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PlayStation 3

Top 20 classic PS3 games — find similar titles!

Last updated: April 15, 2026

The Best PS3 Games

The PS3 started badly — expensive, hard to develop for, a year behind — and finished as the console with the strongest run of first-party releases Sony had ever had. Most of what the PS4 is remembered for was worked out here first.

This is the list split into the exclusives, the role-playing games, and the ones that never got a remaster. A good number of these are playable on newer hardware; where they are not, it is said.

The PS3 exclusives

The run that defined Sony's studios.

  • The Last of Us (2013)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • PS5
    • PC

    A stealth-survival game with the best performances of its generation, released at the very end of the console's life and still the best argument for it.

  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • PS5
    • PC

    The set-piece adventure game at its best — a train sequence people still reference, and pacing that never lets a shootout outstay its welcome.

  • Demon's Souls (2009)

    • PS3

    Where the whole genre started, with the online messaging system that made a solitary game feel populated. The PS5 remake is the easier way in.

  • Metal Gear Solid 4 (2008)

    • PS3

    The one that ties every thread off, with cutscenes long enough to be a talking point. Still PS3-only, which makes it the hardest of these to play now.

  • God of War III (2010)

    • PS3
    • PS4

    The end of the original arc, and the loudest the series ever got. The opening on the back of a titan is still one of the best scale set pieces there is.

  • Journey (2012)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • PC
    • Mobile

    Two hours, no words, and an anonymous stranger who might stay with you the whole way. Still the clearest case for games as a short form.

  • LittleBigPlanet (2008)

    • PS3
    • PSP

    A platformer that was really a level editor, with a physics feel nothing else has. Its servers have gone, which takes most of the game with them.

  • Infamous (2009)

    • PS3

    Open-world superpowers where climbing is as good as the fighting, and the karma system actually changes the moveset rather than just the ending.

  • Gran Turismo 5 (2010)

    • PS3

    A thousand cars, a punishing licence structure, and menus that took longer to load than a race. The driving underneath is superb.

  • Killzone 2 (2009)

    • PS3

    A shooter with weight — the aiming has real inertia, which divided people and is the entire character of the game.

PS3 RPGs and oddities

The console was strong on Japanese RPGs and stranger one-offs.

  • Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (2011)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • Switch
    • PC

    An RPG animated by Studio Ghibli, with a creature-collecting battle system underneath. The most beautiful game on the console.

  • Dark Souls (2011)

    • PS3
    • Xbox 360
    • PC
    • Modern remaster

    The interconnected world is the achievement — a single map that folds back on itself, with shortcuts that reframe everything you walked past.

  • Valkyria Chronicles (2008)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • Switch
    • PC

    Turn-based tactics where each unit's turn is a real-time run under enemy fire. Nothing before or since has combined the two this well.

  • Catherine (2011)

    • PS3
    • Xbox 360
    • PS4
    • Switch
    • PC

    Block-pushing puzzles at night, a relationship drama by day, and a difficulty spike people still warn each other about.

  • Yakuza 0 (2015)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • Xbox
    • PC

    The best entry point to the series: 1980s Tokyo and Osaka, brawling in the street, and a real estate minigame that will eat your week.

PS3 games that never got a remaster

Good games still stuck on the hardware they launched on.

  • Flower (2009)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • PC
    • Mobile

    A game about wind, with no fail state and one button. Made as an argument that a game could be about a feeling.

  • Heavy Rain (2010)

    • PS3
    • PS4
    • PC

    A branching thriller where a failed button prompt does not end the game — it changes it. Characters can die and the story continues.

  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)

    • PS3
    • Xbox 360
    • PC

    Platinum's cutting mechanic, where you aim the blade yourself in free slice. Short, absurd, and mechanically excellent.

  • Skate 3 (2010)

    • PS3
    • Xbox 360

    The flick-it control scheme at its most refined, and a park editor that kept the game alive for a decade after release.

  • Max Payne 3 (2012)

    • PS3
    • Xbox 360
    • PC

    Bullet time with real physics behind it — Max lands where the animation says, including into walls. The shooting is the best Rockstar has made.

  • Resistance: Fall of Man (2006)

    • PS3

    A launch shooter with an inventive arsenal — the wall-shooting Auger is still a better idea than most guns released since.

Keep exploring

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Top 10 Must-Play PS3 Games

Every PlayStation 3 library has its essentials — the games that defined the system and that every fan should play at least once. These 10 titles are our hand-picked starting lineup for the PS3, ranked by cultural impact and replay value. Click any game to see modern alternatives across every platform.

  1. 1The Last of Us
  2. 2Uncharted 2
  3. 3Red Dead Redemption
  4. 4Dark Souls
  5. 5Metal Gear Solid 4
  6. 6Demon's Souls
  7. 7Journey
  8. 8LittleBigPlanet
  9. 9Infamous
  10. 10God of War III

PS3 Hidden Gems

Beyond the iconic blockbusters, the PlayStation 3 library is full of underrated experiences that flew under the mainstream radar. These 10 hidden gems are the PS3 games we'd hand a friend who's already played the obvious classics and wants something fresh. Each links to a similar-games page for modern alternatives.

Where to buy PS3 hardware and gear

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