PlayStation fans seem to be waiting for some sea change in sales of the PlayStation 3 platform, which causes unrealistic hopes to be put on each and every high-profile game released for the system. There's a reason that flame wars erupt over the launch of games like Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4; an inordinate amount of importance is placed on each of these exclusive titles. And sales of the system remain unimpressive, which has caused even more hand-wringing and/or crowing about the state of the PS3.

If you are a serious fan of video games, however, the system has been a must-buy for longer than many gamers seem to think. While we can debate the importance of casual gaming and the success of the Wii, the fact remains that if you skip the PlayStation 3 this generation, you're going to have gaping holes in your knowledge of the state of the art.

The PlayStation 3 has big-budget shooters covered; Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 are solid competition for anything the Xbox 360 has, but that's not what's going to move systems. What makes the PS3 an important system are the smaller games that are bound to become cult hits while informing the next generation of game developers about what can and can't be done.

Sony was the first company to meld trading cards with interactivity in a way that actually made sense, even if Eye of Judgment didn't become a runaway hit. Trials of Topoq used the PlayStation Eye to turn what looked like a puzzle game into a relaxing stretching exercise. Wii Fit may be grabbing all the sales, but Sony created the first game that seems to almost trick you into doing what looks and feels like a Tai Chi work out.

We can go on, and I think we should. LittleBigPlanet took simple platforming and mixed in some powerful content-creation tools; it became the first game that you can browse with friends... every time you turn it on you can see something new and exciting.

Everyday Shooter took the dual-analog control scheme that has become irritatingly common on downloadable titles and added guitar-based music and wonderful design to turn a tired genre into something approaching art. The fact that Sony saw something in Jonathan Mak and gave him a home on the PS3 speaks well of the company's dedication to nurturing talent; Mak's is a mind that will give us great things in the future.

You also have to consider the just-released Flower when talking about games that try to do something different and succeed at melding emotions and style into an entertaining experience. Most "games-as-art experiments" forget that we're looking for—something that's worth sitting down and playing, and Flower does not fall into that trap. It's also one of the rare games that stands alone. Can you point to anything else that's like it? Other than the spiritual prequel flOw, which was also created by Jenova Chen and thatgamecompany, that is.

We don't have to gaze at our navels and talk about art to find singular games on the games, either. Metal Gear Solid 4 may have featured a somewhat overwrought story—what Hideo Kojima game doesn't?—but it was also a grand experiment in how to meld film with video games. Whether the game was successful or not, it's worth sitting down to experience a game that isn't afraid to keep you watching the story. While the talk of the length of the cutscenes was big news around the time the reviews came out, now we need to use the game to learn what we can about how cut-scenes that long should be used... if at all. But you have to play to have an informed opinion, and there's only one place to do so.

Another AAA title for the system? Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This was a game that Frank and I argued over, as I felt that the game was going to be completely run over by the glut of games released alongside it; it felt like an also-ran before it even hit the shelves. But an hour or two into the actual gameplay and we were making phone calls; this was the game that caused us to bump Mass Effect off the front page to make room for a multi-page Uncharted review. Even today I don't regret the choice; Drake's Fortune gave us an amusingly human set of characters and set them on an incredible adventure. When a video game so easily trumps the newest Indiana Jones movie and steals most of the good things that made that film series so endearing, you know you're on to something special. We have high hopes for the sequel.

People complain about Sega not showing the love of quality or the flair for the unexpected that the company was known for years ago, but the PS3-exclusive Valkyria Chronicles did piles of things right and may well become one of the best games that almost no one plays this generation. While information on sales of the game is hard to come by, people are still talking about it and will continue to do so for some time. Don't let the snooty nature of some of the fans scare you away; this is a welcoming and beautiful strategy title.

Should I go on? PixelJunk Monsters was the reigning king of the tower defense genre on consoles... until Savage Moon came out. Speaking of the PixelJunk series, Eden is another game that has carved out its own home on the system, and these titles all deserve the somewhat rabid following they enjoy online.

When we're talking about games you can buy on the PlayStation Network, it's impossible to ignore Wipeout HD. A fast, beautiful, almost impossibly polished entry in the world of racing games. This is what we prayed games would look like when we were growing up. The fact that a game this good is available via download for only $20 shows just how much power Sony has harnessed by packing in a hard drive with every system and fully embracing digital distribution. When you can buy Burnout Paradise for $20 on the PlayStation Network and get the entire game with the slew of patches that have been released since launch, you see just how much Sony has outclassed Microsoft on this front.

The PS3 has arrived



Gamers spend way too much time arguing about whether or not Home is going to be huge. It's certainly part of the story, but the flagging online service has nothing to do with the life and death of the PS3 as a system that can play great games. It's the same thing with the sales numbers; people like to know how products are doing, and looking at sales data tells us much about where we're going and how fast we're getting there, but you can't miss the forest for the trees—neither of these two things affects the fact that the PlayStation is absolutely ablaze with brave, new, exclusive games.

This article contains no forward-looking statements. We left out all the great cross-platform games and titles that will be released in the coming years. These are games that are finished, that you can buy at the store or online right now. If you have a PS3 and have a love of games, you will run out of time and money before you run out of games to buy.

I keep hearing jokes that "next year" is perpetually the answer to the question of when the PS3 will take off, but those of us who are able to walk away from the argument know the right answer: the system is in orbit already.