Which PS3 games to get?

[burns flipper]

I got a 160GB PS3 slim, boxed with all cables and instructions, the other day for £150. The guy had hardly used it, only used it for blu-ray, and he was selling it...to fund his retro games habit! His front room was filled with cartridges, and under the TV he had a Dreamcast, Saturn, Megadrive, SNES, N64, Gamecube, and on the floor he had a Super Famicom!

I bought it for playing blu-rays, but since it's there I may as well use it for some games.

I have some very specific requirements. I don't have much time for gaming, so I like to make my time count. No point playing something where you need to clock up 50+ hours before you start getting anywhere. I like story-led games, and below I will say the games I have played on other platforms which I enjoyed so you can suggest some which are very similar.

Genres: I enjoy adventures and some RPG, not into sports at all, or car racing, or killing things.

Mini Ninjas (Wii) - might just get the PS3 version. I liked that it was simple, incredibly pretty and had a really nice atmosphere. The cherry blossoms falling in a gentle breeze, paddling down the river searching for sacred shrines...just gorgeous!

Rune Factory Frontier (Wii) and to a lesser extent the Wii Harvest Moon games - quite slow-paced, story led, I like the fact it was non-violent and you had the freedom to roam around and do what you want and do sub-quests.

Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES) - I like these RPG-type games. I'm not really into fast-paced stuff as I don't find that relaxing.

Avatar: The Legend of Aang (Wii) - I'm a big Avatar fan and really enjoyed this. I'd probably class this as like a realtime RPG - it had lots of optional side-quests, items to collect to enhance your parties stats, good story, and combat was easy enough for me. The theme was very good.

Time Hollow (DS), Another Code: R (Wii) - these were essentially visual novels which were both lots of fun.

The Settlers / Anno (PC/Wii) - I love the kingdom-building games.

Any graphic adventures like Monkey Island.


So that's exactly what I like...what are the PS3 versions of the above?

[Harrison]

As you like adventures I highly recommend Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and its sequel. This is a brilliant action adventure game series with good story and scripting and it is enjoyable right from the start. One of the PS3 exclusives worth owning, and the first is fairly old now so should be pretty cheap to buy.

Heavy Rain is a must have adventure game. It's even compatible with the Move controller if you fancy getting one for some motion control. Great game too with very nice graphics and nice story.

There are also some decent RPGs on the system. Final Fantasy XIII has a great story and is enjoyable by any Final Fantasy fan if you have played any before. It is fairly long so as you said no games requiring 50+ hours you might be a little put off, but its story is interesting all the way through with loads of great cut scenes, intertwined stories and characters etc..

Other RPGs worth checking out include White Knight Chronicles, Valkyrie Chronicles, Star Ocean: the last hope, Resonance of Fate, Eternal Sonata and Enchanted Arms.

What else...

Little Big Planet? That's fun.
Mass Effect 1 and 2? Great action, adventure, RPG mixes in the same style as Knights of the Old Republic. Another of my favourite series of late.

Finally if you fancy something a little different give Red Dead Redemption a try. Think of it like GTA meets the wild west and you will understand what the game is. You are basically a horse riding cowboy for hire. Great fun.

Oh and have you ever liked the Metal Gear games? If so check out MGS4. Very nice game.

There are loads more good games for the PS3. We have been working on a full list of must have titles here: http://forum.classicamiga.com/forum/showthread.php/4516-Recommended-PS3-games

[Demon Cleaner]

Finally if you fancy something a little different give Red Dead Revolver a try.[/url]
Redemption.

I can only agree to Harrison's choice, and I also can recommend Red Dead Redemption a lot, thought I wouldn't like it in the beginning before I even played it, and I must say for me it was the game of 2010! Both thumbs up :thumbs::thumbs:

Perhaps you should also try L.A. Noire if you didn't play it on the PC yet, until now I like it, and the game is more story driven and based than on action.

[Harrison]

Corrected! So many games over time its easy to muddle them up. ;)

[Phantom]

Always trust RockStar Games (remember DMA Design on Amiga?): GTA IV, Episodes from Liberty City, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire..... they're just brilliant games with great gameplay.

All the others are coming second. :lol:

[burns flipper]

Are there any city/empire/kingdom-building games? Like The Settlers or Anno - where you get to build up civilisations from scratch? I can't find anything.

[Harrison]

There is Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/strategy/sidmeierscivilizationrevolution/index.html), and it is meant to be a pretty good version. Not sure there is much else.

[burns flipper]

Not really into the conflict stuff, it's more the 'creating a utopia' that I like.

I played the demo for From Dust (http://from-dust.ubi.com/from-dust/en-GB/home/) last night, that was quite good.

[burns flipper]

Turns out there's a Village Mode in Two Worlds II where you build a village. Now I just have to wait for the price to drop a bit :huh:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81lUAxowC7g

[Harrison]

Sounds a bit like Dark Cloud, where you built a town and could then walk around it. Although hasn't the Sim City games done that too?

[J T]

I thought Red Dead was pants, personally. It was very easy, and very boring. I didn't care one jot for the characters. The scenery was quite nice though and the presentation was pretty neat.

I'd be tempted to get a PS3 for the updated versions of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, as I never played them on PS2 and feel I've missed out on something there.

I enjoyed Mass Effect 1 a hell of a lot. I played intentionally as an ass-kicking jerk, it was fun, but also a bit predictably black-and-white. I had to make sure I went out of me way to choose the bad option every time,otherwise if I'd have done what I truly wanted I'd probably have just ended up with a lame somewhere-in-the-middle character. There was one part though where I took the bad path, and felt a bit guilty about it - which I enjoyed actually, as it gave me pause for thought.

[Harrison]

The developers have been pretty good at the good vs evil features of their games for some years now. It worked the best in the Knights of the Old Republic games though as the balance between being on the light side Jedi path, and tipping over to the evil dark side Sith really showed itself well in the game, wit characters avoiding you on sight if you were dark and running to aid you and be ultra helpful if you were light.

I also love the Mass Effect games. The first 2 were brilliant and can't wait for the third.

Back on subject. I noticed the new F1 2011 is now out. Anyone bought it yet? I've got 2010 on the PC and really enjoy it, but am tempted to get the new on on the PS3.

Oh, and if you haven't played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus then definitely get the PS3 updated versions. These are 2 great games that really do push gaming into an art form. The style and design is amazing and really creates emotion in the games. I'm even tempted to get the PS3 versions, even though I have the originals, just for the HD update.

[Demon Cleaner]

There's also a Beyond Good and Evil HD remake, might want to get that one too. It was very good on the PS2 and PC.

[Harrison]

I spotted that one, but have it on the PC, so no need for better visuals. ;)

[Ghost]

Not sure what game I can recommend to get for the PS3 as I do not have much of them.
But I can recommend what game you should wait with getting; Resistance 3.

I am a bit of a Resistance fan, liking the games despite that they are FPS games on the console and I have bought all parts and am planning to get Resistance Burning Skies (though I will wait with getting a PS Vista for a while).

But the series has had some serious downhill points since R1.
While R2 was grander in scope I disliked the auto health system and weapon system that was like COD and Halo.
Now I am not against auto health in general but just sitting behind a wall for a couple of minutes and you are fit as a fiddle again is ridiculous, I rather had it like in Resistance 1 in which you at least always have one bar of health even if there are no health pick ups.

One of my biggest problems with the main series was that often the storylines were rather lacking in parts as were the characters.
A lot of explanation actually had to come from the books and documents found during the game rather than actually encountering it yourself.

The only game that I found an exception of this was Resistance Retribution which had a somewhat well worked out cast of characters and an actual plotline.
Surprisingly this game was not made by Insomniac who made the main games.

The problem with Resistance 3 is that it in general adds nothing to the series.
Because it was the third game in the series and people automatically make comparisons to other trilogies like Gears of War, Halo, and the upcoming Mass Effect 3, a lot of us expected some major revelations in this game about the Chimera, their goals, and how we eventually stopped them.

The thing is, Resistance 3 felt more like a filler, a side story.
Yes there was a goal to work towards but no real anticipation.
There were stakes at risks but there was little done to make you care about it, unlike Resistance 2 in which the fate of the remaining humanity seemed to be at risk.

A couple of plot twists did happen but that they really build the game, no.

It might be worth a rental, but if you are planning to buy it, get it either second hand or wait until prices lower.

[J T]

The developers have been pretty good at the good vs evil features of their games for some years now. It worked the best in the Knights of the Old Republic games though as the balance between being on the light side Jedi path, and tipping over to the evil dark side Sith really showed itself well in the game, wit characters avoiding you on sight if you were dark and running to aid you and be ultra helpful if you were light.

That's a neat implementation of the effects of your choices, but as with Mass Effect it seems that the choice is either Space-Jesus or Space-Hitler. What about the shades of gray in between? I appreciate that it probably isn't an easy thing to design...

[Harrison]

Character cause and effect must definitely be one of the hardest things to design and code in a game. Although the up coming Old Republic Star Wars MMO (by the same developers as all these ie Mass Effect and KotOR) are implementing a much more advanced system that is meant to add more shades of grey between the 2 extremes of character makeup and influence of events based on your current leanings. I'm really looking forward to finding out exactly how far this goes.

[burns flipper]

Someone lent me Oblivion, which I'm enjoying since I can freely roam around the entire world. They also lent me the big fat massive guidebook, so I've been doing all the sidequests too. The one thing I don't like about it is if you lockpick your way into someone's house and steal from them, and no-one sees you, the guards still come looking for you and acuse you of theft, and jail you. I mean, I specialised as Thief and Assassin, how am I supposed to achieve this?? But apart from that it's great, I love the fact you can go anywhere you want and pretty much do anything you want. I'm level 10 now and still have half the game world to explore. The side quests are good fun, you often get a nice neat item at the end of it, plus loot!

[Harrison]

Oblivion was great fun. I might load it up again as it will run nicely on current PCs, compared to all the tweaking we had to do when it was new to get it to run well. I never had such issues with lockpicking. If someone hears or sees you then the guards came running, but not if you were careful. I know they altered some of the ways this logic worked in more recent game patches, so maybe they did something here.

Are you considering the next game in the series? Due out at the end of this month.

[burns flipper]

Skyrim will be too expensive for me to get new. I'm probably not even halfway through the main Oblivion quest yet, let alone all the faction quests (still haven't joined a guild). It's the Game of the Year edition I was lent, which also has the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansions in - also none of which I've done yet - so it should keep me going for months and months yet.

I've been playing with an assassin/thief class, so have great stats in marksmanship and stealth (I tend to creep around, sticking arrows into people from afar) - I'm just currently trying to up my magic ability. I can now breathe underwater and walk on water, and my magic regenerates faster than those spells last for, which means I can swim underwater as long as I want. Someone needs to make a patch for reality so we can use these spells in real life :D

[Phantom]

Just bought L.A. Noire. As a Rockstar's fan its turn arrived after fully completing Red Dead Redemption.:)

[Demon Cleaner]

Still didn't finish L.A. Noire. Always played together with the misses, but sometimes she tends to just fall asleep during a game, and then I finish the case, and switch the console off :)

[burns flipper]

Just watched the vid with Skyrim footage...damn, wish I hadn't now!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6dKnv3WdU

Watch him beat the wolf, then kick it in the head!

[Harrison]

Skyrim definitely looks great doesn't it. As a huge fan of the series I will definitely be playing it. And as with the previous games in the series this definitely feels like an evolution of the series, rather than a complete reworking, which I love to see as i hate it when franchise get completely reworked into a completely different game or genre (such as Fallout was). This should be good. :)

The only conundrum now is what platform to buy it for? Buying it for a console will mean you know it should run smoothly and look as good as it can. And we know from experience of the previous games that the PC version will initially push current PCs to their limit and might struggle to show of the game in full detail, so we will have to compromise a bit on graphical quality, or maybe even resolution to make it run smoothly. But buying it on PC will mean better control, as with Oblivion, and other recent RPGs, I expect the PC version will have less dumbed down fighting. One thing most console games are guilty of is dumbing down the combat a bit to make it easier because of the less precise and slower controls. Larger hit regions on enemies, automatic targeting silently built in etc. Plus PC versions always have the longest life spans. Reinstall them a couple of years later and you can then utilise the progression of technology and run them at maxxed out settings to re-enjoy them anew in resolutions and graphical detail way beyond anything consoles can dream of.

[Demon Cleaner]

I have Oblivion, but didn't play it yet :)

Skyrim looks really great. My only concern is that I don't like the 1st person view in these games, looks terrible imo. But I saw some footage showing Skyrim played in 3rd person view, is that possible? Because that would change evrything for me.

[Harrison]

Yes, until this game the series has only been FPS, but they have added over the shoulder third person perspective as an option, so you can play it that way. I know what you mean about it not looking quite right in fps view. I always find it feels a little closed in and restricts field of view. For RPGs especially third person perspective gives you a much wider field of view around your character/s which is useful in combat. I will probably use both viewing modes during the gameplay though.

[Phantom]

I really like RPG but nowadays modern RPG tend to be more hack 'n' slash games than RPG, and that's really sad. I prefer the oldskool.

[burns flipper]

I play Oblivion in 3rd person mainly - much easier to see yourself in your surroundings and have a much bigger field of view. Then I switch to 1st person when I need to do something intricate like searching or aiming my bow. It's just a button-click to switch between the two views.

---------- Post added at 08:35 ---------- Previous post was at 08:20 ----------

The 3rd game in the So Blonde series comes out in glorious 1080p HD on the PS3 next Feb: Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005F2Z45O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=burnsflippers-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005F2Z45O)! I think this is the only graphic adventure on the PS3, should look awesome on my 50" plasma!

[Demon Cleaner]

I really like RPG but nowadays modern RPG tend to be more hack 'n' slash games than RPG, and that's really sad. I prefer the oldskool.

Totally counts for me too.

[Harrison]

The 3rd game in the So Blonde series comes out in glorious 1080p HD on the PS3 next Feb: Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005F2Z45O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=burnsflippers-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005F2Z45O)! I think this is the only graphic adventure on the PS3, should look awesome on my 50" plasma!

Wouldn't you say L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain are both Adventure games too?

[Phantom]

Wouldn't you say L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain are both Adventure games too?

L.A. Noire is probably an Action Adventure, not the classic Adventure genre we know.

[burns flipper]

Yes, they're both adventures...guess I should have said "point & click".

[Teho]

Well, both the Monkey Island special editions are on PSN, and some of Telltale's titles are as well allthough they're not strictly speaking point'n'click they are in spirit at least. Beyond that there's pretty much nothing I think.

[Demon Cleaner]

There's also the seasons of Sam & Max and Back to the Future available.

[Harrison]

Point and Click is sort of gone now though and was more a 16-32 bit era genre. They live on in spirit, but Adventures have evolved much further recently with a lot more immersion that tries to remove any interface altogether. Heavy Rain is definitely a great example of this, but I would say it is still very much the same genre as you are still moving a character around scenes exploring the environment and objects in it.

[Phantom]

I don't think that Point & Click adventures are of existence right now. There are quite a lot of those adventure for windows and they keep coming in the future. Not so many though as the old days nor nothing at all. I still play that kind of adventure as it's my 2nd favourite kind after text(/graphics) adventures which those you can surely say that they don't exist anymore.

Heavy Rain, yes it's an adventure of sort of, but as you're old enough and much experienced (like me) in computer games industry through over the years, you can simply tell the difference if a game is a pure adventure (like classic adventures) or not.

Just because you move a character around various locations and examine objects doesn't make it an adventure methinks. It might be near that, no doubt, but not 100% as we knew it.

Maybe things have changed like RPGs. As I said earlier, I don't like the new touch of RPGs, as I prefer the old kind like Eye of the Beholder, SSI's RPGs etc.

[Harrison]

Games and their genres are constantly evolving and I don't think we can expect a genre to stay as it is for more than 10 years. Even throughout the life of the Amiga a genre evolved, or more so for the Amiga where many genres were actually invented for the first time.

I also was a huge fan of the Dungeon Master style RPG style, with the Eye of the Beholder games being my favourite. Hired Guns and a few others were also brilliant. But that style of gameplay is now very out of date and the way it worked was really a product of the computer power of the day. Utilising what was available at the time to create the more immerse environment they could at the time.

[Teho]

Don't forget Legend of Grimrock (http://forum.classicamiga.com/forum/showthread.php/4748-PC-Legend-of-Grimrock?highlight=grimrock) which is still on it's way! :)

I'm following the production blog on this and it's in alpha state now, meaning it's technically playable from beginning to end though much content is still missing. Apparently the developer who went through it to hit that milestone used ten hours to do it even though he knew exactly what to do. Probably a PC-only release though so a little off-topic here.

[Tiago]

I agree with Phantom,
adventure games still have fans, and they still have a space in the industry.
I love them.
I am playing Still Life 2 and it is a great game, with a nice story. I like those kind of games and the feeling they can give you.
i allways want to know how the story ends, even if graphics or sound are not the best. But story here plays a very important role.

exemples of great adventure games with fantastic stories:
- Longest Journey (best advanture game ever... for me)
- Longest Journey 2 Dreamfall
- Still Life 2
- Myst series
- 7th guest
- 11th hour

the list would go on and on. Longest journey is not so old... no more then what 6/7 years...

But i also liked a lot Heavy Rain, brilliant game, and L.A. Noire looks very good to.

[burns flipper]

The Longest Journey is actually 12 years old :notworthy: - I bought my boxed copy second-hand in 2000!

It was 5 years ago since I played Dreamfall!

My friend also has Heavy Rain, I will see if I can borrow it when I'm done with Oblivion. She says her kids keep playing Heavy Rain, apparently they all sit there for hours watching the rain falling realistically off cars :huh:

[Tiago]

12 years old??? whauu.
yes, you shoud now that, you nickname is from Longest Journey.... :-)

[Harrison]

Wow! I hadn't realised it was that long ago. I still remember purchasing it on release. How time flies! :(

[Phantom]

Wow! I hadn't realised it was that long ago. I still remember purchasing it on release. How time flies! :(

Like flies!!! :lol: