PS3 has no games – Prove me wrong

I know a blog post titled “PS3 has no games” is obviously going to make some people rage at suggesting so and others nod in agreement… and to be fair, I did put it up there to get people to turn their heads in this direction. However, I’m not here to bash the PS3, rather to highlight what great games it does have which people are either genuinely unaware of or are trying to ignore for the sake of saying… “PS3 has no games.”

The difference with this article from the few others I have written in the past is that it won’t try to give you all the answers, rather it is intended to get a discussion started so that you can share from your own experience, what PS3 games we should be aware of.

Before I begin though, I’d like people to focus more on PS3 exclusives rather than the multiplatform titles… to be perfectly honest, I feel that most of the current multiplatform games perform better on the Xbox 360 than they do on the PS3.

Okay, let’s start:

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

I’m sure you’ve heard people speak very good things about this game yet haven’t tried it out for yourself. To be honest, I wasn’t all that convinced until I played Uncharted for myself as well, but it definitely is one of the defining games for the PS3 at the moment. It’s a very nice blend of action and adventure and cinematic story telling that, unlike Metal Gear Solid 4, doesn’t take you away from the game for too long.

Uncharted has some amazing gameplay and equally amazing animation to go with it. Everything seems more real, and not just in a photo-realistic sense. Naughty Dog, the developers of this fine game, made an extra effort to animate the characters with as much realistic human movement as they could and that alone makes it feel more real than anything else.

The gameplay is also very well done, both in the action and the adventuring sides of the game. The gunfights, especially in the “Crushing” difficulty can become pretty intense, and you have to make on the fly tactical decisions that will either get you killed or save your ass in the most dire circumstances. It’s all done in a way that’s very exciting without it having to be a frantic multiplayer FPS. All of the enemies can duck behind cover, roll out and shoot, throw grenades, etc just as well as you can, so you better be ready otherwise the colour of the world washes away and death finds you.

I wish I could say there was a good balance between the action and the adventuring, but there seemed to be a lot more action than there was adventuring. But, what adventuring you do get up to is pretty damn good. Everything from wall and rock climbing to solving ancient puzzles and the odd quick time event here and there which have been popping up a lot in games lately.

Personally, another thing that impressed me about this game is that it runs so well on the PS3. There are no mandatory installs, no loading screens and everything runs pretty damn smoothly. The game does feel like a long movie and short for a videogame, but it has plenty of replayability when it comes to collecting treasure and unlocking all those extras… and provided you’ve bothered to download the patch, the joy of collection PlayStation Network trophies.

If you haven’t tried it out, you really should because chances are you’ll end up loving it and that in itself will encourage Naughty Dog to make more.

Valkyria Chronicles

I’ve been hearing about this game for awhile now but haven’t been paying attention to it until recently when I found it that it’s actually a Tactical RPG with a difference. After searching through the net, finding videos and reading about the game, my interest peaked and I can say with great certainly that I’ll definitely be buying this game. While I’m sure it’s going to have a really cliché Anime style story (of course!), the gameplay itself is what interests me the most. The kind of tactical games of this type that I’m used to are Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars, but Valkyria Chronicles, while it does take elements from these two series, has some very nice and unique gameplay features which I really want to try.

The gameplay feature I’m talking about is called “BLiTZ” or “Battle of Live Tactical Zones.” As with most other games of this type, it is turn based and you start off with a map of the battle area where you can select your units etc. It all seems pretty standard until you select a character and your perspective suddenly come down from the map view and into a third person perspective where you can directly control the character you have chosen.

Usually, in other games the map would be divided into square areas and each character has the ability to move a certain amount of spaces and attack within that area. With Valkyria Chronicles, this idea is thrown out the door almost completely. When you are in this third person perspective, it’s basically a stripped down version of a third person shooter. You are able to move your character as far as their move points will take them, you can move to an advantageous location, attack an enemy with your machine gun or rifle or whatever off in the distance, and if you have any move points remaining, retreat to a safer location.

When you are moving your character in third person view, enemy soldiers near your character will fire on them and you may or may not take hits depending on what kind of cover is around you. However, when it comes time for you to attack your enemy, time stops and you are given the chance to aim your characters weapon yourself to score head shots, etc. It’s combining strategy with hands-on action in a very interesting way, and these kinds of fresh ideas are what make me excited about this game.

Gameplay aside, the art style and visuals themselves look stunning… and so they should, I didn’t pay all this money for a PS3 (note: this is a lie, I got my PS3 for free, but you get what I’m saying…) just so I could look at glorified last gem visuals, now did I!

Right now, Valkyria Chronicles is only out in Japan, but it’s set to hit the US in November, and hopefully sooner than later in Europe and Australia so I can pick it up and don’t have to import. For me, this game is under the DO WANT! category.

And more…

So now it’s your turn. What PS3 games are there which we should all REALLY be paying attention to? If people don’t speak up, we’ll never know and we’ll probably end up missing out on some really special games. I for one don’t want that to happen.