With every year that goes by, the PlayStation 3 begins to look wiser, sleeker and more cunning than before, with the XMB interface slowly filling up with great movie and music applications. Of course, it’s the games that we’re interested in, and the PlayStation Move and PlayStation Plus have definitely granted us even more freedom in our gaming.
Here at Strategy Informer, we locked ourselves away in the underground bunker for days on end, trying to finalize our list of the best PS3 games released this year. Finally we’ve emerged - so while we go and have a shower and change our clothes, why don’t you check out our Game of the Year awards for the PS3 in 2010.
Best Move game: Sports Champions
As with Wii Sports before it (and Kinect Sports after it), Sports Champions did a great job of showing off the new motion control technology - in this case, the PlayStation Move. With half a dozen sports to play, ranging from the obviously (table tennis) to the not-so-obvious (gladiator duels), any player is able to find something to entertain them.
What really had us going was just how accurate the hardware felt with the game. Other Move games had a Wii-feeling about them - yes, it was definitely motion-control, but with a hint of lag and less than full control. Sports Champions knew what it was doing, and you really felt that as you lobbed that frisbee in disc golf, it flew exactly in the direction that you threw it.
Motion-control is at its best when there is near-perfect accuracy involved, and Sports Champions definitely provided that. Sure, it wasn’t the best gaming experience of the year, but it’s a clear sign of what is to come for the Playstation Move in the future.
Best PSN game: Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
Waka waka waka… Pac-Man returned to our screens this year, and what a return it was, scoring one of the highest Metacritic scores on PSN. The general formula remained the same, with Pac-Man dodging ghosts in a maze while picking up dots and power pellets. If you’re thinking ‘So why is a 20 year old game suddenly exciting again?’ then you clearly haven’t played Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.
See, there’s now a far more puzzle-based feel to the game. As you collect dots, ghost will follow behind you, with dozens of them on your tail. Once you grab a power pellet, you can spin around and gobble every single one of the ghosts up as the screen shakes like crazy.
It’s all about purposely letting as many ghosts as possible follow you before laying into them, and eating a serious number of the ghoulies is a great feeling indeed. With three different game modes to play through and some seriously cool slow-down effects, if you’ve not checked this one out yet, make sure you do so!
Best multiplayer game: Red Dead Redemption
Like Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West, Red Dead Redemption put you in the shoes of a western gunslinger, riding alongside your mates, shooting wildlife and townsfolk, and occasionally turning on each other and proceeding with epic thirty minute shootouts.
The RDR multiplayer provided so much to do, from roaming the plains to jumping into a ranked game and letting each other taste steel. Special gang hideouts provided a great co-op experience, but it was keeping the law at bay that really gave the multiplayer experience its edge. Once you hit a certain number of kills, a bounty would be placed on your head, and every player in your vicinity would come after your blood.
We played Red Dead Redemption on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but honestly we found ourselves drawn to the PS3 action far more. It’s one of those rare occasions where the PS3 interface feels more intertwined with the game’s menu system, allowing for a much smoother experience.
Best PS3-exclusive game: God of War III
Having to live up to the rest of the God of War series was always going to be tough, but Sony’s Santa Monica Studios are a force to be reckoned with. God of War III was Kratos’ final flight of fancy, as he attempted to destroy not only Olympus, the home of the Gods, but also Zeus himself, king of the gods and Kratos’ father. And boy, what a ride it was.
If you thought that the previous God of War titles were brutal, just wait until you get a load of what number three has in store. Kratos enjoys nothing more than ripping his enemies in half, and pulling our their vital organs. It’s all very gruesome indeed, and if you thought Kratos was a bad mothertrucker before, you’ll have your mouth open in disbelief this time around.
God of War III looks fantastic, plays like a beast, and features some of the greatest level design we’ve seen in a long while. When put together with numbers one and two in the God of War PS3 Collection, this is easily one of the best series available now for the PlayStation 3, and one that you should definitely become acquainted with.
PS3 Game of the Year: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
A late arrival in the year, but boy, did it make an entrance. The third in the Assassin’s Creed series and the second to follow the exploits of the charmer Ezio, Brotherhood launched us back into the world of running, jumping and climbing at full pelt, with a huge side-order of sword battles and hidden blade assassination. Ubisoft had done the unthinkable - they’d made Assassin’s Creed even better.
Not only was the single player of epic proportions, with dozens of side missions and challenges to complete, but you could also send your own army of assassins in to do the dirty work for you. And what about the multiplayer? Oh yes, the multiplayer indeed - a virtual game of cat and mouse, except that you are both the cat and the mouse, plus you have no idea where the cat is…
After much deliberation, we have decided to name Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood our PS3 game of the year, beating off the highest of competition. Let’s just hope that the next Assassin’s Creed installment is as glorious!
Watch out for our PC Game of the Year article coming soon!
