Best PS3 Games (Updated 2020)

1. Grand Theft Auto V

If you’ve ever been a fan of any of the titles in the Grand Theft Auto series, then you definitely will want to give Grand Theft Auto V a try (if you haven’t already)! Grand Theft Auto V is the most ambitious release in the series and will be particularly enjoyed by fans of titles like Vice City and San Andreas.

GTA V is the first title in the series where you can play as three unique characters — switching between Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, to enjoy and engage in unique missions and experiences. Each character has their own special abilities (Trevor has rampage mode, Michael can slow time while aiming/firing, and Franklin can slow time while driving), unique missions, and storylines. Although each character has their own storyline, the three different stories eventually converge into one, as various events, motives, and plot reveals unexpectedly bring the game’s cast together.

Gameplay in GTA V is extremely refined, with both the driving controls and third-person shooter system feeling fluid and intuitive. There are an extensive amount of activities to experience and discover in the world of GTA V: boating, motorcycling, biking, races, pool (billiards), darts, golf, helicopter flying, and so much more! Because of the variety of activities and missions to engage in, GTA V offers an endless amount of hours of gameplay and replayability for players to enjoy.

GTA V offers the largest city yet in a Grand Theft Auto title, filled to the brim with content. With three characters and more gameplay to experience than ever before, you’ll be sure to enjoy Grand Theft Auto V. So why not give it a try on the PS3 today?

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• Largest explorable Grand Theft Auto environment yet
• Fifth main title entry in Grand Theft Auto series
• Three different characters to play as
• Endless number of activities/content to discover and experience

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Genre: Action-Adventure
• Platform: PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
• Rating: M

2. Shadow of the Colossus

Sometimes, a game is so deeply crafted with passion for its story, visuals, and gameplay, that players are almost immediately able to notice and appreciate it. Shadow of the Colossus is, without a doubt, that kind of game. Feeling at times like an interactive art piece, Shadow of the Colossus is a breathtaking experience that any fan of action-adventure/puzzle games should consider trying!

Although Shadow of the Colossus was originally released on the PS2, a remastered version was released on the PS3 in the form of the Ice & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Since then, the game has been released a third time on the PS4 (which is definitely the best way to experience it aside from the PS3 release).

You play as the protagonist, a character named Wander, roaming a mysterious land in search of ominous beings known as Colossi. Each colossus will present a unique and challenging battle that you’ll have to overcome as you journey to save and resurrect a character named Mono.

The world of Shadow of the Colossus is as vast as it is beautiful, allowing players to endlessly roam around while finding occasional secrets and bosses. On some occasions the world can feel empty — particularly when you’re having trouble finding a colossus and don’t have any real side content to enjoy.

Gameplay is relatively intuitive but can sometimes feel clunky; controls involve horse-riding, climbing of colossi, and sword-fighting. The game is between 6 – 10 hours long, depending on how you play, so you’ll be able to finish it quickly. And although there’s not a lot of replayability, the game offers a beautiful and unforgettable experience when you dive into it for the first.

Here’s hoping that Shadow of the Colossus becomes one of your new favorite games for the PS3!

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• Gorgeous visuals/landscapes
• Intense and challenging battles/bosses
• Single-player action/puzzle experience
• Compelling visual narrative

• Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Genre: Action-adventure, Puzzle
• Mode: Single Player
• Platform: PlayStation 2
• Rating: T

3. Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City was a revolutionary game for the Arkham series and a groundbreaking title for hero-themed action-adventure games on the PS3. If you’ve played Spider-man for the PS4, played any of the other titles in the Arkham trilogy, or just love Batman, then you’ll definitely love this game from the moment you start playing.

The gameplay in this game is, in all aspects, fantastic, fluid, and intuitive. The combat involves parrying and countering mechanics alongside a variety of Batman’s tools and gadgets. Missions involve exploration and sleuthing — as you collect more clues and details for specific missions, you’ll find out more about enemies, their locations, and their motives.

As the sequel to Arkham Asylum, various gameplay elements have been updated and added to improve upon the overall game experience. Batman can now glide through Gotham while overseeing its dark and perilous streets, and players can enjoy gameplay as Catwoman in unique and exciting missions.

With villains like Bane, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, the Joker, and more to find and fight in Gotham City, and a wide variety of side missions and extra content to explore, Arkham City is a breathtaking video game with an endless amount of gameplay elements to enjoy. If you’re a fan of Batman or the DC Universe, and you’ve been looking for a long and content-filled superhero game to play on the PS3, then look no further! Batman: Arkham City is one of the greatest superhero games ever made, and will hopefully become one of your new favorite games on the PS3.

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• Explore Gotham City as Batman
• Exciting and detailed combat system
• Play as Batman and Catwoman
• Variety of story and side missions

4. The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a critically acclaimed action survival game that you should definitely give a try if you haven’t already. With the variety of fantastic story elements, gameplay elements, and the detailed nature of the missions and narrative, Last of Us will grab and maintain your attention like an interactive, extended movie experience.

With this game being made by Naughty Dog, players may notice some similarities to titles in the Uncharted series (namely, the occasionally linear/streamlined gameplay used to accelerate story elements). But the storyline in The Last of Us comes across as more compelling and has noticeable emotional depth.

Gameplay is relatively standard for third-person shooters but incorporates a variety of survival elements. Depending on the selected difficulty, players will have to carefully decide when to use their ammo and when to use physical attacks. Last of Us places players in heinous situations that force you to choose between stealth and confrontation. As a result of this, there are a variety of different ways to play the game — you can stealth through a majority of the missions, attack all enemies to gain valuable loot, or attack some enemies to make passage-by-stealth easier.

The story and narrative of the Last of Us is beautiful and is sure to keep you engaged from start to finish. Whether you’re engrossed with the versatile and fluid combat system, the visuals and voice acting, or just the overall world-building/themes/story, here’s hoping that the Last of Us becomes one of your new favorite PS3 games.

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• Horror/thriller action experience
• Compelling narrative and characters
• Exciting and engaging missions
• Offers additional multiplayer mode

5. BioShock

Bioshock is a game that is extremely unique and innovative, offering a true one-of-a-kind action-adventure, first-person shooter, horror game experience that keeps you guessing from start to end.

Taking place in 1960, you play as the protagonist named ‘Jack,’ who finds himself in an underwater city/society referred to as ‘Rapture’ after escaping his crashed plane in the ocean. Soon after your arrival, you discover this city was originally created as an escapist utopia, but its chances of equanimity quickly became nonexistent due to a genetic substance named ADAM. ADAM allows humans to possess supernatural abilities, and as a result, created a tumultuous power hierarchy in a never-ending cycle sustained by ADAM.

As Jack, you journey through Rapture in an effort to escape, but you inadvertently end up learning more about the city than you originally expected. As you fight your way through a variety of now-iconic enemies, you’ll grow to learn more about the true nature of Rapture and be given a number of choices to decide how the fate of Rapture will play out.

Gameplay in Bioshock is near-flawless, with first-person shooter and action-adventure elements included to make combat feels fluid, fast, and reactive. As you learn more about combat, you’ll be given new abilities that optimize gameplay and keep combat refreshing. However, it’s the narrative in Bioshock that truly steals the stage. The story will win your interest in the beginning and earn your affection and loyalty by the time you’ve finished it. It’s a game with a story that warrants replaying almost immediately after completing your first playthrough, and is sure to give you endless hours of fun if you choose to give it a chance today!

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• Thrilling FPS/Horror game experience
• Extremely compelling narrative about complex underwater utopia
• Single-player experience
• Gorgeous visuals and soundtrack

6. Persona 5

Persona 5 is a unique and innovative JRPG that offers an extremely detailed and nuanced experience filled with beautiful characters, gorgeous visuals and soundtrack, and a compelling narrative that will sit with you long after you’ve completed your first playthrough. If you’re looking for one of the best games on the PS3, look no further — Persona 5 is a definitive masterpiece that shows the true potential of the PS3, the JRPG genre, and of games in general.

Persona 5 is a one-of-a-kind JRPG with an amalgamation of various genres/styles of gameplay. As a high-schooler who’s transferred over from another town, you come to learn more about Tokyo, its residents, its locations, and even its dark secrets. In Persona, there are two worlds that you perform actions in — the real world and the cognitive world. In the cognitive world, antagonists with extremely negative and distorted desires create cognitive locations known as ‘palaces’.

It’s up to you and the companions you’ll meet along the way to enter villains palaces, to find their treasure (i.e., treasure is a manifestation of their deepest desires), and to steal the treasure so that the palace owner’s distorted desires will disappear, causing the villain to admit their transgressions and to accept punishment for their misdeeds!

The activities that you enjoy in the real world will affect and develop your’ social stats’ — in turn, the activities you choose to enjoy in the real world will affect your strength and general abilities in the cognitive world. This means that time is important, and every decision you make will either positively or negatively impact you down the road.

Persona 5 is a difficult game to describe, simply because of just how much content, gameplay, and story the game is bursting with. With over 100+ hours of gameplay, there are endless activities and experiences for you to enjoy in the world of Persona 5. Why not give it a try and see if it becomes one of your new favorite PS3 games?

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• Expansive, explorable environments in Tokyo
• Variety of lovable characters; compelling and gripping narrative
• Single-player JRPG/social simulation experience
• Unique and innovative gameplay

7. Dead Space

Are you a fan of thriller/horror type games that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish? Are you a fan of movies like Moon, or a fan of sci-fi themes and imagery? If any of these describe you and you haven’t played Dead Space yet, then now just might be the best time to give this fantastic game a chance.

You play as the protagonist, a character named Isaac Clarke, who’s an engineer trying to make his way through on a mining ship referred to as the USG Ishimura. This mining ship is filled with a dead crew, who all have been brought back to life as mutated beings referred to as ‘Necromorphs’. As you encounter different types of necromorphs, you’ll have to strategize and figure out the different ways to handle each enemy.

Gameplay is fluid and reactive and is played from a close-quarters third-person perspective, adding to the game’s overall sense of suspense and oncoming danger. Fans of games like the Resident Evil series (especially the recent remakes) will definitely love this game, as your survival tactics are pushed to their limits while you fight and fright your way through every terrifying surprise this game has to offer.

Dead Space is an innovative game in the survival horror genre that creates a looming sense of tension with an accompanying compelling narrative, allowing for easy game immersion. If you’re a fan of games in the survival or horror genre and haven’t had the chance to play any of the games in the Dead Space series, then why not give the first title a try before you fall in love with the second or third? It’s a fantastic game, and is undoubtedly one of the best games on the PS3.

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• Survival/horror sci-fi experience
• Variety of enemies and missions to encounter/explore
• Single-player gameplay with TPS (third person) elements
• Extremely immersive story and world-building

• Publisher: EA Games
• Genre: Horror
• Mode: Shooter/RPG
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Rating: M

8. Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption is a beautiful entry in Rockstar Games library that tells the compelling tale of a morally conflicted outlaw in the twilight of the Wild Wild West era. This game is great for fans for Grand Theft Auto who are looking for a third-person shooter experience that focuses more largely on story and narrative than it does on additional content and gameplay elements.

This is the second title in the Red Dead series (following Red Dead Revolver) and focuses on the protagonist, John Marston. You play as Marston, and when your son and wife are kidnapped by the government, you’re forced to work for them by turning in your former gang members.

The gameplay in Red Dead Redemption is extremely engaging and refined. With the third-person shooter elements feeling fluid and rewarding, you’ll continuously work towards improving your aim and arsenal. This game also incorporates an exciting and unique gameplay element, referred to as ‘Dead Eye’, which allows you to slow down time and mark enemies that you want to shoot with rapid-fire.

The story and world of Red Dead Redemption are extremely expansive and detailed. As you progress through the story’s many missions, you’ll grow to feel connected with characters and come to understand their motives and circumstances. But even though this Red Dead title focuses more on story missions than other Rockstar Games titles (i.e., it occasionally feels closer to L.A. Noire, in terms of narrative focus, than it is to GTA), there’s still a wide variety of additional content to enjoy and explore.

So if you’re looking for a new Rockstar Games title to enjoy, or want to give Red Dead Redemption a try before or after completing Red Dead Redemption 2, definitely consider playing Red Dead Redemption today on PS3!

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• Extremely expansive world to explore
• Second Red Dead series title
• Gorgeous visuals and soundtrack
• Unique third-person shooter system

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Genre: Western, Shooter
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Rating: M

9. Fallout: New Vegas

Fans of the Fallout series will definitely have heard of New Vegas, and, potentially, fans of the Elder Scrolls series as well (i.e., fans of Bethesda titles). But if you haven’t heard of New Vegas, or if you have and you haven’t tried it yet, there’s no better time than now to either be introduced to the Fallout series or to discover your new favorite Fallout title!

Fallout: New Vegas, although not a sequel, picks up four years after where Fallout 3 left off, in the year 2281. You play as the protagonist, referred to as ‘the Courier’, who is tasked with delivering a package to New Vegas. In the midst of this delivery, the Courier is mugged, robbed, and seemingly killed. However, the Courier survives and resultantly sets off on a mission of vengeance looking to find the robbers and the now-missing package.

In Fallout: New Vegas, there are an endless number of events and story routes to encounter and explore. Every decision you make and every action you take will dictate what storyline you get to experience. You can choose whether you want to be a Hero, and help to stop the looming evil in New Vegas and the Mojave Wasteland (the main areas in New Vegas), or you can choose to join the forces of evil for personal gain. With so many ways to play New Vegas, playtime is lengthy and enjoyable, and replayability is guaranteed.

The gameplay in New Vegas is similar to Fallout 3, incorporating first-person shooter elements with the unique V.A.T.S/ system, which allows you to pause battle and choose specific limbs/weak points to aim for and attack. Although the game is filled with its fair share of bugs and glitches, the world of New Vegas feels extremely vibrant. Between the compelling plotlines and overall story, the exciting gameplay, and the variety of ways to play, Fallout: New Vegas is sure to be one of your new favorite PS3 games, and maybe even one of your favorite games in general!

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• Extremely in-depth choice-driven game experience
• First-person shooter elements with unique aspects
• Compelling and engaging story/narrative
• Four detailed DLCs for post-game experience

10. Heavy Rain

If you’re a fan of Quantic Dream titles (e.g., Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, etc.) or interactive/choice-driven/story-telling games (e.g., Telltale Games), then Heavy Rain is a game that you should definitely consider giving a try. Even if you’re someone who hasn’t tried a choice-driven game before, Heavy Rain is truly an unique and engaging experience for anyone looking for an innovative game with novel gameplay and is definitely worth trying.

In this game, you play as four different protagonists, who each are intertwined in initially unrevealed ways. You work to try and reveal the identity of an enigmatic serial killer named the ‘Origami Killer’. As you progress through the story and come closer to catching the Origami Killer, you’ll find that each decision you make becomes increasingly important and consequential.

The gameplay in Heavy Rain is extremely unique, allowing players to directly interact with objects in the in-game world to make decisions or perform actions that progress the game’s story. Because of the interaction-centric gameplay, controls vary depending on the situation, environment, and objects you’re interacting with. The game is third-person, and depending on the decisions you make, certain characters can die before the end of the game. So you’re sure to be continuously guessing what’s coming next as you debate each decision and the resulting changes that may come with it!

So if you’re looking for a unique story-driven, interactive gaming experience, then you should definitely consider giving Heavy Rain a try. Although there are some stifling gameplay aspects, the story and gameplay are unique and exciting and are sure to keep you gripped from start to finish.

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• Interactive game with choice-driven narrative
• Extremely compelling story
• Beautiful visuals and audio
• Engaging and exciting gameplay