Best PS3 Games to Try in 2023

The PS3, released in 2006, has a collection of some of the best games ever created. Many of the games on this list have been named the best games of the year, thanks to the powerful HD output of the console.

Sony's PS3 generation was defined by cutting-edge hardware, incredible entertainment options, and an unrivaled game library, which made it more popular among others in the competition.

The PS3 is the seventh-best-selling console of all time, with over 87 million units sold. It's still a significant player in the gaming world, and now that the servers for almost all of its games have been shut down, it's officially a retro console.

It represented a significant advancement in video game engineering. There are approximately 2561 titles available for the console. We curated the Best PS3 games from a large selection for all PS lineup fans. This includes 25 of the most popular and best PlayStation 3 games.

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25 Best PS3 Games

Check out the list of this best PS3 games for you.

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Tokyo Jungle

Tokyo Jungle is easily overlooked because it has low-quality visuals, including fuzzy textures and blocky models. Of course, visuals aren't why anyone would play Tokyo Jungle; the game's main draw is the chance to lead a canine army against a lion.

It's a game where you put on ridiculous hats for a giraffe. If you're looking for a roguelike that will have you coming back for more as you explore an abandoned city in search of food and mates for your species, go no further than Tokyo Jungle. The gameplay is straightforward, and there are a lot of unlocked creatures, so you'll pick it up quickly, but you'll always be looking for more.

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LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2 encourages player creativity and imagination like no other console game (maybe except Minecraft). The user-content creation tools in the first game were a revolutionary step forward in player freedom; in the sequel, these options have been refined and expanded to allow you to create new levels and new stories, worlds, and games. 

The things that members of the community have done are incredible. To judge LittleBigPlanet 2 solely based on its lack of a complex platforming system is like dismissing War and Peace because you don't like the font it's printed in, even though the game is still a tonne of fun. It's no exaggeration to say that this is among the best PlayStation games ever.

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Arkham City, Batman

What could be done to improve the most excellent superhero video game of all time? You pile on more of it and then place it all in one of the most impressive open-world cities in gaming history.

Rocksteady's section of quarantined Gotham is one of the most striking, moving, and entirely purposeful environments seen in a generation because the studio wisely prioritized fidelity, personality, and meaningful design over a massive scale. Arkham City's structure is an equally grand victory in gameplay and aesthetics, allowing the first game's empowering yet perfectly balanced mechanics to fly.

Equally important, it never overpowers or takes away from the elements that make Arkham Asylum great. Everything is still grounded in the same superb combination of challenging, thrilling, almost musical combat and the intelligent, creative sandbox stealth that has always been the game's hallmark.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developed by Eidos Montreal, is a miracle: a fully realized, multifaceted, and player-driven action role-playing game in which autonomy, originality, and player agency permeate every facet of the experience.

What makes DE: HR's ability to provide such a flexible experience while still feeling like a whole game even more impressive is that it can be transformed into any game. No matter what you decide for your character, you'll be sucked into the game's intricate plot of a global conspiracy and philosophical tension because the world-building is so seamless and realistic.

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Burnout Paradise

The release of Burnout Paradise on multiple platforms marked the beginning of the Xbox 360's dominance in multiplatform gaming. But not like this. Burnout Paradise on the PS3 still looks incredible, and Criterion Games consistently delivered stunning PS2 performances.

The game also reworked the Burnout formula by including both urban and rural environments for racing. But there are so many fun things to do that this is superior to EA's recent Need for Speed games.

It's the little things, like trying to park your car with a handbrake turn (it gives you a grade for this) or jumping off a cliff without wrecking your vehicle. The few structural issues with the original release have been patched out thanks to downloadable content, making this a true Burnout paradise. Also, the music is fantastic.

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Modern Warfare 4

Regardless of how you feel about Call of Duty now, you can't deny that Modern Warfare marked a significant turning point in the history of video games. It breathed new life into the stale first-person shooter genre and elevated Call of Duty from an OK shooter to an OMG shooter. 

It also established a new standard for online multiplayer games and gave players an incredible, 8-hour rollercoaster of a story that has rarely been matched. Moments like the ghillie suit scene, the opening of the tanker, and the climax are just a few of the many that make Modern Warfare a classic.

And you won't believe this, but it holds up surprisingly well after all these years. This stands in contrast to the subsequent Call of Duty games, which have tried to improve Modern Warfare by making the action more extensive and more spectacular, and instead present the game as an example of minimalist, streamlined fun.

There's no filler, just eight hours of flawless first-person shooter action that stands head and shoulders above the competition.

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Metal Gear Solid 4: Patriots' Guns

Old Snake may not be as supple as he once was and snarls at you even more frequently, but he still has it where it counts. Just as MGS2 was for PS2, MGS4 was a technical showcase for PS4. But most importantly, it uses technical progress to enhance the gameplay. The camouflage suit is enjoyable and valuable in high-stakes stealth situations.

Though the story's complexity and cinematic qualities (especially the lengthy cutscenes) have been criticized, the game's cast of memorable characters and formidable bosses have not, nor has the dramatic payoff. This would be much higher on the list if one scene had a different outcome. A must-have if you own a PlayStation 3.

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Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 is one of the few games to feature such a sickening predicament. You're torn between the game's allure and the constant fear that something dreadful is following your every move as you explore the beautifully broken Sprawl. 

DS2 is scarier and more potent in its combat than the original. The terrors are still present, but Isaac has grown stronger and is better equipped to fight back. Although this lessens the game's signature feeling of helplessness, it makes Dead Space 2 a complete experience. 

In addition, the Necromorphs in this sequel are genuine atrocities; they are the standard bearers for video game monsters and provide some legitimately terrifying moments that will ruin your pants.

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Journey

There is no talking, a straightforward story, no fighting, and no death. Is there any other game that offers a wide range of emotions, from the lowest to the highest of highs? Journey, developed by Thatgamecompany, is an absolute masterpiece of abstract storytelling, dynamic gameplay, and stunning world design. 

Journey's freeform exploration and platform puzzles are fascinating in their own right. Still, the game's visuals, sound design, and even the feel of control have all been painstakingly crafted to convey profound and moving meaning at every turn.

In addition, the game's anonymous co-operative multiplayer mode will make you feel closer to a virtual stranger than ever before.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of the best-value PS3 games because it provides an experience that is as thrilling, cerebrally satisfying, and emotionally engaging as any AAA epic, all without breaking the bank. All of this occurs outside of any semblance of actual time.

The game's turn-based squad-shooting mechanics are easy enough for a complete strategy newbie to pick up right away, but once you've mastered them, they unlock a wealth of strategic depth.

While the game may look and feel like a board game, its skirmishes and ground wars unfold with the kind of emergent set pieces and skin-of-the-teeth standoffs you'd expect to see in real-time Hollywood blockbusters. It'll take 20 minutes to get the hang of, but it'll keep you up late for months—a real treasure.

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Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order starts with a roaring sense of fury and determination. There has never been any attempt at nuance in this series, and this installment is no exception; you're still BJ Blazkowicz, the Nazi Hunter Supreme, and very good at what you do.

The team at MachineGames does an excellent job of examining the human cost of endless war and soul-crushing fascism in what should be a mindless shooter.

The dual-wielding MP-40s and classic action draw you in, but the branching story and well-developed characters keep you playing. Furthermore, you will be able to kill Nazis on the moon.

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The Walking Dead

The following is worth noting: As one of the most overused tropes in horror games, zombies rarely succeed in eliciting genuine fear in the player. They are typically slow, meaty target practices.

However, The Walking Dead returns to the heart of what makes zombies and good horror generally moving: genuine, slow-burning human drama with profound emotional impact.

The Walking Dead features some of the best writing and acting in video games and some of the most painful, almost impossible moral decisions. You'll stress out over every conversation and decision, but you'll never be satisfied with the outcome. This is not a place where heroes appear. Simply the ones who are still alive at this point.

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Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter 4

The greatness of Street Fighter 4 can be discussed at length, and many aspects must be considered. There's a beautiful equilibrium between a wealth of content waiting to be discovered and a simplicity that makes it suitable for casual play.

The roster is perfectly balanced now with 39 fighters. Each of the world warriors has its unique play style and flow, and the combat animations and character designs have a great sense of humor. The Focus Attack/dash-cancel system is a nuanced and effective mechanism.

But the game's pure, unadulterated fun factor is often overlooked, and Street Fighter 4 deserves more credit. There's no denying it: this is the definitive fighting game of its generation.

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GTA 5

As the most significant change to the Grand Theft Auto formula since the series transitioned to 3D, GTA 5 completely overhauls the series by stripping away its traditional foundations and replacing them with something new and exciting.

The three-protagonist setup does more than shake up the character dynamics; it also creates subtle dramatic irony as the player manipulates the intertwining and diverging paths of three distinct plotlines.

That's not all, though; you can do whatever you want in Grand Theft Auto now, and it'll still make sense. With the introduction of Franklin, an innocent naif; Michael, a family man; and Trevor, a benevolent psychopath, the game's stunningly realized world can now accommodate a wide variety of play styles without sacrificing any of its realism.

Regarding that planet, No other open-world video game has ever had a vast, varied, cohesive, and utterly vibrantly responsive setting. For now, know that in terms of form, feel, and function, it's the closest games have come to recreating the real world, but it takes days, maybe weeks, of immersion to truly realize its nuances.

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Red Dead Redemption

Could you tell me if Red Dead is a better game than Grand Theft Auto 5? We barely made it! San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto 5 is a more complex world, but we ultimately favored Red Dead because of its more beautiful concept and plot.

Rarely do other games evoke such an incredible feeling of time and location. Its harsh environments are well suited to the story you'll be telling, a harrowing account of injustice and grief written by John Marsden and culminating in one of the most audacious and unforgettable conclusions to any video game ever.

Alright, enough with the lyricism; it's also nice to be an outlaw badass in the vein of Clint Eastwood. It's like an interactive Sergio Leone film, with the ability to shoot enraged cowboys, lasso criminals, and charge through the brush atop a horse.

The action sequences are lifted wholesale from the best old Westerns, and the score's quiet elegance perfectly matches the film's tone. All the pieces come together perfectly in Red Dead.

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BioShock

The release of BioShock on the PlayStation 3 was delayed, but was it ever worth the wait? It was the first AAA game that defined the previous generation. It set the bar so high in terms of gameplay depth, world-building, atmosphere, and narrative ambition that many studios spent the next seven years striving to reach it.

It is immediately apparent that BioShock is unlike anything that has come before it with its opening sequence, which remains unrivaled to this day.

That the relentless, ever-escalating RPG-shooter action never detracts from the plausibility and immersion of a world like Rapture is a massive accomplishment in and of itself. What a ridiculous display of egotism. The stirring strings and well-selected vintage recordings in the rousing score create a sonic environment where coherence and emotion reign supreme.

BioShock is as original and fully realized a vision as you'll find in gaming. It presents a world and plot unlike any other and fills both with action that's as thought-provoking as it is exhilarating.

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Uncharted 2

A game that better exemplifies the term "adventure game" than Uncharted 2. It has elements of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Lara Croft and is very cool. However, U3 ups the ante in set pieces; this second game is the finest in balancing action, puzzles, platforming, and humorous quips. 

Each actor is brilliantly cast in what is essentially a classic narrative of betrayal, violence, and romantic rivalry. More importantly, though, the entirety of the game is a blast to play. 

There is never a dull moment as you either zip line through the rooftops of the mountain village, avoid tank fire, or work through a challenging statue-based puzzle. Uncharted two never gets dull or repetitive because of the wide variety of its interactions and set pieces and the constant movement between visually breathtaking locations. 

While just a tiny fraction of Uncharted two players engage in the multiplayer option, every encounter provides plenty of fun. All of this comes together with a smooth control scheme and stunning visuals that continue to amaze even after four years.

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Mass Effect

There's just something about this sequel that makes it better than the original, even if Mass Effect 3 is technically the more polished game. It's just more magic. Every aspect of Mass Effect 2 is a pleasure to enjoy.

The story gets off to a daring beginning by quickly dispatching Shepard and tearing the Normandy to shreds. The rest is a story of redemption and renewal as you piece together a motley group of outcasts to embark on a daring suicide mission.

The overarching tale drives the action and gives structure, while individual characters' experiences aboard the Normandy (Mk2) evoke emotions. Which of Miranda and Jack do you support? Is Quarians or Geth? Will you save your team from collectors?

Who will you kill if you go through with the suicide mission? Many games let you make decisions, but not many put you in such an integral role in the story, giving weight to your natural choice.

All of this comes together to create a fantastic, self-contained story that brilliantly captures the emotional highs and lows of playing the hero. Even if the RPG/shooter mechanics are tight and enjoyable to experiment with, if the visuals are stunning, or if the game's scope is awe-inspiring, these aspects are secondary considerations.

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Portal 2

The original Portal squeezed every last drop of difficulty and challenged its puzzle mechanics in its short two-to-three-hour playtime. The sequel, Portal 2, masterfully expands upon these pillars, demonstrating that more is not necessarily better.

It has a much more substantial plot than the first, delving further into the history of Aperture Science, its unexplained experiments, and the outside world without ever feeling extraneous.

To overcome the obstacles posed by the goo's different colors, the player must often use their newfound mobility in conjunction with the environment. Because of Stephen Merchant's portrayal as Wheatley, your clumsy muppet of a guide who finds himself suddenly drunk on power, the film is also hilarious.

Combine it with some fantastic two-player co-op, and you have the makings of a game that will go down as one of the best sequels ever.

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Persona 5

While the PlayStation 4 version of Persona 5 received most of the attention in 2017, the PS3 version is still a perfectly acceptable method to experience one of the best JRPGs in recent memory.

It improves upon the tried-and-true premise of its predecessors by immersing players in the slick world of a typical Japanese high school student who, for no apparent reason, acquires the ability to defeat evil spirits.

In the Metaverse, an alternate reality superimposed on our own and ruled by the nefarious whims of some of Japan's most heinous citizens; you will go about your daily life, as usual, taking odd jobs, making new friends, and building relationships to gain special abilities that will aid you in combat.

What makes Persona 5 stand out is its plot, which seems to have been pulled straight from the headlines; its antagonists are based on real people in Japan, but despite cultural differences, they feel just as relevant to the present state of international politics as they would be in Japan. It's a fantastical tale of power that goes above and beyond what other games provide.

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Dark Souls

Ignore the cliches about Dark Souls' difficulty. True devotees understand that the difficulty level is a gateway to the game's unparalleled gratification in its player-to-player interactions and staggering richness. The universe of Dark Souls doesn't hold your hand and will kill you quickly and brutally for sloppy play, yet it does so out of goodwill.

Dark Soul's immaculate combat, astounding freedom, and deceptively intelligent level design ensure that there is always a way, no matter how impossible the situation may appear at first. Contrary to popular belief, the game is not a harsh taskmaster but one with faith and trust in the player.

It cares about your success and will lavish praise on you if you achieve it. In addition, it consistently provides the resources you need to succeed. You need to seek out the answers and figure them out for yourself.

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The Last of Us

The best PS3 game was released as the console's swan song, which seems appropriate. It's a masterpiece of moving, adult storytelling and ingenious, gameplay-driven narrative, making as much use of the graphical power of a fully mastered console for emotional resonance as it does for visual impact, and it may be the pinnacle of everything that AAA gaming has become throughout the last generation.

The Last of Us plops the player into a gorgeously rendered, complex, and all-too-believable nightmare world and gives them just enough to get by but not enough to mount an effective counterattack.

The player's intuition and wit are more critical than any predetermined spectacle or cartoonish heroism in making every encounter and every victory in the game worthwhile.

The Last of Us puts its audience through the emotional wringer from the opening moments to the closing credits, and that's just the beginning of how it cultivates empathy. So far, no PlayStation 3 owner should pass up this flawless offering from a Sony first-party studio operating at the height of its powers.

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Grand Theft Auto IV: San Andreas

As soon as you begin playing Grand Theft Auto IV and put yourself in the shoes of Niko Bellic, an illegal immigrant who lands in Liberty City at the beginning of the game, it becomes instantly apparent that Rockstar North's most recent offering is rather remarkable.

This is yet another Grand Theft Auto game, and you'll likely spend most of your time in it robbing banks and shooting down law enforcement officers and other thugs, but there's a lot more to it.

GTAIV is a game that has an intriguing and nonlinear storyline, a game with a fantastic protagonist that you can't help but adore, and a game that sports a variety of online multiplayer options in addition to its lengthy story mode. All of these aspects come together to make GTA IV a great game. Even if it has a few issues, Grand Theft Auto IV is undeniably the best installment of the series.

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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Players of Far Cry 3 assume the role of Jason Brody, a man cut off from the rest of the world and marooned on a mystical island paradise. In this uncivilized paradise, where anarchy and bloodshed are the only certainties, the players decide how the story develops, from the fights they choose to fight to the allies or enemies they create along the way.

This includes who they ally with and who they fight against. Players assume the role of Jason Brody and make their way across the island by hacking, sneaking, detonating, and shooting their way through a world devoid of any concept of right and wrong.

Crytek, the creator of the original Far Cry, once said that the game's ethos was best summed up by the Latin phrase "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (come, see, conquer). Ubisoft has maintained the Far Cry brand, and Crytek has attempted to capture the same feel in the Crysis titles.

Only Far Cry 3 seems intent on delivering on that promise, though. There is a vast island waiting to be discovered; potent equipment at your disposal for scouting any challenging environment; and a plethora of ingenious overlapping systems to spark your imagination and motivate you to find novel solutions to any problems you encounter.

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Borderlands 2

There was no way of knowing how fortunate we were. When Borderlands 2 came out in 2012, we thought, "Hey, that's a decent improvement on the original." You've got an elegant class structure here.

We had no idea Borderlands 2 would serve as a blueprint that so many other games would try to emulate. We didn't realize how unique it was at the time. Bouncey vehicles inspired by Halo helped break up the monotony of travel in Borderlands 2, which borrowed heavily from massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) with features like color-coded rarity levels and raids.

It functioned well as both a solo experience and a co-op one for pals who wanted an online reason to hang out. There was a tonne of downloadable content for it; scheduled events like the $100,000 Loot Hunt, difficult bosses in the endgame like Digistruct Peak, and even Overpower difficulties for those who had already reached their maximum potential.

It was a forever game in its own right, even if it came before "games as a service." At least 5,000 people are playing it on Steam at any given time.

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Conclusion

The expansion of the PS Plus Premium games list, the premium tier of the PlayStation Plus membership service that enables users to play select PS3 games through cloud streaming, is luring many gamers back to this generation to catch up on what they missed.

This is why we've compiled this list to assist and guide you, so without further ado, here are the Best PS3 Games that we believe to be the finest that has ever been released for the PS3.