The Best PlayStation 3 Games of All Time – The Essentials Part 2 (2009 – 2011)
Part 1 Console Exclusives Part 3
This is the second post discussing the greatest multiplatform titles released on the PS3 that still hold up well today. Part one explains how I am doing this in more detail.
Unlike other lists, this guide tells you which games to skip because better versions exist elsewhere.
Finally, heads up—I earn a small commission if you buy anything through my links. I only link to games I genuinely recommend. If a remaster or remake is better I tell you, even if it means losing a game sale.
2009 Continued
Red Faction: Guerrilla (Volition)
Red Faction: Guerrilla brought open-world guerrilla warfare to Mars with destruction physics that still stand out today. In this open-world third-person shooter, mining engineer Alec Mason joins the Red Faction after witnessing his brother Dan’s execution by the EDF. You free Martian sectors through sabotage, ambushes, and hostage rescues, all powered by the engine’s real structural physics—bring down EDF watchtowers by destroying their supports or use stolen Walkers to smash through enemy bases.
Each victory lets you collect salvage to buy better weapons and upgrades, helping you grow from an underdog into a real threat. Guerrilla’s approach directly influenced Instruments of Destruction and anticipated the physics-based demolition seen in Teardown, but it’s still the best example of using destruction to support tactical gameplay instead of just showing off. GeoMod 2.0’s structural simulation holds up beautifully: every building collapses based on real weight and stress, and the game itself is essential playing.
2010
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood turned Rome into a living assassination sandbox and delivered the series’ best combat flow and systems depth—one of the defining action games of the generation. Ezio (from AC II) rebuilds the city by burning Borgia towers and recruiting citizens into a brotherhood, and rips apart Templar control while wreaking havoc on Leonardo’s war machines. On PS3, exclusive DLC added eight free missions weaving Nicolaus Copernicus into Assassin lore. It’s still AC’s best “one more objective” loop: fix a district, expand your network, then vanish into the crowd like a ghost with a crossbow.
Two big leaps made it timeless. First, Brotherhood recruits change how you plan every encounter: off-map contracts level them up, or whistle and watch them murder a patrol mid-chase. The Brotherhood recruit system was so beloved it returned 15 years later in AC Shadows. Second, the debut multiplayer, with Wanted and Manhunt modes using abilities like Smoke Bomb and Templar Vision, offered stealth PvP unlike anything else. Winning multiple awards, Brotherhood proved the formula could still evolve. If you don’t own any AC’s, get the Ezio Trilogy.
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
Call of Duty: Black Ops took Cold War espionage and made it cool. CIA operative Alex Mason gets interrogated to decode his fragmented memories and stop Soviet sleeper agents: Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, and a mind-bending twist that players still debate today. Treyarch introduced Theater mode for recording killstreaks, CoD Points as earnable currency, and Wager matches where you gambled your points in Gun Game and Sticks and Stones.
The Zombies mode hit peak addictiveness with celebrity voice casts and elaborate easter eggs that spawned massive community hunts. Black Ops balanced an excellent campaign with the franchise’s deepest multiplayer suite, creating the template that made Treyarch the studio fans trust most. There is a debate whether the original or Black Ops II is the peak of the series, but why choose? Just get the trilogy.
F1 2010 (Codemasters Birmingham)
F1 2010 is the console’s best licensed motorsport sim, a demanding racer that broke a three-year drought and set the template for a generation. The tire wear, fuel load, track evolution, and dynamic weather are all designed to craft a real strategy every lap. Career mode is the plot: arrive as a rookie, field press questions, and chase the World Championship. The sensation of speed in rain at Spa or a drying Monza line is racing gaming at high intensity.
This version looks sharp and runs stable, with less screen tearing than the Xbox 360 although both struggle a bit at full-grid extremes. With assists off, the car becomes responsive–with assists on, it is very welcoming, blending simulation rigor with accessibility. It launched Codemasters’ annual series and stands as one of the PS3’s premier racing experiences.
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Mass Effect 2 literally kills Shepard in the opening—talk about raising the stakes! You’re resurrected to stop the Collectors, but here’s the kicker: the entire game builds toward a suicide mission where your squad can permanently die based on your choices. Not reload-and-try-again deaths, gone forever, never showing up in ME3. Every loyalty mission, every ship upgrade, every specialist you pick for the final assault matters. And what incredible characters.
BioWare pioneered consequence-based storytelling, where 30+ hours of relationships could end in tragedy if you screwed up. On PS3, ME2 packed all the DLC on disc, an interactive comic for ME1 choices, and upgraded visuals using ME3’s engine. Combined with refined combat and characters you genuinely care about, Mass Effect 2 is pure space opera. With more than 120 awards, it’s one of the greatest games ever made, anchoring one of gaming’s best trilogies. If you own a PS4 and don’t own any Mass Effect, get the Legendary Edition.
NBA 2K11 (Visual Concepts)
NBA 2K11 is pure basketball poetry and one of the greatest sports games ever made. Visual Concepts built everything around Michael Jordan, featuring the legendary Jordan Challenge mode where you recreate ten of MJ’s most iconic moments. Each challenge featured era-specific presentation, custom commentary, and authentic rosters that made you feel like you were actually there, capturing ’80s and ’90s NBA atmosphere perfectly.
The mode was so successful that 2K brought it back in NBA 2K23 with 15 expanded scenarios and vintage broadcast filters. Combined with IsoMotion dribbling—which revolutionized ball-handling controls—and deep franchise modes, NBA 2K11 proved sports games could be more than yearly roster updates. This is a game changer that still holds up today. While 2K13 and 2K14 improved the gameplay, 2K11’s Jordan Challenge is still the most iconic sports mode of the series.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Criterion Games)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit brought Criterion Games’ chaos to the franchise with Seacrest County’s all-out war between racers and cops. Choose your side: an outlaw evading takedowns, or a cop deploying spike strips, EMPs, and roadblocks to wreck high-speed criminals. The real revolution was Autolog, the BAFTA-winning social system that automatically challenged you whenever friends beat your times, even when they weren’t online.
TheSixthAxis called it a defining moment in gaming because it created an addictive competition loop that never stopped, connecting players for constant head-to-head battles. It became the blueprint for social racing features in Shift 2 and beyond. Combined with signature speed and spectacular crashes, Hot Pursuit proved the cops-versus-racers formula still had juice. Pure arcade racing perfection.
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Red Dead Redemption will absolutely wreck you. Government agents kidnap John Marston’s family and force him to hunt down his old gang members across New Austin and revolutionary Mexico. The journey from rancher back to gunslinger is brutal, and the ending proves nobody can outrun their past, delivering one of gaming’s most emotionally powerful conclusions.
Dead Eye slows time and lets gunfights play out with surgical clarity, letting you paint targets and watch bullets fly in cinematic glory. On PS3, an exclusive Gang Hideout and Walton’s Gang outfit sweetened the package. Rockstar proved open-world games could tell stories as powerful as great Western films, paving the way for emotionally-driven stories like The Last of Us and The Witcher 3. With over 100 awards, RDR remains Rockstar’s storytelling masterpiece. My links are to the GOTY edition.
Rock Band 3 (Harmonix)
Rock Band 3 is the series’ absolute peak, and it’s not even close. Harmonix added keyboards, three-part harmonies, and revolutionary quality-of-life improvements like the Overshell menu system that let you switch instruments or difficulty mid-session without interrupting your bandmates. Hundreds of career goals and immediate song access kept you grinding without story-mode roadblocks.
Then there’s Pro Mode, the really insane part. Real Fender Squier guitars, MIDI controllers and authentic keyboard techniques taught you actual musical skills. Premier Guitar confirmed Pro Mode could turn gamers into guitarists, teaching real fundamentals note-for-note. Pro Mode didn’t carry to Rock Band 4, but RB3’s innovations proved rhythm games could be legitimate learning tools. With Berklee-designed training modes and a library of hundreds of songs, this is music gaming’s crowning achievement.
Vanquish (PlatinumGames)
Vanquish is one of the era’s most innovative shooters, a game that perfected boost-slide combat by making sliding your primary weapon instead of a way to reach cover. You play DARPA agent Sam Gideon, deployed to a hijacked space colony in a prototype rocket-boosted suit to stop a Russian coup from incinerating San Francisco with a stolen solar weapon. The innovation is layering bullet-hell enemy waves, transforming BLADE weaponry, and pattern-heavy mech bosses onto a boost-slide system that never lets you stop moving.
Mikami’s vision turned defensive cover mechanics into pure offensive momentum, where every rocket-slide feels like controlled chaos. The 2020 remaster runs at 60fps and confirms what 2010 missed: between God Hard challenge modes and arcade scoring, Vanquish remains one of the most thrilling, replayable action games ever made.
2011
Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady)
Batman: Arkham City cranked everything up from Arkham Asylum. Joker poisons Batman with his own blood disease, forcing a race to find a cure from Mr. Freeze while investigating Hugo Strange’s Protocol 10, a plot that threatens all of Arkham City. The free-flow combat got even better with gadget integration, aerial attacks, and multi-enemy counters that made you feel unstoppable.
But the real genius? The Mr. Freeze boss fight that forced you to constantly adapt tactics, so you couldn’t repeat the same move twice. That adaptive design influenced boss battles in countless games since, while Detective Mode’s mechanics showed up everywhere from Hogwarts Legacy to The Witcher 3’s enhanced senses. With 20 awards, including multiple Game of the Year wins, the combat still feels incredible today. Arkham City isn’t just the best superhero game on PS3, it delivers the most complete superhero experience of its generation. My link is to the GotY edition, which has more content.
Dark Souls (From Software)
Dark Souls took Demon’s Souls’ brutal formula and adapted it into one of gaming’s most influential action RPGs. You’re a cursed Undead escaping through the interconnected kingdom of Lordran, where stamina-based combat punishes mistakes and bonfire checkpoints become lifelines. The genius was the online integration: bloodstain death replays warning of danger, cryptic player messages (helpful or trolling), phantom co-op summons, and PvP invasions that kept you paranoid.
On PS3, the Artorias of the Abyss DLC added four new bosses and a PvP arena, expanding an already legendary experience. Dark Souls’ multiplatform success made it the genre’s namesake, spawning everything from Nioh to Hollow Knight to Elden Ring. The interconnected world design and “tough but fair” philosophy became the gold standard for challenging action RPGs. Even today, the PS3 version delivers the definitive punishing experience.
Dead Space 2 (Visceral Games)
Dead Space 2 ramped up the terror from DS1. Isaac Clarke battles Necromorph hordes aboard the Sprawl while his dead girlfriend Nicole haunts every corner of his fractured mind. The strategic dismemberment combat remains brilliant: surgically remove limbs, not spray bullets. Hardcore mode’s brutal three-save limit across the entire campaign created genuine dread—one mistake and you lose hours of progress.
The improved zero-gravity sections let you fly freely through space rather than jump between platforms, and the in-world HUD kept immersion tight. The PS3 Limited Edition bundled the full Dead Space: Extraction remastered game with PlayStation Move support, all on a single Blu-ray disc. Dead Space 2’s atmospheric horror and UI design influenced The Callisto Protocol and countless sci-fi games since. DS2 remains a masterclass in survival horror: tense, terrifying, and unforgettable.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos-Montréal)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution brought cyberpunk immersive sims back from the dead. Adam Jensen’s augmented journey through corporate conspiracy offers incredible freedom; every mission is a puzzle with multiple solutions. Sneak through vents using cloaking tech, hack security systems to turn turrets against guards, talk your way past checkpoints with dialogue choices, or go loud with lethal takedowns.
The brilliance is how levels like the Sarif Industries break-in or Detroit police station give you genuine agency to approach problems your way. DE:HR’s multi-path design directly influenced Prey and Dishonored, proving immersive sims still had a place in modern gaming. The Director’s Cut adds stealth/hacking options to boss fights for pacifist builds, while the original keeps the iconic golden visual filter. Either way, this is cyberpunk gaming at its finest.
Fight Night Champion (EA Canada)
Fight Night Champion tells a prison-to-redemption story in boxing’s first M-rated campaign, mixing bare-knuckle prison fights with cinematic stakes that make every bout feel personal. Andre Bishop’s journey—framed by crooked promoters, clawing back from behind bars to heavyweight glory—plays like Rocky if consequences actually mattered, where cuts and swelling force referee stoppages that can end your night whether you’re winning on points or not. Cutting-edge character rendering and physics-based deformation sell every hit.
Full Spectrum Punch Control lets you throw every punch with the right stick if you want depth, but button controls are still there so it never gets intimidating. Legacy Mode returns for a full career climb, and Online World Championship plus gyms and rivalry fights keep competition going. The story mode’s depth and refined physics engine really make this the definitive boxing game of its generation.
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)
L.A. Noire revolutionized facial animation with MotionScan, a tech that let you read suspects’ microexpressions during interrogations. War hero Cole Phelps climbs the LAPD ranks solving murders across 1940s Los Angeles—until investigating a morphine ring tied to his WWII squadmates sends his career crashing down. Each case plays out like a noir film: searching crime scenes, chasing suspects, and interrogating witnesses where spotting lies depends on noticing nervous tics and shifty eyes.
Using 32 HD cameras to capture every facial nuance, the $50 million system delivered performances so realistic that actors’ real faces were instantly recognizable in-game. On PS3, all three Xbox 360 discs’ worth of MotionScan data fit onto a single Blu-ray, with better frame rates and draw distance. The tech was too expensive to become standard, but it set a new bar for character performances and subtle emotional range. The best version is the Complete Edition remaster.
Essentials Part 3
Games Not Included
Fallout 4: New Vegas (2009). Notoriously bad on the PS3, and not a lot better on the 360. Use the PC to play this game.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010). This was a fabulous game, but it’s primary appeal was online play. Since the servers shut down, the way to play the best part of the game is gone.
Battlefield 3 (2011). Same deal as BC2, really.
Call of Duty: MW3 (2011). This is a great game, and playable, but the PS3 didn’t handle it quite well enough to be on my list. if you don’t own the MW series, absolutely get the trilogy.
Saints Row: The Third (2011). The 2020 Remastered version is what you want, it’s amazing.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011). The Anniversary Edition is incredibly better. It’s not even close. This game won over 200 awards for good reason, find a way to play it.