As much as we’ve enjoyed the Resistance series they could never really be considered to be FPS royalty… until the third instalment. Resistance 3 changed everything we know about first person shooters, and it is able to hold its own with Call of Duty, Halo, Left 4 Dead and pretty much everything else you could suggest. It has some of the exquisitely designed weapons, each with their own game-changing unique features, such as being able to shoot around corners or through walls, beautiful level design, some amazing set pieces and cut scenes, worthy of the silver screen with an equally great soundtrack. The story will have you on the edge of your, demonstrating the grim reality of war against the entire human race. Wonderfully bleak, brutal, and incredibly satisfying.

If you haven’t heard of Demons’ Souls (its a big deal now), then go out and buy it right now. Don’t even finish reading this sentence just run like the wind to your local game emporium and throw money at them. It’s infamous for being punishingly difficult but fair. You may very well die 200 times in a row on the same boss battle, but it’ll always be because you did something wrong. It’s delicate balance of risk / reward makes for some compelling addictive gameplay. What makes it so hard to give up, is the immense satisfaction you get from killing a boss, indeed, doing anything without dying is intensely gratifying. Another revolutionary feature is the unique multiplayer element; you can’t communicate with other players and you can’t invite your friends into your game either. Any and all assistance you get is from total strangers who you can summon into your game as spirits. However some people take a lot of pleasure in assassinating you, invading your game at random to steal your souls and annoy the hell out of you. If you’re a fan of dungeon crawlers, swashbuckling, medieval combat or want a serious test of your character, I’d recommend you buy it along with a box of tissues, to mop up the tears of joy, and an extra controller after you smash it against the floor.

Valkyria Chronicles

Released way back in 2008 at a time when the PS3 was sorely lacking for RPG fans. The beautiful aesthetics, stylised in a way that have caused the game to age much better than its more photo-realistic peers, Valkyria Chronicles stands as one of my highest rated RPGs of the current generation.

The tactical role-playing gameplay, couple with an interesting narrative style told through the diary of a fictional World War 2 Europe (inventively called Europa) are a dream to play through. With plenty of outlandish characters (this is heavily influenced by Japanese Anime after all) and unlockable weapons along the way, there’s plenty to keep you interested. A single run through also takes about 20 hours, so Valkyria Chronicles doesn’t beg for nearly as much time as its RPG brethren. If you’ve got a PSP, there are also two sequels available that are just as enchanting. Unfortunately the third instalment was only ever released in Japan, so you’d better brush up alphabets if you’re hoping to play.

inFAMOUS 2

Whilst the first Infamous was fun, if a little repetitive, the second instalment brought with it an accomplished melee mechanic (complete with a pylon-like sword-come-baseball bat) and an entirely new setting; that of New Marais.

The story does follow directly from the first game, so you might miss a few of the more poignant plot points if you dive straight into the sequel. That being said, the game begins with a fairly competent retelling of how it all went down and how this Cole fellow ended up as the world’s most literal ‘electrician’.

The dark foreboding setting of Empire City is magnified in the partially flooded new locale, and the varied enemy types keep things interesting as you progress through the story. Add to that a karma mechanic that changes both your powers and the storyline itself, and you’ve got yourself a fun third-person action/adventure game with plenty of replay value. You can pick up a collection bundle which includes the first game, sequel and stand-alone downloadable title – inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood from all good games retailers.

Journey

Journey completely changed my perspective on what a game can be, we’ve seen “Art Games” before but Journey significantly raised the bar. Journey is more about the experience and the emotional investment you have in a game, the actual gameplay is minimal, but the impact it will have on you is monumental.  What you get is a visual and aural masterpiece which is an absolute joy to play. It draws you in deep, infecting you with a need to explore and solve simple puzzles. It’s inspirational, universally appealing and fantastically original. For such a short game it manages to pack quite a punch.

Heavenly Sword

From the incredibly talented UK studio Ninja Theory, who have since gone on to make the equally brilliant Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry, Heavenly Sword was an early PS3 game that truly showed off the console’s potential. Featuring massive crowds of enemies, smooth yet brutal gameplay and unparalleled motion captured performances from a number of talented British actors, including Andy Serkis, Steven Berkoff and Richard Ridings, Heavenly Sword took the familiar hack and slash adventure game and produced something unlike anything we had ever seen before.

Heavy Rain

Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is yet another prime example of the PlayStation brand’s willingness to support unusual games. With a compelling story that is told from the perspective of four main playable characters, each somehow involved in the case of a deranged serial killer, Heavy Rain made excellent use of a divisive gameplay mechanic, the quick time event (QTE). Throughout the game button prompts would appear in screen, and failing performing these action as quickly as possible could have severe ramifications on the direction of the narrative. With multiple endings, and dozens of different branching patches to wander down, Heavy Rain is an uncommon thing, a gripping and compelling game that is driven almost entirely by its narrative.

LittleBigPlanet 2

Sackboy has become something of a PlayStation mascot, and for good reason. Media Molecule’s original creation centric game, LittleBigPlanet, tasks players with making their own platforming games.  The sequel, LittleBigPlanet 2, broadened the creative horizons by allows players to make more varied types of games, including racers and shooters. A mainstay of the series is British national treasure Stephen Fry whose rich voice offers reassuring words of encouragement along every step of the creation process. In this day and age, where the average game only spends a few weeks in a gamer’s console before they move on, the LittleBigPlanet series is still one of the most regularly played PS3 titles out there.

Ni no Kuni

The PS3 is already home to a number of great Japanese role playing game (JRPG) franchises, but easily one of the most impressive is Level 5′s collaboration with legendary animation house Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking that it was a children’s game, but there’s more to Ni no Kuni than meets the eye. While the narrative is entirely appropriate for children there’s a great deal of depth that would appeal to gamers of all ages, never mind the fact that the game can be so challenging at times. If you’re looking for a lengthy and engaging game then you could do much worse than trying out Ni no Kuni.

Further PS3 buying tips

Which version? – There is very little difference between each model of PS3. Every one is capable of playing any PS3 game on the market and has complete access to all online functionality. Our advice would be to steer clear of the bulky original design console, purely because of the age of the thing; a newer console in our experience is less likely to break.

Move – Don’t bother with PlayStation Move. You’ll notice from our list of essentials that not one of them is a Move title. The motion control system, whilst an interesting idea, has proven to be under-supported by games developers in general. If you’re already the unlucky owner of the wand and eyetoy pairing, the best game to get is arguably Sports Champions or Sports Champions 2.

HD – If you’re yet to experience the thrill of playing games in HD, what have you been doing for the last five years? HD televisions are more affordable than ever before and with the (relative) budget price of the PS3 super slim, you can now pick up and HD TV and the console for less than the cost of the PS3 when it launched. Isn’t that neat?

DVD upscaler – If you’ve followed the previous tip and invested in an HD cable, you’ll be glad to know the PS3 does a pretty good job of up-scaling all of your DVDs to near HD quality.

3D – Do you own a 3D capable TV? Then you owe it to yourself to use the PS3 to take full advantage of it. As Sony was so keen to get 3D technology into the living room almost every recent PlayStation exclusive (as well as a number of notable third party titles such as Arkham City and Mortal Kombat) have had an optional 3D mode. Of course the PS3 is capable of playing 3D Blue ray movies as well, including recent hits such as The Avengers and Prometheus.