PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[EVOVI12]

God Of War 3

With Sony announcing the new PS3 Super Slim and accompanying PS3 Essentials budget range at its TGS 2012 press conference, we felt we should dig our collective snouts in the opinion trough. So with a slant towards folk who may be buying a PlayStation 3 for the first time, here are what we consider to be the eight best PS3 Essentials…

There are three certainties in life. Death. Taxes. And that if you ever come face to face with Kratos, your throat will be ripped out before you can say ‘IRS’. Thankfully A) he’s just a video game character, and B) he’s on your side. Meaning that, in the third game in the series, you get to do plenty of throat-ripping. And head-tearing. And literal eye-popping. There’s a strong story about the cue-ball headed god-hater fighting his way towards Mount Olympus in order to exact revenge on Zeus, too, but first and foremost this is about virtual evisceration. And on PS3, no game has done it bloodier, or better.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Sorry, what’s that? You’ve never played Uncharted? Right, get to the naughty step. Come back in 15 minutes. We’ll talk more then. Sentence served now? So this is merely the game that kicked off PlayStation 3′s greatest series and instantly turned protagonist Nathan Drake into the ultimate mancrush of gamers from both sexes. It’s Persia-beating platforming, Lara-surpassing puzzles and Indy-inspired story blend into an irresistible cocktail that, even five years on, still tastes deliciously sweet. And that’s before we even get to Elena. Lovely, perfect Elena. Now there’s a lady we’d do unlimited naughty step penance for…

 

Driver San Francisco

You’re fast-driving cop Tanner, and you’re in a coma. Oh, and as a result you’ve got a nifty Shift mechanic that lets you possess the driver of any vehicle. Got that? Basically, you can take control of any ride in the beautifully realised San Francisco, and use it to wreak havoc. Lots of havoc. It’s a riotous spin through a detailed open-world, peppered with side missions that range from illegal street-racing to driving under articulated lorries. Go on, drive yourself wild.

 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Bringing back one of the most beloved names in all of gaming is a ballsy move, and it’s testament to how good Human Revolution is that there was almost no outcry among Deus Ex fanatics. It manages to keep the feel of the series – dialogue heavy, laden with both gameplay choices and overarching moral decisions – while attaching these to up-to-date mechanics. The tone and design of the world is also spot on, and you can punch through walls. Sold!

 

Far Cry 2

Mmmm, tastes like burning. If there’s one thing Ubisoft’s open-world African shooter does well (aside from doing its bestest Heart Of Darkness impersonation), is the flamey stuff. Creating your own wildfires to fry foes in Far Cry 2’s vast plains is a constant toasting pleasure, while the sheer expanse and freedom the game’s world provides is near peerless among PS3 shooters. With its insistence on making you fix guns and scoffing the occasional Malaria tablet, the action on show is undoubtedly po-faced. But this is a thoughtful FPS which gives scope for a free-form, intuitive play-style that COD could only have undercrackers-soiling dreams about.

 

Assassin’s Creed 2

Still the strongest game in the series – although hopefully Assassin’s Creed 3 will change that shortly – this is the game that the original wanted to be. Gone is the selection of five rote mission types, instead now we have a huge range of activities to do across a host of Italian cities. There’s also a new, far more complex protagonist, not to mention gadgets such as Mr. Da Vinci’s flying machine. This is where the now-iconic series really kicks off.

 

LittleBigPlanet

Sackboy’s first outing is an absolute revelation in terms of user-generated content. Basically, if you can imagine it, you can make your own level out of it. (Er, maybe not those imaginings.) The total number of community-created levels recently topped seven million, and all of these are compatible with both of the series’ PS3 instalments. Inventive, quirky and oh-so-cute, if you’ve yet to give PlayStation’s unofficial mascot a virtual cuddle, what the heck are you waiting for?

 

Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction

If you want to force alien beasties to disco dance themselves to death via a magic flashing ball of doom, then this is really the only game on PS3 that will satiate that particular craving. Less expansive than sequel A Crack In Time, TOD remains the most lean and focused of Ratchet’s PS3 adventures. With nimble third-person shooting, enjoyable gravity-defying plaformy bits and ridiculously sizeable bosses, this remains an essential purchase. Even five years on, it’s still one of PS3’s prettiest games, too.

[BigGreyBox]

Driver San Fran is an awesome game and I love the "Blast from the past" mission, it got me feeling nostalgic :')

I would ad Need For Speed: Hot pursuit to this list as well, online, this game is awesome