I never had a PS3 back in the day. I have a PS5 now, and when I was looking at the PS+ packages, I was fascinated by the fact that all the PS3 games have to be streamed. And what’s more, relatively few PS3 games are even on the service. I didn’t realize that the PS3 was such a unique/powerful console, that it still apparently can’t be properly emulated even on a PS5.
I am interested in playing Final Fantasy 13, the Killzone series, Resistance Fall of Man, among others. Looks like a PS3 can be had for about $120 at my local game store.
Do others still have and use their PS3? Does it still connect/interface to Sony’s online service? Like can I still get trophies that connect with my PS account, buy DLC, etc? Or is all that shut down?
I do have an Xbox Series X, so I could play FF13 on there, but none of the other games.
(Hopefully this kind of post is ok here, I know it’s not gaming news, but just trying to not sit and lurk, but actually create discussion)
(Hopefully this kind of post is ok here, I know it’s not gaming news, but just trying to not sit and lurk, but actually create discussion)
The community is just called “Gaming” and describes itself as “All forms of game discussion go here […]”. So I would say such a discussion as yours perfectly fits here.
Anyway:
If you have to space to put one, owning another console is not that bad. However $120 feels too expensive for an old, outdated console. I would probably go for a cheap used one. They might even be sold with a whole bunch of games included, if someone just wants to get rid of it.
The problem with the gaming market is “old and outdated” quickly becomes “rare and vintage” which comes with a much higher price tag. I think deals can only really be found on the current previous generation (PS4, XBOne) until the next one comes out. This is why stores sell shit like Goldeneye64 for $60 even though the game is a nearly 30 year old blocky, pixellated mess and not as fun as you remember (in my experience at least).
Do you own a relatively good PC by chance? If you are, you could give the RPC3 Emulator a chance. Its still in development and not everything runs perfect, but if your PC can handle it, it’s a great alternative.
I started Red Dead Redemption on the PS3 and switched to RPC3 a while after, it had better FPS while having a better resolution.
This is the way!
I do own a PC, I don’t know if it qualifies as good or not. It has integrated AMD graphics, but it’s actually a pretty good little card (Ryzen 5 5600G). I’ll see how it runs the emulator. 🤞
imho no, because after more than a decade from production the TIM is caked and you must delid the CPU to get decent temperatures.
If they made a new ps3, i would buy it, i’d love to use it as a media center, the newer consoles can’t even play music from CD. But when i realize that’s it’s an hair dryer using 170 watts in idle / playing media…
Good point, I didn’t think about the degraded performance aspect. I guess if I did get one, I should look for one of the later revisions.
FWIW, I’ve been running a PS3 regularly for about 12 years now. For games, for Blu-ray and DVD, for streaming, etc. It gets hot if the vents get clogged, but otherwise temperature is dandy.
OP, go for it!
If you have a PC, you can try ps3 emulator. The majority of games work, but of course, some don’t. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPCS3
The great thing about that is you can often unlock the FPS and upscale to 4K! I played through the original demon’s souls on rpcs3 and it was great
Why not pay for 1 month of streaming and see what kind of latency you’re dealing with? With games like Killzone and Resistance I believe servers are down and there’s no longer online play. So I imagine you’re only interested in the campaigns?
Unfortunately the architecture of the PS3 is a mess and so the best experience to be had is going to be physical games on the hardware, but if you’re only interested in a few games I’m not sure if it’s worth it to get a PS3.
None of the games I want to play are on the PS+ classics collection, which is so strange. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t put Killzone on PS+ for example.
Definitely strange since it’s a Sony published game. I don’t get why Sony and Nintendo can’t get all their published games on their membership platforms day 1
I’d say this community is for all gaming including questions like this so you’re fine their in my opinion.
I own a ps1, ps2, ps4, and a ps5 so apparently I don’t like the 3 🤣 so I can’t answer your question about connectivity.
But my answer is if a game system plays games you like, you can find them, and isn’t too expensive I’d say go for it. The library for the ps4 is still huge and I have a psvr so I play it regularly. The older systems were for my younger boys who got into some of the older retro games.
Tl;dr I’d say go for it.
*there.
I really need to figure out how to edit here.
I bought one last year to play the Metal Gear games. There are quite a few good ‘HD collections’ available if you wanted to play upscaled PS2 games for pretty cheap. I don’t have a PC powerful enough to emulate PS3 so it was worthwhile to me. Allegedly MGS4 is being ported to current gen, so that’s one less exclusive!
All the basics still work with the online service, though you have to go through some extra steps to buy games on the PS3 store now.
All the basics still work with the online service, though you have to go through some extra steps to buy games on the PS3 store now.
Wow, that’s awesome. I’m so used to Nintendo’s BS shutting down their last gen online stores, it’s amazing that Sony is still supporting a store from 2 generations ago, extra steps or not.
I use it to watch blue-ray movies as most standalone blue-ray devices just stop workig after a short time and the ps3 always works.
Heh, well they were planning to shut it down but there was backlash! Hopefully it stays around for a while.
You did it at the right time. Shortly after the new remasters were announced the original PS3 Legacy listings either sold out or all got their prices jacked up to $120. It was still available for $50 a couple weeks ago. The Legacy Collection for PS3 was Orange Box levels of value and quality.
Yes it’s worth it. Yes you can still use the store. Yes you can still buy DLC (you can’t get PS3 DLC through PS Plus streaming).
Aside from games like Killzone, Resistance, inFamous, etc. There are also a ton of PS1 games that you can buy on the digital store, which is a huge deal for me.
Also, you can check something like Facebook Marketplace to get a PS3 for sub-$100.
The ps4 is a better option imo. If you need a ps3 get the latest revision the others have known failure issues.
GTA 5 runs ont he PS3 and its still the current GTA title. I was impressed recently with the graphics of MGS4. I bought it used many years ago for 120 eur in good condition.
From an architectural design standpoint, the PS3 is kind of fascinating. It’s impressive how good many of its games still look today.
As you can imagine, while the multi-core design of Cell accelerates emerging techniques such as procedural generation, none of these designs are particularly simple to implement, especially considering game studios prefer codebases that can be shared across different platforms. […]
It appears that even with a supercomputer chip, Sony still had to fetch a GPU to finalise the PlayStation 3. This makes you wonder if IBM/Sony/Toshiba hit a wall while trying to scale Cell further, so Sony had no option but to get help from a graphics company.
It was a fascinating system. But that sharing of codebase was apparent. Oftentimes, games that were on both 360 and PS3 ran significantly better on the former. It seemed to be a case of very, very underutilized hardware on the PS3 side.
Some games like Killzone really showed off what the console was capable of. It’s just a shame that it got effectively held back by market conditions.
If you’re dead set on getting a PS3, check eBay. You’ll probably get change from $100 at current prices.
Do you have access to a computer that could either play ports of those games or is strong enough to emulate those games?
This would be my answer to that question
In fact I’d come up with a list of all the exclusives that you’re interested in playing and use that in your reasoning as well.
Just got an Xbox 360 (not a PS3, but same generation) and a pile of games and it is totally worth it IMO. I mean the graphics are a bit rough obviously, but there are still great games to play. I also have an Xbox (Series S), and the 360 (and PS3 would be similar) because you get to play games before everything became about MTX and Battlepasses etc (though there was some of that especially towards the end). You can also play them offline generally speaking.
I’m talking out of my ass, but are there any 360’s that have survived this long? I went through 3 or 4 with the red ring. I can’t imagine time has been kind to the solder and thermal paste. Did MS ever have a later model that had a long term fix?
Yes it was mostly the original run of 360’s. I have a black one, can’t remember what it was called, still kicking!
It’s sad that these games are not covered by PS+ deluxe. $120 sounds a bit expensive to me, but it depends on eager you want to play these old games.
Quick calculation: Assuming you have 5 games to play on PS3, you spend $120 for the console and $200 for the pre-owned discs, you’re spending $62 on average, which is almost the full price of a new release game. If you think these games are interesting enough, then this is a to-go decision.
As many people has pointed out, it’s always worth to try the simulator on PC first