Which PS3 Games Should I Buy?

[ShaidarHaran]

I have Motorstorm, Uncharted, Super Stardust HD, Everyday Shooter, Blast Factor, Rampage World Tour, LocoRoco CocoReccho, and GT HD Concept. I currently only have one sixaxis controller, but that's not a big concern as most of my games are single-player anyway.

I have $200 to spend. I prefer to buy games retail (impatient).

Here are the games I am thinking of, with my thoughts accompanying them. If you have any feedback to share I would appreciate it. You'll note the pro/con setup for each game, and the fact that price is listed as a con for every one (I hate the new $60 price for console games). Also I somehow got graphics in as a pro for every game

Heavenly Sword
Pros:
Amazing graphics
Interesting enough story to keep me going (at least from the short amount I've already played)
Gameplay mechanics similar to God of War (definite plus)
Cons:
Short
Limited replay value
No multi-player of any sort
Price

Time Crisis 4
Pros:
Light gun with excellent control scheme and un-matched accuracy
Awesome co-op
Love these games in the arcade, superior graphics @ home plus the comfort of home and no longer having to spend all my money on these things when I go to a movie
Cons: Cost - would need a 2nd gun for co-op which would basically max out my budget just buying this one game
Limited single-player replay value
Length - arcade mode is only an hour and FPS mode only a few

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Pros:
Excellent graphics
Lots of weapon variety
Humorous storyline
Decent length
Cons:
Somewhat "kiddy"
No multi-player
Limited replay value?
Price

Resistance: Fall of Man
Pros:
Excellent graphics (I'm beginning to see a pattern here...)
Interesting story
Decent length
Multi-player
Weapons
Cons:
Limited single-player replay value
Price (especially since this is a launch title still selling @ full price)

Assassin's Creed
Pros:
Graphics (again)
Interesting concept
Cons:
Bad reviews (repetitive gameplay)
Price

Call of Duty 4
Pros:
Graphics (this is getting old)
Multi-player
Cons:
lack of keyboard & mouse support
Price

DIRT
Pros:
Graphics
Rally racing FTW
Cons:
Price

Unreal Tournament 3
Pros:
Graphics
keyboard & mouse support
Cons:
may be too fast-paced for controller use
Price

Oblivion
Pros:
Graphics
Will play smoother than my PC can
Cons:
Played about 20 hrs into the game already on PC @ launch, got boring after awhile
Price

Timeshift
Pros:
Graphics
Interesting gameplay elements
Cons:
Price

Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Pros:
Graphics
Interesting gameplay elements
Weapon variety/combos
Cons:
Price
Limited replay value
No multi-player
Repetitive gameplay mechanic (basically hack N slash)

Lair
Pros:
Graphics
Interesting gameplay elements
Interesting story/concept
Cons:
Price
Possible gameplay mechanics issues/buggy

If you made it this far I thank you, and look forward to your comments. One last thing, I'll be heading out to make these purchases in a few hours, so quick responses would be helpful.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Dunno how anyone can help you here. It all depends on what you value most and what genres you like. I wouldn't buy UE3 for example, but it'd be stupid for me to say 'don't get UE3!' because you might love it! If replay value is paramount, you can strike off those with limited replayability. If you'd rather have a short but high quality experience and spend time after completion on your other games, your choice will be different.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Hmmm.... Knowing what types of games you prefer would be helpful. But, going solely off your desired budget makes it easy since it pretty much limits you to 2 games (to stay under budget) or 3 (to go slightly over). So, if I were only going to buy 2 games from that list it would be Ratchet and Resistance. Oddly enough both from the same developers. Ratchet has good replay value if you enjoy upgrading the weapons and seeing what they can do. For a 3rd I would go for Heavenly Sword, to add some variety. Short but very sweet and cinematic, alot like COD4s single player experience (another fine option). If my goal were maximum replay value through online play Resistance, Unreal, and CoD4 would be the 3 I would grab. All FPSs, but very different styles of shooters. But you seem to be pretty excited about Time Crisis. So maybe Time Crisis, w/o the 2nd GunCon, and Ratchet.

 

[Arwin]

First, if you like online gaming at all, you definitely should get Warhawk. You can do just fine with the online version, so that puts you down at only 39 or something, right? It's about to be getting another patch and some expansion packs, and it's just pretty much one of the best online games there are currently out there. Not to mention awesome graphics. And once you do get that second (and third, and fourth) controller, it's also still quite a lot of fun offline, for instance chasing each other flying a Warhawk with the sixaxis. I personally have enjoyed it heaps more than Resistance, though Resistance was actually a pretty decent single player experience (I finished it, I'd never thought I would )

Another one you might not have considered, but you'd be surprised, is Eye of Judgment. This gives you the new PS Eye for one, which allows you to enjoy a bunch of fun stuff (eye create, all the dirt cheap PS Eye download games), gives you excellent voice chat support in games (and up to 6 player video chat outside), and of course there are more and more games (and demos, like Burnout Paradise) that support it, but the game is also actually really good and interesting, and deep. And it even has good graphics.

Other games I have are SingStar, Guitar Hero 3 (both of these are really good actually, depending on what kind of music you like), Ratchet & Clank, Heavenly Sword (it's a great experience, and I do recommend at least trying the game, but I also agree that it is shortish, and I personally gave up during the end-battle)

For UT3, if you have keyboard mouse as a pro, then why bother about controller?

Dirt isn't my thing, driving physics aren't all that, liked Motorstorm better, but a friend of mine did like it.

I wouldn't buy too many games at once. Just buy one or two and see if that catches you, and if not, then get another one. This will also give you a good idea of what kind of experience one game is giving you, so that you may seek out something sufficiently different for the next one.

Resistance - great, but now ageing, and I would wait for budget release which should be imminent
MotorStorm - you have it, I love it, though I'm not nearly playing it enough
Heavenly Sword - lovely, definitely something you should have experienced. The sixaxis controls are a lot of fun here. And I haven't even managed to do any areal combos yet.
Guitar Hero 3 - very nice actually. Still playing through this. My biggest niggle is now that on hard I have to play all the songs, including ones I hate. On previous levels, you could skip one to progress to the next batch, so you could skip the one you hate most. Now not only I have to play that song, but I also have to practice it when it is hard. This is tough for me to bear, not to mention that the battles get stupid apparently. Fortunately you can also play the songs on any level in free mode.
Eye of Judgment - awesome. I took a small break from it because I got this pile of other games, but I have played it for 16 hours or so already and that was just with the starter deck, and almost all of it online straight away. This game will last me very long, and I have some new cards lying there still waiting for me.
Uncharted - awesome, but you know this already.
Ratchet & Clank - not sure yet. It seems very good and varied, though the graphics don't wow me as much now after Uncharted's awesomeness. But there is sure a lot of variety and stuff to do!
SingStar - wow at the graphics! No, seriously. This is one of the coolest looking games, ironically, even though none of the graphics are technically impressive. It just looks so slick. And the online videos, omg, hilarious, that feature alone is almost worth it. Whether or not you would enjoy it otherwise though depends very much on whether or not you'd enjoy singing or if you can manage to draw people in and make it into a party. I personally like singing, and have had the occasional SingStar party on the PS2 already, so for me the choice was obvious.

 

[Cornsnake]

The replay value of Resistance is pretty good. You get 4 extra guns and 1 grenade the second time through. There are hidden documents to be found which help explain the story and skillpoints (achievements). You can unlock superhuman if you beat hard and it has offline coop. As far as shooters go this has very varied gameplay. It been compared to Halo, Halflife, Doom and Call of Duty.

In R&C you can replay it in challenge mode, upgrade all the guns agian. Find gold bolts and holoplans, and also skill points.

 

[Mize]

CoD4, Warhawk, Uncharted are currently my favorites.
Definitely look into a Game Stop buy 2 get one free on used games deal - it's worth it. I have most of those and like them all. I bought Resistance for training on controller FPS (to prepare for Warhawk) and it's an awesome game too.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll let you know what I get tonight.

 

[Arwin]

Hope you'll get this:

 

[woundingchaney]

Warhawk

Skip EoJ and pick up the PSEye by itself.

 

[sevanig]

Out of your listed games, get Ratchet or UT3...
Warhawk is cool though... but there is also uncharted...
Hopefully my copy of TC4 comes soon, I hope I don't finish it in 1hr
Oh yer rent heavenly sword too

 

[patsu]

If he likes board games or card games, EoJ may be a good buy. The core gameplay is deep and fun enough. The only issue is the space needed for that mat.

 

[Arwin]

Or if you like strategy games, I might add.

Don't worry about Time Crisis. The Arcade game is typically the least interesting part of it, imho. I always only liked it for the Time Trial mode of the different stages, much more fun to try and improve your score there. The meat of the game is typically in the Crisis Missions, which are present again this time if I read things correctly. Reviews of Time Crisis have generally sucked, because they don't realise this very important aspect of the console version.

 

[sevanig]

Cool thanks, I hope they add the other Time Crisis's as downloads off the PSN...
That would be cool, I never got to finish any at the arcades

 

[Konrad]

Which game...

You have a great deal of games already. I would buy High Velocity Bowling from the US PSN. Especially if you can play with others, like family members during the holyday season. Otherwise why not buy a PS2 game? I would recommend Shadow of the Colossus or Resident Evil 4 there. If you would like to be scared I can recommend the Silent Hill Collection with SH2, SH3 and SH 4.

I don't know how much you have to pay for used games where you live, but if you check for scratches you don't have to worry.
Good luck finding games!
/Konrad

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Well, instead of making a rushed decision I used a gift card I had @ Barnes & Noble and picked up a few PS magazines, each featuring various reviews of many of the games on my list, including one magazine from Engerland (that's how I say it) which included a sampler B-r disk w/17 demos including:
Ninja Gaiden Sigma - played this and actually enjoyed it, I will add it to my list to consider
Blast Factor - so fun I didn't hesitate to buy it on PSN immediately after playing the demo, despite already owning Super Stardust HD & Everday Shooter
Heavenly Sword - installed but have yet to play
Resistance: Fall of Man - same has HS
GRAW2 - same as HS & R:FoM

So I still have some demos to play, and then I'll make my decision probably this weekend. Continued feedback in the meantime is still appreciated.

 

[Arwin]

Well done. If you are savvy enough to do so, get the HS KAi demo from the Japanese PSN. It's a big part of the game (you use these controls for sections in about 30-40% of the game I think) and if you like it, it's a big plus for the game. The HS demo is a bit too short to do the full game justice.

 

[Mize]

Here's my quickie review of the games I own:

Game, SP Score, MP Score, Replay Score

Resistance 8-9, 8 , 7
Heavenly Sword 8 , NA , 4
CoD4 9 , 9.5 , 8
AC 8 , NA , 5
Oblivion 8 , NA , 7
Uncharted 8-9 , NA , too soon
R&C (not my thing) 7 , NA , 5
Motorstorm 7-8 , ? , 8+
Warhawk 9 , 9+ , 9+

I have a few others (Madden, MLB7, Lair) but haven't played them yet.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Thanks for the feedback Arwin & Mize.

 

[Heinrich4]

Heavenly Sword is amazing in all aspects(graphs,story,"playability") but too short you have to try play before buyit (rent).

Uncharted its incredible in graphics,controlls and have good replay value, its a great tittle to purchase.

Ratchet & Clank is a platform tittle with extremely beatifull graphics and one of the best tittles to show potential of ps3.


(oblivion...wow i cant stop play this tittle ..i have more tham 160 hours played since september)

 

[TheBlackLodge]

From my own experiences I'd suggest Resistance, Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Uncharted. Oh and Oblivion.