The PlayStation 3 had a rough start. The price was high, and there weren’t all that many great games compared to the best Xbox 360 games. However, Sony stuck with it and eventually managed to turn things around, leading to one of the most important generations in terms of new IP. Since that time, video game graphics and gameplay have only gotten more realistic with the best PS4 games and even better with the best PS5 games.
Despite all the advancements and new consoles, you may sometimes be in the mood to revisit some of your favorite games that you played as a kid or teenager. Sifting through all the old PS3 games can feel overwhelming, but if you’re trying to figure out which games are still worth your time, we’ve compiled a list of recommendations. We’ve also gathered a list of the best PS1 games and best PS2 games for the sake of nostalgia.
Action
Grand Theft Auto V
90%Red Dead Redemption
89%Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
88%Playing as going-on-senior-citizen Solid Snake could have easily been a disaster, but Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots took the series in a brilliant direction with the use of gadgets like the camouflage suit, a buddy robot, and the innovative Psyche Meter. From a technical perspective, MGS4 was one of the best Metal Gear games, from visuals to gameplay to cinematics.
The story, like the games in the series before it, twisted and turned and amused and befuddled. With a movie-length cutscene sequence at the end, MGS4 ended with a startling bang. MGS4 was a more than worthy addition into the Metal Gear library and is commonly viewed as one of the greatest stealth games of all time.
Dark Souls
87%The Souls series gained a reputation as the standard for challenging games. Demon Souls kicked off the From Software series, but it was Dark Souls that brought the punishing franchise to the mainstream, and for good reason. Though Dark Souls is an open-world game with a dizzying number of tangents and secrets, it can be aptly described as an epic boss rush.
You had to master the methodical combat and learn the tendencies of its diabolical bosses to come out on top. Even early bosses felt like an immense hurdle, which made each victory sweeter than the last. Dark Souls is also known for its bugs and inconsistencies. Rather than diminishing the experience, however, the strange occurrences and dips in performances contributed to its novel charm.
Dead Space
73%Dead Space felt like the perfect combination of horror and action. Developed by the now-defunct Visceral Games, Dead Space followed spaceship engineer Isaac Clarke’s repair mission on the USG Ishimura. Naturally, things quickly went south when Clarke realized the crew had been slaughtered and turned into terrifying creatures called Necromorphs.
Dead Space stood out for its haunting atmosphere and brilliant action gameplay that saw players dismembering the Necromorphs limb by limb with technological gadgets. With brilliant pacing and expert design, Dead Space kicked off one of the best horror game series of the era.
Action-adventure
The Last of Us
93%Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
89%Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag
83%Batman: Arkham City
87%The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
89%Fumito Ueda’s Shadow of the Colossus was great on the PlayStation 2, sure, but it’s even better remastered on the PS3. The larger-than-life title has you playing as the game’s two heroes, Wander and his horse Argo, shuffling you through a bleak and somber landscape as you work to eradicate a host of enormous colossi and wake your fair maiden from her slumber.
The colossus fights make boss battles in any other game look small and prosaic by comparison. The short story and accompanying score are beautifully orchestrated — as are the updated visuals — but it’s the way the puzzle and action mechanics seamlessly intertwine that makes it unlike anything else.
Journey
86%First-person shooters
BioShock Infinite
86%Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
84%Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a watershed moment for the franchise and first-person shooters in general. First, it brought the traditionally World War II shooter into the modern era with a contemporary single-player campaign that raised the bar for the genre. It remains one of the most affecting and well-crafted campaigns in shooter history. Second, it really kickstarted the Call of Duty multiplayer craze on consoles.
Thanks to finely-tuned mechanics, an addictive class-based system, and wondrously-designed maps, Modern Warfare quickly became the leading example of multiplayer shooters done right. Even more than a decade after its release, fans are still enjoying Modern Warfare thanks to a remake on current-gen consoles as one of the best Call of Duty games.
Resistance 3
79%Developed by Insomniac Games, the Resistance series saved its best game for last. Set in a ridiculously cool alternate 1950s reality filled with grotesque aliens, every single mission managed to outdo the previous one. Fast, over-the-top combat made Resistance 3 a constant joy to play, but it was the touching story that brought the trilogy to a great conclusion.
For a science-fiction series filled with fantastical elements, Resistance 3‘s grounded tale about protecting one’s family was both surprising and moving. Though Insomniac has moved on in the years since the underrated trilogy reached its conclusion, Resistance 3 remains one of its best efforts.
Platformers
LittleBigPlanet 3
73%Puzzle games
Portal 2
92%Portal 2 is a wonder to play — that is, assuming you can look past the lengthy load times and general lack of replay value. It features a welcome array of spatial orientation puzzles centered around the portal gun, much like its short predecessor, and includes both a story-driven single-player and a less story-driven two-player mode that is one of the best co-op games you can find.
Either way, the puzzles are more sophisticated and the characters more entertaining than before, the latter of which owes much to the game’s clever writing and Valve’s ability to bring a surprising human element to its cast of spherical robots and ghostly voices, featuring fantastic actors like Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons. All-in-all, it sits as one of the best puzzle games of all time.
Role-playing games
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
86%The charming Ni no Kuni is a pleasure, described by some as Chrono Trigger crossed with Pokémon, in the style of Studio Ghibli, who worked on the game’s animation. It’s a sweeping cartoon adventure revolving around a simple boy named Oliver, who sets out to become a wizard in the hopes of toppling evil and saving his recently departed mother.
The timeless world is rich and inventive, whether it’s the talking scenarios, enemies, characters, or the surrounding locales. And the heartfelt themes and motifs make up for troublesome leveling mechanics. Drippy is also one of the best fairy sidekicks you ask for, on par with Ocarina of Time‘s Navi.
Fallout: New Vegas
87%The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
88%Bethesda’s world conceived for the latest iteration of the Elder Scrolls is incredibly immersive and significant, not just in terms of its massive map and an overwhelming number of quests, but in the fascinating lore and battles themselves. It’s been almost a decade since its initial release, and people still use it as a standard for the scale of open-world RPG games.
Bethesda was smart about marketing this game—they made it accessible on all platforms so anyone can use it. Battling dragons is amazing in itself, but the game’s atmosphere and design are what puts it heads and shoulders above its predecessors. Even though it’s an older game, it’s one of the best single-player games out there.
Mass Effect
86%Mass Effect, by Bioware, is widely considered one of the best video game trilogies ever made. Our personal favorite is the original, which was one of the first choice-based role-playing games. Gamers play the game as Commander Shepard, placed in the Milky Way galaxy during the year 2183. Your goal as Shepard is just the small epic quest of saving humanity.
Mass Effect is an incredible world-building platform with excellent writing and plotting. While some newer gamers may find the first Mass Effect to be a bit slow at the start, the ending makes the wait worthwhile. This first game from Mass Effect has long sat near the top of our list of RPGs. We’re sad to say that the sequel, Mass Effect: Andromeda, doesn’t quite live up to the hype.
