God of War 1 ISO Highly Compressed: A Legendary Game for PS2
4. Archiving ROM Collections
Retro gamers who keep entire libraries on external HDDs can store 10 highly compressed games in the space of 1 full ISO.
Original vs. Compressed Size: A standard God of War 1 ISO for PS2 is about 820 MB. Highly compressed "rips" often strip out padding files, high-quality FMVs (cinematics), or secondary audio tracks to reach sizes around 200–237 MB. Compression Formats:
If using PCSX2, ensure you are using the latest "Nightly" builds for the best compatibility with compressed files.
For Steam Deck / Linux
Use EmuDeck to install PCSX2, place the extracted ISO in the ps2 folder, and enjoy the God Mode.
3. File formats to expect
| Format | Compression | Emulator support |
|--------|------------|------------------|
| .7z / .rar | Very high (needs extraction) | Extract to ISO then play |
| .cso | High, playable directly | PCSX2, PPSSPP (not PSP game though) |
| .chd | Good, lossless | PCSX2 + CHD plugin |
| .pkg | PS3/PS4 emu format | RPCS3 |