# PCSX2

6 Hacker News commenters recommended PCSX2 and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a PlayStation 2 emulator that runs games well and supports community mods and HD texture packs. Critics say it takes shortcuts and is not very accurate to the original hardware.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs PS2 games well (2 comments): "pretty good today in terms of running games, but it's far from accurate to the hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819375)) "You can definitely still get PCSX2 working on it though, and it's fantastic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50054674))

## What people warn about

- Takes shortcuts, especially with upscaling (1 comments): "it takes a lot of shortcuts (especially when enabling upscaling and other enhancements)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49737822))
- Not accurate to original hardware (1 comments): "pretty good today in terms of running games, but it's far from accurate to the hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819375))
- Many games only in green state (1 comments): "PCSX2 is mediocre. It reports the vast majority of the library in "green" emulation state" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46827848))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [DOSBox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dosbox.md): 37 recommend
- [ZSNES](https://hackerapproved.com/p/super-zsnes.md): 23 recommend
- [MAME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mame.md): 21 recommend
- [RetroArch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/retroarch.md): 21 recommend
- [DOSBox-X](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dosbox-x.md): 19 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "PCSX2", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pcsx2/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).