Bleemcast! for Metal Gear Solid impressions

[11.08.01] » Solid Snake returns for some Tactical Emulated Action.

    Bleem Inc. may have scaled back their ambitious plan to produce 100 game "Bleempacks" of their PlayStation emulator for Dreamcast, but the company is still dutifully plugging away to create single game emulators for the PSone's more popular titles. Along with the recent release of Bleemcast for Tekken 3, the company has also shipped a Metal Gear Solid version of the emulator -- and not a moment too soon. With the sequel to Hideo Kojima's blockbuster right around the corner, many gamers will undoubtedly be playing through the first one in preparation, and the improved graphic in the emulated version provide some relief from the more dated aspects of the PlayStation classic. Readers can check out our full impressions of the emulator below, or just skip straight to 29 screenshots showing the graphical upgrades.

    Bleemcast for MGS functions in the same way as the previously released Gran Turismo 2 version of the emulator. After booting up the Bleemcast disc, players are prompted to swap in Metal Gear Solid and the game begins. For the most part, the emulator performs exactly as promised. The resolution is bumped up the 640x480 and filtering smoothes out the pixilated textures of original game. There are a few side effects due to this -- some textures have slight black outlines and the text in the menus is occasionally a bit too blurry -- but overall the graphics are universally improved.

    MGS is still a PSone game at heart, however, and some problems can't be fixed through emulation. The texture warping and visible seams that plagued most PlayStation games are still present and, of course, the relatively simple polygon models of MGS remain unchanged. These flaws are due to the limitations of the hardware being emulated, however, and MGS still looks leagues better than it did on the PlayStation.

    The emulator also provides full support for the usual Dreamcast peripherals, including the VGA adaptor and the Jump Pack, and extra PAL support has been added in to allow European gamers to play the PAL version of the game without the usual black bars or run the NTSC game on a PAL Dreamcast. While MGS's control scheme maps well to the DC controller, the Jump Pack can't quite provide the same subtle vibration effects as Sony's Dual Shock. A much bigger problem is saving. Though Bleem will let you save to a Dreamcast VMU, it must be reformatted for PlayStation data, which means you'll need a separate VMU for Bleem. But considering Dreamcast peripherals are on their way to bargain bins across the country, this shouldn't be too much of a hurdle.

    These complaints are relatively minor, however, and overall the emulated version of the game is bug-free and runs and looks great. Those looking to get reacquainted with Solid Snake's last outing before the PS2 sequel arrives couldn't find a better way to do it and, at only $9.99, it's hard to pass up.