what's worth buying for the PS3 lately?

So I finally bit the bullet and got a new console, going with the PS3 since nearly all my friends have 360s, most 360 games have good PC or PS3 ports and I tend not to care about 360 exclusives, and, well, Criterion finally started coming out with blu-rays. So far I've picked up the obvious- GTA IV, LittleBigPlanet, Soul Calibur- and a few PSN goodies (echochrome, Noby Noby Boy) but I haven't really been paying attention to the console scene for the last couple of years and I'm kind of lost as to where to go next once I finally finish GTA (which I swear I will do; I can't stand to add another unfinished GTA to my shelf).

There are more PSN network games you should get: Everyday Shooter, Flow, Flower, Mega Man 9, Wipeout HD, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, PixelJunk Eden, Peggle, etc.

Damn, I didn't even know there was a new Wipeout! Thanks for the recommendations, I'll put them on my list (except maybe Mega Man, that series has just fucking savaged me every time I try it).

It's the same Wipeout more or less, but with updated graphics.

Ah well; better than no Wipeout. Is it still all Designers-Republic-y?

Other games to consider: The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4/World at War, Burnout Paradise, Dead Space, Bioshock, Killzone 2, MLB 09/NHL 09/FIFA 09 (but only if you like sports games, obv), Far Cry 2, Rock Band 2, ...

I don't know what Designers Republic is, but here's a screenshot: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/255/938148_20080912_790screen006.jpg

Kind of pretentious graphic-design firm that did nearly all of Warp Records' design for a long, long time, were involved in the original PSX Wipeout. That screenshot looks about right.

I've already gone through the PC versions of a lot of the FPSs in your second list (except Killzone 2 obv), but I've been curious about Dead Space for a while. It actually reminds me of something I'd meant to put in the original post- do you know of any review sites that can be counted on to review console-specific versions of games and point out any problems with a port instead of just posting one review for every version? I've heard about the PS3's unusual CPU architecture, Valve's complete loathing for it, etc, and I'm kind of worried I'll end up getting a lemon on one of these multiplatform titles.

I think the generally received wisdom is that any multiplatform game is worse on the PS3, but if you don't have a 360 and the game isn't available for PC, then I can't imagine that the game would be unplayable.

Some games are better on PS3 - Burnout, for example. They're roughly comparable for anything out in the past year; the first year or so of ports are pretty horrible. Only get Orange Box if you can't play it on PC - the framerate isn't very stable, with some massive slowdown in Episode 2.

Kind of pretentious graphic-design firm that did nearly all of Warp Records' design for a long, long time, were involved in the original PSX Wipeout. That screenshot looks about right.

ya it totally is still!

i would definitely get call of duty 4 - such a great game

Some games are better on PS3 - Burnout, for example. They're roughly comparable for anything out in the past year; the first year or so of ports are pretty horrible. Only get Orange Box if you can't play it on PC - the framerate isn't very stable, with some massive slowdown in Episode 2.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, April 1, 2009 6:52 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

fwiw i had 0 problems with orange box - it's pretty patched

killzone 2 really fun - short campaign but online so far has been great

fwiw i had 0 problems with orange box - it's pretty patched

Good to know - maybe I'll pick it up again. It was "throw the controller" bad when it first came out.

MLB 09 is the best thing I've played on it for a while; it kind of reminds me of skate in that it just beats you to a pulp until (a) the controls sink in and (b) you how to play by its rules, but since the experience is so amazingly complete it's easy to just keep on going. I'm still terrible at it (my dude in the career mode [which is srsly maybe the best single-player mode in the history of sports games] is stuck in AA with a BA of like .207), but I've gotten slightly better since picking it up and every single granule of improvement made me feel about fifty feet tall for a second. also the game is a minor technological miracle; I am usually one of those I WILL NOT BROOK THIS LOADING TIME people but even I can't complain here, especially not when the graphics being loaded are so impossibly-expensive-tv-purchase-justifyingly gorgeous.

tl;dr - buy this game unless you'd rather stick a lit firecracker up yr urethra than play a sports game

also Crash Commando is still great, but it's about four months old now so it might not qualify as "lately".

I've found Motorstorm 2 to be a great buy, especially if you have roommates willing to pick it up now and then and play with you. It's tighter than the first one, beautiful graphics, and it's exciting as hell for a game that doesn't require one to be a hardcore racer fan. It's one of the games I don't mind watching people play when I'm not playing myself.

Also, second ^ Crash Commando - great $10 I spent. I get my ass kicked online regularly but I managed to improve enough to get decent by doing one single-player mission playthrough, then one hour later I was having tons of fun online. Since for most people, what distiguishes the "alright" players from the best is dying once a minute vs. once every two minutes, I don't get butthurt and frustrated the way I do in GTAIV, COD4, or other hardcore games.

What I've picked up so far, aside from that mentioned in the first post:
Assassin's Creed (seemed interesting enough to warrant a used buy)
the first Resistance (ditto)
Ratchet & Clank (was holding out until I found this for less than full retail; I have yet to be let down by this series, though the fact that I never tried the PSP-to-PS2 ports probably helps)

and a few more things on PSN (Cuboid, Flower, Mega Man 9 which is just handing me my ass, Wipeout HD). Thanks for all the recommendations.

Hey I been out of the game loop for a few years and I want back in. What console should I get? PS3? I don't buy a lot of games, but I like to have football/"soccer" game and maybe like a GTA type thing and some weird cutesy platform thing. Maybe I get a Wii or Xbox instead? Also I do not have an HD TV, so won't be using that feature for now. Also wife likes Wii...

woah these things didn't come down in price I see

im no expert on all this but im guessing an xbox 360 will be best - get GTA4 plus the DLC (not available on ps3 and well worth playing), braid will likely satisfy your cutesy platform (+puzzle) needs, not sure about football games though.

the DS would be a good handheld console to play with wifey, games like prof layton, soul bubbles, mario vs DK 2, crazy machines, pic pic, etc are a fun way for a couple to spend a few hours. i think a DS + xbox 360 comes close to the price of a ps3? i plan on getting a ps3 eventually when/if the price drops but it doesn't seem to have many amazing exclusive titles yet (other than MGS and little big planet), and the GTA DLC thing is a major plus for the 360.

yeah, the ds is really the best girlfriend platform. even the wii is somewhat lacking.

ps3 has valkyria chronicles & demon's souls => wd drop buck if I had it

I have strongly considered the PS3 just for the Blu-ray player.

also ps3 is region free so u can import till ur hearts content

truthfully, my ps3 gets more playtime than any other console I've ever had, especially now that trophies are starting to get implemented more widely. consider:

* w/ the latest firmware update, the PS3 natively supports full-screen flash 9 video (e.g. Hulu, BBC iPlayer, etc) and can stream Netflix movies from a media server. plus TVersity supports the PS3 right out of the gate too.

* not only are there an ass-ton of awesome PSN games (PixelJunk games, Super Stardust HD, The Last Man, etc), but since the PSN doesn't have size restrictions developers are free to publish utterly disc-worthy games like Wipeout HD (or offer full installs of BD-based games like Burnout or Warhawk). plus game-sharing lets you split the cost of PSN games with four other friends to save $$$$ - I paid $6 for Burnout and $3 for SF2HD! (I know, I know, lol @ buying a $8000000000 machine to save ten bucks every couple of months, but still.) PLUS you actually get to pay in real currency rather than asinine Sony Fun Bucks or whatever.

* WPA2 support! the other big perks of the PS3's network support were already mentioned (free & out-of-box wireless support), but as the one dumbass in America actually trying to run a local Wireless-N network, WPA2 was the big selling point for me. the wireless adapter for the 360 costs a hundred damn dollars, doesn't support WPA2 despite THE BOX SAYING OTHERWISE, and comes backed by a statement from MSFT which boils down to "WPA2 is for homosexuals and this is a MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S CONSOLE HERE BRAH". nuts to that.

* PSP remote play is kind of staggeringly superfluous; I don't play games while sitting on the toilet so the appeal is somewhat limited to me personally. having said that, it's an undeniably cool little gimmick which is at least as much fun to show off to your nerdy friends as Electroplankton.

* the PS3 - especially the latest hardware revisions - are whisper-quiet. I lucked into a used 60-gig at Gamestop somehow over the summer and I have to admit that it does make a little noise, but keep in mind that I'm comparing it to (a) the library-silent 40-gig I'd been playing on before trading it in towards the 60, and (b) the airport tarmac disc-drive motor in my former 360.

* also a backwards-compatible PS3 may well be the last console you ever need to buy. punching tigers in the face in Yakuza 2 is fun. punching gorgeously upscaled tigers in the face is a virtual Bacchanalia. and don't even get me started on how great Odin Sphere looks when upscaled.

* and speaking of buying used consoles, unlike the 360, the PS3 hardware is a fucking tank. each PS3 can be used to bludgeon eight hoboes to death before needing to be replaced; with the 360, you're lucky if you can even kill three.

* oh, and there are actually hell of great games out for the PS3 right now; get one Uncharted, LBP, MGS4, Buzz Quiz, and all the aforementioned PSN games. plus the PS3's 2009 exclusives look unbelievably promising: Infamous, White Knight Chronicles, God of War III, GT5, Fat Princess, Nobi Nobi Boy, new stuff from the PixelJunk and Ico ppl, etc. plus more and more multi-platform games are being lead-dev'd on PS3 these days (Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise, and the new Prince of Persia spring to mind); I doubt that'll make them BETTER than their 360 counterparts, but it's a pretty clear sign that the days of the PS3 getting turdly ports is drawing to a close.

for balance, here are the things I miss from my 360:

- widespread voice chat, which made casual games like Uno and Catan exponentially more enjoyable social experiences (especially if you enjoy ridiculing/provoking the mouth-breathing future leaders of tomorrow). I wish future PS3s would ship with headsets, although the official bluetooth one is so slick that it might not be cost-effective.
- it's mandatory to build achievements into yr game (although trophy support apparently becomes mandatory for PS3 starting in January)
- the controller, except for the d-pad (although I managed to snag a pair of those clip-on PS3 triggers a while back and MAN do they ever help out)
- apparently can be h@x0r3ed to play backups if you're 1337 enough (then again, my backlog is indefensibly long already)
- no stupid poopbutt Sixaxis controls ever

blah, blah, blah. I say all of this as someone who gleefully bashed the PS3 as an overpriced format-war boondoggle at every opportunity until I actually started thinking about buying one. I was wrong; against all odds, I seem to be getting way more than my money's worth (although as a game machine, it and everything else this generation still takes a backseat to the DS, of course).

seriousbusiness.gif, I guess

― jamescobo, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:09 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Re: the headset thing- I picked up a Jabra headset, the same sort that ships with Warhawk I think, for $10 off of Amazon, 75% off. Worth checking out for any other PS3 owners in need of voice chat.

FYI, Hulu blocks the PS3 as of a week or so ago :(

i think for anyone out of the game for a minute with a significant other, the DS is a no-brainer. The game selection is great, there's great games for everyone in the fam and the price is right. Also, R4.

And Scribblenauts looks like it has the potential to be the best over-the-shoulder co-op game ever.

Forks is right - DS is the way. The PS3 is fine, but I wouldn't consider that or the 360 good "just getting back into the video games" doorways.

each PS3 can be used to bludgeon eight hoboes to death before needing to be replaced; with the 360, you're lucky if you can even kill three.
This aspect needs to be played up waaay more during Sonys keynotes. They could even trick the Hoboes onto the stage with promises of beer and clean underwear.

sold my xbox 360 and bought a ps3 today, got a great bundle deal. really loving it, works beautifully. only problem so far is my tv won't recognise that its been switched on, so have to switch over to the hdmi channel manually.

admrl - all current systems have something unique to offer, but no single one satisfies completely. As to the above posts recommending a DS, I'm not sure everybody actually read your post, where there first game you mentioned wanting was a football game, which the DS currently provides a horrible selection of (not a good one to be had). The xbox 360 by far provides the best value and best library of games, but lacks a significant cutesy platformer (but it has several interesting ones, though I greatly prefer N+ over the over-rated (and short) Braid). Though people around here don't really seem to rate the Wii, few should argue that it has the best platformer of the last decade in Super Mario Galaxy and probably also has the most games that are fun to play with other people & wives. It also has the best current version of PES (though I think the PS360 version of FIFA is a better game overall). There's no GTA game on Wii though (and probably won't be). It also gives you access to a huge, relatively inexpensive download library of classic titles from a variety of systems, if you enjoy the retro gaming.

best thing about the PS3: there's absolutely no way to play Braid on it

braid is dope ffffffffffuuuuuu haters

if u take it as a puzzle game and not a platformer and ignore all its emo nonsense, it is top notch fuiud

Totally agree.

yeh i liked it. it was quite short with no real replay value though.

I must interject again to say this: if you have a PS3 or 360* you must try Red Faction: Guerrilla. Got started on this last night; the highlight of an unhealthily long session was destroying a target building by precision-bombing the base of a ten-story smokestack to crush it like some kind of giant baseball bat. SO FUN.

*from what I've read, the versions are nearly identical, so if you've got both just pick whichever controller you like more

yeh i liked it. it was quite short with no real replay value though.

The replay value for me was making my non-gamer friends try it. I would always tell them to skip the story b.s. though!

thats what i did!
wipeout HD is really beautiful, especially the zone levels.

Thanks for your help, guys!

sorry guys but I'm standing firm on this Braid issue. the main character is named after Tim fucking Rogers ffs.

also JBlow drinks Chartreuse.

xp what a horrible thing to say

http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=499

i'm still not sure i believe it

No results found for "jonathan's braid blows".

I just started playing Wipeout HD again after a good long hiatus; what a great, gorgeous game!

keep getting stuck at the pyramid level

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq4K8LTgZHk

was pretty impressed with the Batman Arkham Asylum demo.

Same here, with all the hype for it I'm surprised it may actually be the MGS-style Batman game we've been waiting for since forever.

Fat Princess has been patched; now you can actually connect to/play against people. and it's hell of fun!

Playing Valkyria Chronicles. Mechanics are fun and very learn as you go (everytime you fail you can be sure that you've learned something that will make you get nearer to victory the next try); story is pretty dumb but there's always something at least academically interesting about seeing a japanese exoticization of early 20th century european culture (the war feels like a combination of world wars one and two - though funnily enough most everyone has a germanic sounding name anyway) and the cutscenes are skippable. Pretty watercolours, too.

i dunno about fat princess dudes... seems like you're playing a single unit in some big RTS type game... i never so far feel like i have any real impact on the way the game goes.

was pretty impressed with the Batman Arkham Asylum demo

When I played this it made me wish for a Batman sandbox game in the future

s1ocki - to some extent I agree with what you're saying regarding Fat Princess, but I think that's always going to be the case in any team game where you're 1 of 16 people working towards a goal - no one person is going to have a huge impact most of the time. I do think the problem is made worse by the way the maps are spread out so that it's hard to get an overall idea of what exactly is going on. Even with communication (which is rare) it's still confusing a lot of the time. In comparision, in Team Fortress when playing in a 32 player game, things can also get veryy hectic and crazy, but all the action is usually focused around just a point or two (or the apporaches to that point) and it's easier to get an overall idea of the progress your team is making in an effort to win the map and what you can try to do to best contribute (partially because at the press of a button you can see what classes are being played on your team). I would also say the other main factor that hold Fat Princess back is the combat, as it lacks depth and challenge (even compared to something like Team Fortress). I feel like they simplified the combat system a bit too much by taking it all down to just one button. That said, I think it's a great looking game and have definitely managed to have some fun playing it.

My roomate was getting pwned on Battlefield 1943 by some dude named CUMBLAST_69 last night. Oh how I loled. I salute him.

Dead Rising 2 on ps3 next month. Excited for this.

um... who is gonna tell ste?

Delayed, right?

not even

it's never had a release date afaik, it's always been scheduled for "some time in 2010"

duke nukem forever

waaaah amazon lied to me !!

Possibly worth importing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwfHUYqOUjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtRQ44Ex9oc

what the hell is "trophy support" and why is it good that it is "mandatory"?? seriously. i have not played a 3rd-gen system ever. can someone explain?

it's just the PS3 version of achievements. I personally like them though I don't sperg out over them or anything.

what's an "achievement"?

i mean, sorry to get all pinefox here but i have no idea what that means. is it like, you kill a boss, or win a race, and then you get a little graphical representation of a trophy added to a gallery somewhere in your settings, and then you can gain access to a special costume or something?

yes except the part where you get access to a special costume or any kind of reward except the graphical representation of a trophy

people get seriously excited about this stuff, too.

you can buy books to help you, and people even offer services to get them for you if you feel your gamerpenis is too small. lol hardcore gaming.

I realize how incredibly stupid they must sound to someone who hasn't seen them before, but they can actually be pretty fun to try to get, depending on the game and how clever or how much effort the developers put into the achievements.

The PS3 trophy system is a bit more tolerable than Xbox achievements to my mind just because trophies don't have an arbitrary numerical value attached to them. But yeah, the better ones aren't just chapter markers or boring milestones (kill x baddies, how exciting) but instead present you with a challenge, or require you to play the game a new way. My all-time favorite example of this is the infamous gnome achievement in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which requires you to lug around a garden gnome for almost the entire duration of the game so you can stick it in a rocket and shoot it into space at the end. This is much, much, much harder than it sounds.

Actual PS3 stuff: I'm kind of surprised by the lukewarm reaction the new Ratchet & Clank seems to be getting. From playing both of the demos, it seems like they've figured out a way to make the Clank portions fun and improved the already great Ratchet levels to a ridiculously high standard. The Ratchet demo in particular is quite nice- I love demos that give you a big, complex open level to try out all your new toys in instead of a short, linear chunk of the game. The turret sequence sucks, but it's over in about a minute and jesus, it's a turret segment, what can you really expect from it? More than made up for by the fun of using the jetboots to zoom around and fly off inexplicable, omnipresent ramps.

Maybe because it's the 8th Ratchet & Clank game in 7 years - people are tired?

I bought a PS3 yesterday and tried MLB 09. So dope.

xpost- But that's like being tired of chocolate, or sex, or rainbows! IT MAKES NO SENSE is what I am saying.

I dunno, I guess it's possible not everyone has the Pavlovian reaction to explosions and obsessive-compulsive doodad collecting that I do, but I find this difficult to believe.

i just spent oh maybe nine hours with demon souls
this fuckin game

Actual PS3 stuff: I'm kind of surprised by the lukewarm reaction the new Ratchet & Clank seems to be getting. From playing both of the demos, it seems like they've figured out a way to make the Clank portions fun and improved the already great Ratchet levels to a ridiculously high standard. The Ratchet demo in particular is quite nice- I love demos that give you a big, complex open level to try out all your new toys in instead of a short, linear chunk of the game. The turret sequence sucks, but it's over in about a minute and jesus, it's a turret segment, what can you really expect from it? More than made up for by the fun of using the jetboots to zoom around and fly off inexplicable, omnipresent ramps.

― More Butty In Your Pants (Telephone thing), Saturday, October 31, 2009 10:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the reviews i've seen seem pretty ecstatic actually...me, i LOVE these games but felt a bit ratcheted out by the last full one, which was soooo long. but i will get this soon.

Way of the Samurai 3 is an assload of fun; buy it if you ever see it.

also that Inferno Pool game that just came out on PSN is surprisingly fun for a console pool game. I read someone who called it "pool mixed with a FPS" and that's a pretty accurate (if abstract) description.

What makes it different from every other pool video game that has come before?

machine guns

health packs

crates

spells

I played the demo for the new Ratchet and Clank and it was pretty impressive. Some of the puzzles reminded me of Portal.

lego batman is fun and worth the $15 i paid for it

Polyphonic, there are two demos- one for the Clank puzzle-game segments and one for the standard Ratchet shootery. I was very impressed with both, though it'll have to wait until I get through some more of my game backlog.

re: that pool game, there's a special "Inferno Pool" mode which sends the balls you pot over to another player (like what happens to the pieces you clear when you're playing multiplayer Tetris). there's also a gameplay mechanic which lets you store up a bunch of balls to fire at someone, so there's a super-slight tactical element to it. mostly it's just a really well-done pool game though.

with machine guns

what's the best first-person shoot 'em up zombie game on PS3? any consensus pick?

Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas are both good and relatively zombie-esque (apocalyptic mutants), but not exactly a shoot-em-up. New Vegas is supposedly quite buggy but might have been patched by now? Borderlands is similar but much more of a shoot-em-up.

Bioshock 1 (not Bioshock 2) is first-person and has a lot of shooting. The bad guys are zombie-esque but are actually just crazy humans. Ditto to the inferior but also good Condemned 2.

Red Dead Redemption is a great game and has a shoot-em-up zombie mode add-on, but is third-person. Dead Space is another good atmospheric third-person game.

Half-Life 2 is an excellent first-person game with lots of shooting, but not really a zombie game. Aliens rather than zombies. And I'd suggest getting The Orange Box if you want to pick this up.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the state-of-the-art first-person shooter but you'd be killing actual humans.

Black Ops has a zombie mode.Only got to play it for a few minutes but it looks amazing.

Nerd question (obviously): what's the BBC iPlayer like on this?

Really good if you've got a fast connection.

hmmm think this game is going to break my not-buying-anything-through-PSN streak (at least 12 months long at the moment)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyRiBdQgXoM

I guess I'll resurrect another 7th gen thread since the Xbox 360 is apparently back in vogue.

I bought a PS3 fairly late in the cycle, but I've dedicated myself to making it (and a Vita, for on-the-go fun) my platform of choice for as long as humanly possible. I've accumulated a metric fuckton of games (I'm just eyeballing the fucktonnage, mind) and will be able to keep gaming on this thing for a long time to come. Maybe even...forever?

Just recently cracked open Motorstorm: Apocalypse. And holy shit! My general thoughts on racing games are either 'yeah, okay, this is mildly diverting' or 'this is too much like racing an actual car and I don't know what I'm doing but crashing into a wall over and over is fun I guess'. But this is like the racing version of my beloved Vanquish inasmuch as it's like being inside the most batshit action movie ever. Trying to steer an ATV through burning rubble as skyscrapers collapse onto the road ahead? Yes, please. The fact that I feel like it's preparing me for daily life in the near future is just icing on the exploding cake.