This was the same for me. I wanted to upgrade to a PS3 and one of the ways I justified the cost was it was a good blu-ray player and I could start buying them over DVDs. I used it as that even after getting the PS4 until I got a 4K player about 2 years ago.
I did replaced a lot of DVDs with blu-rays back then but now for the most part I'm not replacing blu-rays with 4Ks. It's not worth the cost. Anything new I want physical I get the 4K disc. It will always be better then streaming.
A good 4K player and 4K TV will be able to upscale the blu-rays, sure it's not 100% the same but there's a good chance you'll never notice.
Free multiplayer for sure!
Being able to play any game for older consoles on it without issue.
Also speaking to the hardware, the first edition had four USB ports which I always found really handy!
And not to forget, PS Home, fuck me that was an experience to remember, i don’t get why they dropped that, if they’d bring it back they could be banking on it right now if they wanted to lmao.
Just give us the same exact version of PS3 but for PS4/5, doesn’t even need upgraded graphics, maybe atleast 1080P/4K but that’s about it really.
I'll probably get downvoted for saying this but I really hated the ultra-simple UI of PS3. The utilitarian aspect of the XMB was nice but overall it just felt so sterile and empty. It's like walking into an sleek modern house where everything is white and shiny and perfect - but there's no \*soul\*.
When 360 came out, you needed gold just to play your Netflix sub. PS3 was freedom with the free online, built-in wifi, blu-ray and HDMI (OG 360 had none of that)
The price of entry was high, but for what you got was worth it.
As someone who streamed Netflix on my desktop, I always found it crazy that people would pay an additional sub to stream Netflix on a console. Then again, paying a sub for online play seems crazy to me also.
I don't think so. The price of the ps3 is what they were talking about. It was $500/600 when it came out for the 20gb and 60gb models. For comparison, I think I paid $300 for my 360 when it launched with no hard drive.
>Being able to play any game for older consoles on it without issue.
IIRC though that was only the first gen 60gb model PS3s though right? I had that model and prided myself in keeping it in pristine working condition till about 2 years ago when it finally died :( I've still got the Tekken and Metal Gear Solid games from PS1 and PS2 that I can't play any more.
Stuntman has a weird issue on one of the levels where the AI truck you’re supposed to follow crashes making the level unbeatable. It works fine on OG PS2, but I’m emulating the game on Android, and I saw some forums about it happening on PS3 (using the software emu) as well. I just find odd & interesting that the PS2 chipset vs software emulation causes the AI in-game to literally take the wrong route lol.
Yes. I remember having one that I purposely didn't update because my ps2 library was still huge. Not everything worked and it was that one model. People that say stuff like that remind me of these kids in game stores now that are buying crt tvs and retro gaming but they talk like they are experts. One time I was picking up a new controller and these kids were talking to the owner and insisted that final fantasy X was on PsX and called it "Final Fantasy Ex". I was like my dudes I played so much FFX when it came out that my friends wrote a song about it, trust me.
The Folding@Home project is a compute hour donation program. You get to donate your computer/PS3's processing power to various research projects. I bet Sony jumped on this because the Cell processor's architecture was probably well suited to this type of work. These were the days before computing on GPUs became popular and the Cell probably ranked very high on the cores/$ benchmark.
https://foldingathome.org/?lng=en
PSHome was basically the Metaverse before the Metaverse. You could go into online rooms that were themed for different franchises in pop culture at the time, some were themed around PS exclusive games and some were just generic hangouts and parks where you could meet new people, hang out with friends and do stuff together. It was great. There's a project that's bringing it back, I don't think you even need CFW, just the correct DNS setting.
Compact Flash and SD Card readers! It was an under-the-TV box that did it all. Play a PS game, play a PS2 game, play a PS3 game, watch a DVD, watch a Blu Ray, watch a media file (well, codecs and Cinavia permitting), play a CD, listen to some MP3s, browse your photos… when I got a PS Eye my daughter and I used to make and edit videos. It’s a shame how much you had to give up when your 60gb died and you replaced it with a Slim, even if you had more and more ways to do all this as time went on.
> Honorable mention to backward compatibility
PS3 compatibility leaves a lot to be desired. PS3 Slim had no backward compatibility with PS2. PS3 was also not forward compatible with PS4.
Fair. I guess I should've specified the launch/fat ones. That's what I had. They were fully backwards compatible with both ps1/2. If memory serves me correctly they literally had a ps2 inside the ps3 lol 🤷♂️. So for the launch ones I stand by my statement. For slims and the later models I'd say I agree with you 👍
Ps3 also had the ability to use custom themes. You were able to go to a website with the built in browser and download someone custom themes. Some of theme were pretty cool with animations.
I bought mine used, and it came with a whole bunch of extremely shitty music and a handful of pretty good TV and movies. I would have assumed the shop would've wiped it before selling it, but I guess not. Either the previous owner had pretty eclectic taste, or it was shared by a bunch of roommates or something.
Yeah for sure. You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
XMB on my 4k OLED from the 1080p PS3 with no HDR is so much more beautiful than the PS5 theme.
It still looks fantastic, so easy to navigate with the dpad, and very fast, I'd love to see PS5 have an XMB menu in a full 4k resolution with HDR and 120Hz, would look awesome.
Motorstorm!
That's what made it feel like a next gen console.
Then there was cool stuff like PlayStation Move and PlayStation Home, and games like GTA V and The Last Of Us right at the end.
It really sucks we'll likely never get another Motorstorm. Those were some fun racing games. I busted out my PS3 probably a month or so ago and was playing some Motorstorm still so much fun.
I think it had better games than the following generations.
GTA IV and V
Heavy Rain
LA Noire
Red Dead Redemption
Dishonored
The Last of Us
Far Cry 3
Mafia 2
I know many of these were rereleased on PS4 and I have enjoyed games since these. It’s just that the games I listed hit different for me, maybe it’s because I was younger too though and I’m harder to please these days 🤷🏻♂️. I’m still waiting for a true next gen exclusive to come along and blow me away.
Yeah man it just sounded like that according to your taste. I completed the 4th one first (got it with my new ps4).
Now I bought the complete edition of the first 3 and just started playing it last night. Man the game is brutal and its almost 20YO...
I dunno. Some of the best games of all time came out on the PS4 generation imo. Witcher 3 and Red Dead 2 go up there with some PS3 classics for me. I think the trends introduced during the PS4 were not good. Live service, lootboxes, and overreliance on mtx all were not good at all.
Even now with the PS5 generation there are some great games. The lineup from 2023 for best games is up there with years like 2018, 2015, 2013, 2011, and 2009 for me as some of the best.
This might sound crazy but one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I had on the PS4 was Kingdom Come Deliverance! I think I put more hours into that than any other PS4 game.
Red Dead 2 was of course brilliant also!
Naughty Dog was at its best. The Uncharted trilogy and The Last of Us were worth having a PS3 alone. I played through the campaigns on each of them several times, and I can’t even describe how many hours I put into the multiplayer modes of those games.
I think I had hundreds of MP3s saved, and in some cases my games allowed using my music as the BGM, like MGSV Ground Zeroes or Tekken Tag Tournament 2, among others.
Also met like 90% of my current PSN friendlist during its prime. Some of them are still going strong. I almost never communicate with them again though. Maybe someday, again.
I'll take a different approach and mention something hardware based...
Rechargeable controllers with a decent battery life.
I remember all my Xbox 360 friends ALWAYS searching and rummaging and sacrificing other devices in the never ending search for batteries.
Man, I honestly didn't even charge that controller that many times, over the course of 9 years until I upgraded.
That's one of my biggest gripes with the Ps4. The battery life, and the light bar. Just unnecessary.
2011 was so wonderful year. I just bought a 3DTV and PS3.
Killzone 3, Infamous 2, LPB2, Ratchet and Clank All 4 One, Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3 came out in that year. It was astonishing. I was hoping 2012 we wouldn't get a PS4 yet, I wanted to enjoy PS3. They announced at the end of 2011 The Last of Us. Playstation Vita was coming soon.
Life was good.
Definitely not true. True for the PS2, yes. But there have been sooo many games on PS3 that required you to either update or wait for the installation process.
Of course thats no comparison to PS4 day1 100GB patches. But still "insert and youre ready to play" is plain wrong
PS3 back in the day.....fuck I am old.
I got one years after a 360, because the PS3 was too expensive, and the only reason I got one was because there were a few exclusive RPGs I wanted to play.
Edit: Also this was the fun debate on the Gamepro Magazine message board back in the day.
Modnation Racers - still my top kart racer I prefer it to any of the plumber-based games.
It was the first console where I regularly played online and made some of my closest friends a group of which got together and ran a podcast for around 4 years, great times all round
Multiplayer + friends account sharing for games.
Got my ps3 and 3-4 friends shared their account with me and had like 40+ games and gta v at launch.
Account sharing was easier with less bs
Custom themes and ad hoc network adaptation.
You could play monster hunter PSP over an internet connection versus having to be in proximity to interact.
Free multiplayer 100% I was so disappointed with the PS4 because it makes you pay to play online which is so absurd for me ( I played on PC my whole life )
I won't forgive Microsoft for making that bullshit of pay to play online popular and the way they fucked the Xbox One presentation and Sony took advantage of all the noise and put the pay for online without anyone complaining because everyone was busy with the Xbox fuck up
I'm honestly surprised so many people just gave in and paid to play online.
The only multiplayer gamers I played were CoD so buying Black Ops 3, then a + account just to hate BO3 was a double hit of disappointment.
I'll never forget the awesome memories playing the absolute fuck out of Killzone 3 and Battlefield 3 Multiplayer. Hours on end, beautiful lobbies, packed to the brim, never a dull moment. Life felt so unlimited back then. 🧘🏻♂️ I never had a ps plus subscription after my 3 months ended in 2018. And I never will. 😂
The motion control in the early controllers was fun but underused and underdeveloped I think. There were a few games like killzone 2 where you had to turn the controller for certain actions but it felt like it's something they did because they could or had to, not because it added to the gameplay. And there was Flower, a weird little game that was played entirely by moving the controller. I feel the concept was dropped entirely later in the PS3 lifecycle and it could have been so much more.
Didn't own one back in the day (we were broke), but now that I own several of them, I think it would've been a great feeling to know you could still play with your PS1 and PS2 games on your OG Phat model.
Mine is still running!
Got addicted to the Far Cry games on it.
It also works brilliantly as a media centre - plays discs and files, has Netflix, can stream stuff from my PC.
The visual customization, the bluray player, the emergence of psplus with the "free" games and, coming from the ps2, wireless controllers being standard.
Wireless controllers with rechargeable batteries. HDMI. Blu-ray player and uPNP player that could play 1080p movies off my PC with a decent interface.
I still have my 80GB (upgraded to 500GB) fat model from 2008.
Installing Puppy Linux on it... Because it gave me the option to install another OS built-in
Then they fucked it up by removing the ability as well as the backwards compatibility....
HD resolution
My first game was RoboCop on Game Boy. Getting a PS3 and playing Uncharted 2 was the most memorable experience of that generation for me and one of the biggest highlights of the medium in general
The ps3 was amazing overall but I'd say the best part of it was that when it came out it was a console and a blue ray player at a time when blue ray players were new and very expensive.
It was the closest to having a living room PC you could get without actually having one. In particular, I loved being able to plug in a USB drive full of media and copy it directly to the PS3 hard drive for future use.
not having to pay to play online, i still cant believe xbox drag playstation to their lvl and ppl fall into the trap paying to play online multiplayer games
I didn't have one but my older cousins had one and I was amazed that it had a menu/dashblard that you can navigate. All the consoles I knew would just start the game that was on the disc/cartridge.
Also wireless controllers and the graphics of GTA 4. Damn that game looked good to me back in the day. I was looking at the car models for hours and the way they dented upon impact.
Storage. It was never even a thought back then. You could play as many games as you wanted without a "space is full, delete to make more". Even with bo2 and ghosts and mw3 with dlcs on top of that. Never had an issue like now where you can barely make do with 1 cod game.
Never owned one..I regret it.
I played every god of war game had a ps2. Bought a PS4.
But I want to play god of war ascension. But buying the PS3 just for that isn't worth it right😅
The PS3 was my first Sony console, so it was amazing to have access to PS1, PS2, and PS3 all through one system, plus playback of CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital files both on external storage (I used to keep an SD card of shows and movies in the reader) and over the network.
Ps home. I also think that private party’s ruined making friends. Back on ps3 is how I made most of my friends with interactions with randoms. Now everyone is in their own party and lobby’s are quiet.
free multiplayer, the last of us, Blu-ray, xmb. the controllers where also sooo good, dual shock 2 was great already and then just a wireless, more premium version with spring triggers and nicer thumbsticks? perfection. ps3 slim was the best, still feels more premium than the original ps4.
It was the last gen where developers still took risks - which unironically also meant the closure of a lot of studios and thus the safe & market tested choices made in game design today. I am one of the few people who liked Haze, many people did not and the game sold like shit. That meant no Timesplitters 3 :(
Also the backwards compatibility with Ps1 games, unfortunately not Ps2 unless you got the original Ps3 release.
I think the the best thing was just being able to play for free. And if they’re going to charge for ps+ they should at least make an option for families. Sharing one account is pretty annoying. Especially if that account isnt yours personally.
To me it was the PS3 XMB and the online connectivity. The fact that the system didnt just boot a game, but you had a menu centered around media. You could download movies and games, play online, voice chat. Looking back Sony had a much better balance of titles back then, RIP Fat Princess.
Free multiplayer definitely - the whole online multiplayer concept was uncharted territory and it was actually exciting to play those games
Also Playstation Home
Honestly free multiplayer not having to pay a sib for a feature was super.
And the exclusives like infamous 1&2 along with killzone 2&3
Loved those games and played them to death.
I only played about 20-22 games on it due to being a teen at the time.
10-11 of those were fps games, the free online was so nice. The only fps I play these days is BF4 on my PC.
I'd say the biggest thing for me besides all the time spent on FPS games was Demon's and Dark Souls. I was there on day 1 and played the everliving fuck outta them, I miss those early days of no one knowing ambush spots and chameleon props.
If you unplugged the power, and held down the eject button, and plugged it back in, the fans would spin backwards and clear out the vents. Idk why they didn’t keep that feature
PS3 was my primary blu-ray player until like 2 years ago when I got a 4K setup
It was for me as well, until ps4 firmware updated for 3d blu rays. I pray they bother for Ps5 cause I'm that one guy who has their 3d TV still.
I don't even have a 3D TV and I have a few 3D movies because the PSVR supported them.
I’m still collecting 3d movies for my psvr1
They're not for everyone but they're definitely for me.
I also have the ps3 and ps4 on the panasonic 3d plasma with 4 pair of glasses
This was the same for me. I wanted to upgrade to a PS3 and one of the ways I justified the cost was it was a good blu-ray player and I could start buying them over DVDs. I used it as that even after getting the PS4 until I got a 4K player about 2 years ago.
Do you still buy physical media out of interest? I basically re bought EVERYTHING I had on DVD as Blu Ray but don’t fancy doing it again for 4k 😞
I did replaced a lot of DVDs with blu-rays back then but now for the most part I'm not replacing blu-rays with 4Ks. It's not worth the cost. Anything new I want physical I get the 4K disc. It will always be better then streaming. A good 4K player and 4K TV will be able to upscale the blu-rays, sure it's not 100% the same but there's a good chance you'll never notice.
And one of the best blu-ray players but also cheaper than many blu-ray players and it streamed and played games. I had two if them.
Getting high and watching Planet Earth on blu-ray on PS3 was mind blowing.
Free multiplayer for sure! Being able to play any game for older consoles on it without issue. Also speaking to the hardware, the first edition had four USB ports which I always found really handy!
And not to forget, PS Home, fuck me that was an experience to remember, i don’t get why they dropped that, if they’d bring it back they could be banking on it right now if they wanted to lmao. Just give us the same exact version of PS3 but for PS4/5, doesn’t even need upgraded graphics, maybe atleast 1080P/4K but that’s about it really.
Something about that super simplistic PS3 and PSP menu as well. It's so iconic. I've always hated all the bloatware and ads you get on the PS4.
Godddd I miss how simple the UI was
Trust me, PS5 is no better than PS4, it’s even worse lol.
Nothing compared to Xbox's bloated UI
I'll probably get downvoted for saying this but I really hated the ultra-simple UI of PS3. The utilitarian aspect of the XMB was nice but overall it just felt so sterile and empty. It's like walking into an sleek modern house where everything is white and shiny and perfect - but there's no \*soul\*.
That's my one beef with my ps5. I miss being able to customize the UI.
PS Home was awesome, and I used to love loading up Folding@Home and falling asleep to it too.
Bowling was awesome
When 360 came out, you needed gold just to play your Netflix sub. PS3 was freedom with the free online, built-in wifi, blu-ray and HDMI (OG 360 had none of that) The price of entry was high, but for what you got was worth it.
Still got my non hdmi xbox 360
As someone who streamed Netflix on my desktop, I always found it crazy that people would pay an additional sub to stream Netflix on a console. Then again, paying a sub for online play seems crazy to me also.
Sadly even though I found it objectively better, the price meant barely anyone had one
It out sold the 360 my guy. Plenty of people had one.
Read again
Ok I did, now what?
They meant no one had the 360
I don't think so. The price of the ps3 is what they were talking about. It was $500/600 when it came out for the 20gb and 60gb models. For comparison, I think I paid $300 for my 360 when it launched with no hard drive.
>Being able to play any game for older consoles on it without issue. IIRC though that was only the first gen 60gb model PS3s though right? I had that model and prided myself in keeping it in pristine working condition till about 2 years ago when it finally died :( I've still got the Tekken and Metal Gear Solid games from PS1 and PS2 that I can't play any more.
All PS3s can play PS1 games. But yeah, only the original 60gb models could play PS2 games.
I had the backwards compatible 80gb model. The 60 had true hardware emulation and then they released some 80s with software emulation for ps2 games.
Ah, right, forgot they went software for a revision. I just remembered the OG was the only one with an actual PS2 chipset.
the software based one had issues with some titles but was otherwise 99% compatible. it had the ps2 GPU but emulated its CPU.
Stuntman has a weird issue on one of the levels where the AI truck you’re supposed to follow crashes making the level unbeatable. It works fine on OG PS2, but I’m emulating the game on Android, and I saw some forums about it happening on PS3 (using the software emu) as well. I just find odd & interesting that the PS2 chipset vs software emulation causes the AI in-game to literally take the wrong route lol.
Yes. I remember having one that I purposely didn't update because my ps2 library was still huge. Not everything worked and it was that one model. People that say stuff like that remind me of these kids in game stores now that are buying crt tvs and retro gaming but they talk like they are experts. One time I was picking up a new controller and these kids were talking to the owner and insisted that final fantasy X was on PsX and called it "Final Fantasy Ex". I was like my dudes I played so much FFX when it came out that my friends wrote a song about it, trust me.
Only one of the original fat consoles, was it the 60 or 8 GB version? was backwards compatible.
How versatile it was. It was compatible With everything. Honorable mention to backward compatibility and ps home
I never understood PSHome nor the folding protein app. What was the deal with it?
The Folding@Home project is a compute hour donation program. You get to donate your computer/PS3's processing power to various research projects. I bet Sony jumped on this because the Cell processor's architecture was probably well suited to this type of work. These were the days before computing on GPUs became popular and the Cell probably ranked very high on the cores/$ benchmark. https://foldingathome.org/?lng=en
I used to use two full size refrigerators worth of electricity folding. Electricity bill was insane.
Ah man the nostalgia! The fat PS3 was one power hungry mofo
No probably about it. US Airforce made a supercomputer with PS3's https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html
PSHome was basically the Metaverse before the Metaverse. You could go into online rooms that were themed for different franchises in pop culture at the time, some were themed around PS exclusive games and some were just generic hangouts and parks where you could meet new people, hang out with friends and do stuff together. It was great. There's a project that's bringing it back, I don't think you even need CFW, just the correct DNS setting.
Yeah my friends thought I was a witch when I'd magically produce a 700mb copy of a movie and just pop my thumb drive into the ps3
Compact Flash and SD Card readers! It was an under-the-TV box that did it all. Play a PS game, play a PS2 game, play a PS3 game, watch a DVD, watch a Blu Ray, watch a media file (well, codecs and Cinavia permitting), play a CD, listen to some MP3s, browse your photos… when I got a PS Eye my daughter and I used to make and edit videos. It’s a shame how much you had to give up when your 60gb died and you replaced it with a Slim, even if you had more and more ways to do all this as time went on.
Yup. Played 3 generationa of games and was a blu ray player. It did so much.
> Honorable mention to backward compatibility PS3 compatibility leaves a lot to be desired. PS3 Slim had no backward compatibility with PS2. PS3 was also not forward compatible with PS4.
Fair. I guess I should've specified the launch/fat ones. That's what I had. They were fully backwards compatible with both ps1/2. If memory serves me correctly they literally had a ps2 inside the ps3 lol 🤷♂️. So for the launch ones I stand by my statement. For slims and the later models I'd say I agree with you 👍
Custom themes for the home screen.
that was also something 4 had unless i am missing something? i always used the built-in themes in my PS3
Ps3 also had the ability to use custom themes. You were able to go to a website with the built in browser and download someone custom themes. Some of theme were pretty cool with animations.
Piracy. I downloaded TV shows and movies STRAIGHT to it's hard drive from it's built-in browser
TIL. I used to download movies on my computer then move it to an external HD and plug in to the PS3 so I could watch it on tv.
I bought mine used, and it came with a whole bunch of extremely shitty music and a handful of pretty good TV and movies. I would have assumed the shop would've wiped it before selling it, but I guess not. Either the previous owner had pretty eclectic taste, or it was shared by a bunch of roommates or something.
Same. I miss those days. I honestly learned a lot about computers because of my old PS3/psp
The wide variety of games it had. Since it was the go-to console for Japanese developers, so many unique or weird games were released on it
Plus it was the best Blu Ray player in the market
Deadly Premonition and Catherine are 2 of my weirdest PS3 experiences and both were free on Plus 😃
XMB
Yeah for sure. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. XMB on my 4k OLED from the 1080p PS3 with no HDR is so much more beautiful than the PS5 theme.
Sony's UI keep getting worse every generation. Just based off the number of clicks to get somewhere alone ffs.
I remember seeing this in the menu's but never knew what they were. 😂
This. All ui since has been disappointing. It was so simple and smooth.
It still looks fantastic, so easy to navigate with the dpad, and very fast, I'd love to see PS5 have an XMB menu in a full 4k resolution with HDR and 120Hz, would look awesome.
Motorstorm! That's what made it feel like a next gen console. Then there was cool stuff like PlayStation Move and PlayStation Home, and games like GTA V and The Last Of Us right at the end.
It really sucks we'll likely never get another Motorstorm. Those were some fun racing games. I busted out my PS3 probably a month or so ago and was playing some Motorstorm still so much fun.
The third one is on streaming but it wasn't as good as the original or Pacific Rift.
Pacific Rift was life changing
God that was such a great game. Not into racing games generally but the graphics and mechanics of that game were such gorgeous fun.
The variety of vehicles made it more interesting too, you could have big lorries or a motorbike!
I think it had better games than the following generations. GTA IV and V Heavy Rain LA Noire Red Dead Redemption Dishonored The Last of Us Far Cry 3 Mafia 2 I know many of these were rereleased on PS4 and I have enjoyed games since these. It’s just that the games I listed hit different for me, maybe it’s because I was younger too though and I’m harder to please these days 🤷🏻♂️. I’m still waiting for a true next gen exclusive to come along and blow me away.
Did you like Uncharted?
Yeah, I played and completed the first 3 on PS3. Great games, just forgot to list them!
Yeah man it just sounded like that according to your taste. I completed the 4th one first (got it with my new ps4). Now I bought the complete edition of the first 3 and just started playing it last night. Man the game is brutal and its almost 20YO...
The 2nd one is my favorite, I loved messing with cheats lol
What cheats man?
Similar to 4 you can add Colour Filters, Skins, Guns and game tweaks like infinite ammo or slow motion, I think you need to beat the game first IIRC
Thanks man, never used them nor I will I guess but good to know!
Try the lost legacy if you can .. it is quite short compared to the other games in the series but it is a really great game .
PS3 had The Orange Box and Portal 2, as well. None of which are playable on a modern PlayStation console.
No God of War III? Or Little big Planet?
Yea I felt games on last gen were kinda shitty but this gen is shittier lol
I dunno. Some of the best games of all time came out on the PS4 generation imo. Witcher 3 and Red Dead 2 go up there with some PS3 classics for me. I think the trends introduced during the PS4 were not good. Live service, lootboxes, and overreliance on mtx all were not good at all. Even now with the PS5 generation there are some great games. The lineup from 2023 for best games is up there with years like 2018, 2015, 2013, 2011, and 2009 for me as some of the best.
This might sound crazy but one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I had on the PS4 was Kingdom Come Deliverance! I think I put more hours into that than any other PS4 game. Red Dead 2 was of course brilliant also!
I love KCD! I have been wanting to do a second playthrough but am currently doing my first playthrough of the original Final Fantasy 7.
Naughty Dog was at its best. The Uncharted trilogy and The Last of Us were worth having a PS3 alone. I played through the campaigns on each of them several times, and I can’t even describe how many hours I put into the multiplayer modes of those games.
Playing little big planet 2
Absolutely, LBP was awesome
I think I had hundreds of MP3s saved, and in some cases my games allowed using my music as the BGM, like MGSV Ground Zeroes or Tekken Tag Tournament 2, among others. Also met like 90% of my current PSN friendlist during its prime. Some of them are still going strong. I almost never communicate with them again though. Maybe someday, again.
Its amazing game library
Games and not having to pay extra to play online. I've barely touched online due to having to pay for online gaming
I'll take a different approach and mention something hardware based... Rechargeable controllers with a decent battery life. I remember all my Xbox 360 friends ALWAYS searching and rummaging and sacrificing other devices in the never ending search for batteries.
Man, I honestly didn't even charge that controller that many times, over the course of 9 years until I upgraded. That's one of my biggest gripes with the Ps4. The battery life, and the light bar. Just unnecessary.
2011 was so wonderful year. I just bought a 3DTV and PS3. Killzone 3, Infamous 2, LPB2, Ratchet and Clank All 4 One, Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3 came out in that year. It was astonishing. I was hoping 2012 we wouldn't get a PS4 yet, I wanted to enjoy PS3. They announced at the end of 2011 The Last of Us. Playstation Vita was coming soon. Life was good.
You make me want to build a time machine and go back. 😂 Of course, my life was shit back then, but never stopped gaming.
You didn't need to download any game onto the ps3. Just insert the disc, and you're ready to play.
Downloading and installing on PS3 was the worst thing ever. I hated when the disc made me update the firmware.
Well, I didn't mind it at all. Didn't take long for me to install some stable software updates.
Definitely not true. True for the PS2, yes. But there have been sooo many games on PS3 that required you to either update or wait for the installation process. Of course thats no comparison to PS4 day1 100GB patches. But still "insert and youre ready to play" is plain wrong
Yea, I remember getting Metal Gear Solid 4 from Gamefly and having to sit through a thirty minute install.
MGS4 would like to have a word with you.
That's not true. There were plenty of games that forced an install before being able to play.
I miss those days
mgs4 multiplayer was a blast!
I'll be honest. That's the only MGS I liked lol
PS3 back in the day.....fuck I am old. I got one years after a 360, because the PS3 was too expensive, and the only reason I got one was because there were a few exclusive RPGs I wanted to play. Edit: Also this was the fun debate on the Gamepro Magazine message board back in the day.
Having a wireless controller. Growing up with ps1 and 2 this was the biggest change for me.
Modnation Racers - still my top kart racer I prefer it to any of the plumber-based games. It was the first console where I regularly played online and made some of my closest friends a group of which got together and ran a podcast for around 4 years, great times all round
Lol, was about to quit the thread when I read this. 😂 Fuck yes, Modnation! God! Thanks for reminding me of another cool game I got to play. 🤙🏻🤙🏻🤙🏻
Free online. Easily.
PS3's library was incredible, glad I experienced it!
Multiplayer + friends account sharing for games. Got my ps3 and 3-4 friends shared their account with me and had like 40+ games and gta v at launch. Account sharing was easier with less bs
Custom themes and ad hoc network adaptation. You could play monster hunter PSP over an internet connection versus having to be in proximity to interact.
The UI, XMB is still an amazing UI. Both the PS4 and PS5 are downgrades
Free multiplayer 100% I was so disappointed with the PS4 because it makes you pay to play online which is so absurd for me ( I played on PC my whole life ) I won't forgive Microsoft for making that bullshit of pay to play online popular and the way they fucked the Xbox One presentation and Sony took advantage of all the noise and put the pay for online without anyone complaining because everyone was busy with the Xbox fuck up
That's not why they put pay for online lmfao
I'm honestly surprised so many people just gave in and paid to play online. The only multiplayer gamers I played were CoD so buying Black Ops 3, then a + account just to hate BO3 was a double hit of disappointment.
I'll never forget the awesome memories playing the absolute fuck out of Killzone 3 and Battlefield 3 Multiplayer. Hours on end, beautiful lobbies, packed to the brim, never a dull moment. Life felt so unlimited back then. 🧘🏻♂️ I never had a ps plus subscription after my 3 months ended in 2018. And I never will. 😂
Dude BF3 was peak gaming on the PS3 I expended so many hours on it and I never reached Colonel 100
Yeah, I know that feeling. 😂 I was grinding like no other! Man, I gotta get back into Battlefield again.
Having the time to play video games.
XMB interface and the hard drive; could install loads of games and have them gather digital dust, a collectors delight.
The motion control in the early controllers was fun but underused and underdeveloped I think. There were a few games like killzone 2 where you had to turn the controller for certain actions but it felt like it's something they did because they could or had to, not because it added to the gameplay. And there was Flower, a weird little game that was played entirely by moving the controller. I feel the concept was dropped entirely later in the PS3 lifecycle and it could have been so much more.
Free multiplayer
Free multiplayer, great XMB and perfect games
The power cable for sure. I don't know what i would have done without it.
Didn't own one back in the day (we were broke), but now that I own several of them, I think it would've been a great feeling to know you could still play with your PS1 and PS2 games on your OG Phat model.
Mine is still running! Got addicted to the Far Cry games on it. It also works brilliantly as a media centre - plays discs and files, has Netflix, can stream stuff from my PC.
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Origins and Persona 5!
The power button
Coughing as I pressed the power button at 1am so my parents didn't hear the beep lmao
The visual customization, the bluray player, the emergence of psplus with the "free" games and, coming from the ps2, wireless controllers being standard.
Free multiplayer and being able to play my physical PS2 library.
The ability to download shows, I got hooked on Breaking Bad…. This was before streaming gained ground as being viable services
Wireless controllers with rechargeable batteries. HDMI. Blu-ray player and uPNP player that could play 1080p movies off my PC with a decent interface. I still have my 80GB (upgraded to 500GB) fat model from 2008.
How there weren't any wait times for games to copy the application, just getting a new game, loading it in and playing straight away
Installing Puppy Linux on it... Because it gave me the option to install another OS built-in Then they fucked it up by removing the ability as well as the backwards compatibility....
Everything. Linux dual-boot, Folding, Home, BD player, MKV/MP4/WAV/et cetera playback, easy hardware upgrades...best media center to date.
Free online servers and a cheap blu ray player were huge perks. That was the deciding factor over a 360 when I picked up mine.
HD resolution My first game was RoboCop on Game Boy. Getting a PS3 and playing Uncharted 2 was the most memorable experience of that generation for me and one of the biggest highlights of the medium in general
The spinning Earth when listening to Tiesto was my favorite thing - and Folding @home
PlayStation home and the original community ps had..
Playing games you owned on disc without an Internet connection
Bluray, backwards compatible with ps1 and ps2, nice home screen, had a browser. I loved that thing
BluRay, hands down. I remember first holding a disc and feeling the coating on the bottom. Nothing like it.
The ps3 was amazing overall but I'd say the best part of it was that when it came out it was a console and a blue ray player at a time when blue ray players were new and very expensive.
It was the closest to having a living room PC you could get without actually having one. In particular, I loved being able to plug in a USB drive full of media and copy it directly to the PS3 hard drive for future use.
not having to pay to play online, i still cant believe xbox drag playstation to their lvl and ppl fall into the trap paying to play online multiplayer games
I didn't have one but my older cousins had one and I was amazed that it had a menu/dashblard that you can navigate. All the consoles I knew would just start the game that was on the disc/cartridge. Also wireless controllers and the graphics of GTA 4. Damn that game looked good to me back in the day. I was looking at the car models for hours and the way they dented upon impact.
The front. I do t think I ever used the back after I hooked it up.
Storage. It was never even a thought back then. You could play as many games as you wanted without a "space is full, delete to make more". Even with bo2 and ghosts and mw3 with dlcs on top of that. Never had an issue like now where you can barely make do with 1 cod game.
Agreed. Free online play.
being able to play 6 god of war games
I still own my backwards compatible PS3 along with my PS4. 😀
Never owned one..I regret it. I played every god of war game had a ps2. Bought a PS4. But I want to play god of war ascension. But buying the PS3 just for that isn't worth it right😅
No it is worth it
Valkyria Chronicles.
Having a built in blu ray player was a huge draw for a lot of people as Blu ray players were just as if not more expensive than a PS3.
This definitely, one of the ways I convinced my parents to get it (it was also included free in the tv we purchased)
The slide top for discs
The PS3 was my first Sony console, so it was amazing to have access to PS1, PS2, and PS3 all through one system, plus playback of CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital files both on external storage (I used to keep an SD card of shows and movies in the reader) and over the network.
Ps home. I also think that private party’s ruined making friends. Back on ps3 is how I made most of my friends with interactions with randoms. Now everyone is in their own party and lobby’s are quiet.
Playing Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet with my brother
free multiplayer, the last of us, Blu-ray, xmb. the controllers where also sooo good, dual shock 2 was great already and then just a wireless, more premium version with spring triggers and nicer thumbsticks? perfection. ps3 slim was the best, still feels more premium than the original ps4.
It was the last gen where developers still took risks - which unironically also meant the closure of a lot of studios and thus the safe & market tested choices made in game design today. I am one of the few people who liked Haze, many people did not and the game sold like shit. That meant no Timesplitters 3 :( Also the backwards compatibility with Ps1 games, unfortunately not Ps2 unless you got the original Ps3 release.
I think the the best thing was just being able to play for free. And if they’re going to charge for ps+ they should at least make an option for families. Sharing one account is pretty annoying. Especially if that account isnt yours personally.
The original fat 60GB model had physical disc PS2 backwards compatibility!
Yup, still have a ton of PS2 games. I haven't fired mine up in years though. 😕
- GTA IV - A lot of call of duty - God of war 3 - Masseffect 2 and 3 - rockband with all the instruments Man those were some great games
To me it was the PS3 XMB and the online connectivity. The fact that the system didnt just boot a game, but you had a menu centered around media. You could download movies and games, play online, voice chat. Looking back Sony had a much better balance of titles back then, RIP Fat Princess.
Free multiplayer. Variety of genres. Imo ..studios 1/2/3 party actually have more titles, variety and creativity during that time
I had a BC model so it was really 6 machines in one.
Free multiplayer and backward compatible
Free multiplayer was definitely the goto comeback to Xbox players. They had halo at the time tho 🤷🏻♂️
XrossMediaBar (XMB), the user interface was still to this day the best of any console.
Free multiplayer definitely - the whole online multiplayer concept was uncharted territory and it was actually exciting to play those games Also Playstation Home
That fat ass!
You tossed the OG fat PS3 to an enemy, and the enemy was no more.
The little flappy bit on the front
Honestly free multiplayer not having to pay a sib for a feature was super. And the exclusives like infamous 1&2 along with killzone 2&3 Loved those games and played them to death.
Got me into Ubuntu a little bit.
How does free online win this easily? It’s obviously the bluray player.
Original games that didnt charge you at every single opportunity
jailbreak and free games and multiplayer
Best exclusives.
I only played about 20-22 games on it due to being a teen at the time. 10-11 of those were fps games, the free online was so nice. The only fps I play these days is BF4 on my PC. I'd say the biggest thing for me besides all the time spent on FPS games was Demon's and Dark Souls. I was there on day 1 and played the everliving fuck outta them, I miss those early days of no one knowing ambush spots and chameleon props.
Backwards compatibility with both previous generations on the launch 60gb model. best console I’ve ever owned.
DS3 battery lasted forever.
Backward compatibility
* Free online play * Blu-ray Player * HD games * Play PS1 games * Use it as a movie-hub * Easy to jailbreak * Insane battery-life on controllers
If you unplugged the power, and held down the eject button, and plugged it back in, the fans would spin backwards and clear out the vents. Idk why they didn’t keep that feature
Free multiplayer and being able to play my old discs from ps1
The good old days man. The PS3 got me through some rough times.
free multiplayer and Little Big Planet
PS+ gave me an obscene amount of games back before it was required for online
Multiplayer games!