DoFuss’s 2008 Top Playstation 3 Game of the Year

Before I begin I should preface this article with the fact for the majority of the year I have not owned a Playstation 3. I have always been aware, jealous and observant of the buzz and critical opinion surrounding key titles. Now my PS3 sits proudly with my 360 and Wii but my knowledge of the games is limited. I have tried to be as fair as possible but for gaps in my knowledge I apologize and will rectify in the coming year as my Sony back catalogue arrives. Thus treat this pick of the year more as a review.

PS3 is still struggling a little behind the competition in terms reaching its peak. Being the newest machine and notoriously difficult to develop for, many multiplatform titles have suffered from poorer performance than their 360 cousins. This year has started to see developers reaching the point that they are familiar enough with the system that games are almost identical. A few development teams have even chosen to use PS3 as their lead platform, and in these few cases games benefited on the system because of this.

To discus the best Playstation 3 game of the year for would be a kin to asking panda what its favorite food is. That is that I have only tried one full game on the console all year. That said what a game. Little Big Planet by default gets my game of the year award but it would be a hard act to follow.

In truth it is merely a solid and extremely well polished two (and a half) dimension physics based platformer. Charming presentation that actually fills me with joy permeate the whole game. In some ways it feels like Fable 2 in its whimsical British style, if only because both games feature Stephen Fry’s fantastic vocal contributions.

None of this however is what makes Little Big such an achievement. User created content maybe a buzz word at the moment but rarely has it been implemented so well in the console space. In theory making sequels unnecessary as the game is endless. Though the online got off to a rocky start with server issues, developer Media Molecule should be given the same leniency afforded to MMORPG’s. Little Big allows users to upload vast amounts of content and play together. While the world is not persistent as in a game such as World of Warcraft, it is still an incredible achievement.