Well, after my 360 got banned I did the deed - sold my 360 & HD for $100 and traded in my games at Gamestop for about $425 in credit and a shiny new 320gb PS3 is now mine. It's really nice, aside from the game updates/installs I think I might actually like it better than my 360. It's crazy quiet (I had a 360 fat, isn't going to require me to have a steady supply of AA batteries on hand, and seems to have really great monthly gifts if you do the subscription. But I do have a few questions I was hoping for help with.
1.) I had to enter a cc# to do the free trial of Plus. I'd like to let my son try the DC and FreeRealms online games but obviously I know they have the option to buy stuff. Is there some password protection to not let him accidentally buy stuff?
2.) How is the Plus from month to month? It seems worth it from the point that I just downloaded Sly Cooper for free, but is it normally that good and what other perks does it offer (if any).
3.) What games do I need? I'll play anything, especially want to try PS3 exclusives except Gran Turismo - I don't do sim-style racers. I saw Resistance, Motorstorm, and a bunch of HD remakes that are PS3 only. I was really intrigued by Heavy Rain and the Ico remake is a given as well. The online store seems to have a ton, but is a pain to browse. We bought (some are multiconsole that I just never got around to playing:
Uncharted 3 (packin)
Little Big Planet
Dragon Age Origins Ultimate
Fallout 3
SSSFIV Arcade Edition
Infamous
Batman Arkham Asylum
Metal Gear Solid 4
Earth Defense Force 2017: Insect Armageddon
and we downloaded Plants vs Zombies (my 7 year can't have a console without it...)
I'm going shopping at lunch today with two $10 off used games and one $5 off used games coupons from all the Powerup points I earned. Any ideas? Genre wise I know I could use another cheap - 7 yr old appropriate - fighting game, and maybe a FPS with a solid single player experience, and probably an arcade racer.
Thanks!
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Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
Ratchet & Clank games
Those are what I can think of off the top of my head, beyond what you've already got.
I heard Skyrim on PS3 is a mess, but I don't know specifics.
Oblivion is pretty good on the PS3, get the GOTY version if you can.
That looks really, really awesome. I love srpgs in general and the graphics look great. I think I may have to look into that one as well. Too many good games, not enough time!
I love Valkyria Chronicles. Not a big fan of where the story goes, but eh...I was able to overlook it.
Also, Uncharted 2 is a bit more enjoyable than Uncharted 3. And if you end up wanting to play all the games in the series, you'd probably want to start with the first game. Not because it's a great game, but more because it'd be harder to go back to it after playing the last two.
My Backloggery
Play it, its so awesome. It falls apart a little bit around the end, but its so good!
MGS4 if you're a fan of the series.
God of War HD collection and God Of War III are also awesome.
Edit: Seconded on Uncharted 2. It is literally one of the best games ever made. I pretty much loathe Uncharted 1, but its worth playing through on the easiest difficulty so you can at least get an introduction to the universe.
I debated picking up the first 2 games, but I really didn't want 3 of my first 10 games to be in the same series - variety being the spice of life and all. I'll have to see what they have when I hit Gamestop at lunch today.
Any one have recommendations on cheap FPS or arcade racers?
Pacman Championship Edition Seriously, get this game. No, I mean it. Get this game. This is like Pacman Ecstasy, and either definiton you want out of that phrase still applies. It's such an amplification of the original game it's sick.
From Dust More of a puzzle game masquerading as a strategy game, but that's a semantics at the end, isn't it? Not quite as amazing as the videos make it look, but still pretty damn good. I once spent four hours meticulously scooping a lava flow into a massive wall to redirect a never-ending eruption into the sea. Maybe that sounds awesome, or maybe it's an indictment of some character flaw in myself, but if you're fascinated by the idea of draining inland seas, raising mountains and controlling the flow of nature, this is pretty much what you want.
JOURNEY I don't want to talk about it too much, but it's just about the gaming equivalent of a silent movie with no cue cards. If you've liked the atmosphere of Zelda, Myst, or any of the games by Team Ico, chances are there's something special here you can appreciate.
I played through a few missions, didn't really care about anything that was happening. Dat multiplayer though. More FPS's need to crib that idea.
Second PacMan CE
Also on PSN pickup Shatter and look at the Pixel Junk games (all but Racers is excellent, racers is merely ok)
Journey is great, but its too short for the $15 price. I would wait till its first sale, then jump on it immediately since you are going to want to play it while others still are.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Also the Yakuza games are pretty neat.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Zen Pinball is also a good purchase. The base table pack is relatively inexpensive now, and there's a good selection of add-on tables covering a lot of different themes.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
We didn't use the Kinect much simply because when we moved to our current apartment the space and especially the lighting just didn't agree with the system no matter what I did. It never saw legs properly - stuff like Gunstringer and Child of Eden worked but exercise games/dance games struggled so more out of frustration we never used it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the only good exclusives for Move are light gun games. House of the Dead 3 & 4 & Time Crisis: Razing Storm being the big ones.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
If you like arcade racers then try the Motorstorm games, skip the first and go for the second or third. I've just finished Motorstorm Apocalypse (the third) and it's insanely good. It runs at 1080p, in 3D (if you've got a 3D tv) and the amount of stuff they throw around the tracks is amazing, the environment collapses around you.
One stage has you racing along a bridge as it gives way, falling in to the sea, another has your racing through tower blocks, jumping from one to another as they fall to the ground. One of the most impressive though has you racing around a port during a hurricane, complete with twister to the side of the track. You can be racing along and suddenly a boat crashes it's way through the pier you're on, a ferris wheel gives way and rolls in to the track, buildings explode. It's criminal how under-appreciated the games is.
Heavy Rain is great, the Ratchet and Clank series are ace. If you like God of War style games then there's obviously God of War but I'd also REALLY recommend Heavenly Sword. It's very very short but that's more than made up for by it being dirt-cheap, and pretty damn great. Not much replayability though.
LittleBigPlanet 2 is well worth upgrading to, if you've only got the first. If you like survival horrors then Siren is one of the scariest I've played. It's a bit clunky by today's standards but it's still superb.
Then there are a ton of exclusive downloadable games like WipeoutHD, Crash Commando, Echochrome, Flower, the Pixeljunk games, Journey and your 7 year old will probably LOVE Pain (though it's full of smutty humour, which he probably, possibly won't pick up on). It's pretty much just a physics sand box where you launch a guy out of a giant catapult.
::quick move edit:: They did a Heavy Rain version of Move, or a patch, or something. It's supposed to be really good.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Also, I think Grinch just sold me on Motorstorm Apocalypse...
The Pixeljunk games are must-buy's for me. Eden won my heart with its quirky take on platforming. Monsters is fun 2-player tower defense. Shooter is just classy (but start with 1, because 2 continues the story and level of difficulty.)
Katamari Forever is a good version of the classic series. It compiles a lot of the levels from previous games in the series (30 in total?), has many different ways to play each of those levels, and runs great at 1080p. If you've ever been interested in the series, it a good place to jump in. Its also very kid friendly, though it may get too difficult for a 7-year old.
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are great, if not brutal, action RPGs.
3D Dot Game Heroes was a good game that I felt flew under the radar for a lot of people. Its a throwback to the original NES Zelda.
The recent HD compilation games are a good way to catch up on PS2 classics you might have missed. ICO/Shadow of the Colossus collection probably deserves the most attention.
Regarding Elder Scrolls, I would skip Oblivion at this point, but the PS3 version of Skyrim has not been received well due to technical issues. 360 or PC seems to be the way to go.
Also, I'm pretty sure you can remove your CC# from your PSN account, and redeem cards for PSN cash and Plus subs.
NintendoID: Nailbunny 3DS: 3909-8796-4685
Just because Uncharted 2 is miles away better than the first, doesn't make the first game bad. I imagine it would be hard to go back to after 2-3, but I remember enjoying it immensely at the time. And besides, you can get the Uncharted 1-2 double pack for about the same price as UC2 by itself.
If you haven't played any of the Ratchet & Clank games, they have an HD collection coming out with the first 3 games. But if you don't think you can handle playing all 5 (6 if you count Quest for Booty) games, you won't miss too much just playing just the Future part of the series. All4One is good couch co-op, and probably something you could play with your kid, but it's a poor representation of the R&C franchise as a whole.
Also, you can delete your billing information at any time, and it's pretty easy. You could also make the little kid a separate account.
Killzone 2 is the best in the series. The story is completely forgettable, but the gameplay is good. Killzone 3 is worth in both categories, but still pretty fun, and one of the only decent uses for the Move controller.
Journey is definitely something you should wait on. Maybe a 50% Plus special or something.
I know it's not a PS3 exclusive, but if you didn't play it on 360, check out Outland. Its fucking awesome. Metroidvania meets Ikaruga.
I love the system, but the navigation isn't the most intuitive to find things sometimes.
Even though the PS3 is my primary gaming machine, I do really hate the sorting options for the content you download. The only sorting options are date created (oldest-newest or vice versa), or recently played. Since I'm a stickler for alphabetic sorting, I actually manually change the date right before I install a game, so that old-new and A-Z are the same thing. I don't bother doing that for demos, since I just delete them.
If you change a game's album name, it allows you to sort games into folders.
The Killzone games are beautiful, but not a ton of fun, imo. I just finally finished KZ3 Saturday night, and the various vehicle sections are exceedingly tedious and do nothing to add to the game. Plot is very by the numbers. They aren't bad games, just rather average in all but looks. I prefer the Resistance games personally, though I will admit that they are also rather average.
Journey is not something you should wait on. It's a great experience, and one that your son could likely appreciate as well. Well worth the $15 despite the short length of a playthrough.
Killzone just came up as a decent single player FPS - I don't play a ton of them but I like to have one or two on hand for those nights where you just want to shoot stuff. Any other recommendations are welcomed
I know the argument against waiting is that there won't be anyone to play co-op with later, but if the game goes on sale, a lot of people will buy the game at the same time, and the community will get a shot in the arm, and it'll be just like playing it at launch.
I put around 90 hours into Skyrim on the PS3, and I got it the day it came out.
I had 0 issues.
I pretty much use my PS3 for exclusives and Blu-Ray.
Standard Bethesda bugs + PS3-specific bugs + internet echo chamber = "Skyrim PS3 completely unplayable!"
Already got MGS4 - can't wait to play it actually. Haven't grabbed the HD collection yet. I have a feeling there are a lot of HD remakes in my future. How are the downloadable Prince of Persia remakes? Sands of Time was one of my favorite PS2 games.