Hamster's top 15 PS3 games

[Kaney]

The motion capture, animation and all cut scene stuff in general in Heavenly Sword were fucking incredible. Still some of the best mocap I've seen, bettered only by LA Noire. The massive cuntstain of a final boss ruins any chance of me every playing this game ever again though.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Singstar

Yeah yeah, I love a game that's aimed at pre-pubescent girls and drunken students. I even got into it BEFORE moving to Japan and the whole land of karaoke. My singing is okay (normally 85,000 - 92,000 out of 100,000) points on standard level but the best thing is the choice of songs to buy and download. They've got over 1400 now I believe and I've spent SOOO much money on this game creating a personal collection of tracks including groups like Blur, Queens of the Stone Age, Eels, Radiohead, Ash, Pulp, Clash, Kinks....Mmm all my favourite groups. Also if we have friends over and the evening finishes late and drunken then the game always ends up going on and we play some party mode (with loads of pass the mic mid-song modes or mini medleys to keep things fun).

I'm not even bothering with the dance or guitar stuff though but Singstar is a great implementation of top entertainment. It also helps that they've got all the official videos to watch as you sing along.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

L.A. Noire

For all the cheap sex jokes, drugs and titties of Grand Theft Auto and even after the rough and tough Wild West life of Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire is, in my mind, Rockstar's most grown up game. Working for the police and solving crimes is actually a great theme and the post-WWII setting around Los Angeles is so well realised. If even throws in great touches like letting your partner drive so you can skip to location (less annoying than finding a taxi or whatever in GTA). The crimes start easy but get deeper and more involved and there's a real sense of emotion as you go through the crimes - I felt it big time when I was questioning the left wing party leader and the bowling alley attendant who were both accused of the same murder...And also the paedo guy in an earlier mission. It's gripping stuff and tells a series of excellent stories.

Oh and you may have heard that the motion capture and face work is INCREDIBLE. It needs to be because you're spending a lot of time trying to read the faces of those you're interviewing.

As I get older, I kind of get bored of shooty shooty games and games that are trying to hard to be "grown up". L.A. Noire achieves it by downplaying it all and just showing the grittiness and consequences of actions.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

I think we're now entering the "no surprises" run in of my favourite games. These next two are really close to the top five games and are excellent in their own right.

When Assassin's Creed first game out I bought into it big time. I was working at Gamestation at the time and we got all the promo t-shirts (with cool hoods) to wear around the place. A number of us got it on release and at that time it really was unique. Nothing had done that kind of blend of fighting and "free running" in quite the same way or as successfully. Altair was a great lead character, the Crusades period was a great setting and the central gameplay was fantastic - find your target, get close to him without being spotted, kill him, escape.

Of course, with Assassin's Creed 2 it was all refined - more ways to avoid detection, more side missions, more stuff to do and buy, more to find, more fluid climbing and fighting, MORE MORE MORE. Brotherhood is kind of an expansion on that with the iconic Rome, even more shops and side missions and a few tweaks here and there. Add to that more chance to run around as Desmond (which was cool) and of course the excellent multiplayer which worked approximately 23 times better than I hoped.

Roll on the next in the series.

[Liam]

LA Noire is boring and the Assasin's Creed games are over-rated.

See, told you, awful choices >_>

[TCO]

LA Noire is boring and the Assasin's Creed games are over-rated.

I'll agree with you on LA Noire and Assasain's Creed 1 being over-rated.

But AC2 and Brotherhood over-rated? Come on!

They improved on the first one so much it's astounding and I really can't see how they're over-rated at all. The game mechanics are perfect and the missions are vast with a nice variety. The premise to the game is also one of the most unique ever to be seen in a game. It's impossible not get caught up in Ezio's story, the atmosphere, setting and dialogue are perfect. Speaking of which, Ezio has got to be the most badass protagonist ever in my books. Watching the trailer for Revelations gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it, that's how good the series is and how attached I've grown to Ezio.

[Noah]

Also, Chris Redfield is probably my second favourite video game character and so having him back into a Resident Evil game is beautiful.

Chris Redfield wasn't even the second best Resident Evil character.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Also, Chris Redfield is probably my second favourite video game character and so having him back into a Resident Evil game is beautiful.

Chris Redfield wasn't even the second best Resident Evil character.

Shut up.

[Liam]

LA Noire is boring and the Assasin's Creed games are over-rated.

I'll agree with you on LA Noire and Assasain's Creed 1 being over-rated.

But AC2 and Brotherhood over-rated? Come on!

They improved on the first one so much it's astounding and I really can't see how they're over-rated at all. The game mechanics are perfect and the missions are vast with a nice variety. The premise to the game is also one of the most unique ever to be seen in a game. It's impossible not get caught up in Ezio's story, the atmosphere, setting and dialogue are perfect. Speaking of which, Ezio has got to be the most badass protagonist ever in my books. Watching the trailer for Revelations gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it, that's how good the series is and how attached I've grown to Ezio.

I just don't like the gameplay. I've played AC1 and gave AC2 a chance, but it just really didn't work for me. Unless they did something amazing wiht Brotherhood, I don't feel inclinced to check it out.

The games remind me a bit of the Infamous games (which admittedly, I like a bit more). They are good enough, but they just lack something for me which makes them something truly special. The difference being that people don't pimp Infamous or Infamous 2 as being anything overly special, whilst people cream their pants over AC.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Uncharted 2

Now THIS is a great game. It's also a great sequel. They took all the good stuff from the first game, dropped the bad (avoided weird enemies that cropped up towards the end off number 1) and added so much good stuff - some amazing new settings, cut scenes, moments of excitement, plenty of thrills, a top quality British character with some of the best lines in the game AND Claudia Black (I know which of the lasses I'd have chosen - but turns out she's back for number 3!)

The game looks beautiful, has a real movie feel to it and characters that are flawed and totally likeable. The plot is tight and well scripted and it's just loads of fun. The platform jumping is done well, the fighting is great (although perhaps still a little formulaic in the whole "ahhh, I'm entering a wide open area...at some point I'll trip the invisible 'here come the bad guys' tripwire".

Still lush though and one of the very best PS3 exclusives.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

So that's 10th to 6th:

Race Driver: Grid

Singstar

L.A. Noire

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Uncharted 2

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

5th-1st

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

It's vast, it's beautiful, it's full of stuff to do, it's a good balance of RPG and fighty fighty game, it's got Sean Bean. It's epic and I put 200 hours into it and didn't get anywhere near the end (I was doing all the side quests). If Skyrim is indeed going to be even better then I may never stop playing it.

Oh and as a rule I don't really like "fantasy" games with orcs, elves, wizards etc.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Metal Gear Solid 4

I had to get these two out of the way first as they're the two I'm probably most vocal about.

I love the Metal Gear Solid series and the other games floating around them (like the Acid games). Solid/Old Snake is probably my favourite video game character and I'm fine with cutscenes as long as they're interesting and progress the story (which is just as well when it comes to MGS).

What I like the most in the games is that they'll offer a variety of unique or interesting set pieces. In MGS, to get past the wolves you'd crawl in a box and wait for a wolf to urinate on it so that the other wolves would be ok with the smell. In MGS3 you've got the Sniper Battle with The End and you've got the "battle" with The Sorrow. In MGS4 you've got the two sides fighting eachother with your mission going on in the middle, some interesting infiltration into camps, you've got hiding as a statue, the Octocamo, stun knives, rolling in the barrels, the remote control Metal Gear camera...And THEN you realise that every single screenshot that was released for magazine reviews was just from the first location! You've got the noirish mission, the return to Shadow Moses (which did indeed almost lead to a creamy fapfap moment with the MGS1 flashback and then the graphical beauty of the blizzard). You've got Raiden turning out to be a good character and you've got the frankly epic last mission along with all the cut-screen action.

I think it's a truly masterful game and, yes, it's the best of the series for me. It ties things up well, is a real tear jerker and you do end up holding out for a happy Hollywood ending.

Do the bosses stand up to previous MGS bosses? Probably not any except the last one but their stories are pretty harrowing and a couple of the fights are quite haunting.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Mirror's Edge

Yes there were a few levels that were a bit tight and fiddly but on the whole, Mirror's Edge was a triumph for me. I think most reviews for the game were "wow, this is a great idea and NEARLY there but not quite" but I love it. It's so visceral. Running through a corridor, smashing through the door out onto a rooftop. A police helicopter starts firing at you as you jump across onto another roof, a door crashes open next to you as armed police pour out. Bullets flying around you but you've just got to get under that pipe, jump over the gap and kick through the door and you're safe...for now.

Man. There are some great moments in this. It feels really smooth and the controls MAKE SENSE. They add to the game and don't hinder it. Also I really appreciate the graphics - the clean and crisp whites, reds, blues, bright greens and yellows...It's a great change from the usual murky browns that video game world ™ is made with. Lush soundtrack too and the time trial play mode is surprisingly addictive as you try to shave a few tenths of a second off your best time through a chunk of a level.

If a second does indeed make it out then I'm all over it like a cheap suit. I just hope continues in the same vein as this one in that it encourages disarming police and trying to outrun them rather than machine-gunning them.

[Clawson]

Your first Uncharted 2 screenshot is from the first game.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Bonus points for you. "Serves-you-right" points for not properly paying attention for me.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Just loaded up Grid for the first time in a while and had totally forgotten that the intro music is an UNKLE remix of Queens of the Stone Age.

[OctoberRaven]

You lost me at "Raiden turning out to be a good character".

[MalaCloudy Black]

Except but he did.

Also, man, Mirror's Edge above Uncharted 2? Fo' realsies? This is coming from someone who likes Mirror's Edge.

[OctoberRaven]

So, he went from whiny bitch to whiny bitch with prehensile feet. Doesn't change that I was hoping he'd be shot in the face every time he was on screen. He's the Scrappy Doo of MGS.