50 Best PS3 Games of All Time

The PlayStation 3 is Sony’s most interesting home console ever, but what’s most interesting of all is trying to nail down the very best games on a console with hundreds of incredible games. Let’s give it a shot.

 

50. Mirror’s Edge

Games like Mirror’s Edge had never really been seen before. A first-person parkour game that’s pretty low on combat, Mirror’s Edge is all about speed and momentum as you zip around the rooftops of a strangely sterile looking city as Faith, a courier whose sister has been framed for murder.

The game still looks and sounds great today, with it holding up very well thanks to some frankly incredible lighting for the 7th generation, and it’s clear to see where games like Titanfall, Dying Light, and even Call of Duty would get a lot of their ideas from over the next decade. This one still goes down a storm.

 

49. Motorstorm: Pacific Rift

If Gran Turismo is meant to be a fine dining experience, Motorstorm is like a big, greasy burger bought at 3AM that’s kinda falling apart a bit despite being about 98% fat, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still very tasty indeed.

Adding more content that the original game lacked, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is a racing game free-for-all that feels like a motorised version of Downhill Domination with giant tracks, massive speed, and just constant bedlam.

The sheer variety of vehicles on offer, the amazing soundtrack, and so many things happening on screen at once that it’d make JJ Abrams tremble, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift really put fun first, and it’s about time we saw another game in this series.

 

48. LA Noire

The crazy story behind the development of LA Noire is pretty remarkable, but it’s not quite as remarkable as the finished product.

You play as Cole Phelps, a veteran turned rising LAPD detective as he uncovers a conspiracy, and also shags half of LA. There are only really shades of grey when it comes to LA Noire’s cast.

Your time will be spent inspecting evidence, turning it around a little bit in your hands, and then interrogating suspects and witnesses. Though memed in the years since, the facial animations in LA Noire still rank among some of the best the industry has ever seen.

While LA Noire feels a bit languid at times, this is a really good slow burn story that authentically captures post-WW2 America (I know, I was there) and offers an experience that hasn’t quite been replicated since. Speaking of:

 

47. Vanquish

Oh yeah, now this is a video game. Vanquish is the kind of game Bart would play in The Simpsons, and I’m glad it exists.

What’s it about? I don’t care, and neither should you. This is a PlatinumGames whipper directed by Shinji Mikami that puts gameplay first and foremost above all else, a character action third-person shooter in which you slide around on your shins and blow holes in enemies…in space.

Sam is absurdly fast, but Vanquish is an absurdly fast game in general. Every battle is like robot D-day, except imagine if Tom Hanks avoided PTSD because a dude with battle posture like this did everything. That quickness also applies to its length, as yep you will breeze through this one in a long afternoon, but what an afternoon.

 

46. Resident Evil 5

I recently replayed Resident Evil 5, and let me tell you, Resi 5 hits so good when you ain’t got a bitch in ya ear telling you it’s bad.

Is it scary? No. Is the story good? No. Does it let you move and shoot? Also, somehow, no. But, it does let you team up with a friend and roundhouse kick weirdos in the head, and that’s never not fun.

Picking up the meaty man mantle of Chris Redfield, you’ll be teaming up with Sheva to uncover a mysterious illness in Africa while also coming across an old nemesis. Not that one.

Listen, you can pick holes in Resident Evil 5 until you’re blue in the face. The AI is sloppy, the encounter design is almost always “the last encounter but more”, and the actual horror elements are barely even there, but despite everything, Resident Evil 5 is a really goofy, really fun ride with some brilliant moments, and did you know Chris punches a boulder with his bare ha–

 

45. Sleeping Dogs

There have been a lot of GTA clones over the years, but few have been quite as good as Sleeping Dogs. You could argue this feels more like a continuation of the gameplay of San Andreas than GTA 4 and 5.

Playing as undercover cop Wei Shen, you’re tasked with infiltrating the triads, and also dating Emma Stone?

Sleeping Dogs tries a lot of different things for an open world game, with a big emphasis on always extremely fun martial arts combat, but you can also wander off and indulge in some cock fighting and karaoke.

With a gritty story and a vibrant, living world to enjoy, Sleeping Dogs hasn’t been slept on as such, but this is still a very different flavour of open world that more people should try out.

 

44. Alien Isolation

It’s often forgotten that Alien Isolation came to the PlayStation 3, even more so that it was one of the bigger technical accomplishments on the console.

You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen, as she investigates the Sevastopol in search of her missing mother. It isn’t long until things start going very wrong, and a familiar bug makes itself known.

The brilliance of Isolation lies in two key things: the sound design, and the fact that the xenomorph feels like it can come at you from anywhere. It can be frustrating, maybe a bit slow, but it’s hard to be bored when you never know what’s going to happen next.

Isolation is a constantly unnerving experience that wonderfully recreates the look and feel of the Alien universe better than basically any other Alien game, and still absolutely shines on PlayStation 3.

 

43. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

If you were frustrated by Alien Isolation, the aliens in XCOM: Enemy Unknown are so annoying that they may actually make you do this, just in case those guys up there try anything.

A brutal turn-based tactics game where all your best plans can fall apart in seconds, XCOM: Enemy Unknown pits you as the titular unit as they look to repel an alien invasion, one whiffed gunshot from five metres away.

Thanks to permadeath, every action has consequences in XCOM. Make the wrong play, and the character you’ve grown to love over hours might be gone forever — and that’s what makes it so great.

XCOM isn’t afraid to not be for everyone, and so it has, not a learning curve, but a learning brick wall. Get over that and you will find a tactics game with deep character progression, base management, and a nice dose of trauma.

 

42. Skate 3

While the Tony Hawk series struggled pretty much throughout the entirety of the seventh generation, another series stepped up to the plate: Skate.

It’s easy to see how Pro Skater got left in the dust, as everything about Skate 3 in particular just feels miles ahead. From the physics to the intricacies of moves to just the general feel of getting around Port Carverton, this is an open world skating game where you kinda just dick around for an afternoon or 100 hours.

Though Skate 3 does have a story, kinda, it’s ultimately a game where your creativity and enjoyment of battering random people with your board is what makes it an endless replayable joy. Pick it up today, and after a little bit of adjustment to its tempo, you will realise what those OPM blokes were whamming on about pretty quickly.

 

41. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

You know a game has done something right when the community resoundingly rejects its sequel and comes together to create a mod to make it look a lot more like the predecessor.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 takes everything you loved about the original MVC3, tightens up the cheese just a bit, and also deepens an already pretty deep roster to provide the ultimate (sorry about that) 3D MVC experience.

The wonderful thing about MVC is that it’s both for great casual players to press four buttons and let them piledriver Captain America, but also competitive players who can kill you to death before you even press X.

Sure, some of the balancing might be a bit broken, but this is a beautiful tag fighter that successfully answers the question: could Frank West defeat Thor? People have been asking.

 

40. Resistance 2

Resistance has kinda stopped getting its flowers in recent years.

But it should, as all three games in the main trilogy are hits, and everyone has a favourite. For me, the second game is where Resistance really peaked, with Nathan’s struggles against his Chimera “illness” combining with a pretty jaw-dropping intergalactic invasion of America to create a gripping, surprising story.

The gameplay is no slouch either, with awesome retro-futuristic weapons and tighter controls, on top of an even bigger scale. The game isn’t a horror, but it’s hard to not feel a little bit unnerved when you see what the Chimera are doing to towns full of people, or when the giant walkers loom over those towns like something out of War of the Worlds.

Resistance 2 is a grand but still gritty FPS that deserves to be released from its Cage. David Cage.

 

39. Heavy Rain

Though Heavy Rain feels like a game that’s ageing quite a bit with each year, it still cannot be denied just how much of a showcase this felt on the PlayStation 3 in 2010.

Heavy Rain sees you swapping between multiple characters across a pretty complex, often surprising narrative in the midst of a serial killer’s spree, with a missing child to find against the clock. It’s also raining loads. Like a heavy amount.

Heavy Rain is a game that will constantly keep you guessing, and while its QTE and motion control heavy gameplay feels extremely of its time, the sheer variety of different options and routes for you to take makes this a choose your own adventure noir that you won’t walk away from without having something to say. It will probably be one specific word, though.

 

38. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

It’s always weird to hear people say that Battlefield has never had a good campaign, and that it isn’t a loss from the modern games. Did those people never play Battlefield: Bad Company 2?

Often revered as not just the best Battlefield story, but also one of the greatest FPS campaigns ever, Bad Company 2 thrusts you into a near future revolving around a second Cold War, hmm, with the titular Bad Company trying to stop a device from falling into the wrong hands.

The brilliant thing about this sequel is that with everything blowing up around you thanks to that killer Frostbite tech, you have no option but to play smart and on your feet. Each setpiece is like a playground, especially compared to the more linear campaigns of some CODs where you’re just waiting to trigger the next thing. Bad Company 2 still hits hard, but it’s a real Payne about that multiplayer.

 

37. Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 will probably be the final linear game that Rockstar ever put out. The company and the industry has changed a lot since the PS2, but it’s good that the Max Payne trilogy capped off on a high.

You once again play as everyone’s favourite cranky alcoholic as he leaps through the air and takes the kind of bumps every 6 seconds that’d send me to the glue factory. This time, though, you’re in Brazil, and you’ve got to save a real estate mogul’s trophy wife from a gang.

Max Payne 3 captures a sense of sleaze like few games before it — Brazil feels dirty and grimy, and you’re going to be wading through it all. The gameplay itself doesn’t change things up drastically, but instead tightens things up and polishes them to a shiny, lens flarey sheen. This is one of the most stylish games ever, and is still absolutely electric on the PlayStation 3.

 

36. inFamous 2

If Resistance is an FPS series that doesn’t get its flowers, then inFamous is absolutely an open world series that deserves the same treatment. It’s beloved by those in the know, but does also find itself equally overlooked.

The second game in the series, inFamous 2, is arguably the superpowered series at its best, with Cole McGrath returning for more decision-based dilemmas, awesome new powers, and generally improved performance over the patchy original all-round.

As they’ve shown with Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch know how to make getting around a map feel like a privilege instead of a chore, and it always feels great to zip around New Marais. Everything was taken up a notch here, and when you chuck in the living world that reactions to your decisions, inFamous 2 is a game that deserves a second lease on life.

 

35. Mortal Kombat 9

While the early 3D era of Mortal Kombat had its bright spots — Shaolin Monks, you will always move me — it was a pretty spotty adjustment period for the MK brand as a whole. MK9 saw the franchise finally find a steady footing.

Also known as just Mortal Kombat, a very 2010s thing to do, MK9 introduced things like the X-ray sequences and gratuitous crossovers that have become hallmarks of the franchise in every entry since.

This reboot also just brought some much needed consistency back to Mortal Kombat, with it running at a regularly buttery smooth 60fps on PlayStation 3 and boasting a beefy story mode that cut some of the confusing fat. MK9 is a dream to play today, even if your annoying mate is just spamming Stryker’s gun trigger over and over.

Hey, speaking of triggers:

 

34. Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4 holds a pretty interesting spot in the DMC pantheon. The most “universally beliked but not universally beloved” entry in the series, DMC4 does have some story and level design flaws, but overall this is about as fun as the franchise has ever been,

Introducing newcomer Nero to share the lead role with Dante, Devil May Cry 4 picks things up at a mysterious religious sect, who, and you might struggle to believe this, are not as they seem, with Nero taking on the brunt of gameplay as you dive into a conspiracy.

Nero’s Devil Bringer, uh, brings a whole different feel to the combat of Devil May Cry 4, itself a bit quicker and more chaotic than ever, and that DMC staple of trying to better yourself to be as stylish as you can is one of the most fantastic hooks you can ever get, and it’s still amazing here.

 

33. Borderlands 2

The second Borderlands was basically the perfect sequel. Everything was bigger, more impactful, and with a pretty often obnoxious personality all its own. It also had Handsome Jack, one of the greatest villains of all time that any sequel will have no chance of matching.

The basic gist of Borderlands 2 is beautifully simple: get big gun, shoot big gun, get more bigger gun, and then just keep on doing that until you’ve played for 100 hours. Yes, there is a bit more to it than that, but fundamentally Borderlands 2 is the perfect “zone-out” game with a dose of dopamine never too far away.

It’s also a great co-op game for you to play with friends as you shoot the breeze and uh, just about whatever else pops up across Pandora. Borderlands 2 is wonderfully silly stupidity that can get its hooks into you quickly.

 

32. Rayman Legends

It’s unfortunate that Rayman as a series has been so dormant for the last ten years, as Rayman Legends is arguably the best game the limbless wonder’s ever been a part of. My apologies to Raving Rabbids 2.

Picking up the mantle left by the also absolutely excellent Origins, Legends has a pretty simple statement of intent: “more”. More levels, more characters, more everything — this has got to be close to the most feature complete side-scroller platformer ever, with it even featuring tonnes of content from the previous game as a sweetener.

A whimsical treat with fantastic co-op on top, Legends also runs buttery smooth on PlayStation 3, and has not aged a single day. Wish I could say the same while Ubisoft keeps skating around making a new Rayman game instead of putting him in non-fungibullshit.

 

31. Tomb Raider

While absolute purists might not have liked the grittier direction that Tomb Raider 2013 went in, turning Lara into a very frowny protagonist while also throwing burning helicopters at her every other minute, Tomb Raider 2013 felt like a much-needed refresh for the IP.

After her ship sinks, Lara ends up on a mysterious island and must find a way to survive against its well armed inhabitants. Tomb Raider mixes stealth with punchy combat really well, while also letting you face a lot of encounters any way to see fit. Even the light survival mechanics successfully straddle a fine line that later games would unnecessarily cross.

While they have similarities, calling Tomb Raider an Uncharted clone is quite wide of the mark, and ironic, really. Uncharted is Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider is more like Predator, and crucially an absolute cracker of a game that holds up great.

 

30. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Seven home console games deep, Ratchet & Clank proved that pretty right with A Crack in Time. While things had technically obviously improved over the years, the core Ratchet & Clank experience is pure gold and it’s pretty dang shiny gold here.

A Crack in Time does include a few key changes, though, including Ratchet’s hover boots, some time manipulation shenanigans, and the ability to explore space in a pretty inviting sandbox. But ultimately you’re collecting bolts, getting bigger and cooler guns, and going to weirder and bigger places.

If you’re looking for an action platformer that you can have a fun, constantly charming weekend with, A Crack In Time is an absolute gem, and for many the definitive peak in a series with loads of them.

 

29. Telltale’s The Walking Dead

The game so good that Telltale decided to make 18 games like it in the next five years and burn everyone out on their formula, Telltale’s The Walking Dead left an almost impossible marker for subsequent games to improve upon.

Following escaped convict Lee as he looks after a young girl called Clementine after the world collapses when the dead return to life, Telltale’s The Walking Dead is an episodic adventure that boasts complex characters, a soaring, gutting soundtrack, and some of the most heart-wrenching voice acting ever.

Sure, choice is very much an illusion here in all but the most important moments, and the animations are kinda ropey these days, but wow, few games hit like a truck like this one does. I’ll just keep this one short: you should play this at least once.

 

28. Ultra Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter was in need of a fresh new direction after basically a decade of spinning its wheels. Street Fighter IV brought the franchise kicking and punching into the 3D age, and then Super and Ultra Street Fighter IV built on top of that.

Deep or as spammy as you want it to be, Ultra Street Fighter IV brings in the Focus system to allow players to have an ace up their sleeve, which lets them floor opponents or guard against attacks. It’s super simple on paper, but Focus adds a tonne of depth to those who want to take the game seriously.

Street Fighter IV also looks and sounds great, with a deep roster and tonnes of different modes to play. Ultra is the ultimate version of SF4, and while the learning curve is so curved that you’re absolutely going to snap if you try to play this competitively, you’re really gonna enjoy hurting people once it all clicks.

 

27. Hotline Miami

You’ll look at Hotline Miami and think “man, this isn’t pushing the power of the Cell processor at all,” completely underselling the fact that this will push your soul to its very limit.

One of the most intensely addictive games ever made, Hotline Miami is a top-down action game in which you must clear rooms of goons, except you’re exactly as liable to die as they are. One hit can be your end, so you need to properly execute every single door swing and bat chuck perfectly.

Hotline Miami has proven to be incredibly influential in the decade plus since its release, not only in games, but it also helped to lead to the rise of the synthwave genre alongside the release of Drive. And hey, I could argue it’s one of the most important indie games ever.

Hotline Miami is a lean, mean game, and one that is going to sink its hooks into you for an age.

 

26. Dragon Age Origins

What a weirdly inconsistent series Dragon Age has been throughout the years. Quite why every game since Origins has tried to do something different is an absolute baffler, as they got it pretty much perfect the first time around.

An absolutely gargantuan RPG where you play as one of six characters leading the resistance against the Darkspawn, who are a bit naughty, Origins has a staggering level of customisation, player choice, and complex dynamics with members of your party, with those relationships really feeding into the main story.

A game that’s completely unafraid to let you do the role-playing part of being a role-playing game, Dragon Age Origins has tonnes of replayability and different routes to take throughout its grand adventure. You could, and should, play it for hundreds of hours and still never feel burnt out.

 

25. Burnout Paradise

It’s no secret that we’re the Burnout Bros here, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see the most recent Burnout game make its way into this most recentmanic episode either. No new Burnout game in 17 years is an absolute crime.

As arcade-y a racer as they get, Burnout Paradise is an open world smash em up in which you whizz around the titular Paradise City and take part in breakneck races where you basically have to press R2 and not crash. It’s about as far from a racing sim as you can get.

With tonnes to do and destroy around the city, so, so many things to unlock, and the ability to crash out in style almost at will, Burnout Paradise is an exceedingly video gamey video game. Also, hearing Paradise City for the first time hits almost as hard as hearing Billie Jean for the first time in Vice City. It’s a revolution.

 

24. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Human Revolution was a make or break game for the Deus Ex IP after the disappointment of Invisible War, and while recent years have cast a more critical eye on it, this tale of cyberpunk conspiracy remains one of the most immersive games on PlayStation 3.

Casting you as series newcomer Adam Jensen, who finds himself mechanically augmented after a terrorist attack, Human Revolution is a prescient tale of corporate fuckery and also making sick three-pointers.

Just like a game we’ll get to, Human Revolution offers a lot of player choice in not only how they want to approach situations, but how they kit Jensen out. It’s also a game that will make you question how far exactly you should take human augmentation, while also letting you punch dudes through walls. Part power fantasy, part philosophical reflection, you’ll do this game a real dishonor if you don’t try it out.

 

23. Dishonored

The industry is full of sliding doors moments. If Arkane had never had their weird Spielberg game cancelled, we may never have got a game that re-energised immersive stealth sims for a new audience.

The first Dishonored is one of the best games there is at letting you see what you can get away with. There’s so much interactivity around Dunwall, and so many powers at your disposal, that you could feasibly come at every situation from a different angle. It’s a game that you’re meant to exploit and see how far you can bend its rules.

A stealth masterpiece with an absurd amount of replayability, Corvo’s first adventure has an art style and mood that’s all its own, and while it did get great follow-ups, the first game offers an so many possibilities for experimentation that I’d kill to get replicated in a new game today.

 

22. Killzone 2

The first Killzone on PS2 was good but a touch overhyped. Killzone 2 on the PlayStation 3 was also pretty hyped, but managed to deliver in a huge way.

Following the events of the first game, the Vektans push the Helghast back to their home planet, Helghan, where you will take part in some of the biggest, craziest battles across the whole of the PS3. This is a gritty, cinematic journey to maybe the least exotic alien planet ever put into a game.

Killzone 2 is an absolute looker, even in 2025. And I’ve gotta say that I really do feel like the multiplayer was criminally overlooked. Warzone hopped between different modes, so you never even get a chance to get bored, and that sound design for a kill?

Absolutely burned into my brain until my dying days. Shame Sony took Sackboy behind the shed and shot him, though.

 

21. LittleBigPlanet 2

Yes, unfortunately a core part of LittleBigPlanet 2’s big appeal has been lost because preservation doesn’t exist in the game industry, but what’s been left behind is still better than most games.

A wonderfully whimsical platformer that only Media Molecule could make, LittleBigPlanet 2 took what made the first game great and just built on top of it, adding more customisation, more ways to play, and more tools to change play yourself.

LittleBigPlanet 2 has a deep well of options for you to make your own levels, with you even able to tie those levels together more seamlessly than ever. Again, it’s a crying shame that the player made content will never see new eyes, but the Media Molecule made story at the heart of LittleBigPlanet 2 is an excellent consolation.

 

20. Far Cry 3

So influential that every Far Cry game since has basically been this but in a different location, Far Cry 3 tidied up some of the clunk from the second game, introduced one of the greatest video game villains ever, and increased the tribal tattoo factor by 100.

Playing as Jason Brody, you have to save your friends from pirates on a tropical island, one radio tower at a time. This is an open world game full of things to do and shoot, with easy to grasp gunplay and light RPG elements like skill trees to turn Jason into a killing machine.

And while the back half of the story feels pretty…wonky, Jason’s journey from meek frat bro to near cold-hearted killer is character progression you don’t see too much in games like this. It’s also got a mission where you use a flamethrower to burn weed farms while Skrillex plays in the background.

We truly had it all back in 2012.

 

19. Assassin’s Creed 2

Proudly belonging in Ubisoft’s open world hall of fame run right alongside the previous game in this list, Assassin’s Creed 2 took the first game and made it actually fun.

I kid, the original AC was a groundbreaking game that tended to often get in its own way. But Assassin’s Creed 2 improved upon it in every way, introducing a protagonist in Ezio that the series has never topped, while also greatly improving just the general feel of flinging yourself around rooftops.

Assassin’s Creed 2 still plays great today, and while the textures are a tad muddy, the game still has a fantastic scale and sense of place. Add in the best story and characters in the series, plenty to see and do around Renaissance era Italy, and also Kristen Bell because why not, and you have absolute open world royalty that deserves to fill space in your PlayStation 3 collection.

 

18. Dead Space 2

You don’t get too many original AAA horror games like Dead Space 2 these days. Big budget with plenty of spectacle and styles, Visceral cooked up something special here, which you will figure out pretty much immediately in the game’s harrowing opening sequence.

Putting you back in Isaac’s big ol clanky boots again but this time while also giving him a voice so he can really drive home what a bad time he’s having, Dead Space 2 is a sprawling horror set on the, uh, Sprawl after the Marker turns its denizens into Necromorphs.

Dead Space 2 ups the action from the first game while still offering plenty of scares, gore, and unforgettable setpieces, as well as some all-timer sound design. It’s easy to see why Dead Space 2 is so beloved, and while it does hold up pretty magnificently, I wouldn’t say no to a second remake for this series.

 

17. Batman: Arkham City

Arkham Asylum became pretty much the greatest Batman game of all time when it launched in 2009, and then somehow Rocksteady released an open world sequel just two years later in 2011 that became arguably the greatest superhero game of all time. That’s pure alchemy right there, and I still really just do not understand quite how they pulled it off.

There’s not much else to say about Arkham City that hasn’t already been said a million times over. From the incredible rogues gallery to the sumptuous presentation to the fluid, meaty combat to simply the basic feel of gliding around the titular city, this ticks every box that anyone could ever want from a Batman game.

So it’s odd to see people in executive decisions keep ticking the completely wrong boxes in recent years. No more live service, just make the game people actually want to play.

 

16. Gran Turismo 5

Motorstorm isn’t Gran Turismo (callback), but there’s only ever been one Gran Turismo. OK, so there’s been a few of them, but Gran Turismo 5 was arguably the last “pure” GT before all the modern gaming stuff started creeping its way in.

One of the most feature complete racing games ever made, Gran Turismo 5 comes with hundreds upon hundreds of cars, dozens of tracks, and countless swears when you try to get golds in every challenge. The first game in the series to have online play is a pretty good sweetener, too.

And it’s well known at this point, but Gran Turismo is a franchise destined to show off the power of PlayStation, and wow, does this one make the PlayStation 3 look like one beefy boy. Its lighting and reflections honestly puts some modern games to shame, but just remember: there’s absolutely no shame in just taking the bronze sometimes.

 

15. Journey

This is probably the least video gamey game you’ll see in this video, but Journey is an absolute experience. It might not land for you immediately, it might take until the very end, but it’s hard to walk away from Journey without being moved in some way.

A wonderfully simple time, you play as a robed being who’s got to make their way to the top of a mountain. You can jump and chirp, and that’s pretty much it — Vanquish, this ain’t.

But it’s in the presentation where Journey really shines, its sumptuous visuals and heart-rending music. It’s a game designed to give maximum chills through minimal input. It also has a really excellent gameplay twist that I won’t spoil here, as it’s one of those crystallizing moments when you twig what the developers have done. It doesn’t matter where you play Thatgamecompany’s Journey, just make sure you do.

 

14. Fallout: New Vegas

Listen, New Vegas is my favourite Fallout game in the series, and arguably has the greatest writing and quest design of any RPG in history. However, I absolutely cannot recommend you play it on PS3. If you still need mods for the PC version, you can only imagine just how flawed the PS3 version is.

Still, if you’re extremely patient and don’t mind never dropping any items to avoid the game crashing, the core of New Vegas is simply best in class even on PlayStation 3. Playing as a courier who’s left for dead, you venture out to New Vegas for answers, and revenge.

Oh, and also you’ll be wrangling ladies of the night, chilling out with a dog made of science, and killing the president. There’s so much to see and do in New Vegas that you could reach its credits twice and still miss something, so it’s your duty to play through this at least once.

 

13. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Here are the facts: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 changed FPS and multiplayer games in general forever, and it still boasts the best campaign in the series, well, right alongside Black Ops.

But Modern Warfare 2 gets the nod here for just how much it changed everything, building on the more than solid footing of its predecessor to deliver one of the most bombastic campaigns ever made. From No Russian to The Gulag to Loose Ends, there’s not a single level here that doesn’t bang, and that knife in the back moment still hurts a lot.

And who could forget the iconic, life-consuming multiplayer. It’s where boys were made into, well, still boys, but boys who learned brand new swear words in multiple languages. And people say video games don’t learn you nothing!

 

12. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim on PS3 is honestly a very similar situation to New Vegas, in that it’s a truly incredible game that should probably not be played on PS3, but it’s held together with glue and dreams just a bit better than Obsidian’s effort.

Ultimately, Skyrim is still Skyrim, and Skyrim is one of the best fantasy RPGs ever. Yes, it’s not as deep as Morrowind or Oblivion, but there’s a reason why this has strangely become the cosy game for millions. You play as the Dragonborn, a seemingly unimportant prisoner who discovers they’ve got a voice more powerful than Brian Blessed and must shout dragons to death.

No Bethesda developed game since has really come close to emulating the joy of exploration seen here, with so much to see and do at any time, and pretty much none of it feels like filler. Few games in general have managed to become as infinitely replayable as this, no matter how many times you finally wake up.

 

11. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The conclusion to Solid Snake’s saga, Metal Gear Solid 4 wraps up decades of complex storytelling with a heart-rending stealth action masterclass that’s introspective on what we leave behind, and also a game where you buy guns from a dude with a pet monkey.

MGS is my favourite series ever, and while I absolutely adore MGS4, it’s nowhere close to my favourite. Kojima really ties himself up in knots at points while trying to tie up loose ends, meaning that the actually incredible gameplay takes too much of a backseat. Also, Meryl marries a dude whose personality is shitting himself.

All that being said, just because it isn’t my favourite, it doesn’t mean that Guns of the Patriots isn’t better than 99.9% of other games. MGS4 is a fitting farewell to an icon that won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

 

10. Persona 5

People often forget that Persona 5 also came to the PlayStation 3, and while it isn’t as smooth as the PS4 version and also the console never got Royal, yeah, that doesn’t diminish what an absolute life-consumer this game still is.

You play as Joker, who becomes part of the Phantom Thieves after he gains special powers that awakens his Persona, forming a tightknit bond with his friends as they explore the Metaverse, but thankfully this one is actually cool and not a bunch of people in Roblox dancing to David Guetta.

While the dungeon exploring and turn-based battling is a large part of the fun here, helped by just how gnarly it looks at all times, your downtime as you attend school and discover more about your party members is where 1 hour will turn into 100 in the blink of an eye. The grind is not a lie, here.

 

9. Portal 2

I don’t think you could make a game like Portal 2 these days and have it have the same effect. I mean, it’s had plenty of spiritual successors, but there might be a reason why Valve themselves haven’t tried a third game: how do you top this?

An absolute masterstroke in game design that asks you to get to C by opening a portal to A then X then B, Portal 2 is so good that even people who hate puzzles games (me) can fully appreciate its genius.

And then there’s the writing, which makes Portal 2 one of the funniest games ever while also feeling like it’s never really trying to be. It’s also never not funny for you and your dumbarse friend to try and work together in co-op to figure this brilliant thing out, only for you to figure out that yes, shockingly, you are both dumbarses.

 

8. BioShock

No matter what you might think of the trilogy as a whole, or how it’s aged, let’s all agree on a simple fact: BioShock’s Rapture is simply one of the greatest video game settings of all time. Few moments in any game hit as well as taking that bathysphere down into its murky yet glitzy depths.

You play as Jack, an outsider in this utopia gone wrong who, with the power of plasmids, has to escape its deteriorating corridors and leaking ballrooms, while also getting embroiled in a power struggle that eventually leads to a moment so wild that it’s the video game equivalent of that moment in The Empire Strikes Back.

BioShock is a philosophical masterpiece, with multiple endings, so many ways of approaching each encounter, and an art deco atmosphere that simply cannot be topped. It is among video game royalty for good reason.

 

7. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

One of the first “box office games”, Uncharted 2 felt like a real turning point for video games beginning to catch up to their big screen counterparts in terms of sheer scale and spectacle.

You’ll notice this the moment Nate wakes up on a train dangling over a cliff with a bullet wound, and has to quickly skedaddle out of there. Uncharted 2 was such a gigantic step up from the first Uncharted just in terms of presentation that it made it feel like they’d skipped a generation.

The best thing about Uncharted 2, though, beyond the mass homicide from Nathan, the cheeky scamp, is just how much more believable all of the characters felt, and their interactions with each other — a hallmark of Naughty Dog going forward. Also, it had some surprisingly great multiplayer? Some fans may prefer 4, or maybe 3, but even in 2025, Uncharted 2 can still have quite the effect on you.

 

6. Mass Effect 2

This was the peak of Mass Effect right here, and arguably BioWare as a developer. A full-bodied follow-up that sanded down some of the first game’s annoying edges and added an even better cast of crew members, this upped the stakes considerably.

To be fair, hard to feel like a chill game when it opens with Shepard fucking dying.

It’s not the end for Shep though, and soon you find yourself conscripted into fighting against the Collectors, culminating in one of the greatest final missions of any RPG. You’ve got to take the crew you’ve lovingly assembled and lovingly, um, loved, on a suicide mission in one of the most save scummed moments in gaming history.

The rest of the game is pretty incredible too, with plenty of side activities to complete, reporters to punch, and crucial choices to make across the Milky Way. God only knows what’s happened to BioWare in the years since.

 

5. God of War 3

You know a game is gonna be pretty difficult to forget when it opens with you using Titans to scale Mount Olympus. God of War 3 absolutely did not mess around, putting you back in control of the steering wheel of the absolute hate machine that is Kratos as he finally looks to claim his vengeance, once and for all,

One of the most brutal hack and slash games of all time, there isn’t much revolutionary in God of War 3 compared to its predecessors, with you instead just getting shinier ways of committing genocide, but much like Uncharted 2, it’s a case of everything being dialled all the way up and showing just how incredible first-party PS3 games really could look.

And the great thing about the recent God of War games is that they don’t diminish how much fun these originals are either — from a pure gameplay perspective, God of War 3 may be the best of them all.

 

4. Red Dead Redemption

Dudes will see this screenshot and just say “hell yeah.”

Red Dead Redemption somehow captured a feeling that none of its players could have possibly experienced, yet somehow it felt completely authentic to the vibe of the old west. The quiet disquiet, the isolation, and the hats, oh so many hats.

Playing as John Marston, you’re tasked with bringing members of your old gang to justice. Well, crooked justice. You’ll explore an open world filled with good people, bad people, and a whole lot of people who lie somewhere in between. Also, a bunch of absolute weirdos.

For its time, Red Dead boasted some of the greatest horseback riding ever, absolute stunning horizons, and a storyline that knew exactly how to punch you in the gut. While its Xbox 360 version was overall better, Red Dead Redemption on the PS3’s sheer level of detail still makes it feel like one of the most alive open world games ever made when played today.

And I don’t know if you heard, but that second game? Also pretty good

 

3. Dark Souls

Dark Souls was an absolute revelation when it launched just two years after Demon’s Souls, dropping the unique level-based exploration for a more interconnected world of pain in Lordran.

It also made people unafraid again of not only scratching and clawing their way to beat games after years of AAA hand-holding, but also of crunching stats and gear numbers at a time when most publishers had decided that was uncool. Then you chuck in the hidden paths, wild online connectivity, and completely unique, often horrifying bosses and it’s easy to see how Dark Souls became a worldwide obsession. It fat rolled its way into the mainstream, and the industry would be far, far poorer without Miyazaki’s influence.

Dark Souls absolutely has some rough spots to go back to today — rumour has it they’re still looking for the second digit of framerate in Blighttown — but its choking, haunting atmosphere, deep lore, and incredibly satisfying learning curve still make it a game worth suffering through, right up until the last.

 

2. The Last of Us

A game so good Sony re-released it basically eight times, if Uncharted 2 felt like video games were starting to compete with Hollywood, The Last of Us arguably was when video games started beating them.

The setup is nothing new — zombie-adjacent outbreak, the world collapses, maybe people were the real monsters etc — but the dynamic between the two leads, Joel and Ellie, is played to absolute perfection by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson respectively, and I’m not sure it’s been bested over a decade on.

But The Last of Us is more than just two characters sitting around and complaining how much eggs cost in the post-apocalyptic economy. This is a road trip that made zombies terrifying again, with Clickers being absolutely chilling and dudes that will absolutely activate manual breathing in you. And even though it’s beyond a trope at this point, the human monsters are equally as chilling here.

The Last of Us pushed the PlayStation 3 to its absolute technical limit, while also providing some of the absolutely best multiplayer on the system in the tragically underrated Factions. There’s a reason why this IP became Sony’s golden goose, but it doesn’t have Lazlow in it, so the winner for the best PS3 game of all time has to be:

 

1. Grand Theft Auto V

It’s tempting to just go “it’s Grand Theft Auto V” and wrap things up here. You’ve probably already played it, likely on two or more of about eight different platforms. You know the big moments. You still think Trevor might turn into a good person. You roll your eyes every time you see a yoga mat now. Grand Theft Auto 5 is as big a video game as they come.

But it’s easy to overlook just how insane an accomplishment this was on the PlayStation 3 during its final months as Sony’s primary console. Three different playable characters all connected to each other, all taking place within one of the most vibrant, connected open worlds ever, with wild draw distances, weather systems, and lighting on top of fully realised NPCs and a physics engine that was lightyears ahead of the competition — all on tech that launched the same year as the Zune.

And then there’s GTA Online. Where were you during the great blackout of launch day? I was placing a curse on Lamar after the 18th time he introduced himself personally, but once Rockstar got it all tidied up, it was pretty much the delinquent’s playground we’d all be hoping for since GTA 3 on the PlayStation 2. Oh, the slurs that were spoken into my ears on one of these bad boys.

Honestly, if you want to swap in Grand Theft Auto 4 instead here, that’s totally fine, but for me, for helping to send the PS3 out on the strongest possible note, the greatest PS3 game of all time has to be Grand Theft Auto 5.

READ NEXT: 50 Best PS2 Games of All Time