This is readily apparent with the MGS2 port (rain stuff) and during particular scenes in Ninja Gaiden when there's blood effects borking the framerate briefly. Doom 3 had major framerate issues as well despite the massive amount of work Vicarious Visions did to alter the campaign levels. FarCry Instincts also had issues when rendering the forest.
While i agree that MGS2 isnt the best port of mgs2 to xbox, it wasnt for pc either. If i remember correctly the pc port had the same issues, i think the recommanded specs where a 9700pro, which i had in my axp 2100+ system at the time, MGS2 didnt run well on that system i can tell. The 9700pro was a monster btw, beat anything nvidia @DX9.
Doom 3 was/is a nice port for what it is really, with just 64mb ram and a custom 733mhz cpu, a high end game designed in mind for ultra high end pc hardware, i think it was quit an achievement. Same for Far Cry in a bit less manner.
See, aside from Ninja Gaiden, other games xbox got was mostly ports or pc games from the beginning somehwere. We would have to see Konami developing MGS2 for the xbox instead from scratch and see what they could do with the hw.
eam Ninja worked hard for the DOA games, but they're the exception.
Like Konami worked very hard for MGS2 on ps2, talented studios working hard with a big budget get the most out of the hardware, in special if the game wasnt build for another very different platform to begin with.
They'd probably have to compromise somewhere. PS2 fillrate/bandwidth was a huge huge advantage. At the time, there might not have been a particularly good solution other than cutting down on the effect or the framebuffer resolution to begin with.
One of PS2's most particle intense games, Black, ran wonderfully on the OG Xbox, nothing was paired down to my knowledge. Instead, xbox version both looks, sounds and runs better. A shootout in a room could cause massive smoke, dust, debris etc flying without any slowdown, 60fps. Loads of nice effects in that game also. Many consider Black as one of the best looking 6th gen games, even saying it could qualify as a early 7th gen game.
Panzer dragoon orta had some nice effects/particles too i remember, havent played for over 15 years though. Quantum Redshift had a track in the rain, which i thought looked very nice, up there with MGS2 rain, perhaps. Found a video, youtube doesnt do the graphics justice but it still looks nice today in person.
Much can be going on in redshift too, explosions etc.60fps no slowdowns. With a cheat one can obtain ultra high speed boosts, game doesnt slow down one bit then either.
Seems that most think xbox wasnt that good at particles/effects, but i dont think it was that bad at all. I guess when its vertex shaders are put to good use the xbox is quit capable in those areas too.
Ive never seen anything like ZoE2 on ps2 though, not on og xbox or gamecube atleast. Even though it had slowdowns on ps2, it was very special for its time.
One would think Xbox could have done MGS2 much better, perhaps at 60fps in the rain. Looking abit different.
Oh and, if it has any value, i managed to get quake 3 running at 1280x960 on the og xbox, its just the pc version, not even a port. Runs very well for what it is. Not bad for being at high settings.
I dont think MS should have done anything different, same for Sony and Nintendo. PS2 was the best utilized and got the best games imo.