle in the entire series. First, Rena goes crazy, and you fight Night Raven. Then Keith comes to your rescue and sticks his plane in Rena’s (Night Raven is like a biplane from WW1).

In the Fi/Neucom ending, Dision mentions Yoko, but we have no idea who she is. Turns out, she was a scientist and Dision’s lover that performed Sublimation on him. It’s not a concience transfer, but a concience copy. So when General blew Dision and Yoko up, Dision-clone could watch how his original dies.

Keith/General ending is surreal, and I say it after the cyberspace battle from Dision’s ending. You fight Rena after failing to collapse geofront ceiling on her and Dision. Keith is shot down, but not before he shoots down Dision too. Then you need to fight 8 more Night Ravens! But once you beat the first, you somehow hack it, and then pilot it for the rest of the battle. No explanation is given, and the cockpit is shown to be empty.

In Dision/Uroboros ending, Dision mentions Simon, but it’s not clear why. In the True Ending, we get an explanation, and it’s a good one. Nemo is a computer program (that’s why Rena at the very beginning asks you why do you fly just like her), and the purpose of that program was to erase Dision from cyberspace. And alternative scenarios are alternative paths that the program takes to erase Dision. Talk about breaking the 4th wall.

Ace Combat 3 story is not just unparalleled for a flightsim. It is one of the best storylines in games. Dision plot made me think of Soma (which I hated) and Tides of Numenera (which I’m fond of), while multiple conflicting storylines reminded me of Zero Escape games, which, when I think of it, also dealt with conscience transfer.

Tags Ace Combat, Ace Combat 3

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 23, 2025

Next I decided to go back and shoot down Fi and Clarkson, which took me to the UFEO scenario.
Park, the UFEO commander, is corrupt and working with Uoroboros to pit General and Neucom in order to eliminate both.
There’s an interesting twist in he mission where you need to bomb nanomachines: Rena’s plane gets infected, and you need to hit it with a freefalling bomb 😬

It’s explained that Dision onboarded Rena into an experimental program convincing her to install neurolink so she could pilot Night Raven. Then he was killed by General either because Neucom split or for another reason, but managed to preserve himself in Electrosphere.

He offers Night Raven to Rena, but she uses it to shoot the zeppelin out of the sky. She crashes, but survives to be picked up by Nemo (the protagonist) and Erich. The strange helicopter you blow in the English version turns out to be Park trying to flee.
This ending is much more positive, and also the entire scenario is easier: Su43 you get from UFEO is far better than the aircraft from Neucom, and there are no annoying boss battles or tunnel runs at all.

Tags Ace Combat, Ace Combat 3

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 21, 2025

At the mission where you need to escort the UN diplomat, Fi is onboard with him when you’re ordered to shoot the aircraft, because Clarkson is about to defect to Neucom. Rena doesn’t care, but Erich objects. Another choice.

Joining Neucom we’re introduced to Cynthia, Fi’s edler sister. Turns out she is a Neucom ace, and obsessed with “Sublimation”, or in other words transcending into cyberspace.

Another choice, either follow her and join Ouroboros, or stay with Fi and Neucom. I didn’t save that broad just to let her go! So I stay with Fi.

In the underground, we fight Rena, then Dision. Now at least I understand who I fought in the English version. And that’s it, end of Neocom scenario. No delirious fight in Electrosphere. I thought that fighting Dision for a second time would be better. It wasn’t.
Rena receives a message from her sister telling her that she’s happy in cyberspace. The end.

I mentioned that Ace Combat 3 was the longest Ace Combat I played, and now I understand why. They mashed together missions from different scenarios. So I didn’t get to blow a train or to fight a virus or to free a path for a falling zeppelin. A single campaign in the Japanese version takes under an hour, pretty standard for Ace Combat games.

Tags Ace Combat, Ace Combat 3

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 20, 2025

It’s time to compare the English disgrace with Japanese original. First, there are two fan translations: Project Nemo and LoadWordTeam
Second is considered superior.

The experience from the translated Japanese version couldn’t be more different from the English one. In English you are thrown into the fight with little to no exposition. In Japanese version, you sit for 5 minutes watching news reports (animation is by Production IG, Ghost in the Shell) and getting codec calls, as you are introduced to Rena, Erich (Erik?) and Fiona. Rena is Motoko Kusanagi of this universe, a pilot prodigy that is allergic to sunlight, so she muses why would she need human body at all. Erich and Fi are your peers at UPEO (which is like NATO), and Park is your superior.
In the English version, you almost always fought alone, and when you did have allies, they were anonymous. Here the aircrafts are clearly labeled.

There are more planes available, both initially and as you progress. The weirdest airplanes, like a Catamaran one, are not playable at all in the English version.

The first branching path is as soon as Mission 4. The way you chose between branches is which of the aircrafts you follow.

At first you fight with General against Neucom Neocon. Then you defend Neucom from General. Then Rena asks you to come with her to reclaim an aircraft she was testing as a child, Night Raven. Only with full version the mission names start to make some sense. “Paper Tiger” refers to the fact that everyone thinks NATO is a joke. And “No Clearance” is both a piloting term, and refers to the fact you are following Rena despite your orders.

Tags Ace Combat 3

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 14, 2025

Completed Ace Combat 3.
English version of Ace Combat 3 is a complete mess. It’s like watching a silent movie from 1920, where every few missions you’re interrupted by a paragraph of text that makes little to no sense.
It’s the longest Ace Combat in terms of number of missions by far: 35 missions, compared to about 25 in most other titles.
Once you get used to the controls, the game is relatively easy, until the chase in the Geofront. Every Ace Combat game makes you fly through a tunnel. But that’s the only game I remember that has you do it for 5 minutes straight. It’s a torture.

And then you need to duel a X49 superfighter, similarly to Ace Combat Zero. But it’s very hard to tell if you hit it or not. And all that without saving in-between. I call it “superfigher” for lack of better term, as it is able to take ridiculous number of missile hits, and instead of firing missiles back it uses some kind of a laser.

After that there’s a long an unfulfilling fight against both X49 and UI4054 Aurora, that feels just random in the way they avoid missiles. During my first attempt, I simply ran out of missiles, and I had almost 200 of them, and gave up. Second attempt took me 18 minutes of chasing one then the other.

Didn’t enjoy it? It’s a shame, because you’ll have to repeat it two more times, beating Aurora first in another dogfight, then in Virtual Reality (the eponymous Electrosphere).

In terms of game length, it’s hard to measure, as it doesn’t let you save for the last 5 missions. 30th mission was 2:30 hours, and considering that just mission 33 took me 18 minutes, I’d say it’s around 3:30 hours of play time, which is again, longer than most Ace Combat games.

Tags Ace Combat

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 5, 2025

They did simplify the mini games. In Ace Combat 2 I didn’t to manage to land once. Here I managed both landing and refueling in air.
There are a few very inventive missions, one of which has you pilot a stratosphere fighter, and another a spacecraft taking down satelites.

Chasing a train is fun and stupid at the same time, as this mission can be completed in 30 seconds.

“Swarm” mission throws so many enemies at you, I was afraid to run out of missiles. But at least they are finite, unlike Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat 4 missions. Also, you have an ally in this mission, that is even helpful and downs some enemies, but you have absolutely no context who that is.

Tags Ace Combat

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 4, 2025

Technically, “Fragile Cargo” will be repeated by Ace Combat 5, where you need to destroy antenas on the way of the landing aircraft. Here, you need to destroy chimneys on the way of zeppelin. But the way they errupt fire as if it’s Blade Runner is super impressive, considering it’s PSX.
This is the only Ace Combat game I remember that lets you choose between different machine guns. Also, the choice between missiles is much more interesting. In most Ace Combat games, you always fire two missiles. Here, you also have the ability to fire 4 missiles, but with a shorter range.

The approach to aircraft is what I call in shooters “M4 with neon lights”. Those are “futuristic” versions of modern aircraft. So we’ve got F/18U HornetAdv (real aircraft is called F/18 Hornet).
Ravine mission here is interesting for two reasons. First, it’s more of a maze, where you need to follow F117. And second, they created a reflection for F117 in the water. Impressive.

Tags Ace Combat

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 27, 2025

One thing I never had trouble with before are the controlls being slugish. But here, I have to pull very hard in order for my aircraft to do anything. Ironic, considering that the machinegun mechanic feels much more lenient, after nightmarish machine gun mission from Ace Combat 2. Hitting even multiple targets with a machinegun is no big problem. But turning your aircraft is.

Ace combat 3 Controls vs Ace combat 2 Controls
byu/gsifdgs inacecombat

I thought that only Fat PS2 could play PS1 games, but then I learned that my PS2 Slim could do that as well. So I gave it a try. Even on original PS2 analog gamepad, the game still controls differently than any other before or after. And it hangs on a second mission. Not sure if it’s because of my disc, or playing on Slim instead of Fat, or the game in general.

Tags Ace Combat

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Everyone should know this story by now, but still. English version of Ace Combat 3 should be the definition of “self fulfilling curse”. Namco developed this insanely ambitious arcade flight sim only to get scared that it won’t sell well in the west, so they literaly cut more than half of the game for the English release, and after that, it obviously didn’t sell well.

I decided that I’ll start with the English version first, and then compare it to the fan translation. And what a strange experience that is.

Maybe it’s because the Japanese version comes on two CDs, and English just on one, but there is no intro, at all. After you start your first mission, you get a bit of text on a black screen telling you that you are UPEO pilot protecting General Resource corp from Neuwork corp. There is no voiceover. It all feels like I’m playing a ripped version in the 90s.

Speaking of the game itself, though, the visual jump is incredible, considering there was one already between Ace Combat and Ace Combat 2. But now the land textures are even more detailed, sun is reflecting on the water, there are lens flares, and clouds, and explosion waves (something I don’t remember even in PS2 titles). The first mission is such a power move overall.

Tags Ace Combat

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 2

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 15, 2025

Most interesting mission is where you need to chase experimental bombers above the clouds. A lot of aircrafts would stall at those altitudes, so you need something like MiG-29.

In some missions you also find named pilots, like Goose alor Razorback. Downing them brings a reward to the collection.

Again, we need to fly into a base through a tunnel to blow a reactor. With a twist that a tunnel opens only after 3 minutes of real time, and closes after another minute.

The hardest mission is probably the one where you need to destroy radars with your machine gun. Not so much because of the machine gun part, despite radars placed on buyous at sea and the need to fly through inlet to locate some of them, but because the way enemy planes spawn right behind you as soon as you try to make a pass. And unlike your missiles, those planes seem to be infinite.

Last mission, I didn’t enjoy at all. You need to chase a cruise missile with a machine gun, and that target is tiny. Good luck not getting motion sickness. Not sure if playing on a real hardware would help, but on emulator, this mission is a nightmare.

And of course there is another tunnel with a reactor you need to blow at the end. Luckily this time it’s enough to hit the reactor, you don’t need to fly out for the tunnel as well.

One bit that confused me is that I never unlocked the F22, that’s why I was playing final missions on YF23. There are also more aircrafts to unlock when you play the campaign for a second time, but after that cruise missile mission, I’ll pass.

Tags Ace Combat

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 2

It’s genuiniley impressive how much the game has improved over the first installement. The drawing distance is now comfortable, and I don’t need to look at the radar anymore. The speed and altitude is now also shown in the 3rd person view, so there’s no need to switch to 1st person much. The afterburners are now also visible, so you can see when you are speeding up.

The game is also more colourful. It is strange statement, considering in the first game you flew purple jets.

Of course there is a ravine mission. It looks better than in Ace Combat 1, but weirdly, it plays worse, because with potato graphics of Ace Combat 1 it was very easy to see the path, whereas in Ace Combat 2 I wasn’t sure if I’m flying into a wall.

Tags Ace Combat

PSX Sony

Resident Evil 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 5, 2025

Completed Resident Evil 3.
The final episode, Factory, is obtrusive. It may sound funny, but there isn’t that much backtracking in Resident Evil 3. Unless you get confused, of course. But Factory is designed is such a way that you have to go back and forth multiple times, while game throws at you enemies in rooms you already cleared, sometimes twice. Also, there are some unskippable cutscenes before the boss fights that can get pretty annoying.
I’m not sure how environmental the final two boss fights are. In the first, Nemesis is in humanoid form, and you need to shoot acid valves when he’s near. Not sure if that’s the only way to damage him, or if it just helps. Funny how at some point he loses his head, but still goes on.
Then the final fights is against Nemesis-frog. I usually say that ammo is more important than health items in Resident Evil, because you can’t heal a boss to death, you need to shoot him. But this is another environmental fight, as far as I can tell, where you need to turn on a railgun, then lure Nemesis a couple of times so it gets smashed by it.
The entire game took me around 6 hours of game time to complete. Which isn’t bad, I thought it would be shorter. I remember that Leon’s scenario in Resident Evil 2 took me around 2:30 hours.
By the end of it, I still had plenty of healing items, but not that many bullets, I must admit. So the game is more enemy heavy than Resident Evil 2 for sure.

Tags Resident Evil, Resident Evil 3

PSX Sony

Resident Evil 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 5, 2025

The trolley sequence is pretty tiring. Funnily enough, that’s the only part I remember from my playthrough those 20 years ago, the huge worm in the sewers, akin to Alone in the Dark. But you have to evade Nemesis, escape from the worm, then beat Nemesis, and he is though, taking whole Magnum, and then some.

At first, I found dogs to be pretty annoying. But then I noticed that they don’t have invincibility frames on the ground anymore:

By the time I reached the clocktower, I started combining all the gunpowder I had into Magnum ammo, and got 48 of it. That’s plenty. Also, got both part of the gun from Nemesis. Despite it’s named Eagle, it’s a 9mm gun, not a Desert Eagle. But it does has a better rate of fire than the standard gun, and allows to put any spare 9mm ammo to good use.

Nemesis shots down the chopper (that’s how I understood I played this game without videos, because I would have remembered such an epic scene), the Magnum ammo comes in handy.
Then we switch to Carlos. Playing as him is a bit tricky, as you have almost no pickups. If you run out of ammo – you’re done.

Tags Resident Evil, Resident Evil 3

Emulation PSX Sony

Resident Evil 3 (PSX)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 3, 2025

After comparing Dreamcast version with all enhancements RetroTink 4K can offer with RetroArch/SwanStation, I must admit that playing on a physical console doesn’t worth it at all.
While colors might be attributed to how my capture card processes HDR signal, it’s undeniable that models and textures rendered in x5 resolution look significantly better.
The most important parameter to get this quality of picture is PGXP CPU Mode. It is supposed to be slow, but very accurate way to represent 3D models. Something that PSX was never good at.

Interestingly enough, Dreamcast has some new textures, for some reason (notice the plaque has moved a bit):

Back to the game, it is interesting how you meet Carlos at different points in the game, depending on which location you visit first. On Dreamcast, I’ve met him in the restaurant. But on my PSX playthrough, I wanted to avoid Nemesis and went to the newsroom first. And here Carlos was waiting for me again, with a different cutscene.

Speaking of cutscenes, the game has QTE events, even before Shenmue! Sometimes when Nemesis appears, you are given a choice, between fighting, running away or hiding.

Tags Resident Evil

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 1 (Air Combat)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 27, 2025

Completed Ace Combat 1 in two sittings.

After success with Ace Combat 4, I decided to check the very first installment in the series, originally called Air Combat . It is still surprisingly playable. The planes are recognizable, and fly well enough. Even the control scheme stayed the same. And you also get to buy new planes between missions.
The differences are that 3rd person view in the first game is mostly useless, while on PS2 I would use it most of the time. This is because it has no information about your speed, for example. To the point I thought my gamepad was misbehaving, as you don’t really see your plane speeding up.
The main tradeoff is the viewing distance. You can’t see shit, basically, enemy planes appear only when they are about 2km away. So you have to navigate by radar most of the time, until you are almost on them.

One notable change I have to talk about is the color palette of the planes. I’m not sure if it’s arcade legacy, or 95 style, or just an attempt for the planes not to mix up with the surroundings, but… red, purple and white? Really?! There’s a real-world term “Flying Circus” coming to mind.

Of course I had to check if this also applies to F117 Nighthawk… and yes, it does.

Wingmen are an interesting concept. Before a mission you can decide if you want to spend a significant sum to have a friendly jet. And you also can choose which jet it will be, which is of course affects the price. You also set the strategy for them: defend you, or try to complete the mission.

Some missions are also quite ambitious. There’s a night bombing run, and a mission where you have to follow pipelines in the desert to locate enemy oil refineries.

You also get to choose which missions to do. And of course there is a ravine mission. The saddest ravine mission ever, I must say, as the hardware was nowhere near. But they tried nevertheless. Actually, there are two ravine missions, although second is more of a tunnel or a cave.

The game is rather short, with 17 missions in total, but because there are some branching paths you have to complete around 14 to beat the game. But it is ambitious. At one point you have to bomb a suspension bridge, and they animated parts of the bridge crashing down into the water.

And the final boss is this flying fortress with four engines that you have to chase, and each engine falls apart separately, and then the fortress begins to tilt and raise smoke. 10 years later, they would repeat this mission in full force, but the fact they already imagined that back in ’95 is impressive.

The only bit I didn’t appreciate is the “Bingo!” exclamation every time you land a hit. Guess this is from the arcade days.

Tags Ace Combat

Sony

Ace Combat 4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 25, 2025

Completed Ace Combat 4.
The game is short. 18 missions and about 2 hours of actual gameplay.
The problem with the game is the rather tedious mission structure. You’re often just given 15 minutes to score enough points in any way you see fit. And while the idea of picking your targets in any order is interesting, nothing is more frustrating than running out of time.
The contrast is most obvious between Mission 10, where you have to try to hit an enemy submarine dock, and Mission 11, where you escort friendly transport planes.
New planes become available as the game progresses, and you’re supposed to buy them with the money you earn from completing missions. But after you get the EF-2000 midway through the game, there’s not much point in buying anything else.
Also, maybe because of the point system, but friendly units don’t actually shoot anything, as far as I can tell.
You get some cool jets at the end: the F-22, F-15 ACTIVE, and for the final mission, the Su-47.
It’s impossible to call Thirteen a nemesis, because Mobius 1, the protagonist, is ever silent, and they meet only twice throughout the game. The first time, you just need to escape; the second time, you shoot him down.
Of course, the final mission has you flying through multiple corridors. But either because I was playing with an analog controller, or because I was prepared, or maybe simply because it’s easier than later installments, I managed it on the first try.
The hardest part was figuring out what the game wanted from you, because the two corridors you have to fly through are parallel, but the third one is perpendicular to the first two, so you have to circle the island to find the entrance.
Still, it’s a cool mission, with cruise missiles launching and lasers sweeping the sky.

Tags Ace Combat

Sony

Ace Combat 4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 10, 2025

Ace Combat is one of my all time favorite series. Enough to say that I got myself a PS2 only to play that game, because emulators, despite all their advantages, can’t deal with its analog controls properly.

But I also have to admit that Ace Combat 4, Ace Combat 5 and Zero are kind of the same game. You fly the same jets, you have just a couple of weapons, and you mostly just shoot missiles at everything.
What varries is how the story is presented. Ace Combat 4 uses anime stills. And the story is not about you, but about your adversary, called Yellow 13. He is viewed through the eyes of a boy, whom he orphaned by accident. The boy works in a pub where the occupier pilots gather. Bartender and his dauther are part of the Resistance, though, and wait for the occupation to end. Despite the dauther being secretly in love with Yellow 13. It is a nice way to tell a story. Contrast this with “in your face” storytelling of Assault Horizon.

One problem I have with the game, though, is that a lot of mission are “earn X points before time ends”. Which means that instead of engaging with mission objectives, you are just caught up in an endless foxfight. That also means you have to resupply once or even twice through the mission.
There are some signature missions, though. When I saw a ravine in Mission 7, I imediattely knew where this was going. And right on queue, and orbital cannon starts to fire at you, and the only way to dodge it is of course to navigate through the ravine.

Tags Ace Combat

Sony

Playstation 2

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 8, 2025

One of my best purchases ever was Playstation 2 with an Infinity chip that allowed to play burned games. But burning is a hassle, despite the fact I still have a DVD burner and some blank DVDs.
So when I heard that now you can run games directly from a memory card I had to try it. Turns out this isn’t such a new thing. You could run games from memory card for a few years, using MX4SIO. But the newer cards combine both functions of memory card, storing saves, and DVD emulator.
I got the Bitfunx card which is readily available from AliExpress.
It boots fine into Free McBoot. But would get stuck while trying to boot into OPL MMCE, which is how you run games from the SD card.
After some trial and error, I figured out that I need to actually disabled my Infinite chip (hold Start while booting, then restart once).

Tags playstation 2

PS3 Sony

Virtua Fighter 2

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 3, 2025

As I wrote at least once already, Saturn version of Virtua Figher 2 was inferior to the arcade original. And that’s the version that was ported to PS2 as part of Sega Ages Collection series.

But from this video I discovered that PS3 and Xbox360 actually had a proper arcade version. I don’t own Xbox360 anymore, but still have PS3, so I gave it a try. And they aren’t wrong. It is indeed the arcade version, with bridges in Shun’s stage and all that.
Interestingly, PC version, which was the first I played, is a mix of the stages from the Saturn version and models from the arcade version. So I was right to remember that PC version somehow looked better.

The main benefit of that version is that there’s a movelist in the pause menu.

Tags Virtua Fighter

PSX Sony

Persona 2 Eternal Punishment

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date February 23, 2025

Completed Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Of course there is another Xibalba golden temple, called here Torifune. I’m not sure if it’s more annoying than the one in Innocent Sin or slightly less. There are unavoidable traps, which I consider a bad design choice, but the dungeon is slightly shorter.

The nice thing about Eternal Punishment is there are some unique abilities to the character-specific personas, with dedicated animations, that makes them feel special, and really burn through enemies.
There is a system of registering and duplicating spell cards in this game. In later games, this will be replaced with registering and resummoning personas.

Despite beating the final boss on my second try, I still consider it quite ridiculous. I had to resurect characters 40 times, as he continuously smashes all characters for 3/4 of their life.
But hey, my characters were level 69-71, while a guide I read later suggest them to be 80-90 😆

Overall, I think it’s a shame they decided to split the game into two parts. Innocent Sin had a compeling story that ended with a cliffhanger, but the sequel is mostly the same ideas, with more dungeon grinding on top.

Tags Persona 2