The passed over gems of Sony's seventh gen console.
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00:00Right, okay, there's no beating around the bush here, the 7th generation was a rough
00:04time for Sony. While the esteemed competition, the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii were basically
00:09money printers, the PS3 started slow and had to fight tooth and nail for every inch. But
00:15you know what? There were some absolute bangers on that console. However, some of them definitely
00:21didn't get the love and appreciation they deserved, so let's rectify that today and
00:25have a chat about them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 criminally
00:29overlooked PS3 games.
00:3210. Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel
00:37Localization can be a cruel mistress. While the process has become much more reliable
00:41nowadays, even in the age of simul-dubbing, it isn't a guaranteed thing. And just over
00:4710 years ago, it was even worse. If you couldn't land a proper distributor in time, get ready
00:52for your game's relevance outside of your home country to be shot in the foot. And this
00:57was unfortunately the case of The Legend of Heroes Trials of Cold Steel. Due to distributing
01:02issues, Cold Steel didn't come out in the West until way after the PS3's relevance,
01:07being one of the last franchise releases for the console. Add onto this the fact that the
01:11Trails series has always struggled over here, and what you get is a game that not a lot
01:15of people played, which is a true shame, because this game rocks. If you're looking for a
01:20really fun turn-based RPG with dating sim mechanics, and Fire Emblem Awakening isn't
01:25what you're in the mood for at the moment, you'll have a lot of fun with Trials of Cold
01:29Steel.
01:309. Dragon's Crown
01:32You would think discourse would guarantee a game would be better remembered, but sometimes
01:36the discourse can eclipse the game that helped it get going in the first place if the issue
01:40at hand is large enough, and such was the unfortunate case of Dragon's Crown. Dragon's
01:44Crown, while a huge success for developer VanillaWare, got caught up in a long overdue
01:48discussion of the treatment and depiction of women in video games. Its depiction of
01:53the sorceress in particular drew ire for how blatantly sexualised the character was.
01:57Combine that with the inexorable march of time, and you get a game that people might
02:00vaguely know about because of some controversy they remember from years back, but not much
02:04on the game itself.
02:06As a game, Dragon's Crown is a fun, fun title, combining hack and slash with multiplayer
02:11and RPG elements. The art style is gorgeous, brilliantly mixing 2D images with 2.5D environments.
02:18If you've got some cash to spare, and some friends willing to throw down in some swords
02:21and sorcery fun, you can do a lot worse than Dragon's Crown.
02:258. Enslaved Odyssey to the West
02:28It feels like an aberration that a game with Enslaved's prestige isn't better remembered.
02:33Developed by Ninja Theory, written by the great Alex Garland, and featuring none other
02:37than Andy Serka's inner leading role, not only that, but the highly cinematic gameplay
02:41of Enslaved is very close to what has become the bread and butter of Sony's recent Prestige
02:46library.
02:47And a lot of this is likely to do with the fact that Enslaved doesn't have a sequel.
02:51As vocally as some of the sectors of the internet decry the over-reliance on franchises,
02:55sequels do help titles stick in the collective minds of the gaming public, especially several
02:59generations on.
03:00Plus, there's also the fact that, true to its one-and-done nature, there's very little
03:04reason to go back to Enslaved once you've finished it.
03:07But there is something to be said about a game that does exactly what it sets out to
03:10do in one game. It makes the best case for itself that it can, and just leaves without
03:14another word.
03:157. The Saboteur
03:18Before Call of Duty Modern Warfare, World War 2 was one of the quintessential settings
03:21for video games about war. But as the FPS genre moved on to the modern day, audiences
03:26just weren't looking for that anymore. World War 2 games have become stale and overexposed,
03:31and the audiences just didn't care. And this was likely the biggest reason why The
03:35Saboteur didn't do so hot, and isn't remembered much today.
03:39Another reason is probably the fact that GTA 4 had just been released the year before,
03:42and The Saboteur is basically GTA, but you're shooting Nazis instead of cops, with a bit
03:46of parkour thrown in. Still, as GTA clones go, The Saboteur is right up there with the
03:51best. GTA provides a solid gameplay template for a variety of settings, and seeing it applied
03:56to Nazi occupied France is certainly interesting. The coolest part of this game, though, is
04:01the aesthetic, as the Nazi occupation is symbolised by a black and white filter over the city.
04:05And as you free each section of the city one by one, you literally bring colour back to
04:09the city of lights.
04:11The Saboteur is a solidly built GTA clone with a cool aesthetic that's in favour of
04:16a strong narrative hook, and if that sounds up your alley, we'll definitely give this
04:19a shot.
04:206. Singularity
04:23Before they were turned into one of the many studios keeping Call of Duty alive, Raven
04:26Software had some big ambitions of their own. While some know them for Wolfenstein 2009
04:31or Marvel Ultimate Alliance, we know them here for the FPS gem known as Singularity.
04:36While reviews ranked it above average, Activision was disappointed with the sales, shooting
04:40all hopes for a continuation in the foot. Which is a shame, seeing as how Singularity
04:44is one of the most solidly built FPS games of its day.
04:47While not on the levels of Bioshock, Singularity swings way above its weight class and holds
04:52its own remarkably well. The guns feel weighty and responsive, and the sound design of the
04:56shots is divine, especially that shotgun.
04:59The game's central gimmick, the TMD or Time Manipulation Device, is of course the highlight
05:03of the game, allowing the player to rapidly age up or down any object or person with the
05:08fictional element E99 in their system.
05:11Time Manipulation also makes its way into the combat, with different guns having different
05:14time powers attached. And of course, this being the Bioshock age of high concept FPS
05:19games, Singularity's story is suitably nutty with its time travel, giving you an interesting
05:23final moral choice with a third option that you may not think of your first time around.
05:285. The Simpsons Game
05:30The quality of The Simpsons may change with the weather, but when they get it right, they
05:34really get it right. While Hit and Run is the better remembered time game, The Simpsons
05:38game itself deserves to be remembered just as fondly. The open world Simpsons title sees
05:43the eponymous family realise that they're in a video game, and proceed to wreak havoc
05:48in their specific brand of madness upon everything and everyone. Special powers, fun levels,
05:53and the dated late 2000 references ensue.
05:56While a lot of the humour has aged pretty poorly, most of it holds up, and even when
06:06it doesn't, the gameplay more than picks up the slack. Each member of the Simpsons
06:10has a unique power that's utilised in both combat and platforming, and different levels
06:14pair up different members of the family to experiment with what can be done. If you get
06:18bored with the levels, then you can just wander around Springfield, grabbing collectibles
06:22and starting fistfights with the townsfolk. The Simpsons game may not be the definitive
06:26experience that such a title entails, but it is definitely a close runner up.
06:304. Nier
06:32It's tragic that the 7th gen was when anti-JRPG sentiment was at its peak over here in the
06:37west, because this era produced some truly great examples of the genre, and one of them
06:41was Yoko Taro's Nier. Nier, in the same vein as its much more successful younger sibling,
06:46Nier Automata Potato Potato, yes it's back, is a hack and slash RPG set in the long running
06:51Drakengard universe, and also like Automata, don't worry, you don't need to know a damn
06:56thing about any of the other games to enjoy Nier, all you need to know is that there's
06:59a cool white haired anime guy with a big sword and he's going to kill a lot of people.
07:03That's all you ever really need to know in most scenarios, really.
07:06In all seriousness though, this story is amazing, as tends to be the case for Yoko Taro narratives.
07:11The gameplay and framerate are also heavily improved from the Drakengard games, but then
07:15any framerate is better than those slideshows. The combat is snappy, responsive and incredibly
07:20satisfying and the atmosphere of this world is sublime. While lack of advertising and
07:25a western market that was incredibly hostile to anything too Japanese at the time cost
07:29it the widespread success it deserved, but 2010's loss can be your gain, especially
07:34if you love to hear Laura Bailey swearing like a sailor.
07:373. Vanquish
07:39Platinum Games has garnered a well deserved reputation for being one of the most consistently
07:43fun game studios in the business, and most people know them for Nier, Automata and Bayonetta,
07:48but another of their games from this era goes criminally overlooked, and that is Vanquish.
07:53And to be honest, it's not hard to see why this is, although it is just ridiculous. It's
07:59such a fun game. Platinum apparently thought that this game was so good that it could only
08:03go head to head with Black Ops on opening weekend. Needless to say, it got its butt
08:08handed to it. Playing it these days, however, will quickly yield the reasons why it received
08:12the rave reviews that it did from those few that reviewed it upon launch.
08:16Vanquish is the perfect lovechild of Gears of War and Metal Gear Rising. A blindingly
08:20fast-paced third-person shooter that rewards the player for blasting their way through
08:24enemies as fast as possible. Vanquish is viscerally fun in ways that it seems that only Platinum
08:29Games have been interested in giving people, at least in the AAA gaming sphere. Sure, the
08:33characters aren't the most interesting, and the most memorable bit of the story is the
08:36infuriating cliffhanger that it ends on, but that's not why you play Vanquish. You play
08:41Vanquish to murder as many Russian-styled robots as fast as possible, and look damn
08:45good whilst doing it.
08:472. Sleeping Dogs
08:49The GTA clone is a proud tradition in the world of gaming. The Crime Sam box template
08:54lends itself to a wide range of variations, but it's a shame that more franchises don't
08:58take advantage of how versatile that idea is, especially since the ones that do have
09:02a habit of sticking in the memories of those that play them, such is the case of Sleeping
09:06Dogs. Sleeping Dogs failed to meet the, as usual, astronomic expectations of Square Enix.
09:12After a lackluster online follow-up, United Front Games shut down, taking the IP with
09:17it. If Square had more reasonable expectations, well Sleeping Dogs could have turned into
09:21their own GTA equivalent, just like Volition's Saints Row.
09:24The perfect marriage of GTA and Yakuza, this is a crime sandbox game with a focus on both
09:29gun and close quarters combat, set in the seedy underworld of Hong Kong. The story is
09:34shockingly compelling, as you take control of Wei Shen, a cop working deep undercover
09:38for the Hong Kong police, who is trying to get close to the various crime families in
09:42order to take them down from within.
09:44The game takes full advantage of its setting, featuring exciting chases and fights in exotic
09:48locations. If GTA isn't quite scratching your crime sandbox itch, then Sleeping Dogs
09:53should be at the top of your list.
09:551. Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning
09:58You know you're destined to remain a cult classic when you have exactly enough hype
10:02to generate interest for a remaster, but not enough to energise interest for more. This
10:07is the sad, but also weird fate of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. Much like Vanquish, the
10:12expectations for this game's success right out of the gate were simply too high for a
10:15brand new IP. This was compounded by the fact that, at first blush, there wasn't anything
10:20to set it apart from other fantasy game franchises out there. Compare this to 2008's Dragon
10:25Age Origins, which put the witty character writing and dark, broody tone front and centre
10:29in every advertisement that it had.
10:31The appeal of Kingdoms of Amalur only makes itself apparent once you're waist deep into
10:35the actual game. The best thing about Amalur is the gameplay and its world building. You
10:39control an adventurer who should by all rights be dead, but isn't. And with that cosmic
10:44accident comes the ability to break fate, helping the otherwise helpless and saving
10:49the otherwise doomed. Gameplay is a remarkably deep spin on an RPG hack and slash formula.
10:55Not the most complex thing in the world, but enough to get you hooked. Kingdoms of Amalur
10:58was unfairly overlooked in its heyday, but the good news is that this new remastered
11:02edition means that can be corrected.