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When the PlayStation 3 launched back in 2006, gamers cracked jokes about its lack of games, but it wasn't long before the console made a massive comeback. Titles like Uncharted and The Last of Us rank among the greatest PlayStation games ever, and their legacy can still be felt today.
Sadly, while some PS3 games have become untouchable classics, other titles haven't stood the test of time. Games like Heavy Rain feel dated by modern standards, and server shutdowns mean that many online games can't be played at all. It's clear that some PS3 games deserve to be left in the past.
LittleBigPlanet Feels Surprisingly Small Today
LittleBigPlanet is a 2008 platformer and sandbox game. In the story campaign, Sackboy runs errands for a cast of eccentric Creator Curators. In Create Mode, levels can be built from scratch and shared with others. It was a classic Sony franchise that's seemingly been forgotten.
At the time, LittleBigPlanet gave other platformers, including Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, real competition. Few games matched its creative tools until Super Mario Maker. Unfortunately, the servers shut down in 2021, which removed the ability for players to share their greatest creations.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Has Major Performance Issues
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a 2014 action-adventure game set in Tolkien’s legendarium, between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Talion sets out for revenge after his family and friends are killed by a mysterious force.
While it was released across multiple platforms, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's PS3 version was widely seen as the worst one. The game's performance often hovered around 20 FPS at best and dipped into the teens, or lower, at worst. Players are much better off opting for the PS4 version instead.
Heavy Rain's QTEs Get Old Pretty Quickly
Heavy Rain is a 2010 action-adventure game where a serial murderer known as the Origami Killer is hunted during bouts of heavy rainfall. After Shaun, the son of the main character Ethan, becomes the killer’s next target, Ethan does everything he can to save him.
It’s an emotional game, but Heavy Rain's quick-time events can be surprisingly broken. In some scenes, including when Ethan finds Shaun, lines can get repeated over and over, which makes some of the game's most serious moments feel downright laughable.
Battlefield 1943's Servers Were Shut Down Years Ago
Battlefield 1943 is a 2009 first-person shooter set in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Built as a multiplayer-only game, it has players fighting as either the United States or Japan, focused on Marine and Navy units.
Unlike other Battlefield entries, Battlefield 1943 was designed only for online play, with no offline option at all. Once the servers shut down around 2023, it became impossible to experience its take on World War II in any official way.
ModNation Racers' Best Feature Doesn't Work Anymore
ModNation Racers is a 2010 kart racer that acts as a competitor to Nintendo’s Mario Kart series. Unlike Mario Kart, it lets tracks and racers be created and customized. It’s basically LittleBigPlanet in kart-racing form, and while it wasn't quite on par with the best kart racers, the customization options made it something special.
For its time, ModNation Racers was a genuinely creative racing game, and it almost made LittleBigPlanet look limited by comparison. Unfortunately, long load times already made it feel unstable at times, and server shutdowns later removed the ability to share creations.
Gran Turismo 6 Can't Run Without Hours of Updates
Gran Turismo 6 is a 2013 racing game that proved to be the most expansive game yet in the iconic franchise that began on the PS1. Especially through the game's many updates, Gran Turismo 6 featured more vehicles than ever, which even included a Lunar Roving Vehicle, among others.
Unfortunately, the updates in question are a hassle to install these days, which renders Gran Turismo 6 fairly vanilla without them. Even worse, there are over twenty updates for the players to install, with some of them even being prone to failing even after multiple attempts.
MAG's Official Servers Have Been Shut Down for a Long Time
MAG is a 2010 first-person shooter that is multiplayer-only and features a plethora of differing game modes. Up to 256 players can take part in games of team deathmatch, capture the flag, and other modes that pit every other player and their team against other players and their teams.
Of course, with MAG being a multiplayer-only game and, even worse, an online-only game, players today cannot exactly experience what other players did back in 2010. There do exist ways to host unofficial online servers, but getting them up and running is easier said than done.
Dust 514 Was Discontinued After Just a Few Years
Dust 514 is a 2013 first-person shooter set far in the future, after humanity has expanded beyond the Milky Way. Rival space-faring corporations compete for power, using mercenaries to fight proxy wars on their behalf.
It takes place in the same universe as EVE Online, but while that game is still thriving, Dust 514 shut down years ago. What's worse is that support ended only a few years after launch, and with no real way to host private servers, Dust 514 has truly been left in the dust.
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation Only Works With Unofficial Servers
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation is a 2008 online-only installment in the SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs series of third-person tactical shooters. The game is unique among most realistic shooter games in the level of customization that has been granted, allowing players to stand out against one another.
Sadly, SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation's online servers died out back in 2014, bringing the most fascinating installment in the SOCOM series to a close. There do exist unofficial online servers, but as with other defunct online games with unofficial servers, it just isn't the same.
PlayStation Home Barely Exists Anymore
PlayStation Home wasn’t so much a traditional video game as it was a social platform, closer to something like Second Life or Roblox. Players could take avatars through a variety of themed spaces, and those worlds could be explored and interacted with.
Released in 2008, PlayStation Home became a major part of the PS3 for years. Unfortunately, the official servers shut down in 2015, leaving it a shadow of what it once was. Worse still, unless someone already has it installed on a PS3, even fan servers aren’t an option.
