PLAY #15 is now available online and on newsstands, and is sure to cause sage-like nods of approval and head shakes. For the cover, we rate the 100 best PlayStation games of all time. The best PlayStation games from PS1 to PS5 are all out there. We think you’ll agree that it’s a great list that celebrates some PlayStation legends, but it’s also pretty hard to fit just 100 games. Subscribers get one of the four best limited-edition special covers games.
Read on to find out more about the slate (and what went on in the top ten list), but there’s plenty of new releases crammed in, from a deep dive into F1 2022, a look at Saints Row’s phenomenal customizability, and even a retrospective of an eye game. Subscribe to PLAY magazine here to save on cover price, get exclusive covers, and have them delivered to your door or device every month.
Top 100 Playstation Picks – The Rules
PlayStation has been in operation since 1994, when the original Gray Chest of Joy was launched. At that time there was nothing like it. The 3D polygon games they introduced were revolutionary in a way that they haven’t been able to make the leap of a generation.
That was 28 years ago. The years since have been filled with great games, so compiling a list of the top 100 games is challenging. It would be easy to make a list twice as long, or maybe ten times longer. Where do I start? You can try to look at things objectively, to determine how old the games are, their impact, or how good the visual design is. But the games are basically collaborative works of art. Everyone’s reaction to one game or another will inevitably be subjective. Fortunately, Team PLAY is full of opinions, so we made sure everyone had an opinion.
We’ve limited the entries to one game per series, otherwise a quarter of the list would be all God Of War, Metal Gear Solid, and Naughty Dog. The exception, as we’ve decided, will be for games that represent meaningful shifts in series make-up – the difference between Assassin’s Creed RPG entries and its previous iterations, for example, rather than Uncharted adding a swing hook from PS3 to PS4. We put together a long list, rounded out that shortlist, voted on the top entries, and then rounded up our way through the order of the rest.
It wasn’t easy. Debates rage over whether to choose Uncharted 2 or Uncharted 4, and whether you can really summon each different series of FromSoftware’s individual spirits. For older games, how do you balance the effect on versioning and how old they are? Should a true great game be as good now as it was when it was pioneering? And how long does it take for the latest version to settle into the mind as a classic? Deathloop might be one of the most impressive PS5 games we’ve played, but at just a few months old, how does it compare to the likes of Dishonored 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3?
Undoubtedly, there will be choices that make sense for you, and omissions that will shock you. But that’s fine. Everyone is different, and this is a list that is how Team PLAY feels right now. If you do not agree, you know how to contact – play@futurenet.com – And keep an eye on our social media to contribute to reader-centric lists and features in the future!
Top 10 Playstation Games
The full list is a chunky 26 pages long, and we get into why each one is great. But, here are the 10 best to get you a taste of what’s in store (we know you’ll be taking it straight anyway). Although if you want to know why the menu looks the way it is, you’ll need to read the whole thing.
- Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- hard lime metal
- God of War (2018)
- shadow of the Colossus
- Final Fantasy 12
- Our last part 2
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
- blood borne
If that wasn’t enough, the magazine features a full breakdown of all 100 entries, plus additional comments and data (did you know that the 2000s looks like PlayStation’s strongest decade yet?).
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