Since the start of this century, we’ve been blessed with four console generations. Out of these four, however, the seventh generation of video game consoles fascinates me the most.
Not only was this a time when production budgets skyrocketed and developers' appetite for risk and experimentation reached its peak, but it was also an era when people truly began to see video games as a medium that could compete with the best of prestige media.
10 Best PS2 JRPGs, Ranked
The best-selling console in the world featured some of the best JRPGs the industry has ever seen.
Unfortunately, this era also had its fair share of rough patches.Perhaps we were too busy being dazzled by the HD textures or being annoyed at the gray and yellow filters of these games, butthere are a lot of games that were passable or even well-received in their day that have since aged not so gracefully.
With that in mind and focusing on the Sony side of this generation today, I want to shed some light on ten PS3 games that haven’t held up all too well since their heyday.
10Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Messy Plot With Too Little Gameplay
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Starting off with a strong one,Metal Gear Solid 4was once considered a technical marvel, still plays well to this day, and is considered by many as one of the greatest games ever made.
The issue, however, is that Metal Gear Solid 4 is also a bloated and overindulgent experience wherein the narrative and cutscenes take up about 80% of the runtime.
It’s not a good story either, jam-packed with ‘Nanomachines’ and contrivances.So what we’re left with is only a small portion of the actual good stuff, which is the gameplay that was seriously far ahead of its time.
The problem is that when I’m looking for a good story within this series, I’ll playSnake Eater, and when I want some seriously good stealth action, I’d pickPhantom Paininstead. This alone is the main reason why Guns of the Patriots doesn’t hold up these days.
The game, like its protagonist, really shows its age in modern times, and there’s really no reason to pick it unless you’re already emotionally attached to it or want to play through the entire series once more.
9L.A. Noire
Stiff Mechanics and a Lifeless Open World
L.A. Noire
There was a time whenL.A. Noirefelt like the next evolution of open-world storytelling. With its lifelike facial capture tech and methodical detective gameplay, it offered something that felt mature and thoughtful.
But returning to it now is like returning to a once-thriving city that’s slowly been abandoned. The interrogations, once novel, now feel stiff and binary. The facial animations may have been groundbreaking then, but the uncanny valley hits hard in 2025.
Worse, the cases themselves rarely allow for real deduction. You’re often just guessing what the game wants you to press. And outside the main cases, the open world is shockingly hollow.
It’s a game that dared to be different, and I respect that. But time hasn’t been kind to its core mechanics or storytelling structure.
8Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
The Safe Beginnings of a Grand Adventure
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Speaking of emotional attachment, this is most likely one of the two games on this list that people may feel the most strongly against their inclusion. But, hear me out here.
I’ll be the first to admit that the firstUnchartedmakes for a fairly easy target for this list.It was, in essence, a testing ground for Naughty Dog to see if they could pull off an experience reminiscent of watching an Indy flick.
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Whether they aged poorly or were considerably outdated, these works wouldn’t have the same impact.
As a result of this, I find this game to bea painfully safe experience, featuring basic platforming, rudimentary puzzles, and shootouts that fail to evolve throughout the story.
I believe that it was only withUncharted 2that the series started to carve out a unique identity of its own. Comparing the two games, there’s a night and day difference in gameplay quality, characterization, and simple writing chops.
7Final Fantasy XIII
Corridor Simulator at Its Finest
Final Fantasy 13
Japanese developers had a rather strange relationship with the PS3. Instead of doubling down on the lower-budget, artsy titles that brought them unbelievable success during the previous generation, many decided to follow in western developers' footsteps of only making games that are somewhat militaristic in nature.
Final Fantasy XIIIwas Square Enix’s attempt at the same when you think about it. Honestly speaking, this game looked incredible and played even more incredibly well when it launched, and its combat system is full of potential. But if you strip away the flashy presentation, you’re left with a corridor simulator masquerading as an epic RPG.
What stings most is that Final Fantasy is supposed to be warm. It’s supposed to bring a wide variety of characters from different backgrounds together. Oddballs, amateurs, outcasts, royalty, roguesall come together to kill God.
While XIII is a success in the variety department, the cast barely gels together.Their camaraderie feels artificial, and the few tender moments that do land are buried under the heaviness of unnecessary exposition.
I know people have grown more forgiving of this one over time, but to me, it’s nothing more than an emotionally non-resonating experience that’s hard to return to.
6Binary Domain
Great Characters Held Back by Poor Writing
Binary Domain
Here’s the second pick that you or many may find controversial, especially its resurgence in popularity in recent years.
Look, from the last two entries on this list, you probably get the idea that how the story of a video game ages matters to me just as much as its gameplay.
Although I get the appeal ofBinary Domain, from its fun squad mechanics and Gears-esque gameplay to its memorable protagonists,the writing in the game is a weird campfest that fails at beating the “we haveMetal Gear Solidat home” allegations.
The game’s humorous moments haven’t aged particularly well either, which now feels juvenile at best and unbelievably cringeworthy at worst.
Sure, it can be a fun shut-your-brain-off-and-enjoy type of experience, but for me, revisiting it today makes its flaws impossible to ignore.
5Tales of Graces
Solid Combat, Painfully Generic Writing
Tales of Graces
I understand this game has its defenders in the JRPG community, and yes, the combat is fast, fluid, and surprisingly nuanced. But look me in the eye and tell me that everything else aboutTales of Graceshasn’t aged miserably.
Frombland visuals, empty environments, and a story that’s essentially a moral parade of melodrama, it’s just a bad experience that taints much of the nostalgia we had for it.
I want to give a special shout to its characters here, who feel as though they were designed with some JRPG generator. We got the extra-cheerful one, the brooding one who doesn’t understand simple humor, the clueless one, the cool guy who’s also royalty, and so on.
Having generic characters isn’t something that the Tales series is unfamiliar with, but by god it is a little too on the nose here. It’s a charming relic for diehards, and maybe it’s not unbearably unplayable either. It’s just unremarkable in a genre that has moved leaps and bounds ahead, especially within the last two years alone.
4Grand Theft Auto IV
Bleak Vibes and Clunky Rides
Grand Theft Auto 4
Even when it first came out, there was something off aboutGrand Theft Auto IV. But, as many people do to this day with any of Rockstar’s properties, we gave it a pass after seeing its ambitions.
Let’s talk writing first. It’s a bleak, grounded narrative with a couple of really nice narrative beats, all of which combine to create a vastly different tone from any other game within theGrand Theft Autofranchise.
Where it all goes wrong, however, is when it comes to gameplay and mechanics, which are a trainwreck by modern standards.The driving is floaty, the shooting, even with the new engine, feels off-tune, and even moving Niko around feels more like a chore than anything.
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Undercooked in the worst way.
In a post-GTA V and now a potentially GTA VI world, this title just feels hopelessly outdated. There is still some fun to be had within its chaotic sandbox, but playing it today is like drinking unrefrigerated milk that’s been out the whole day on a hot summer evening. Terrible.
A Moody Nothingburger
Japan Studio, Acquire
Release Date
July 21, 2025
When this somewhatforgotten PS3 titlefirst came out, it was one of those titles that I swore I would immediately grab when I could. Lost in the Rain, or simply Rain, as it was known in the west, had nailed it in the mood and ambiance department. But these days, that’s all I find attractive about the game.
The platforming is basic to a fault, the mechanics feel like an afterthought, and the story, which is supposed to be moving, feels vague and emotionally hollow in retrospect, especially in the latter half.
There’s no real build-up and no momentum.It’s just a slow plod through wet alleys and soft piano melodies, all building toward a finale that doesn’t quite earn its pathos.It’s beautiful, yes, but remember, beauty without an impact brings only impermanence.
2Beyond: Two Souls
The Worst of David Cage
Beyond: Two Souls
When I was doing my research for this list, the first game that I wanted to target with absolute certainty was one of David Cage’s works during this generation.
After some serious debates with myself, I’ve decided thatBeyond: Two Soulshas aged much worse thanHeavy Rain.
This might raise a few eyebrows, but I believe thatthe worth of a David Cage game is mostly determined by how well the writing has managed to hold up over the years.Beyond: Two Souls, in my honest opinion, is an absolute failure in this regard.
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Gaming doesn’t need to be a massive time commitment.
Let’s list what we have to work with: a disjointed narrative thatgets messier the further you play, shallow character development, some seriously overblown emotional and inconsistent story beats, inconsistent beats, and faux-deep themes that try to hide beneath the graphical polish of the game.
If this game came out today, it would not receive even a small percentage of all the hype from back then.
Whenever I revisit it to understand or evaluate it better, all I’m left with is a headache-inducing reminder of how not to write a serious game. Heavy Rain did it slightly better, folks. Trust me.
1Heavenly Sword
God of Meh
Heavenly Sword
People were doubting Sony hard on whether it knew what it was doing back when the PS3 was first presented to the world. But if there’s one thing, or game, in this case, that people never doubted about how good it would be, it wasHeavenly Sword.
Although the game managed to receive some great reviews upon its release, playing it today just didn’t work all that well for me.
Given how combat was touted as the main selling point for this game, I must admit that this one just feels shallow for a hack-and-slash game.It’s cinematic and flashy, yes, but it is also a good case of gameplay that’s mile-wide and an inch deep.
One of the things that I love aboutgood hack-and-slash gamesis that they know when to let players drive the momentum to a breaking point and then pull off a crazy end to the gameplay segment with a set piece or a QTE.
My one big gripe with Heavenly Sword, then, is that it breaks that momentum a little too soon and too often to be enjoyable, especially when put aside its contemporaries likeGod of WarorMetal Gear Rising.
Speaking of the story, it feels ambitious but is held back by how overly melodramatic everyone talks and acts. When I add the fact that this game can be finished in just over 6 hours, it becomes easy to see when it deserves a spot on this list.
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You can return to these incredible games again, and again, and again.
