The current generation will stagger on for a year or two,
but after that it shall give way entirely to the parallelogram PS4 and the
numerically odd Xbox One.
I don’t buy huge numbers of games, but I do tend to play (or
replay) those I buy rather a lot. Here’s my list of favourite PS3 games
(original reviews, where written, linked to each title):
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
The companions were delightful characters that were engaging
for the player, and their banter was a highlight of the game.
The range of moral choices on offer was pleasing, with
infanticide, sexy time with a topless demoness and betrayal of your own right
hand man all possible.
The battles were very well-balanced and made good use of the
varying classes.
The story and voice-acting (especially Loghain and Duncan)
was excellent.
I know DA2 has been criticised, but Inquisition (the 3 has
been dropped, incidentally) looks like it could be bloody fantastic. Origins
was also a good enough game that the general air of disappointment around the
sequel did not stop a third instalment being commissioned.
I must’ve sunk hundreds of hours into this game. The one
major weakness of Oblivion was the awful levelling system, and with that
revamped Skyrim’s a delight to play. The world’s enormous and well-realised,
there are hundreds of places to visit and characters are not bound to a single
class but fully customisable.
It’s true, especially pre-patches, it froze too often and I
think having skill trees (vampire and werewolf) as DLC is shoddy, but the game
it still hugely enjoyable.
Bit of an odd one, and something of an unexpected hit. The
voice-acting is mixed, the story goes missing for most of the game and the
world is as generic as can be. A single save slot is also rubbish. But the
combat is absolutely bloody fantastic.
Pitched at the point of perfection, it’s challenging and
tough without being frustrating or unreasonably hard. There are 9 classes for
the player (6 for the main pawn who can’t have the mixed classes) and each has
particular strengths. It’s a delight to cast an enormous whirlwind and watch
your foes haplessly soar into the air, or to set a hulking Cyclops alight.
Plus, the wide array of armour/clothing and numerous slots available looks
great and enables your player/pawn to be more thoroughly customised. Lastly, I
love the pawn system and getting to create not one but two characters. This is
the only game where I’ve really liked the internet features (pawn-sharing).
If they kidnapped some Bioware writers Dragon’s Dogma 2
(currently in development) could be a masterpiece.
I play games solely on the PS3 so strategy games are few and
far between. Stumbling across XCOM was a delight, because not only is it a
turn-based strategy, it’s a fantastically good one. The difficulty’s
challenging, squad members die on a permanent basis and the blend of exciting
battles and base development is perfectly balanced. I hope that when the PS4
comes out we’ll see another XCOM game.
Yes, it’s only been out six minutes (and selling a million
copies a week) but this game had to be on the list. A few gameplay gripes
(instant kill enemies and shaky hands) aside, it’s great to play but even better
as a story. The voice-acting and writing are top notch, the grim world is
perfectly realised and I found myself enthralled by the plight of Joel and
Ellie (particularly in Winter). It’s a seriously grown-up game, and though
there’s rather a lot of violence it feels right because the world in which Joel
has lived is so vile that such acts are justified in the name of
self-preservation.
Thaddeus
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