There are many PlayStation 3 games that never left the PlayStation. Some did make their way to the later consoles, but that’s about it. So, this is a list of games that need to come to the PC. It’s been two generations already!

For the sake of decreasing clutter, there will only be one game per franchise.

Infamous

It’s quite sad that the Infamous games appear to be mostly forgotten because the two PS3 entries were some of the best optimized products in the entire PlayStation 3 library. The first game had near instantaneous loading. But fast loading times aren’t a reason to play a game, so why would you want to play this one?

Games where you are effectively a superhero are, strangely, few and far between. When the first Infamous game released, it happened to release at a similar time to Prototype, which was also an open-world game where you had superhero-like powers, but PC players only got to play Prototype. They never got to be the electricity-focused, parkour-abled main character of Infamous, and it’s about time the great world, silly morality system, and electricity-based combat came to PC. It’s like an Assassin’s Creed game without the terrible modern-day plot. Parkour your way around the world and zap everyone!

God of War III

The first two God of War games were PS2 classics, and they also need to come to the PC, but the third game offered a climactic end to the themes of the first two. The game picks up right where God of War II left off, and it is hardcore action right from the beginning with some of the biggest, most elaborate, and spectacular boss fights that God of War has ever created. This game is basically a series of levels that get you to the next boss, because the next high-stakes boss is all you want to see.

It’s bloody, it’s violent, and it’s Kratos at his most PS2-era self. The events of this game are the ones that led to the current iteration of Kratos, an iteration that is far less angry and also a lot more mournful of his anger. His utter devastation of everything around him in God of War III is what led Kratos to become the man he would later become. So, without this game on PC, the current versions of God of War lack the context that unknowing players would preferably want to know. 

Demon’s Souls

Yes, it is very true that this game was re-released on the PS5, but it still didn’t make its way to the PC. While the PS4-era From Software games still have Bloodbourne as a holdout, this 2009 masterpiece that preceded all things Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, and Elden Ring has never made its way to the old PC platform.

Demon’s Souls is a different game to the more open-world setting of the games that would follow it. There are a variety of separate levels in Demon’s Souls, and each of these levels is completely different from the last. However, you can see the bones of the later games within it. The ability to unlock shortcuts, the tough bosses, and the enemies that need to be observed before they can be safely engaged with. This game, while dated by modern From Software standards, is a great piece of history that lets you see the evolution of the form From Software has now perfected.

Heavenly Sword

There was a time when God of War was all the rage. Well, God of War is currently all the rage, but it was also all the rage back in the late PS2/early PS3 days. The specific control scheme and cinematic presentation that God of War adopted was very enticing to any developer that wanted to create something with visceral combat and an engaging story. Out of that came Heavenly Sword, and Heavenly Sword was probably the top of the God of War clone ladder.

Heavenly Sword offered a variety of combat stances that changed things up and provided a good sense of weight to each encounter. There was also a secondary character who changed the way the game was played. The game isn’t particularly amazing, but it does have Andy Serkis, best known as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, as the big bad guy. So, that has to be worth something!

Killzone 3

There are many who enjoyed Killzone 2. For some reason. But Killzone 3 was the first game since the first that tried to be its own thing. The first Killzone game was a strange thing that was more of an experiment in first-person shooter design than something particularly great, and the second game was pretty much a futuristic Call of Duty clone before Call of Duty had a chance to do its own futuristic thing.

But Killzone 3 pits you against a hostile planet as it jumps from one locale to the next with an array of great weapons, overly ridiculous solider-type allies, great action and stealth sections, a detailed, unique world, and it also had a great co-op experience that allowed the entire campaign to be played alone or with a friend. This is a thing that doesn’t happen all that often anymore. Killzone 3 also has fantastic performances that range from political intrigue to your typical war buddy type narrative. It’s fun, and it’s also the last great Killzone game.

Resistance: Fall of Man

Yet another PS3 game with a co-op campaign in which you can just play the whole single-player campaign with a friend. However, Resistance: Fall of Man is a very interesting game because it isn’t particularly original in anything it does, but what it does do, it does very well. The game is essentially a combination of WW2-era Call of Duty games and Half-Life 2. The combination of conventional weapons and alien weapons, the type of alien enemy that is essentially a type of hivemind colonizing force similar to the Covenant, and it’s WW2-style military comradery.

The later games would go for something very different, with the sequel being a two-weapon slot modern shooter clone and the third game being even more of a Half-Life 2 clone, but the first game was its own little thing.  It’s a great example of late 2000s but pre-Modern Warfare shooter gameplay, and as such it is a fascinating orphan of history that’s worth playing even if only to see how very 2000s it was in its presentation.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

This is by far the most bloated, convoluted, nonsense experience in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. It’s also a game that received nothing but universal praise when it was released, but history has not been as kind to it as the initial reception. It typically isn’t revered in the same way that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is revered. However, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the culmination of the Metal Gear Solid story, and its ridiculousness needs to make its way to PC so that PC gamers can get a glimpse of the overall quality blackhole that the entire PS3 gaming community fell into when this game released.

This game is a must-play, but not because it’s good, because it isn’t very good. Instead, it’s a collection of ideas that were haphazardly thrown together in the hopes that some of it would work. It’s a bit of a train-wreck. At one point you’re following tracks to find some people and at another point you’re wearing a silly mask while walking around a big, very boring, and empty city. All PC gamers need to play this game so that they can better appreciate the earlier and later Metal Gear Solid games. This one is bad, but it makes the rest of them look amazing by comparison.

LittleBigPlanet

Great platformers abound on the PC. The PC market is the realm of indie titles, and there are more than enough great 2D platformers for anyone to play. But LittleBigPlanet is something very different and rather special. It’s a childish little experience, and Sackboy, the playable character, isn’t the best in terms of smooth platforming controls, for that you’d want something like Rayman Legends.

So, why would you want LittleBigPlanet? Well, the game has a fantastic aesthetic based around fabric and toys. It’s not a game with mature audiences in mind, but it also isn’t trying to be a game like that. It wants you to be a cute little burlap sack character who runs through one simple level after another. In addition, the user-creation features ensure that there’s a constant stream of well-crafted, community-created levels. So long as the servers remain active, there will never be an end to new levels.

The Last of Us

Sony decided to bring the Uncharted games over to PC, but for some inexplicable reason, they have not yet done the same with The Last of Us. These games, especially the first, are fantastic narrative experiences about loss, selfishness, desperation, and violence. The Last of Us games have received near universal acclaim, probably more than any other PlayStation exclusive other than something like Journey, which is also now on PC.

While there isn’t anything particularly unique about the survival-oriented, third-person stealth or shooting aspects of The Last of Us, the game should come to PC for the simple fact that this game would give PC gamers the chance to try one of the most famous narrative experiences that the PS3 had to offer. It’s an experience every gamer should get the chance to try.

Tokyo Jungle

We’re going to end off with a weird one. Tokyo Jungle throws you into a post-apocalyptic Tokyo in which animals have taken over, so you spend the game as either a carnivore or herbivore as you attempt to survive and propagate the species. There is a story mode in which you discover what happened to all the humans while playing as a variety of animals, and there’s also an online survival mode.

This is not a good game. It’s generally considered rather average as an experience. However, the sheer weirdness of the whole affair. Where you could pit a Pomeranian against a crocodile and come out on top; this thing is weird. It’s weird and it deserves at least some level of attention for the strangeness alone. This is a game that should not be forgotten and should be remembered in the annals of other odd games, like Katamari Damacy. It’s weird, but don’t we all need some weirdness sometimes?

Do you agree with these picks? Is there anything else you’d have added instead? Tell us in the comments.

Justin van Huyssteen (@LC_Lupus)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed