Is there any reason to play the pc version of blood omen over the PlayStation version?
Last i heard the loading times were terrible on the psx version but wouldn't it be easier to emulate it instead of dealing with pc issues?
Tested both versions out of curiosity.
1) PC version (clean CD image), Win7 x64
- it can be installed via vanilla installer, just put the exe into Win95 compatibility mode,
- vanilla game will crash during first FMV (lol, no DirectDraw),
- apply CubanRaul's patch and you're good to go,
- movies work fine, you don't have to convert them do .bik format,
- game works without the CPU-slowing utilities (previously, for example when using the WinXP fix from 2002, it wasn't possible to proceed past the first line of bartender-kain dialogue - game was working too fast),
- the only problem is with menus - animated elements spin too fast (as dunno lah mentioned),
- the game also lacks V-Sync, so it's a little bit jerky, esp. when using the "far" camera (see below). V-Sync can be enabled via Nvidia control panel, seems to work fine.
-
IMO there's still something wrong with game's speed. For example the initial enemies (the ones who kill you) are so slow, that you can slaughter 5-6 of them easily (kain swings faster than them). In PSX version they're much faster. Don't remember it being the case in the past (I've completed the PC version twice on Win95-98).
- PC version has 4 different screen modes (F12 to change):
a) scanlined, adjustable camera, afair it's scaled 320x240
IMO kinda meh, since it doesn't look that good, esp. on modern display
b) unfiltered, adjustable camera, afair it's scaled 320x240
IMO teh best, as long as you don't mind blocky graphics
c) filtered, hi-res, only the "far" camera
, afair it's 640x480, exclusive to the PC version
Meh, since you can't zoom in, plus it's kinda choppy...
d) filtered, low-res, adjustable camera, but only in a small 320x240 area in the middle of the screen (meh)
2) PSX NTSC-U version, using Retroarch
- launch and play,
- it's just basic 320x240 image, which can be filtered / shadered whatever you want. Here with simple bilinear filtering:
- this version is IMO more fluent than the PC one: the camera moves better (following kain), animations look smoother, etc. But maybe it's just me.
- BUT! It has the most horrible loading times, mentioned earlier. Everytime you access menus, the game will take 3-5 seconds to load a screen:
Can be dealth with via the turbo button (set to right analog in my case), but it's sure irritating.
PROTIP: use whatever version you want.