However, this compression comes at a steep cost. The most common method to achieve sub-500MB sizes is not just compression but crippling . So-called “Rip groups” often employ (reducing texture resolution and audio bitrate to grainy, muffled versions) and dubbing (removing voice acting entirely, leaving only subtitles). Most drastically, they perform content removal : stripping out FMV cutscenes, background music, or even entire levels. A “highly compressed” version of Metal Gear Solid 2 under 500MB is not the same game—it is an abridged, often broken shadow, where a pivotal cinematic is replaced by a single black screen reading “SNAKE FIND THE BOMB.” Furthermore, these compressed ROMs are frequently bundled with malware, modified emulator settings that introduce save-file corruption, or incomplete patches that cause crashes mid-game.
Original Size: ~4.2 GB Compressed "Rip" Size: ~300–400 MB San Andreas is the quintessential example of the "rip" technique. The game contains hundreds of megabytes of radio stations, voice acting, and cutscenes. Highly Compressed Ps2 Games Under 500mb