PS3 has no games - Prove me wrong
30 September 2008 at 11:31 PM (GMT+10)
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.
Posted by Lynk Former in Articles, Discussions, PlayStation 3 | Permalink | Add Comment
Comments: 20
:P
EDIT: Oh and here's a link to a video interview from IGN relating to Valkyria Chronicles: IGN Video: Valkyria Chronicles PlayStation 3 Interview - Video Interview
Also, the downloadable PS titles are pretty nifty, especially since I love games like Jumping Flash! and Tekken a great deal.
I don't own a PS3, but I've played some titles on it. I'd say Resistance, MGS 4, Folklore, Heavenly Sword, and Warhawk look like appealing games to say the least.
I do plan to get one of these PS3s myself someday.
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
I don't understand why people are into Resistance or praise it so much... I mean, I've seen all the media for Resistance 2 where they go for the whole "godzilla" size monsters and stuff, but the first game felt very much like a last generation game in HD...
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To be perfectly blunt, I felt like Resistence is a poor-man's Halo... and I'm not much of a fan of Halo either.
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
Yeah, MGS4 is a really good game for the PS3, though I didn't mention it in the article because it's so obvious lol. I felt more like I was in a warzone in MGS4 than I did in Resistance.
To be perfectly blunt, I felt like Resistence is a poor-man's Halo... and I'm not much of a fan of Halo either. |
Actually, playing Doom and Duke Nukem 3D multiplayer probably would've been more fun for me too, if for nostolgia alone!
To add something to the thread's subject, however, I suppose it would be interesting to point out FF XIII. I'm not the hugest FF fan, though I loved FFVI for SNES a great deal (I'm more of a Lunar, Breath of Fire, and Phantasy Star kind of guy).
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
No, I plan to buy a 360 when I get enough money to get one. While the PS3 has fewer worthwhile games to play, the games that I have are still very much worth playing and keeping. Plus I've never sold any console I've owned and I never will.
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I actually own a couple of systems that maybe have a few good games on them (Atari Jaguar, and I don't know if anyone would count a Sega 32X on that note), but I think it's a good philosophy to uphold. The PS3 isn't quite bad when I think about some of the systems that had little to no selection years ago.
Deep down, I think the PS3 has some nice looking games (moreso than some people believe when considering some of the console flops of yesteryear), we've already displayed a good amount above, though I suppose the 360 (and even the Wii) seem to have more exclusive titles to play at the moment.
Still, PS3 is impressive hardware, and I want to experience some of its better titles in due time (+ a Blu-Ray Player? Why not!)
And...I'm done with my tangents! XD
Not exlusive but i heard a while back that the PS3 version of Eternal Sonata was superior
Currently the PS3's game library is nowhere near the monumental legacy that is the PS2's growing library, nor is it quite on par with the 360's. Whether it be the hardware not quite living up to expectations, difficulty of understanding the developmental architecture or whatever other excuse you want to throw out there, simple fact is it is still early and there are still great games. The problem surrounding the negative perception of the PS3 thus far is this whole childish "console war" turning not only rabid gamers against each other, but also pitting the console makers against each other. It has created this situation where every third party title turns into this eBay bidder war for exclusivity. While I completely agree that a console purchase should be based on exclusive titles, I can't see this buyout of 3rd party developers as a good thing for the industry.
Rant over, back to the games.
As you mentioned both Uncharted and Valkyria Chronicles I feel no need to extrapolate other than state that indeed Uncharted is awesome (barring the "twist" at the end) and VC looks to be a first day purchase for me. Some other games worth mention both out now and forthcoming...
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction -- This is an interesting series, now I had not played an R&C game on the PS2 where it became a blossoming franchise, but after playing the demo I decided to give the game a shot and boy was I pleased. R&C is half platformer half action/adventure with some creative and clever weaponry at your disposal. Some compare the game to that of a Pixar movie and while that is quite honestly a stretch the game does have its own charm and appeal. The game is exciting, fun and humorous which is a great combination of adjectives. Being the type of game that it is you will either like it or you wont there isn't much in between. That being said it is certainly a quality title for the PS3.
LittleBIGPlanet -- No doubt most of you have at least heard of this game. With something around 50 pre-made story mode levels and the potential for limitless user creations it is a game that could possibly never end. There have been several "professional" reviews for the game already all of which praise the titles creativity among other things. Simply put if you haven't heard much about this game you owe it to yourself to do some research. I think one of the most amazing things about this game are the potential uses for this game. During Sony's E3 press conference part of the presentation was done using a level created with LittleBIGPlanet, think of it as being the coolest Powerpoint presentation ever created. This game shows great promise and is definitely worth a look-see.
Other games, well there's SOCOM: Confrontation, which since its release has had some horrid server issues among other things, but if you're a fan of SOCOM, once you actually get in a game it is every bit as good as SOCOM 1 and maybe even 2. Let's see SRPG fans have Disgaea 3, Heavenly Sword was good albeit short, there are other games I wanted to mention, but seeing as it is pretty late where I am, my brain isn't functioning properly, so I'll call it quits.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
On the Halo/Resistance subject, which I'll only hit briefly since it isn't a favorite topic of mine, they're similar yes, but then again they aren't. I've played Halo 1 and 2 and seeing as I bought my PS3 basically at launch I've played Resistance since it was one of the few games out. I'll just say that both are fairly generic shooters, but Resistances storyline was more interesting to me than Halo's to the point where Resistance had enough of a hook to get me to most likely buy the sequel. Considering Halo doesn't really have a story, that's not saying much for Resistance, but all the same I can see why people like the game. Much of the rave and rapture revolving around Resistance, in hindsight, was most likely to due with the fact that it was the preeminent launch title for the PS3 and gave dedicated Sony fans a game they could rally behind. I've already said more than I wanted to, so let's move on.
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I found it difficult to play... I mean, the story was interesting, but to get to the story you had to get through all that gameplay... and I kinda got bored of doing that after awhile.
| Currently the PS3's game library is nowhere near the monumental legacy that is the PS2's growing library, nor is it quite on par with the 360's. Whether it be the hardware not quite living up to expectations, difficulty of understanding the developmental architecture or whatever other excuse you want to throw out there, simple fact is it is still early and there are still great games. The problem surrounding the negative perception of the PS3 thus far is this whole childish "console war" turning not only rabid gamers against each other, but also pitting the console makers against each other. It has created this situation where every third party title turns into this eBay bidder war for exclusivity. While I completely agree that a console purchase should be based on exclusive titles, I can't see this buyout of 3rd party developers as a good thing for the industry. |
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
I found it difficult to play... I mean, the story was interesting, but to get to the story you had to get through all that gameplay... and I kinda got bored of doing that after awhile.
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It really is a pretty generic shooter, but thankfully the story wasn't as generic.|
Originally Posted by Lynk Former
Problem is that the "it's too early" excuse has gotten out of date now. The PS3 should have a whole stack of exclusive titles for it by now... the problem is that developers have been releasing those exclusive games on the 360, and in some cases cancelling a PS3 game and actually moving it over to Wii instead. It is a big problem for Sony.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
Oh I completely agree that indeed the PS3 is not in the position that it should be in and certainly has not lived up to most people's expectations. I just feel that the degree to which the PS3 is "failing" has been dramatically blown out of proportion. Losing exclusives certainly isn't an ideal situation, however I think that with game development costs growing we're approaching the point where 3rd party games will almost always have to be multi-platform in order to turn a profit. That is why I am biased towards Sony's policy of putting money into the improvement of 1st and 2nd party developers more so than MS's policy of buying out 3rd party titles. Don't get me started on the Wii though, I haven't touched mine since May or June, in fact it is at my friends house atm.
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The PS3 was selling pretty well there for awhile, it looked like it was well on its way to catch up to the 360, at least by the end of the generation... however, in recent months, the 360 has been pushing forward in Japan and the PS3 has been losing momentum.
I have a feeling that it'll go on like this for awhile with the PS3 and 360 selling neck and neck... however, the 360 got a good head start on the PS3 which is working for it pretty well.
As for Wii. You've said that the PS3 has a lot of great games and lots more on the way, would you say this is the same for Wii? From where I sit, I've noticed a lot of people say that Wii has no decent games, yet I have over 20 great Wii games and if I had the money I'd have double that amount. I also do know of a lot of Wii titles that are coming out which can't be ignored.
I think this line from my article:
| 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." |
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
As for Wii. You've said that the PS3 has a lot of great games and lots more on the way, would you say this is the same for Wii? From where I sit, I've noticed a lot of people say that Wii has no decent games, yet I have over 20 great Wii games and if I had the money I'd have double that amount. I also do know of a lot of Wii titles that are coming out which can't be ignored.
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