PS3 (and how!)

[DarklingPerhaps]

The other day I heard about a new game called MAG. 256 players, a shooter, a huge world. It looks wonderful. Only problem is it's coming out for the ps3. And I have an xbox360. :smallsigh:

Anyway my birthday's coming up and I've been saving the last six months so I'll have around $600 to do whatever with. I hadn't decided what but maybe a ps3 will be my target.

I've always wanted to play Little Big Planet but I never wanted to buy the whole system because of it.

So I was wondering about a few things:

What's it like?
What games are good?
and (most importantly) Is it worth it?

[The Dark Fiddler]

What games are good?
and (most importantly) Is it worth it?

These depend a lot on what games you tend to like. More information is required.

[arguskos]

YOU ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO BUY, PLAY, AND ENJOY LEMMINGS. FAILURE TO COMPLY MAKES YOU A COMMIE MUTANT TRAITOR.

Also, Eden and Echochrome on the Playstation Store are pretty sweet too.

[DarklingPerhaps]

Fiddler, you're right, knowing about my preferences would probably help a little.

Well I love all the bioware roleplaying games. From KOTOR to Dragon Age to Mass Effect 2 they just are awesome. Roleplaying games = <3

I'm already planning on getting Beatles Rock Band at one point in the future, but I'm not sure for what system (if I get the ps3).

I'm not a huge fan of single player shooters, as I tend to get tired of fighting AI pretty quickly.

I'm pretty into CoD online, but I have those for xbox so don't see a reason to get ps3 versions.

Puzzle games are fun but short-lived. Racing games feel like a waste of time to me. Sports games are right out. Otherwise I don't really know.

Did I halp?!?

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

If you get a PS3, the Ratchett and Clank series is a very entertaining and addictive series, IMHO. I'd recommend it highly.

[Atelm]

Valkyria Chronicles, definitely Valkyria Chronicles combines RPG & strategy with a terrific story. My initial reason for buying PS3 was because of that game.

[warty goblin]

Upgrade to a glisteningly powerful PC instead. You'll be better off in the long run, trust me. Since you like RPGs not only can you play pretty much all the current ones, but you'll also have access to nearly every great RPG from the past as well. Often for ridiculously cheap.

Plus, with mods, it's pretty much a given that RPGs* are simply better on the PC.
*Actually, make that games in general.

And when it comes to shooters, I once again suspect the PC is the stronger option. The mouse is more accurate, and the keyboard provides ready access to more buttons than you can shake a controller at. So you've got the console style Call of Duty games, the eyeball seducing beauty and rapid decision making of Crysis, the insane realism of ArmA, the visceral uncertainty and tension of Red Orchestra...The PC may not have 256 player games, but it's got much more diversity of gameplay. Again, most of this is available via legal digital download channels for way, way less money.

[Hunter Noventa]

Valkyria Chronicles, definitely Valkyria Chronicles combines RPG & strategy with a terrific story. My initial reason for buying PS3 was because of that game.

YES. It's a beautiful game, in story, graphics and gameplay.

I would also highly suggest Disgaea 3. Wacky turn based strategy. With emphasis onthe wacky.

And Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 is too much fun for how simple it is.

Also, you can get a couple rare PS1 games off the Playstation store, I recommend Suikoden and Castlevania:SotN.

[Terraoblivion]

Except for the fact that most high profile games simply aren't released for the PC, Warty. And most of those that does are the versions given the lowest priority in development making them the most likely to be buggy as hell. Also it is not exactly a useful answer to what the op wrote. Not to mention that he has that he either has a 360, eliminating the RPG angle of getting a better PC. And you don't need a terribly powerful PC to play games that are even just a couple of years old, nor do you need it for all the indie and freeware games that are where PC gaming is mostly at these days.

Now what is a useful answer is saying which games for the PS3 are good. For that question i'd say that there are several. The one that immediately springs to mind is Valkyria Chronicles. From the beautiful watercolor graphics to Sakimoto's sweeping and varied score, the only other game i know that can compete in presentation is trusty old Okami. On the gameplay side of things it manages to reinvent the strategy RPG in a new, faster form while avoiding sacrificing the actual strategy aspects of it. And while it seems to be the most controversial aspect of the game, the story is excellent in my opinion. Far from original, but well-written and with some great characters and at least one scene you will cry at, an effect helped along well by the music. Really if there is any game on any platform released since the current generation of consoles took off, it is Valkyria Chronicles.

Other games i'd recommend are the two Ratchett and Clank games for the PS3. Silly and fun third person shooters with platforming elements they flow well and has plenty of humor in the writing and is just generally wellmade. Disgaea 3 is also recommended if you can deal with dated graphics and a rather grindy gameplay, like the rest of the series it is just hilarious much of the time. Folklore is recommended as well, with a nice plot and some really atmospheric direction and a solid, if unspectacular gameplay.

In any case i'd say that the PS3 is worth it and if your taste is anything like mine, it is probably more worth it than any of the alternatives this generation, in fact.

[Burley]

I suggest you get the PS3. Not only is it a cheap blu-ray player, but you're wasting media with the 360, since HD-DVD is out of fashion. Further, while the 360 can give you 1080i video (vs. the ps3's 720p video) many of the 360's games are A) Multi-disk, and B) lacking in hi-def audio. An HD-DVD format video game simply can't have the same sound quality as a blu-ray format game.

Further, Valkyria Chronicles is good. Also, inFamous is a blasty-blast of epic-platforming proportions. White Knight Chronicles is coming out, as well, and it looks to be a great game.
Don't forget that, while FF13 is coming out on PS3 and 360, FFVersus13 is only on PS3. And, that game will be the bee's proverbial knees.

Also, Kingdom Hearts 3 someday...

[Joran]

I suggest you get the PS3. Not only is it a cheap blu-ray player, but you're wasting media with the 360, since HD-DVD is out of fashion. Further, while the 360 can give you 1080i video (vs. the ps3's 720p video) many of the 360's games are A) Multi-disk, and B) lacking in hi-def audio. An HD-DVD format video game simply can't have the same sound quality as a blu-ray format game.

Further, Valkyria Chronicles is good. Also, inFamous is a blasty-blast of epic-platforming proportions. White Knight Chronicles is coming out, as well, and it looks to be a great game.
Don't forget that, while FF13 is coming out on PS3 and 360, FFVersus13 is only on PS3. And, that game will be the bee's proverbial knees.

Also, Kingdom Hearts 3 someday...

Just a minor correction, the Xbox 360 doesn't have a HD-DVD drive; it has a standard DVD drive. The HD-DVD drive was an external add-on that couldn't play games.

Anyway, on the flip side, the disc read speed of the PS3 is pretty slow, so you're almost forced to install the games onto your hard drive to have any semblance of reasonable load times.

Personally, I'd save the money. Most of the major games are multi-platform now, so you'll need to justify it based off of the exclusive games to the PS3 that aren't available on the Xbox. Unless there's 8-10 that you absolutely must play, just live without.

As an owner of a PS3, I've mostly used it as a Blu-Ray player and normal DVDs upscaled are about 80% of the quality.

[Myatar_Panwar]

As someone who has also been looking into getting a PS3, here are some games which have caught my eye (all PS3 Exclusives):

Shooters:
MGS4
MAG
Killzone 2
Resistance 1 and 2

Action/adventure:
Uncharted 1 and 2
God of War 3
Ratchet and Clank
Infamous

RPG's:
Demon's Souls
Valkyria Chronicles

Something else:
Heavy Rain

[warty goblin]

Except for the fact that most high profile games simply aren't released for the PC, Warty. And most of those that does are the versions given the lowest priority in development making them the most likely to be buggy as hell. Also it is not exactly a useful answer to what the op wrote. Not to mention that he has that he either has a 360, eliminating the RPG angle of getting a better PC. And you don't need a terribly powerful PC to play games that are even just a couple of years old, nor do you need it for all the indie and freeware games that are where PC gaming is mostly at these days.


So, um which high profile games weren't released for the PC again? I mean there's a couple yeah, but totally outmassed by the buckets of PC exclusives- some of which are actually pretty high profile. Metro 2033 has been getting quite a lot of press, STALKER: Call of Pripyat is going to be released quite soon and should start attracting some buzz, Napoleon: Total War is about to hit, along with Dawn of War 2, Chaos Rising, Supreme Commander 2, the Majesty 2 expansion is coming along, as is Mount and Blade: Warband. All of these are PC exclusive or lead platform, and none are flying that low under the radar- and with the exception of Warband are all coming out by about March.

And I think it's a perfectly reasonable response. The OP asked if he thought a PS3 would be a good investment. I presented what I considered to be reasoned response arguing that a PC would better suit his needs. $600 can buy a pretty wicked PC anymore (particularly if you don't need to spring for a new case), more than good enough to run any new releases with most of the bells and whistles turned on, and definitely enough to absolutely demolish any older/indie games.

[Poison_Fish]

So, um which high profile games weren't released for the PC again? I mean there's a couple yeah, but totally outmassed by the buckets of PC exclusives- some of which are actually pretty high profile. Metro 2033 has been getting quite a lot of press, STALKER: Call of Pripyat is going to be released quite soon and should start attracting some buzz, Napoleon: Total War is about to hit, along with Dawn of War 2, Chaos Rising, Supreme Commander 2, the Majesty 2 expansion is coming along, as is Mount and Blade: Warband. All of these are PC exclusive or lead platform, and none are flying that low under the radar- and with the exception of Warband are all coming out by about March.

And I think it's a perfectly reasonable response. The OP asked if he thought a PS3 would be a good investment. I presented what I considered to be reasoned response arguing that a PC would better suit his needs. $600 can buy a pretty wicked PC anymore (particularly if you don't need to spring for a new case), more than good enough to run any new releases with most of the bells and whistles turned on, and definitely enough to absolutely demolish any older/indie games.

Pro-tip: Most of them are actually pretty low to the radar save for Dawn of War 2. Compare the marketing campaigns of Mass Effect 2(not exclusive, true) or call of duty remakes. Sports games get more attention then the Stalker series, M&B, Majesty, etc.

So, as long as we are looking at how noticeable games are, consoles as a whole have much stronger marketing.

Anything that is high profile, but exclusive, is more likely something console related then PC, sadly.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer PC gaming to console myself. I also happen to own a PS3 for other games out there, but marketing, at least here in America, has a much stronger investment in console games.

Now, Starcraft 2, there is a PC exclusive that is high profile.

[Terraoblivion]

And the reason this matters is because generally only high profile games will have the graphics that require an upgrade for the computer, unless the coding is utterly atrocious. So the amount of PC games that require the fancy hardware is rapidly falling, with the exception being PC games that are basically just poorly made from a technical viewpoint.

Also looking at the list of games you mentioned i had heard about exactly two of them, those being Call of Pripyat and Dawn of War 2. That isn't very impressive. Also if you look at gaming sites you will see the PC getting an increasingly peripheral position as coverage goes and the smaller indie games that you don't need a fancy computer for taking an increasingly large share of that coverage.

Also most of the PC games you mentioned are pretty damn niche and just as importantly does not fall within the niches that the op defined. Rather they are hardcore bordering on simulation and generally light on plot. Also he specifically stated that he preferred RPGs and name one recent RPG that is PC only and that he cannot just play on his 360 or PS3? Mount and Blade is very much a borderline case and the only one i can think of. So as long as he has any computer at all, he can play the older RPGs that were PC only just fine, with the exception of those that are old enough he will have to emulate the OS for them, which will be a hassle, but not require a new computer.

[warty goblin]

And the reason this matters is because generally only high profile games will have the graphics that require an upgrade for the computer, unless the coding is utterly atrocious. So the amount of PC games that require the fancy hardware is rapidly falling, with the exception being PC games that are basically just poorly made from a technical viewpoint.

That depends entirely how you define 'high profile.' SupCom 2 I'll guess takes a reasonable PC to run, as will Call of Pripyat, Ostfront: Heroes of Stalingrad, Metro 2033, and indeed most other games on my list. Not $2000 ubercomputers no, but I never suggested the OP should spend thousands. I suggested thinking about spending the money he was already considering spending on a PS3.


Also looking at the list of games you mentioned i had heard about exactly two of them, those being Call of Pripyat and Dawn of War 2. That isn't very impressive. Also if you look at gaming sites you will see the PC getting an increasingly peripheral position as coverage goes and the smaller indie games that you don't need a fancy computer for taking an increasingly large share of that coverage.
There is life outside the mainstream you know. Honestly it produces better games as well. I don't see why, given what the OP said, we should discount him potentially being interested in games not published by Ubisoft/EA/Activision.


Also most of the PC games you mentioned are pretty damn niche and just as importantly does not fall within the niches that the op defined. Rather they are hardcore bordering on simulation and generally light on plot. Also he specifically stated that he preferred RPGs and name one recent RPG that is PC only and that he cannot just play on his 360 or PS3? Mount and Blade is very much a borderline case and the only one i can think of. So as long as he has any computer at all, he can play the older RPGs that were PC only just fine, with the exception of those that are old enough he will have to emulate the OS for them, which will be a hassle, but not require a new computer.

Recent and Upcoming RPGs you need a PC to play.
The Witcher (and upcoming sequel, although that is apparently eventually geting a console port).

Neverwinter Nights 2 (although why you'd want to play it is a very good, but seperate, question).

Drakensang: The Dark Eye + (rumored) upcoming sequel.

King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame (marginal case)

The Void (although what exactly the Void is is quite debatable. Arguably it's an RPG; it's also arguably an RTS, a dating sim and survival horror.)

Elemental: War of Magic (another marginal case, like King Arthur it's more strategy than RPG)

Age of Decadence.

RPGs that, by all reports, are significantly better on PC:
Divinity 2: Ego Draconis
Risen
Dragon Age: Origins
(according to some, Sacred 2. If you're in Europe, there's a PC only expansion).
Fallout 3
Oblivion

[Terraoblivion]

And then there is the small detail of most of those RPGs being not exactly recent. Oblivion was released in 2006, The Witcher in 2007, Neverwinter Nights 2 in 2006 and so on. Add to that the fact that i find it seriously unlikely that he would buy a PC where half the games you list are ones he has already had access to in a possibly slightly better form.

As for what high profile means, it means gets press and people will have an expectation that others have heard about them. And again you are refering to games that are neither mainstream nor in a major sidestream, but are very niche and gets little press. It is not like games like Okami or Persona which have, very undeservedly, sold poorly but gotten a ton of press. Or Valkyria Chronicles that has even gotten "best game nobody played" awards in 2008 because of bad sales and it being an excellent game.

Also just a fun fact, lots of great games are neither published by those three companies nor are niche games. Every single Japanese game that is succesful for example, that is a pretty hefty chunk of games right there. A lot of Japanese games that are commercial failures, but critical successes are also not mainstream games but not niche games. Niche games are those that get little attention, they might even be fairly commercially succesful. The important fact is that you will not find a part of mainstream gaming press that talks about them. An example of a succesful niche game would be Gothic. Barely talked about in non-German gaming press, yet a solid commercial success. On the other hand we have Okami one of the seminal games found on just about any "best games of all time" list, gets constantly referred to in the gaming press. Sold 300,000 copies, yet it is not a niche game given its status in gaming culture.

Niche status is a question of attention and focus, not one of commercial success per se. To a lesser degree it is a question of how common the genre in question is, the heavy, realistic shooter is a niche genre, while the fast-paced multiplayer FPS is not. Strategy RPG is a niche, but western Strategy RPG much more so than Japanese. The most mainstream genres are sports, multi-player FPS, party game collections and racing. Coming close on their tail is the vast tract covered by third-person shooters, Bioware'ish RPGs, JRPGs, the confusingly named action-adventure genre and single player FPS, which are all pretty mainstream among people who see gaming as more than a party activity. Every other genre can generally be considered niche, with some specific games from the genres above slipping into being niche due to a near total lack of marketing and little attention in the gaming media or larger gaming culture, Gothic being the great example of this. Similarly some games from more niche genres like 4X succeed in getting enough attention to achieve mainstream status among gamers, the Civilization series being one of these.

Low-budget games, even in the most mainstream of genres also tend to become niche games simply for the fact that nobody pays any attention or discovers they are released, meaning that any fanbase they build comes slowly and by word of mouth. And here is the true test of niche/non-niche, whether the game has marketing or media coverage to make people aware of it or if people learn about it mostly from friends and relatively secluded communities on the internet. In essence a game like Gothic or Galactic Civilizations II is something you are unlikely to learn about reading gaming coverage or hearing gamers discuss outside select communities, thus they are niche games despite selling well. On the other hand games like Okami or Persona 4 were all over the gaming press for months and are games that keep coming up when gamers discuss and are thus not niche games, yet they sold terribly. And with the exception of Neverwinter Nights 2 and possibly The Witcher, every single PC only game you have listed belong in the former category.

[warty goblin]

Once again I ask, how does nichedom, non-mainstreamness or whatever other term one wishes to apply to games affect whether or not it's worth owning a PC in order to play them?

[Terraoblivion]

Hmmm, because you backtracked on whether the games were major or not and insisted they were major and freeing you of that delusion is a worthy cause?

Also niche games tend to be niche for a reason, they frequently have limited appeal. It is not always the case, but it frequently is. And the PC almost exclussively has niche games, while the 360 and the PS3 has both niche games and more accessible, mainstream games making it a much safer bet if you don't know you want those specific niche games.

[DarklingPerhaps]

I have a pretty good computer, but I'm just not into PC gaming usually. For one when I try to game on a computer about half the time I end up online. So I don't even game as much as I could. Except Spore and Starcraft and I know my computer will be ready for Starcraft 2.

My ps3 only games that I have to play are:
MAG
Little Big Planet (does anyone have experience they could share about this?)
Folklore
inFamous
Valkyria Chronicles, just because of what you guys said about it
Heavy Rain (I WANT THIS SO BAD)
GoW3


Something I didn't think of earlier: I still have a collection of ps2 games I need to play (GoW and GoW2 for example). I bought some discount games about a week before my ps2 broke, and I never bothered to get it fixed. As long as I find the non-80g's one the ps3 can play them, right? Also I always wanted to play the Silent Hill series, even though I know how impossible it is to find the first one and that they don't even go in order, but still.

[Cubey]

Disgaea 3 was already mentioned, but I'll repeat that again to be sure. I'd also say BlazBlue, but that's for the X-Box 360 already.

The Last Guardian comes for PS3 too, doesn't it? That's always a strong point.

[MrPig]

Little Big Planet (does anyone have experience they could share about this?)


My girlfriend played it to death. She literally got 100% in it, which is quite an achievement for her. It's a very cute game. Offers tons of customization and user content. It has also some very awesome "woah, that's sweet" and challenging moments.

As far as PS2 games; unfortunately the last 6 or so PS3 console versions do not offer backward compatibility for PS2 games. You'd have to dig up a very early release for that. If you're really desperate to play GoW and GoW2 though, you can probably trade the PS2 versions and get like 10 bucks thrown off the God of War collection that was recently released for the PS3. It contains both games on a single blue ray, "remastered" and play at a constant 60 fps. In addition, you are treated to the E3 God of War 3 demo if you purchase the collection.

[Temotei]

YOU ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO BUY, PLAY, AND ENJOY LEMMINGS. FAILURE TO COMPLY MAKES YOU A COMMIE MUTANT TRAITOR.

Also, Eden and Echochrome on the Playstation Store are pretty sweet too.

That makes me think of Fallout 3.

God of War Collection = Win. :smallcool:

[Atelm]

You might be out of luck with regards to playing PS2 games on the PS3. Only the very first models had emulation for PS2, and none of them are in production anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_3#Model_comparison