Several months ago, I made a huge purchase. That purchase was a PS3. Sony had poked and prodded me for my attention since I was first wowed by a Motorstorm demo at a local Target over three years ago. However, not since the first PS1 Spyro game had I really played a game for any length of time on a Sony console. Sure, there were dalliances with Virtua Fighter 4 and a few instances of playing Medal of Honor, but not much else. This was a radical step. I was steeped heavily in Nintendo orthodoxy, closed to the outside. Over the last half of 2008 and 2009, I became ever more curious about the world outside.
This curiosity led to a more solid conviction that I should explore another console. My hatred for Microsoft (irrational, I admit, but deeply ingrained) prevented me from even giving the Xbox 360 a second look. I gravitated toward Sony because, and this is the truth, of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What? A game that is so overtly celebratory of Nintendo fandom pushed me to one of their rivals? Why, yes. Actually, there was one specific character included: Solid Snake. My fascination with the lore and games of the Metal Gear franchise soon became stymied by the fact that I had just a Wii and there was no way a Metal Gear was coming to that platform. I looked into MGS4, and was blown away by its music, its graphical presentation, and its self-referential humour and style.
This, in turn, led to a breakthrough. I realized that there was too much passing me by on the PS3 to not own one. At the beginning of summer 2009, I made a pact with my gamer self that I would get a PS3 before the Autumnal Equinox. Sure enough, by late August, I had one. A shiny, huge black console that dwarfed my Wii in terms of size, power, and electricity consumption. More than that, though, it soon dwarfed the Wii in terms of play time.
Well, after the longwinded introduction, I must now introduce the actual topic at hand. Through the first five months of my PS3 ownership, I have acquired several games for the system. They run a wide gamut of styles and persuasion, but hold to a couple of common themes: the vast majority are either exclusives (like MGS4) or made primarily for the PS3 (Burnout Paradise). The purchase was made because I thought that that the PS3 had a unique appeal. Why should I get games that are also available for other platforms unless they are so good so as to require me to?
Here they are, in order of purchase:
1. Burnout Paradise
Despite the fact that this game was $20, I was expecting great things from this one. The game did not disappoint. It has a fantastic open-world setup, great driving controls, and an adrenaline rush that is almost unparalleled in my collection so far. Despite my disappointment that the game did not contain real cars, I fully embraced the game’s stylized California landscapes and edgy presentation. An additional plus for me was the custom soundtrack option, which allowed me to listen to Relient k and the Advent Children soundtrack while racing for my life through the cluttered streets of Paradise City. “Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”
2. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Before my conversion to a “gamer” from “Nintendo guy” I was deeply skeptical of Ratchet and Clank. I was a bit too closed-minded to look up the fact that Insomniac had also created the first video game I can remember playing (Spyro the Dragon). Well, the fact is that R&C is awesome. From beginning to end, the game just piles on the charm, fun action, and humour. The game is also gorgeous, by the way. Still, that barely mattered in the face of just how great the game was once I got into it. My current love of this franchise may have been the greatest paradigm shift in my transition.
3. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
In order to effectively illustrate how I feel about this particular piece of interactive entertainment, a few statistics will be presented. The number of times I have completed the game: 6. Total number of hours spent in the game: 40-50. At this point, I can blaze through the game on Solid Normal in just under 9 hours. Not impressive, for sure, but still good. In short terms, this has become my favourite game of this generation, leapfrogging Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3. Never having been exposed to Metal Gear before, I was confused by the storyline but never repelled. This game keeps its head on its shoulders and a good sense of humour about itself. It is an entertaining tour-de-force of game design and cinema design meeting in the middle and subliming into a powerful combination. Seriously. This game is probably the closest to a perfect game I have ever played.
4: LittleBigPlanet
When I look back on it, it was Metal Gear and this game that first struck my interest as PS3 exclusives. This game appealed to the rabid Mario fan in me. The one who loved jumping from left to right and exploring surreal worlds full of things that have eyeballs but shouldn’t. LittleBigPlanet is the greatest fork in the road for platformers in years. It has redefined what a platformer can be in my eyes. This game takes place in a world of realistic physics and unrealistic situations. There is a fantastic single-player mode (that can be played with up to four people online) and an incredible community that has produced some of the coolest platforming levels I can remember playing. Come for the gameplay and graphics (which are also quite pretty and styled appropriately) and stay for the infinite well of content that is just waiting to be dredged up.
5. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
Now, though I am not by nature nostalgic when it comes to video games, I would be the first to acknowledge that some games have stood the test of time extraordinarily well. Actually, I had never touch a Street Fighter arcade or played a console version in my entire life before last year. I Of course, I was converted to be a fan instantly. Despite how hard the Arcade Mode is, I have grown to appreciate that, and see it as a great challenge that keeps on giving. I mean, other than the hilariously stereotyped characters, what other reason is there to play Street Fighter? Plot?
6. GRiD
Burnout is a great game, but it left me oddly dissatisfied in some ways. I did resent the fact that it did not have any real cars, for instance. So, along comes my cousin, who agrees to give me GRiD for free. I was overwhelmed with the punishingly realistic controls and it required a big mental adjustment after playing Burnout for so long. After this, I became enamoured with ascending the ranks of the world of race driving. It was vital, however, that that rewind mechanism was included. Otherwise, I may have let this one stay at the starting line, spinning its tires.
7. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Usually, I’m able to contain the hype I have for a game to forms of non-verbal communication. Silently laughing to myself, raising my hands in the air in an emphatic manner, that kind of thing. However, upon my first glimpse of Uncharted 2, I was swept up into all the ruckus. I didn’t scream but I did applaud and whoop (quietly) after viewing the E3 2009 demo trailer for the first time. At that point, I had already decided to get a PS3, but after that show, I was dying to get one. Well, not dying in the literal sense. And, of course, the hype faded away eventually. But it was soon replaced by a feeling of immense satisfaction, the feeling I had not gotten since first playing Metal Gear Solid 4. The game blew me away almost from start to finish. Visually, the game is unparalleled, and the voice acting and presentation are top-notch. It was incredible.
8. inFamous
Here’s a confession. It may be known that I do not have a soft spot in my heart for open world games. In fact, inFamous was the first one that I really connected with (OK, besides Burnout, but that was a racing game) on any meaningful level. I think the fact that the city is a devastated shell, that Cole is a genuinely cool and endearing character, and that you are an electrically-powered superhero who fights crime and can be either bad or good. In Grand Theft Auto, there is almost no choice. You are bad, a criminal who rises up the ranks and murders countless people. In inFamous, you have a choice to be good, and that is something I love. Sometimes. But this one is definitely a keeper.
9. Resistance 2
My most recent purchase (just a few days ago, in fact), I have yet to experience the entire game. Or even just the campaign. More on this later, but so far the game is looking to be massive, with a long road ahead through both competitive and cooperative multiplayer. Not to mention the fact that the campaign itself is great.






















