Looking back, 2008, The year of the PS3

We all know that Sony dubbed 2008, the year of the PS3, and everyone looked forward to it.

So, what was to make it the year of the PS3? Well, many lofty claims such the launch of many high profile games, Such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Haze, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Grand Theft Auto IV, inFAMOUS, and many more.

Not only were many games promised, but there were other things promised, or hinted at. PlayStation Home™, In Game Xross Media Bar, Custom Soundtracks, and Rumble enabled controllers.

Sony promised a lot, and if delivered, would seem like quite a bed of roses, so how did it turn out?


ANNOUNCEMENTS

We shall start off with Sony in the exclusive department.

You can't bring up 2008, PS3, and ex-exclusive in the same sentence without thinking about Final Fantasy XIII, this was a huge one, which came up during E3. Final Fantasy XIII, a game which many people bought a PS3 for went multiplatform.

Another big hit took place at Tokyo Gaming Show 2008, which was Tekken 6 going to the 360 as well. Tekken has been a longtime Sony franchise, and many were disappointed to see it go multiplatform.

Yet, this year was not all a disapointment when it comes to exclusives when it comes to Sony, camp, because 2 initially exclusive Xbox 360 games made their way to Sony's black box.

The first of these games was BioShock, one of the highest rated games of all time, and a huge Xbox 360 exclusive, the PS3 version was announced May 28th, 2008, and included Rumble, Trophies, and new DLC.

The other game was the generally well critically received game, Eternal Sonata, a Xbox 360 JRPG, the PS3 version of the game contained quite a bit more content, with multiple endings, more items and dungeons, more playable content, and all of the content from the original release.

June 4th, 2008 brought bad news, as Eight Days, and The Getaway 3 were canceled.

February 2008 brought the announcement of Resistance 2, the sequel to the best selling launch title.

E3 2008 brought the announcement of Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, another Playstation exclusive.

TGS08 revealed Quantum Theory, a third person shooter from Team Ninja, and a Playstation 3 exclusive.

June 2008, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, a sequel to the popular Ps3 exclusive was announced.

In 2008, Heavy Rain, a highly impressive game, was confirmed as a Playstation 3 exclusive.

A huge exclusive game, God of War III was announced at E3 2008.

At E3 2008, Massive Action Game (Working Title), was announced by longtime SOCOM developers, Zipper interactive, which included battles of up to 256 players.


RELEASES

Sony promised a strong list of exclusive, and multiplatform titles for release in 2008.

Exclusives


To start off, not all the games announced for 2008 would make the deadline, as the highly anticipated titled from Sucker Punch, inFAMOUS, was delayed into '09, and Killzone 2, another highly anticipated game was delayed to give Resistance 2 the spotlight.


Gran Turismo 5: Prologue came out, and was greeted to generally good reviews, praising it's graphics, gameplay, and additions to the franchise.

Haze was finally released, but was subject to foul reviews, citing generic gameplay and story, and dated graphics.

LittleBigPlanet finally released, after a few delays, and was greeted to many glowing reviews praising graphics, gameplay, design, sound, and concept. It has been labeled as reason enough to buy a PS3.

A bomb hit June 12th, with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, which sold 3 Million copies, and was critically acclaimed, receiving a 10/10 from Gamespot, something only 5 other games have ever done.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift was released, and received modest reviews.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm was released, and got pretty good reviews.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty was released to generally good reviews.

Resistance 2 was released to high praise, and generally regarded as one of the best multiplater games of this generation.

SOCOM: Confrontation was released to harsh reviews due to gltiches and server problems, which have since been patched.

Valkria Chronicles was released to high praise, saying it was not only the best JRPG on the PS3, but a highly good game in general.


Notable Multiplatform Games

BioShock was released to good reviews, and will be getting it's PS3 exclusive DLC soon.

Burnout: Paradise is a game noted for it's extremely well handled DLC, and streamlined interface.

Call of Duty 4, though not an exclusive game was a huge seller, and is one of, if not the most played PS3 online game.

Dead Space was a critically acclaimed Horror game, which launched on PS3/360

Devil May Cry 4, the newest game in the series of hack'n slash that started on PS2.

Eternal Sonata was released so slightly higher reviews on the PS3 due to the PS3 exclusive content.

Fallout 3, the new game by Bethesda, the creators of the smash hit, Oblivion.

Far Cry 2, a first person shooter trying to be the first to get free roaming down.

Grand Theft Auto IV finally hit consoles, being one of the biggest sellers this console generation, outselling Halo 3.

Lost Planet, the Xbox 360 exclusive finally found it's way to the PS3.

Mirror's Edge, a first person free running game witch has seen some media attention and praise in previews, should be releasing soon, and will have PS3 exclusive DLC.

Pure, a ATV racing game which was released to good reviews, and generally liked by the gaming community.

Rock Band 2 was released to great reviews, and is generally considered the best music game so far.

Saint's Row 2, was released to modest reviews, and is considered a fun sandbox game.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution was release, and was considered a good start for strategy games on consoles.

Sould Calibur IV released being the newest in a long series of fighting games.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was released to modest reviews.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released to generally positive reviews.


Playstation Network games

(Multi)Bionic Commando: Rearmed was released to critical acclaim,

echocrome was released, it is one of the most interesting puzzle games in a while.

Elefunk was released, another puzzle game, which included elephants.

The Last Guy, a PSN exclusive about a zombie apocalypse.

Linger in Shadows was released, it is art-tech-demo.

(Multi)Mega Man 9 was released, as a retro game, with NES style graphics.

(Multi)Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1 was finally released on PSN.

PixelJunk Eden is a extremely creative and original game

(Multi)Prince of Persia Classic finally makes it's way to PSN!

Siren: Blood Curse was released as an episodic game on PSN.


HARDWARE/SOFTWARE

Sony promised many software updates, let's see how they delivered.


Sony released firmware 2.41 on June 8th, which allowed for in game Xross Media Bar, which was something PS3 owners, had been asking for since launch. However, it launched with custom soundtracks being in no games, and trophies only being in one title. Also voice messages can't be sent in game, and the in game Xross Media Bar couldn't be used while watching movies, or playing PS1 or PS2 games.

Finally a Rumble enabled controller was finally released for PS3, April 5, 2008.

Lastly Sony promised their open world matchmaking service for PSN, PlayStation Home™ was to be released before the end of the year. It still hasn't released, but Sony is still saying it will release before the year ends, so keep those fingers crossed!



So, what do you think, was 2008 the year of the PS3?


In closing I have 2 statements, the first being, I think the phrase "The PS3 has no games" can be put to rest permanently. Second, I think we have a good year to look forward to for PS3 owners, AND PSP owners, as Sony said that 2009 is the year of the PSP, considering Resistance: Retribution, Dissidia, LocoRoco 2, Patapon 2, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and the newly released PSP store, I think I can see it happening.