15 Best Looking PS3 Games

Heavy Rain is a psychological thriller from Quantic Dream, made exclusively for the PS3. You play several characters, and each decision you make affects what follows. David Cage wrote the 2,000-page script, directed the four years of development and travelled to Philadelphia to research the setting. Normand Corbeil's score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Critics praised its emotional impact and its visuals, and it sold 5.3 million units by January 2018.

Players nearly always name it in the same breath as Beyond: Two Souls, made by the same studio, which sits higher on this list. The rain-soaked streets set the mood for a slow, tense mystery. Play it with the lights off.

Journey came out on the PlayStation Network in March 2012. You play a robed figure crossing a desert toward a mountain with a beacon of light in the distance. Along the way you can meet another player, and the only way to talk to them is a musical chime. The developers wanted you to feel small and full of wonder. Critics praised its visual and auditory art, and Austin Wintory's score was nominated for a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Players love the way it looks and are quick to point out that it never tried to be realistic. Glowing sand and flowing red cloth have aged far better than a lot of gritty textures from the same years.

Gran Turismo 5 came out on November 24, 2010, in Europe and North America, the first main Gran Turismo on the PS3. It has 1,089 cars, and Ferrari and Lamborghini made their first main appearance in the series here. Only around 25% of those cars are premium models, and once you know, the difference is easy to spot. It was also the first in the series with online races, for up to 16 players.

It sits below its sequel on this list, but a loud group of players think it looks better than Gran Turismo 6. That argument will never be settled. Either way, the premium cars still look great on a modern TV.

Naughty Dog built an updated engine for Among Thieves, and it made room for much more motion capture and the series' first online multiplayer. The first teaser showed a wounded Nathan Drake marching through a snowstorm, and lead character artist Richard Diamant said it was rendered in real time in the game's engine. Critics praised its graphics and technical achievements, and it sold more than six million copies worldwide.

Some players still think it looks better than Uncharted 3, which sits much higher on this list. The second teaser had Drake stuck in a wrecked train hanging over a cliff, and that scene is a fine place to judge for yourself.

Beyond: Two Souls came out on 8 October 2013, near the end of the PS3's life. Elliot Page plays Jodie Holmes, who has a psychic link to Aiden, and Willem Dafoe co-stars. The actors spent a year in Quantic Dream's Paris studio doing voice and motion-capture work, and the story follows Jodie from adolescence to adulthood. Critics were split on it when it came out.

Players are far more united about the graphics, and they say those still hold up today. The faces are the reason to play it. Few PS3 games got this close to a real actor on screen, and you can spend a whole scene just watching Page and Dafoe act.

Final Fantasy XIII came out in Japan in December 2009 and in the West in March 2010. It was the first game built on Square Enix's Crystal Tools engine, and development started back in 2004. You follow Lightning, a former soldier fighting to save her sister, from the floating world of Cocoon down to the wilds of Gran Pulse. Western critics praised its graphics and presentation and were more mixed on how linear it is. It became the fastest-selling game in the series, with 1.7 million copies sold in Japan in 2009.

Even players who did not love it say it looks stunning, and some say the same of the whole XIII trilogy. Hang on until Gran Pulse, where the world finally opens up.

Gran Turismo 6 came out worldwide on December 6, 2013. It added more cars and tracks, plus partnerships with the Goodwood Festival of Speed and NASA. Polyphony Digital even helped Toyota design its FT-1 concept car by modeling it in Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo 6 first. The game can also spread up to six different views across six PS3 consoles, if you happen to have six PS3 consoles lying around.

Players who love it say it still looks beautiful today. Gran Turismo 5 is a few places down this list, and fans of each one will tell you theirs looks better. Try both and take a side.

God of War: Ascension came out in March 2013. It is a prequel, the second game in Kratos' story, and it shows how he broke his blood oath to Ares after being tricked into killing his own family. It was also the first God of War with multiplayer, online only, for up to eight players. Critics praised the spectacle and the core gameplay and found the story less compelling than in earlier games.

Ascension got a mixed welcome, but players single it out as one of the games that pushed the PS3 the hardest. God of War III sits higher on this list, and plenty of fans would happily swap the two.

Killzone 2 came out worldwide in February 2009 after a long wait. It is a first-person shooter built on what the developers called Hollywood Realism: scripted, cinematic battles. You fight through the city streets of Helghan, and the online mode supports up to 32 players, with bots filling empty spots. Critics praised the visuals and the atmosphere, while the story got a cooler welcome.

Players who saw it at the time remember being blown away, and they say there is still nothing quite like it. The heavy grime and motion blur will not suit everyone. If you want a PS3 shooter that looks like a war film, this is it.

Killzone 3 came out in February 2011, two years after Killzone 2. It trades the city streets of the last game for Arctic landscapes and a deadly alien jungle, among other places. It was the first in the series in stereoscopic 3D and the first with PlayStation Move controls. It also has a jetpack, and you can play the campaign with a friend in split-screen on one console.

Players say it still looks beautiful by today's standards, and it edges out Killzone 2 on this list. If you only have time for one Killzone, this is the one with more variety on screen.

Grand Theft Auto V came out in September 2013 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. You switch between three lead characters across Los Santos, a city based on Los Angeles, and the open countryside around it. Team members did field research around California to capture footage for the design team. It earned $800 million on its first day and $1 billion in its first three days, and it became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history.

A world that big on the PS3 is why players rate it so highly. Many say it felt like peak graphics when it came out, and that it still impresses them now. Take a flight over the city at night and you will see what they mean.

God of War III came out on March 16, 2010, the first mainline God of War made without series creator David Jaffe. Kratos climbs Mount Olympus and goes down into Hell to get revenge on the gods who betrayed him. The team built a new engine from the ground up, texture resolutions quadrupled since God of War II, and the battles are four times larger. It sold over 5 million copies by June 2012.

Players say the graphics were ahead of their time, and some call it the only correct answer to the question. The opening climb up Olympus is the part to show anyone who doubts what the PS3 could do.

Development on Uncharted 3 began in 2010, while a second Naughty Dog team worked on The Last of Us. This time the team chose deserts and cities, and did field research for better visual environments and sounds. There was more motion capture and more voice acting than in the earlier games. Critics praised its graphics and cinematic quality, and it sold over nine million copies, one of the best-selling PS3 games.

Players remember being stunned by how real it looked. The desert chapters are the part to watch. You will want to stop and stare at the sand, which is a bad idea when someone is shooting at you.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is the final canonical Metal Gear with Solid Snake as the main character. Snake has Werner syndrome-like symptoms and only a year to live. The old overhead camera is gone, replaced by an over-the-shoulder view with an optional first-person mode. Its release gave PS3 sales a boost, it won several Game of the Year awards, and it sold six million copies by 2014.

Years later, players say it still looks amazing. The story is told in cutscenes of considerable length, so you will spend a good chunk of the game with the controller down, just watching. On a game this good-looking, that is no hardship.

The Last of Us came out on the PS3 in 2013. Development began in 2009 after Uncharted 2, when Naughty Dog split into two teams for the first time. You play Joel, guiding Ellie, an infected girl who may be immune, toward a cure. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson played the pair through voice and motion capture. Critics praised its visuals along with its story and sound, and it sold over 1.3 million copies in its first week.

When players talk about the best-looking PS3 game, this is the name that comes up first, well ahead of everything else. They call it stunning, and they say they were blown away by how good it looked. A remastered version came to the PS4 in 2014, but the PS3 original is still a sight.