Why does anyone buy a PS3, anyway?

December 4, 2009 7:09 AM

OK, we got a PS3. Now what?

We bought a nice TV, and it came with a free PS3. That's great, but what do we do with it? Specifically, what games are Playstation 3 exclusives, or if not exclusives, play much better on the PS3?

We also have a Wii and XBox 360, each with 4 controllers, so "exclusive to PS3" would really be the only reason we'd be buying a game for the Playstation.

Older games are fine, we don't need the newest games. I already know the inevitable "MGS4 and LittleBigPlanet," and I just don't have time any more for games called "Final Fantasy" without the word "Tactics" in the title.

Thank you for your suggestions!

posted by explosion to sports, hobbies, & recreation (51 answers total)

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a top PS3 exclusive and strong contender for game of the year.
PS3 can also play blueray movies.

Really though, most of the exclusives are a bit crap.
posted by anti social order at 7:13 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

That's okay. The newest Final Fantasy is coming out for the xbox360. (It's also a 50+ hour game, and obviously not up your alley).

If you have it connected to the net.. There's a lot of exclusive DLC content you can buy.
posted by royalsong at 7:16 AM on December 4, 2009

Uncharted 1 & 2 (Among Thieves)
Infamous
Fallout 3
Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction
R&C A crack in time
Gran Turismo 5 prologue (full version next year)
Demon's Souls (hard!)

Really though, most of the exclusives are a bit crap.
Why would you say that? Most exclusives, especially the recent ones are excellent (Flower, Killzone 2).
posted by swordfishtrombones at 7:19 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Why does anyone buy a PS3, anyway?

I bought mine solely for watching Blu-ray movies. I'm not a gamer and haven't bought or played any games on it in the 16+ months that I've owned it.
posted by Nothlit at 7:21 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you have it connected to the net.. There's a lot of exclusive DLC content you can buy.

It's not currently networked, but it certainly can be. By DLC, do you mean games?
posted by explosion at 7:22 AM on December 4, 2009

I want to get a PS3 to play the next set of Ratchet and Clank games, as their PS2 versions are incredibly fun. It's a 3rd person shooter/platformer/puzzler with a lot of humor.
posted by bookdragoness at 7:25 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

The God of War series are amazingly beautiful, violent, epic, mythological, and exlcusive to the Playstation. You can now buy GOW I & II together on one disk, and they've been redone in HD, apparently. The third installment comes out soon.

To quote a positive review:

It was all about the execution. Every single element of the game was brilliantly realised from front to back, and hit the sweet spot every time. Whichever part of the game you looked at, whether the combat system, the puzzles, the boss encounters, the narrative, the technology behind the game, or even the audio, it was absolutely outstanding.

(The unavailability of these games is one of the few regrets I have about buying an Xbox 360)
posted by General Tonic at 7:25 AM on December 4, 2009 [4 favorites]

Why? A free Blu-Ray player and hatred of Microsoft are two big reasons, I imagine.

Other good exclusives: Resistance and Resistance 2. SOCOM (any of them). MLB The Show. Killzone 2. Ratchet and Clank. Infamous. Valkyria Chronicles.

Heavy Rain and Project Trico are coming soon, both look special. L.A. Noir(e) also looks great and is maybe exclusive, maybe not. Rockstar is confusing.

Wikipedia: PS3 Exclusives.
posted by rokusan at 7:25 AM on December 4, 2009

Good call on God of War, yes. Even though they're PS2 games with remade PS3 graphics, they're still great, and the upcoming third one will be PS3 native.
posted by rokusan at 7:26 AM on December 4, 2009

Yeah, I agree with SFT. There are a few clunkers of course, but statistically I think the exclusives are more likely to be of high-quality than other games.
posted by rokusan at 7:27 AM on December 4, 2009

If you have Netflix, you can order a free disc from them to set it up for streaming movies. Better than 360 since you don't have to also pay for Live Gold, though if you already pay for Gold anyway, it's irrelevant.

Sing Star can be a lot of fun, if you have friends who are into karaoke. A lot of the appeal is that you're singing along to the actual music videos, unlike Rock Band. I believe that you can use all the PS2 discs if you have the PS3 version, making for a very big library of songs (and suggesting that Sony's reluctance to make backward compatibility available on the new models is pure greed).

Otherwise, get the nice Bluetooth remote and use it as a Blu-Ray player, which is its primary function in my house.
posted by paperzach at 7:34 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Playstation Store is where the exclusive action is, there are lots of great games there, and they're cheap too. Pixeljunk Anything, Super Stardust, Calling all Cars, Flow and Flower, Everyday Shooter, etc. Pixeljunk Shooter comes out next week and it looks great. Pixeljunk Monsters is still the most-played game at our house.
posted by ulotrichous at 7:36 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

To clarify my question:

We have Netflix and our XBox happily married. I know the PS3's "thing" is Blu-Ray, but I'm not sold on the necessity of Blu-Ray, it costs extra to have Netflix send us Blu-Ray, and the discs are supposedly more fragile in the mail. Anyway, I'm quite content with the combination of DVDs, Netflix streaming, and BitTorrented video.

This is a question about PS3 games. I'm happy to have seen so many suggestions, and please keep them coming. If the only answers had been, "we use it for Blu-Ray," I'd be tempted to box the damn thing back up and return it.
posted by explosion at 7:39 AM on December 4, 2009

The Ratchet and Clank titles are all kinds of awesome. And don't miss great titles on the Playstation Store like Super Stardust HD, Shatter, Lumines Supernova.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:53 AM on December 4, 2009

Check out some of the downloadable games, like Fat Princess
posted by teabag at 7:59 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Do you like trivia?

My husband and I love the new "Buzz! Quiz World" game that just came out. You can play people all over the country in "sofa-vs-sofa" trivia. There are five rounds of play and an average game takes about twenty minutes. You can also play all kinds of local trivia games and other user-created quizzes.
posted by MorningPerson at 8:10 AM on December 4, 2009

It's a great console. So is the 360. I have both.

I strongly suggest at least checking out a BluRay from Netflix -- it's a fantastic format. Better audio, better video, nicer interface for the media itself.

For games, the PS Store has a nice selection of exclusives. I tend to purchase cross-platform titles that I don't care to play online -- e.g., Dragon Age -- for my PS3, as I prefer the controller and the ability to upgrade the hard drive in the future. Otherwise, it's a console, and it's going to give you an approximately equivalent experience to the 360.
posted by ellF at 8:24 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

The PixelJunk games are $10 a pop and are more entertaining and addictive than most retail games, in my opinion.
posted by naju at 8:31 AM on December 4, 2009

nthing PSN (Playstation Network) DLC (downloadable content). PSN has a lot of really solid games, most of them already mentioned here. Better still, most of the games have free demo versions, so you can try them before buying. The downloadable games are usually $5-15. Many are brand new, some are updates or remakes of older games.

I also use the PS3 as a media center. My external hard-drive uses the same connections as the PS3 controller cable, so I can plug that in an listen to music or watch any downloaded movies. PS3 has superb codec and video handling capabilities, without extra installs or software.
posted by steeb2er at 8:32 AM on December 4, 2009

If you've played Katamari Damacy on the PS2, there's a new PS3 exclusive game in the series. It's awesome and keeps me playing long after I reached the end.
posted by spamguy at 8:34 AM on December 4, 2009

nthing PixelJunk. PixelJunk Eden all I really played for a while because
1. I'm really cheap
2. It's a beautifully crafted and awesomely fun game
3. I love minimal techno
I can't wait for PixelJunk Shooter.

Other than that, most of my games are cross-platform. Killzone 2 is pretty great, but Modern Warfare just trumps it in every way (at least multiplayer-wise, Killzone still has a great campaign).
posted by azarbayejani at 8:38 AM on December 4, 2009

Buy or rent the BBC Planet Earth series on Blu-Ray. You won't think streaming is good enough after that.

What kind of games do you like? All of these have been mentioned above but may or may not be your thing.

The remastered God of War games are insanely stupid, but really fun, third person brawlers.

Uncharted 1 & 2 are both amazing looking and fun third person shooters (with a tiny bit of Tomb Raider thrown in).

Lots of the downloads are cool, fun, and cheap. Many of them are actually exclusive to the PS3, unlike the 360's PC indie game ports.

Why did I personally buy a PS3, anyway?
The Last Guardian, aka Project Trico, will be the single best game to be released on this generation of consoles. Why? Because Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were the two best games of the last generation. I would have bought a PS3 just to play this single game. I got it early because of Blu-Ray and the small but growing list of other good exclusives.
posted by ecurtz at 8:47 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

I have both the 360 and the PS3 and the PS3's the only one I keep hooked up full time, even though the 360 has better games. Why? The PS3 has two exclusives for me: 1) It doesn't sound like a jet's taking off when I use it, and 2) It doesn't scratch all my discs to buggery. I wish more games were on the PS3 - its hardware is streets beyond the 360.
posted by wackybrit at 8:48 AM on December 4, 2009

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is lots of fun.
posted by jasondigitized at 8:53 AM on December 4, 2009

I strongly suggest at least checking out a BluRay from Netflix -- it's a fantastic format.

Yeah, seriously. I was pretty skeptical, too, until I saw the difference between Star Wars on DVD and Star Wars in high definition. 480 pixels on a 1080 pixel screen is very jaggy, or very blurry, depending on how it's scaled up.

-
posted by General Tonic at 8:58 AM on December 4, 2009

Seconding the downloadable Pixeljunk Monsters. Incredibly fun and simple co-op.
posted by pooya at 8:59 AM on December 4, 2009

They haven't been mentioned yet, but the Motorstorm games are a lot of fun if you're into racing games (and hell, even if you aren't).
posted by andrewcilento at 9:03 AM on December 4, 2009

I came into this thread to plug Valkyria Chronicles, but I see that it was already mentioned so I'll just second the suggestion. It's the best PS3 exclusive that nobody played last year.

It was released last year, and is pretty cheap because sales never really took off. If you're a fan of strategy RPGs with a Japanese aesthetic (and the mention of FFT in the question implies that you are), it's a very enjoyable experience.
posted by C^3 at 9:10 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you like Final Fantasy Tactics (or, specifically, the levelling and stat-tweaking aspects of SRPGs) you must get Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. Also strongly seconding Valkyria Chronicles, Katamari Forever, and Demon's Souls.
posted by Prospero at 9:20 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

My main machine and file server in the basement runs TVersity, which is a media server and streaming content aggregator. Works wonderfully with the PS3 -- I have all my music (both MP3 & AAC), videos (AVI, MPEG-2, MPEG-4), and pictures streamed to my PS3.

Amazing piece of software that comes in free/pro distributions. This is what the site says for pro:

There is no activation of any kind required, and there are no license keys. Simply enter your email address below to download the software. You can try it as long as you need to make a decision (within reason) and if you decide to keep using it please pay for the license.
posted by MustardTent at 9:20 AM on December 4, 2009

I paid for the pro license -- these guys deserve a few bucks for all that functionality.
posted by MustardTent at 9:21 AM on December 4, 2009

I completely agree with those recommending Uncharted 2. What's crazy is that I didn't even play it... a buddy brought it over on our weekly gaming night and I watched him play it the whole way through over a period of several weeks. It was one of the best looking games I've ever seen, and interesting enough that I didn't have to actually play it to feel involved as I watched. (The only downside was that he kept running in circles to look in every corner for treasure and made me a little motion-sick.)

DLC is downloadable content. That means games you download in their entirety, as well as game add-ons, some free, some not. If you don't network your PS3, in a game like LittleBigPlanet, you miss out on most of the fun: thousands of free user-generated levels and silly add-on costumes (some free, some not), like dressing your Sackboy like Rorschach from Watchmen.

I was a pretty big booster of the 360 the first few years it came out, but now that the PS3 is the same price and offers wireless, Blu-Ray and fee-free network gaming, it has become the clear value this console generation.
posted by MegoSteve at 9:40 AM on December 4, 2009

One thing that for me is a BIG selling point on Blu-ray, (from Netflix, etc) is that they have a scratch resistant coating. You can buy blu ray games that kids owned from Gamestop and unless the kid was chewing on it, the disc usually looks (and plays) great. And if the previous renter of your Netflix disc was one of the hundreds who apparently pick up their DVDs with pliers or something, the coating protects it and it still plays perfectly. Whenever I buy PS3 games from Blockbuster the discs look great while their Xbox 360 counterparts are beat to hell.

I wish Xbox would start using this as well, it's not like scratch resistance has anything to do with special blue lasers anyway.
posted by haveanicesummer at 10:06 AM on December 4, 2009

I bought a Blu-ray player, and was so thrilled with the quality of upscaled DVDs that I didn't bother to get a Blu-ray disc for quite some time.

Then I got Corpse Bridge on Blu-ray, and had to pause it during the opening to marvel at how amazing the cobblestones on the street looked. If you're a visual-quality fan, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how nice Blu-ray looks on a 1080p-supporting television. Don't knock it.

Oh, and re: the fragility, we did have a couple of broken discs arrive from Netflix, but we were never charged for 'em.
posted by davejay at 10:08 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

and if you still really don't want it, I'll give you $75 for it
posted by davejay at 10:09 AM on December 4, 2009

Also: Corpse BRIDE, not Corpse Bridge. Not sure what happened there.
posted by davejay at 10:09 AM on December 4, 2009

My DVD player kicked the bucket and I'm leaning towards buying a PS3 as a replacement. I'm not much of a gamer but I would be thrilled to get a decent tetris game for it.

Want to sell it to me?
posted by KevCed at 10:43 AM on December 4, 2009

Metacritic is great for an overview of what's new (with review scores pulled in from many sources) and the all-time high score games for a particular console.
posted by sharkfu at 10:44 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

I see davejay made a similar offer... Sorry davejay, didn't see that before I posted.
posted by KevCed at 10:44 AM on December 4, 2009

I have a PS3 and only buy exclusives for it. All the games I own have been mentioned above, so not much new to add there.

Here's something that you might find useful, however. Say you purchased a game on PSN, and you're at a friend's house and want to play it. You can log into your PSN account, download the game on his PS3, and as the account exists on his PS3, he can play the game too. Sony lets you share games this way for up to 4 other PS3s.

You can use a similar method to help cut down on the cost of PSN games and DLC. It's questionable how accepted this is by Sony, but there are tons of gamesharing groups that might be worth looking into. Basically, someone goes and buys, say, a $10 PSN game with a new PSN account, and then 4 other people send him $2 in Paypal in return for the account details. Now a $10 game becomes $2, etc. I've done this a few times with good success. Just never give out your main PSN account password to anybody, be wary with whom you deal, etc.

If you have questions, feel free to me-mail me.
posted by Tu13es at 10:46 AM on December 4, 2009

ditto flower & uncharted 2.
posted by juv3nal at 11:05 AM on December 4, 2009

Really though, most of the exclusives are a bit crap.
Why would you say that? Most exclusives, especially the recent ones are excellent

Difference over the meaning of "most" then. This is the full exclusive list. IMHO, most of those are crap. Others like Killzone 2, Resistance 2, and Infamous are just... nothing special. Rental territory. If you look at overall meta reviews of them, most other gamers agree.
posted by anti social order at 11:11 AM on December 4, 2009

Valkyria Chronicles is not only my favorite ps3 game, but probably one of my favorite games period. Wipeout HD is easy to pick up, impossible to master. I had somehow never played either God of War I or II until the newly remastered versions in God of War Collection, which is well worth the $40.
posted by kelechv at 11:13 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

Blu-Ray is nice, but if you're into peer-to-peer, it's a breeze to transcode 720p/1080p Matroska "scene" releases of movies and TV shows into Playstation-compatible MPEG-4 files. My, uh, "friend" told me all about it, and he's got a massive collection. Hook up an external USB HD or two and you're golden.
posted by porn in the woods at 11:15 AM on December 4, 2009

Dragon Age: Origins. I recommend this with reservations because I can completely play until 4am and force myself to function on little sleep. Also, I am reading fanfic of it. Let's just say Thanksgiving at my SO's non-PS3 hooked up home was a little difficult.

I don't think I'm selling this right...
posted by spec80 at 11:31 AM on December 4, 2009

ignore any and all advice you might receive about purchasing Borderlands. basic functionality is broken in multiple, multiple ways currently (has been since release, months ago) and the developers are banning people on the forums who ask too many questions about when/if patches will resolve these issues.

go Gearbox!
posted by radiosilents at 12:41 PM on December 4, 2009 [3 favorites]

ignore any and all advice you might receive about purchasing Borderlands.

Not to play moderator, but come on.
a) Borderlands isn't ps3 exclusive
b) you're the first person to even mention it here.
posted by juv3nal at 12:53 PM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Comet Crash, a downloadable tower defense game, is in my opinion way better than Pixeljunk Monsters, and is still rated as one of the best games ever released for PS3.
posted by halogen at 1:13 PM on December 4, 2009

radiosilents, what the heck does Borderlands have to do with this thread? You complained about it here, and you did it here, and in both cases your experience (while it sure sounds like it sucks) has nothing to do with the gameplay experience that most people have had with what is, in all ways, a fantastic game.

Plus, it really doesn't apply, as juv3nal points out.
posted by ellF at 9:52 AM on December 5, 2009

oh, FFS - like metafilter is the only place this person is going to ask for advice. advice AGAINST a purchase is as (if not more) valid than advice for a purchase.

no, it's not exclusive to the PS3. multiple titles mentioned in here, including titles marked "best answer", aren't exclusive either.

i have seen and heard many enthusiastic suggestions for people to pick BL up, even if they're not in this thread. i was trying to save someone the $60 they'd be otherwise spending on a broken piece of software just in case someone in another outlet may have suggested it to the OP.

and regardless of whether or not my personal experience matches the opinions of other people online, the things i bring up are not opinion-based. those people that are enjoying BL, good for them. they're enjoying a product that is not functioning as the developer intended (regardless of how much fun they may be having with it) and as yet there are no announcements that suggest a fix is coming.

why did you feel compelled to call out/snark on a three day old comment that's been favorited twice? someone seems glad i said it.
posted by radiosilents at 8:13 PM on December 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Aside from the completely derailing Borderlands comments, you all were very helpful.

Thanks especially to ecurtz and general tonic for elaborating on why Blu-Ray is a big deal rather than an assertion that it's worth it.

Now working my way through Demon's Souls, and that game alone makes me glad we have the console. I'm sure my Wii's feeling a little lonely, as New Super Mario Bros and A Boy and His Blob are on the back-burner for a while.
posted by explosion at 5:37 AM on December 8, 2009