While Xbox One has certainly gotten the better deal with backwards compatibility, allowing users not only to re-download a lot of their digital Arcade titles, but also use their physical discs, it looks like PS4 owners are getting a backwards compatibility option as well. However, the downside here is that actual PS2 discs won't work, which means you'll have to buy titles digitally.
Yesterday, seemingly out of nowhere, the PS2 emulator became available on the PS4, which makes sense considering that the Special Edition PS4 bundles with Star Wars Battlefront also came with four legacy games, and three of them being PS2 games; Racer Revenge, Bounty Hunter and Jedi Starfighter. However, aside from Super Star Wars, the PS2 games don't seem to be available yet for the rest who didn't buy that bundle. Thanks to Digital Foundry though, we can at least check out how PS2 games run on the PS4, and how much better they look up-scaled.
You can see that everything is a bit sharper now, at least when it comes to 3D models. However, the cooler part is that games, at least the ones tested here, seem to be running at a locked 60fps. You can check out that segment starting at the 2:14 mark in the video above.
It's nowhere near as good as Microsoft's backwards compatibility feature on the Xbox One, but given that the PS2 was probably my favorite system of all time, with games like Rogue Galaxy, Dark Cloud 2, and Final Fantasy XII (I'm a JRPG nut, what can I say) I'm pretty pumped for this feature. If the games are affordable and the selection is big, I'll certainly be buying into some PS2 classics for sure.
