The PlayStation 3: A 12-Year Anniversary Retrospective

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Well, it's another 12-year anniversary today and that means it's time once again for a retrospective of one of the great consoles of recent gaming history. This time around we have the distinct pleasure of taking a look back at the somewhat-remarkable run of Sony's PlayStation 3. Though news of its release came with lofty expectations, a series of unfortunate decisions over its lifetime (particularly at the start) did keep it from becoming the console titan it was meant to be. Despite this however, an extremely solid and varied library, along with a couple of strategically competitive moves allowed it to still finish out the generation neck and neck with the competition.

Coming off of the runaway successes that were the PS1 and PS2, it seemed as though Sony could do no wrong. Regrettably for them however, this was not the case. In the years and months leading up to the launch, Sony made a series of blunders that all contributed to a less-than-stellar start. For starters, they let Microsoft beat them to launch with the Xbox 360, a full year before the PlayStation 3 would be released. This gave the 360 plenty of time to carve out a decent foothold in the market and prove itself worthy of gamers hard-earned dollars. In addition, Sony selected the uniquely designed Cell processor for their system, which, while theoretically capable of delivering better graphics than the Xbox's more traditional Xenon processor, didn't really do so in practice. Making matters worse was the fact that the Cell's unorthodox design initially caused many third-party developers to struggle to deliver games that looked even as good as the 360 versions.

As if those two shortcomings weren't bad enough, there were two arguably even bigger issues with Sony's system. At the time Sony announced the PS3 to the world, they were in the midst of a legal dispute over the vibration technology in their controllers. As a result, the PS3 ended up having to launch without it. At that point in time, vibration had already been an industry standard for nearly two generations and was utilized with both the PS1 and PS2. More importantly, the previous year's Xbox 360 had it (and even the upcoming Nintendo Wii was advertising it). Sony was eventually able to settle the dispute and release a vibration controller for their new system, but not until almost a year and a half after the PS3 had already been released.

Finally, the most egregious error Sony made was with the price. Whereas the 360 was competitively priced, the PlayStation 3 was anything but. Questionable design decisions, such as their risky gamble to go with their expensive new (and not yet industry standard at the time) proprietary Blu-ray disc format, as well as the inclusion of additional internal hardware to enable backward compatibility for PlayStation 2 games, drove production costs through the roof. This resulted in a significant price disparity between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, to the tune of 125 to 200%, depending on which models you were comparing. This means that in some cases Sony was asking for twice as much money as the competition, for a system that, to many gamers, was an arguably inferior offering.

Thankfully, despite these regrettable decisions, Sony was eventually able to turn the system's fortunes around. Shortly before correcting their embarrassing lack of a basic vibration controller, Sony pursued an aggressive (and costly) campaign to ensure that their Blu-ray technology did in fact become the industry standard. Then, starting in 2007, Sony also began selling PS3s with revised hardware configurations (such as the lack of an ability to read PS2 discs) in order to bring costs down. All of these measures together, in addition to the ever-increasing strength of exclusives available for the console, managed to change the PlayStation 3's reputation from a largely unnecessary exercise in extravagance to a genuinely compelling and competitive entertainment machine.

That library, in particular, is what we're here to talk about. And while it was a bit difficult to limit this list to just these 12, it's hard to argue that they're not all fantastic titles. So without further ado, here are 12 of the very best reasons to have owned a PlayStation 3:

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Let’s Rant About GPU’s

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Okay so I don't have a high end GPU or quite honestly, the money to buy a high end GPU. But let's look at these newest releases from Nvidia and AMD and discuss the yuck that's happening right now.

I'm going to cite YouTube videos from Hardware Unboxed and Gamers Nexus, for this discussion. Check these dudes out if for some reason you haven't yet because they're fair and informed about everything they present. Certainly they're more informed than me. Read more

GRIP – Rollcage For A New Age – A Review From Scroo

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Did you guys ever play Rollcage? It's an action racing game that came out in 1999 for Windows and Playstation. Players took on the role of extreme race drivers who piloted purpose built vehicles that could operate at extraordinary speeds, driving on walls and ceilings because of the powerful downforce they generated. They could even tumble over and remain driveable because of their oversized wheels. Not to mention there are weapons involved to make things interesting. Think about something along the lines of Mario Kart, but at closer to the speed of sound while almost every surface on a track could be utilized. And instead of shells and bananas, there are homing missiles and mines. Read more

More Fires WRUP

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It seems like not a month goes by where we here in CA, haven't seen a major wild fire lately. I'm sure by now you've heard of the Camp Fire, in Paradise. This thing exploded, pretty literally, and in about a day and half has already reached a staggering 55,000 acres plus. By comparison, the Ferguson Fire, in my neck of the state took about a month to reach around 88,000 acres. Pretty insane.

(Quick Update for 11-10) Camp Fire is now over 90,000 acres and at least nine people have lost their lives. The good news is that fire crews have made a big leap in containment and brought that number up to 20%. Keep it up guys.

Yoda and Tru, both live pretty close to the danger and certainly we're all hoping that things will be okay for them. But as for the nearly 30,000 people who have been evacuated and/or lost everything... We're pulling for you. Stay strong out there.

Below is a screenshot of the most recent map we've got so far of the Camp Fire. Read more

Mid Term Election Day is Here

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What's up everyone!? This is just a friendly reminder that today, November 6th, is in fact Election Day. Please, please get out to the polls and vote.

It doesn't matter what your stance is, whether you vote your conscience or strictly for the party you align yourself with, just get out there and vote today. Because the fact is that nothing is going to change for the better, no matter what your views are, if you don't make yourself heard. Read more

Red WRUP Redemtion

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Yeah, I used Cody's feature image from last week. What of it?

There's a lot of Red Dead going on at the ol' Twinstiq farm, and that's great I guess. Yoda even bought an XBox. I've only really seen what's been shown to me by our team but it does look pretty cool. The game systems seem to be complex and provide quite a lot to do and build characters from. Lots of intricate details and that's cool beans. I also think "cool beans" is what you call the horse ball shrinkage that takes place in cold weather. Read more

American Wilds: Loaded up and Truckin’ – A DLC Review From Scroo

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I spent a lot of good time playing Spitires: MudRunner and I regret nothing. It's slow pacing and punishing mud mechanics made it pretty enthralling to sit behind my XBONE controller and haul lumber in the Siberian wilderness. Not to mention that once that bit started feeling a little stale there was always map exploration and rock crawling to do with the many and varied vehicles. Modders have also added a ton of longevity to MudRunner by creating maps and vehicles galore. It's a good experience and I recommended it in my review here.

Saber has very recently added an inexpensive expansion that brings the challenge to the U.S. and I've been enjoying it a lot. Click that Read More button and I'll tell you how I'm getting east bound and down on PC. Read more

More Games To Play When It’s Halloween

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Well, it's nearly that time again - my favorite holiday of my favorite month (in my favorite season). I love this time of year. A few years back I decided to mark the occasion by making a list for you featuring some of my favorite games I play to help get me in the festive spirit. This year, like an undead creature of the night, I have emerged once again to bring you even more. While a lot of these selections are sequels to games on my original list, that shouldn't diminish their value any. On the contrary, I'm sure you will find that some of these games are equally effective at striking the proper tone. So without further ado, allow me to present you with more games to play when it's Halloween:

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