BigNerdGaming’s Top 10 Playstation 3 Games

Welcome to the next edition of one of my console top 10 lists! We are only a few lists away from me unveiling my top 25 games of all time!

Admittedly, we have reached the point where these lists are not quite as interesting as they used to be. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are the point where video games started going increasingly multiplatform. Before this point, whenever I’d make these lists, almost every game was exclusive to the console it was on. Once we reached this generation, that was no longer the case. At this point, a solid majority of big releases were making their way to both consoles.

I didn’t want to separate these lists by what I specifically played on each console, so that means that this list has eight of the same games that were on my Xbox list. That doesn’t mean that the PlayStation 3 didn’t have plenty of great exclusive games. I loved the Infamous and Ratchet & Clank games in particular, but sadly, there just wasn’t enough room to put them on here over the many multiplatform gems from this era.

But you know what? I was due for a small break. I re-used some of the writeups from my Xbox 360 list and called it a day. Sue me. Let’s get to the somewhat rehashed list!

10. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It has been around 14 years since Skyrim was released, and yet, people are still playing it. Obviously, that is in part because we haven’t had Elder Scrolls 6 yet, and because of the power of the modding community, but it still goes to show how special this game was. The world, in particular, is just a delight to explore. The visuals were absolutely incredible at the time, and those visuals plus the tranquil music create an immaculate vibe. The main quest never fully did it for me, but there are so many other fun and quirky quests to find and experience on the side. It’s hard to avoid this one sucking up a lot of your time. Every Elder Scrolls game has a special ability to pull you into its world. I truly hope that magic is still there when the next game finally comes out.

9. Fallout: New Vegas

Post-apocalyptic Las Vegas is such low hanging fruit that I am surprised we don’t see it more often. Something about the glitz of Vegas transformed into rot and decay feels like a nice allegory for a lot of things in life.

Fallout: New Vegas totally lands the Vegas elements of its game. It works perfectly. But it also does a great job with its story, characters, player choice, and writing. The V.A.T.S system also remains a lot of fun.

Its world and faction system are also consistently compelling. It all comes together to create what I and many others view as the best Fallout game of all time. This is funny when it was the one modern game in the series not made by Bethesda. I think that still bothers them to this day.

8. Journey

If you are an avid reader of the blog, you have seen me write about Journey several times by now. I have listed it as one of the greatest “games as art” of all time, one of the best games with no combat ever, and I’ve said it has one of the greatest video game conclusions of all time.

It has been 14 years since Journey came out, and yet countless games every year are compared to it. And they almost all struggle to reach the same level that Journey did for me when I originally played. Games that are made like this today might have slightly better graphics or more refined movement and gameplay. But Journey evoked feelings that few other games are able to. It made me think about my connection to others that I randomly encounter every day in our world, and it made me think about the very nature of life. It’s breathtaking, and I’ll never forget my experience with it.

7. Rayman Legends

Rayman Legends is easily one of the best 2D platformers of all time for me. It has a fantastic art style, excellent level design, lots of fun mechanics, and very tight controls. This is all great, but the thing that really makes it stand out is how it just emanates joy with everything it does.

The animations and sound design have so many nice touches that are very enjoyable. But the real star of the show are the music levels, where the game seamlessly blends 2D platforming with a rhythm game. Every single one of those totally blew me away.

I also love the difficulty balance and exploration in this game. It’s usually easy enough to get through the levels, but if you really want to explore, you can find some devilishly tricky sections as well.

I would honestly play this one before any Mario game if I had to play a 2D platformer right now. I love it that much.

6. L.A. Noire

My hype levels for L.A. Noire were through the roof. I love the feeling of being a detective, and not many games truly let you experience that fantasy in a real way. L.A. Noire doesn’t really have you “solving” its cases, but it cosplays it in a thrilling way that sure had me almost believing that I was.

Unraveling each case and making decisions on the fly with interrogations was constantly thrilling. The actual gunplay isn’t anything special, but it’s enough to get you by with how good everything else is.

Maybe the other craziest thing about L.A. Noire is that despite the fact that it came out 14 years ago and was a pretty big hit, I feel like I haven’t played any game quite like it since. It still seems insane to me that we never got another one. I know there were a lot of issues at the studio, but if Rockstar somehow made an L.A. Noire 2 announcement, that would hit for me in the same way the Okami 2 announcement recently did. I will continue to cling to that hope for decades to come because of how cool this game was.

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Spoilers for the future, but Cyberpunk 2077 is my favorite game of all time. So I guess it’s no surprise that another one of the greatest cyberpunk games of all time ended up on this list.

Deus Ex nails its gritty atmosphere, its exploration of important themes about technology, and its freedom of choice. I also love the way it lets you play your way. I am always a total sucker for stealth and conversation in open-ended RPGs like this, and those might actually be the strongest elements of the game.

I think it is going to be a long time until we get the inevitable Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. Until then, it sure would be great if Deus Ex could make a heroic return. Hopefully, it would take some things from Cyberpunk in the same way that Cyberpunk was partially inspired by Human Revolution (and other Deus Ex games).

4. Mass Effect 2

It’s hard to explain to people now how big of a deal the original Mass Effect was. Having a game with all of the Bioware stuff we all love, but really fun action elements seemed impossible for a long time to me. RPG action systems just never quite measured up to full-blown action games like they often do today (in my humble opinion).

Mass Effect showed us that such a game was getting very close to happening. It had a serviceable combat system that was probably better than any other Western RPG combat system I had encountered to that point, but it still wasn’t quite on the level of “actual” third-person shooters.

Finally, Mass Effect 2 arrived, and it had it all. The combat really is on another level from the first game. The characters and various arcs are great. The Illusive Man is one of the most compelling characters of all time. And it’s a thrill trying to keep your entire crew alive through it all. Mass Effect 2 was incredible cinema from start to epic finish.

3. Portal 2

I feel like every game on this list has a really passionate fanbase out there for the most part. All of these games are great, so there’s a lot of people who still love talking about them.

I always find it strange how rarely I see people talk about Portal 2. It is one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, but it just doesn’t have the same level of passion behind it as many others.

I think it’s because it’s not very replayable or even a particularly long game. But every second of that experience is so damn good. The entire concept of portal guns is very neat, and the game consistently finds cool ways to use that portal gun. The writing is spectacular and so damn funny. The co-op levels are a nice addition, too. This is literally puzzle game perfection, and no puzzle game has been able to match it as a complete package since, in my view. It deserves more damn respect!

2. Bioshock

Video games are my favorite form of storytelling because being directly in the shoes of a character can inevitably make any story just a bit more personal.

The genius of Bioshock is that it capitalizes on that feeling to create one of the greatest video game moments of all time. If you’ve played the game, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Bioshock is a game that can only be truly told in video game form, in my opinion, because it makes the big twist in the game that much more fascinating and even eerie to experience.

But beyond that twist, Bioshock’s storytelling is so next level, especially for this era. It’s one of the first games I had ever played without cutscenes that still felt incredibly cinematic. The writing is awesome, and the characters are constantly intriguing. The world is incredible and immersive. Oh, and the gameplay is pretty freaking fun, too! It’s almost unfair how much Bioshock has going for it. It’s widely considered one of the best games of all time for good reason.

1. The Last of Us

One big difference between this list and my Xbox 360 list is that I was forced to compare two games that I had never actually thought about comparing before. BioShock and The Last of Us are two legendary games that tell their stories in very different ways. And upon serious reflection, I’d put The Last of Us just a bit ahead.

By the time this game came out, I feel like I had a bit of zombie fatigue. This game came out about three years after The Walking Dead show premiered, and while zombie stuff had been around before that, it felt especially “everywhere” at that point. But The Last of Us overcame that fatigue by telling a mature and nuanced story that went well beyond what I would expect. The game features one of the greatest relationships in gaming history, fantastic writing, and one of the best endings of all time. While those who think that video games aren’t art are laughably wrong, this show being translated into a TV show with minimal changes and taking the world by storm made anyone thinking otherwise look silly. This elevated the medium and delivered something special in a genre that I didn’t expect.

The best part is that the story is truly only half of what makes it great. The Last of Us delivers some of my favorite third-person shooter combat ever. Fighting zombies is constantly tense, and ammo management is as good as you’d expect. But the level design and enemy AI really shine here. Enemies are genuinely crafty and behave logically, and it makes every fight feel different and special. This is something that I would have expected more games to catch up to by now, but The Last of Us still somehow feels near the top of the class many years later.

When you can deliver one of the greatest stories of all time and gameplay that matches it, you might have one of the greatest games of all time.

Past Lists:

My Top 10 SNES Games

My Top 10 GB/GBC Games

My Top 10 PS1 Games

My Top 10 N64 Games

My Top 10 Original Xbox Games

My Top 10 Playstation 2 Games

My Top 10 Game Boy Advance Games

My Top 10 Xbox Live Arcade Games

My Top 10 Xbox 360 Games