Complicated, powerful, and hard to develop games for, this is how the PS3 is remembered today. Because of its reputation emulating PS3 games was considered to be far-fetched and at the top of the emulating nightmare hierarchy. However, RPCS3 has shown that it is not only possible, but it can also be enjoyable and issue-free.
RPCS3 is a PlayStation 3 emulator for Windows, Linux, and even Mac-OS! RPCS3 does a good job of emulating most but not all of Playstation 3 games that include must-play games like God of War 3 Metal-Gear Solid 4 and Mass Effect 3 among others.
One of the Caveats of emulation is that you will need to have a beefy system in order to run games smoothly, a few years back running RPCS3 on a 4-core CPU was a no-go. But recent updates and optimizations to the software have made it possible to play heavy titles like God of War 3 on a 4-core CPU system. Because of this, if you have a beefy system you might be able to play your PS3 games at a much smoother rate than you ever did on the original PS3
Installing RPCS3 is also a breeze, you will just need to download the RPCS3 package, PlayStation 3 firmware which is readily available on Sony’s website, and your d umped PS3 games on your drive and you are ready to go! And do not worry if it takes some time for games and RPCS3 itself to load, it is loading the necessary cache and files and this is mainly a one-time thing. The next time you want to play the game it will have a much faster loading time.
Just like Xenia, RPCS3 has a list of compatible games, with almost 67% of all PS3 games playable without any game-breaking glitches and can be finished without any unwanted hassle on your part. And this will just get better as the development team is always busy fixing issues and improving emulation and if the past year is the standard, progression towards fixing all these issues will be fast and steady.
This is a massive win for game preservation since the Playstation is known for having some of the greatest console exclusives that cannot be played on any other platform.
If you do unfortunately run into issues running games, do not worry too much, there are plenty of forums and videos on the internet that can help you solve your problems. This is because RPCS3 has a huge support base and community.
Another great feature of RPCS3 is the ability to configure your gamepad or controller to your liking. Not everyone has a Playstation controller lying around so being able to configure your controller to your liking is a huge plus. You can also use your ever-so-reliable keyboard as your gamepad and tune it to your liking if you don’t feel like spending on a controller.
Lastly, the RPCS3 team has been developing for some time now online play via the emulator known as RPCN. This will allow users to play online against friends and random users in fun multiplayer games such as Street Fighter 3rd Strike.