Topic: Is PS3 Sony's worst game console ever?

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

In the interest of being fair I figured I would start a similar discussion as Wii U (since I place it in PS3 generation NOT current) I would ask about the consoles that most closely resembles the Wii U in many ways.


I can honestly say that the PS3 is my least favorite of the Playstation consoles but I do find myself enjoying it more and more. One thing that I was turned off by originally, and for a very, very, very long time was how insanely over priced it was for how long it was insanely over priced. In a way it reminds me of the still criminally over priced Wii U.

I also noticed that the software library wasn't doing it for me for the longest time. I did find myself coming around partially with some of the HD remasters and HD collections but it also took Super Street Fighter IV to really push me into wanting one.

I also see some parallels with Wii U in that Sony bundled and forced an unnecessary feature onto the world that drove the cost up and did very little to actually improve gameplay for a very long time, that is Blu Ray drive. Realizing this, and how long the previous generation lasted makes me wonder if there is some logic to the Nintendo strategy of doubling down on Wii U now and trying to give it a second life by really proving the Game Pad concept and perhaps NX really is just, and only just, a handheld and the Wii U successor won't show up until two more years?

Staying on topic of PS3, I didn't find myself buying one until mere months before the PS4 launched and honestly while it has given me plenty of entertainment, I get the feeling that much of that is a mix of it being the anti-Wii and also really focusing on retro, something else the Wii U does rely heavily on. I think that is why I fell in love with PS4 early one, I just got the impression that with everyone falling in line it was going to be easier to find all the games I wanted. So far it has been pretty good to me. But I am starting to really go back and try to rediscover more PS3 games. I just wish they had done better at keeping the backwards compatibility and found other ways to cut costs in the early days.

[Evan_B]

Oooooooooooooh boy.

Having never owned a Playstation 3, I cannot contribute to this topic. But I find the prospect appealing nowadays as its library becomes cheaper and the future of video games becomes more bleak.

[Shaymin]

Sony clearly doesn't think so, since the PS4 is basically PS3 2.0 because you lot didn't buy it the first time.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

I am not so sure about that, PS4 fixed most of what was wrong with PS3 right off the bat. The biggest complaints, aside from price and small library, were the controllers being garbage, and the exclusives being barely passable alternatives to what Microsoft was doing.

With PS4 it is more like they went back to PS2 and remembered how to do it right. The controller is the best controller I have ever gamed on, the system loads instantly I turn it on it's fucking ON right now, everything runs smooth, fast, the games are mostly sequels and updates to last gen but that is nothing new, nor is it at all bad.

[lolmonade]

You cite the Blu-Ray as an unappealing/unwanted feature, but honestly, back when the system came out, it was one of the biggest selling points.  It was also considered one of the better ones you could get for its price at the time, amazingly enough.


To expand on this, Sony took similar gambles with PS1 with CD playback and PS2 with DVD.  Sony was simply following what made them successful in prior console generations, which was piggybacking the gaming system with a new media format that could be a feature added to the box.


Reading into it, I thought it was the cell architecture of the system that hurt it more than anything from a gaming standpoint, it's why the ports were generally inferior to the Xbox 360 until later in the life cycle.

[Ian Sane]

I have not played the PS4 at all so I really don't have a full context here but it is arguably too new to make a call on it anyway.

Yeah, the PS3 is the worst.  Not a bad console at all but, like with the Nintendo consoles, something has to be the worst by just being the least good.  Ultimately I think it holds up poorly in how essential it is.  I don't own an Xbox 360 so last gen my PS3 was the de facto platform for damn near anything that wasn't on the Wii.  But if you owned both the 360 and PS3 there wasn't much to differentiate the two.  The 360 was the more popular one.  Games tended to be designed with it as the main platform and if you were into online games, odds are your friends owned the more popular console.  Plus the 360 was way cheaper so odds are your PS3 purchase would have come after the price drop, in which case the point of getting it would be for Sony first party titles and Japanese first party exclusives.

Compare that to the PS1 and 2 which were very essential consoles for their generations.  If you didn't own one of the those you were missing out on lots of games.  Hell, MOST games being made at that time with PlayStation exclusives.  If you wanted to keep up with the major games of the day you HAD to own a PS1 and 2 but didn't need a PS3 so that would make it the worst on that alone.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

You cite the Blu-Ray as an unappealing/unwanted feature, but honestly, back when the system came out, it was one of the biggest selling points.  It was also considered one of the better ones you could get for its price at the time, amazingly enough.


To expand on this, Sony took similar gambles with PS1 with CD playback and PS2 with DVD.  Sony was simply following what made them successful in prior console generations, which was piggybacking the gaming system with a new media format that could be a feature added to the box.


Reading into it, I thought it was the cell architecture of the system that hurt it more than anything from a gaming standpoint, it's why the ports were generally inferior to the Xbox 360 until later in the life cycle.

I meant in terms of what it added to gaming. I agree that media enthusiasts were drawn to the PS3 but they weren't gamers and as a gamer I wasn't that interested in Blu Ray initially, I had gotten into HD-DVD first so I was a little reluctant to switch.

But Blu ray added nothing to gaming, CD and DVD added so much for gaming they needed to be included in those systems. But we didn't even make use of Blu Ray as games were designed with the DVD9 limitations of the 360 in mind and thus gave birth to the whole digital download and expansion packs, DLC, etc that became a thing. Blu Ray was great but it added nothing essential to the mix, it just inflated the cost by way too much.

PS3 sold Blu Ray, it wasn't the other way around like it was with CD and DVD on the previous consoles. Sony sacrificed the quality and sales of the early PS3 in order to force HD-DVD out of the market. If MS had included HD-DVD drives for games out of the box it would have turned out differently.

[Mop it up]

Ha ha, nice.

For me, I'd have to say PS4 is the worst, at least for now. Things could change, but for the time being it does not have any exclusive games that I want, and very few multi-platform games, even. I don't see myself ever buying one.

Meanwhile, I don't own a PS3, but I might get one. Its library doesn't look as good as PS2 or even 1, but it's racked up a decent number of games that I think I'd like. I still don't want to pay very much for one, though: I got a PS2 back in 2011 for $30, and that sounds about what I'd want to get a PS3 for. Might settle for $50 if I have to.

That said, I've always felt the PS3 seemed like a better system than the Xbox 360. I like its controller better for one, and also, it had free online.

[BranDonk Kong]

For the first few years, yes, PS3 ports of games were not as well-developed as their Xbox 360 counterparts - for the last few years, it was the opposite.

How do you decide on what's the worst Sony console, when all four of them have been incredibly successful? They've won 3 out of 4 of the "console wars" that they've been in (stick a fork in the current one, it's over), and came in second place with the PS3 - despite coming out a year after the XBox 360, the PS3 outsold it.

I own all of their consoles, but none of them are my favorite. The only thing that stands out for any of their consoles is the failure rate of the PS3, which ranks right up their with the failure rate of the Xbox 360 - so based on only that, then I would say PS3 was their worst console - which comes with the caveat of still being a console that introduced some absolutely top-notch games like the Uncharted series and The Last of Us.

[NWR_insanolord]

The PS1 and PS2 never really stuck with me. I owned them, but never really played them that much and didn't end up owning many games for them. I loved the PS3, though. I owned a ton of games for it, and ended up playing it a lot more than my 360, despite not getting it until later. It was their worst commercially, but probably my favorite so far.

[Adrock]

The original Playstation was the worst for me. Like Nintendo 64, it was that awkward stage in which 3D games were first a thing and so many of the games don't hold up in terms of gameplay and graphics. They suffered from really poor design choices, and the hardware wasn't powerful enough for what many developers wanted to do. Speaking of the hardware, it was ****. I'm not even talking about specs though the 2x CD-ROM drive in particular was just bad for games. Poorly place vents led to overheating and warped plastic. The optical drive broke if you used it too much. Seriously, using the console broke this thing because the movable parts were made of plastic which caused it to wear out. It led to people propping the console on its side or turning it upside down. That thing was an engineering nightmare. The team that designed that monstrosity should all be punched right in the dick.

Later models, particularly PS One, fixed many of these problems, but viewing the console as a whole, it has to be the worst. The hardware was bad. Outside of a few classics, the games were bad. I don't want to take away from the original Playstation in a historical context. It was one of the most important pieces of gaming hardware. However, I just had a lot more fun with its successors.

[broodwars]

The original Playstation was the worst for me. Like Nintendo 64, it was that awkward stage in which 3D games were first a thing and so many of the games don't hold up in terms of gameplay and graphics. They suffered from really poor design choices, and the hardware wasn't powerful enough for what many developers wanted to do. Speaking of the hardware, it was ****. I'm not even talking about specs though the 2x CD-ROM drive in particular was just bad for games. Poorly place vents led to overheating and warped plastic. The optical drive broke if you used it too much. Seriously, using the console broke this thing because the movable parts were made of plastic which caused it to wear out. It led to people propping the console on its side or turning it upside down. That thing was an engineering nightmare. The team that designed that monstrosity should all be punched right in the dick.

Later models, particularly PS One, fixed many of these problems, but viewing the console as a whole, it has to be the worst. The hardware was bad. Outside of a few classics, the games were bad. I don't want to take away from the original Playstation in a historical context. It was one of the most important pieces of gaming hardware. However, I just had a lot more fun with its successors.

That's where I stand as well: much like the NES, the original PSX was a piece of crap with a library of highly influential but largely crappy games that just don't hold up anymore. The PS3 had its problems, but overall I'm really happy with its library.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

I guess I can see that perspective, but I enjoyed many of the 2D games as well. I kind of think 2D gaming reached it's peak with Playstation and then was forgotten until it became a retro novelty which has been a double-edged sword lately. But the PS1 had over a thousand games released for it, I find it hard to believe that in all that there aren't even a dozen that are worth going back to. I find myself returning to several, though to be honest nostalgia dictates which ones I go back to as even curiosity isn't enough to test out a terribly blocky Ps1 game today.

I am excited for FF7 remake even if they are very likely going to screw it up.

[pokepal148]

Eh, I still say the first 3 Spiro games on ps1 hold up better than Mario 64.

*hides in corner*

[lolmonade]

Eh, I still say the first 3 Spiro games on ps1 hold up better than Mario 64.

*hides in corner*

Personally think they both hold up equally well.  I think that speaks better to Spyro than Mario 64. 

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

I didn't get into Spyro but I loved Crash Bandicoot. I wish DK 64 had been more like that and less what it became. I love Super Mario 64 but I suspect much of that is nostalgia and probably why I keep wishing for a proper HD remake.

[Spak-Spang]

I never played Spyro.  I did play Crash Bandicoot and that game was awful. 

I have to say the the PlayStation was the worst Sony system.  Looking back the technology just wasn't there yet.  Nintendo hide a lot of the flaws of the first 3D console with still being cartridge.  Load times were better.  4 players without additional hardware adopter.  While the Playstation just was horrible to play. 

Super Mario 64 still holds up.  It is STILL one of the best 3D platforming games period, and it even beats the later 3D Mario games.  The reason is simple...the game gives you every move Mario can do from the beginning, and just lets you go.  I can start playing Super Mario and immediately be doing everything I want to do in that game.  jumping, back flipping, I feel like a platforming master from the get go.  The freedom to select levels lets me go in, get a few stars and when I am bored jump into a completely different level and challenge.  Yes, there are camera issues sometimes, but when those Stars come up, I can just skip them.  I also love how you can get most of the Stars out of Order.  The freedom and joy of Super Mario 64 is amazing.