ThePS3remains my favourite console of all time. It defined my teenage years as I played literal days ofModern Warfare 2with school friends, sunk into a laundry list of mediocre RPGs, and began to develop a taste in media that defined who I’d grow up to be. I’ll always see it as something special, warts and all. It’s unfortunate thatSonydoesn’t have the same level of respect for its legacy.
Ever sinceThe Last of Usburst onto the scene in 2013 as a late PS3 exclusive, Sony has slowly but surely started to reinvent itself as a console giant that put narrative blockbusters first and foremost. It still experimented with underrated gems like Gravity Rush 2 and Concrete Genie, but the wind was clearly blowing in a very specific and very prestigious direction.
The games that resulted from this new era are largely excellent, but overtime has morphed into what I and many others consider a homogenous mass of triple-A gaming where experimentation is decidedly rare. I miss what PlayStation used to be, and here are a few bangers that deserve to make a comeback.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots
Back when it was first revealed,Hideo Kojimawas steadfast in telling the gaming world that this is where theMetal Gear Solidsaga would come to an end. After three titles set amidst a modern timeline - and Snake Eater snug in the middle - Solid Snake was going to go against Liquid Ocelot and save the world. Whether he would live or die was a big point of contention, putting the fandom on the edge of their seats for a game that promised to push boundaries.
I wouldn’t be surprised if MGS4 finally breaks containment as part of the next volume of Konami’s Legacy Collection. It would make a lot of sense given the series’ comeback.
And it did, with a brilliant OctoCamo system that allowed Snake to blend into the world in a way I still don’t think has been effectively replicated. Lean against a wall, and you will take on its appearance, or go prone on the floor and your entire body would mimic the tiles under your body. It allowed stealth gameplay to feel immediate and dynamic, and combined with its exhaustively detailed gunplay, it created an experience that felt incredibly ahead of its time.
Resistance
The entireResistancetrilogy remains trapped on the PS3, and represents an entire era of Insomniac Games as it moved away from platformers into far more gritty territory. While its gunplay hasn’t aged spectacularly well, the charm of going up against alien invaders in the British countryside is still so much fun. The creative weapon design of Ratchet & Clank was carried over to a new genre without any dilution, and the results were magical.
Speaking of Insomniac, Rift Apart follows on from Into the Nexus’ decade-long cliffhanger… which you may’t experience natively unless you have a PS3 handy.
Resistance 2 would go stateside and introduce bigger, badder enemies, while the third entry would put you in the shoes of a new character in a world that has long been taken over by the Chimera. It’s equal parts survival horror and first-person shooter, but it worked. I would kill for a modern remaster of these three games, or failing that, a port of some kind that actually recognises the franchise for the first time in a decade.
Infamous
I don’t loveInfamousas much as my colleagues here at TheGamer, but I do recognise that it was a pivotal part of the PS3 generation. Sony took one of its original first-party ventures into an open world with a superhero adventure where the player could be good, evil, or anywhere in between. Exploring huge open worlds as Cole McGrath while shooting lightning from your fingers was liberating.
The sequel felt better to play and made Cole far more likeable thanks to a new voice actor and less of a gruff I-hate-everybody attitude. My personal favourite will always be Second Son, but it sucks that Sony hasn’t acknowledged where it all began for so long now.
Motorstorm
I’m of the opinion that you could remasterMotorstormat 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, and it would look like a brand-new game. Acting as a launch title for the PS3, this muddy and mayhem-filled racer was amazing. Not only did it look incredible, it allowed you to race a variety of vehicles across myriad tracks where they could explode at any moment.
Here’s a few honorable mentions, since this article would go on forever if I tried to describe all of them: Heavenly Sword, Rain, Puppeteer, Fat Princess, 3D Dot Game Heroes, The Last Guy, Heavenly Sword, Modnation Racers. Okay maybe that’s more than a few.
Sony made a point at the time of pointing out how many individual pieces would fly across the screen whenever a car was destroyed, demonstrating exactly how much detail the PS3 was capable of showcasing. The series lives on in entries like Pacific Rift and Apocalypse, all of which were exclusive to either PS3, PSP, or PS Vita. It’s been years since it surfaced, and I sure would love a racing game on PlayStation that isn’t Gran Turismo.
Tokyo Jungle
When I first joined TheGamer,I screamed from the rooftops about the greatness of Tokyo Jungle. Japan Studio created a stunningly unique experience where you explored a ruined version of the capital where humanity had been wiped out by a mysterious plague.
Your mission was to survive as a dog, cat, dinosaur, and a laundry list of animals you earned by completing missions and progressing through the campaign. The core gameplay loop had you eating enough food to survive, fighting off predators, and eventually mating to carry your bloodline further.
Killzone
Sony spent two generations trying to make Killzone into athing.A shooter that could rival Halo in both its quality and popularity. But given we haven’t had an entry in the series for a decade now and Guerilla is deep in the Horizon hole for the foreseeable future, I doubt that is going to change anytime soon.
However, that doesn’t mean the original trilogy should be trapped on an old console, because two of them are pretty great. Killzone 1 is rather mid, but the second entry was a daring twist for the series that strived to reinvent itself both visually and mechanically. It looks gorgeous to this day, and would no doubt slap with a new coat of paint and slightly updated controls.
