How to configure PCSX2 to play Ico!

Today I wanna tell you how I managed to play Ico on my computer using PCSX2, the popular PlayStation 2 emulator. If you're here you probably know that Ico is one of the most beloved games for the PS2, and maybe you know that this PS2 emulator sometimes can be a little tricky to configure. So, first of all, let's see what you need:

Checklist: 

• PCSX2: version 0.9.7 beta (r3878), it's the latest beta so far and it's available here http://pcsx2.net/
• Ico: the game, I used the NTSC-U version ;)  
• PS2 bios: the version I used is USA v.160 ;)

Emulator plug-ins and settings: 

Go to Config > Plugin/BIOS selector to see the following screen... The plug-ins I used are the defaults. I used the Pad plug-in to map my controller buttons the way I wanted.

Now let's configure the video (GS) plug-in. Note that in 'D3D Upscaling' I selected Native... normally you can input a large D3D internal res and the game will not look so outdated, but doing so caused some ghosting in some rooms and it looked pretty bad, using native resolution solved it throughout the entire game.

Now go to Config > Emulation Settings, you'll have to do some tweaking in the following tabs: EE/IOP, VUs and Speedhacks.

In EE/IOP, make sure Full is selected.

In VUs, make sure Extra+Preserve Sign is selected.

In Speedhacks, match the following screenshot (I read some people recommend setting EE cyclerate to 2 but I didn't need to):

And that's it, this way I was able to play the whole game with no crashes whatsoever, awesome!

My system settings:

• Proc: AMD Athlon II X2 240
• RAM: 2 GB
• Video: ATI Radeon 4600 

Unfortunately I cannot guarantee that with these settings the game will work for you, but consider it as a starting point.

Cheers!