Is the PlayStation 3 nostalgic to you?

[STRYKIE]

I got back into playing PS3 more frequently in 2019 after years of busying myself with the FGC. I dunno if I'd say it's 'nostalgic', because the PS3 holds up far better with the PS5 than say, the PS1 up against the PS3 (dare I say the PS1 was already feeling somewhat rough to go back to as soon as the Dreamcast released), but I think I've come to appreciate the PS3 more with age actually.

I've also come to realize how much more ambitious and experimental it was compared to PS4 for their relative times. Perhaps too ambitious in some respects, but I overall prefer that to the PS4's safe, formulaic approach for the most part. PS5 also seems to lean towards the latter but it's not even 2 years old yet so I'll give it some benefit of the doubt.

Since we're talking about this on this site, I suppose the biggest downside is that it's dawned on me how many PS3 games were awash with trophies that required some sort of online-related activity, many of which have had their servers long since shut down, and developers were quite stingy about giving Platinums to digital-only titles. So I will concede the PS4 is the superior trophy-hunting platform, so to speak.

[DrBloodmoney]

4 hours ago, Caesar Clown said:

No, it's an appliance.

?

 

Need a Voight-Kampff test here…

 

“How does it feel being in your old childhood home, and seeing your treasured childhood toys?”

 

”I feel nothing.

 

They are but wooden trinkets in a construction of brick and mortar.

 

1000111101011010100110101011”

[StraightVege]

In a way. I have some wonderful memories of playing PS3 multiplayer—mainly Uncharted, Killzone, and Resistance—with friends who I've mostly fallen out of touch with by now. I often reminisce about those good times.

[Guest]

Yes, I remember getting one when I was in fifth grade in early 2008. 14 years ago is really a lifetime (I'm 24).

in fact, the Playstation 3 influenced me much more than the ps1-2, and it was the console I played the most in my life.

Gta iv, Red Dead, Uncharted Series, LittleBigPlanet... there were many games and memories and friends.

[KondeBra]

For me it was the best playstation console in term of games.

 

You had a huge variety of different game styles, and with quality. Nowadays you have only gaas games and indies, and you have those huge windows without games (what came after Elden Ring and HFW?).

 

It was also the first days of trophies, so yes, a very nostalgic console for me.

[Mipsy]

Not at all. =\ My least-enjoyed PlayStation platform, was that PS3.

 

It had some phenomenal personal standouts - Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, Yakuza 3 and 5, BlazBlue(s) to an extent - but overall I didn't much fancy the scroll-y and sterile XMB, the frighteningly lightweight DualShock 3, the chuggy loading that came as compromise to the improved fidelity, the contact system, so forth. Apart from personal standouts, verrrry few PS3 games pleased me greatly, either. Honestly, I expected to receive the PS5 with a similar lukewarm disappointment. That did not happen for several reasons. But ultimately, no, I will miss the 3 much less than I missed the 1 and the 2's dusks, as well as the (ostensibly) inevitable 4's endpoint.

[LastMinuteSavior]

31 minutes ago, StraightVege said:

...with friends who I've mostly fallen out of touch with by now. I often reminisce about those good times.

 

You actually sound like Kim Ki-taek.

 

[StraightVege]

I assume you mean the Parasite character, rather than the Korean poet. I consider it a compliment! You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all.

[BlindMango]

It’s definitely starting to feel that way for me, especially since I don’t boot it up often, so things like the XMB and startup sound are definitely nostalgic. Especially when thinking of things on that console that aren’t there anymore, like PlayStation Home and the early PlayStation Store

 

Also moments from that time that you just can’t reproduce today like the jump from SD to HD, multiplayer gaming and how much more fun it was without cross game chat so everyone chatted in-game, and just how many incredible series started on that console.

 

That was just a really good console generation, a lot of friends I met on that generation are ones I still play with to this day - The PS4 generation had good moments but didn’t come close in my opinion. PS5 is actually pretty great so far, but it’ll be hard for it to surpass the PS3’s generation!

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by BlindMango

[Lava_Yuki]

I still have mine, which sits stacked up with my PS4 next to be PS5, although my PS3 and PS4 remain permantly powered off and aren't even plugged in, they are just there for sure with no cables. 

 

I have a lot of fond memories of the PS3, it was the console where I discovered and really got into the Tales series and spent hundreds of hours on my PS3. I platinumed most of them with Vesperia being my first, and also loved the FF13 trilogy on it, as I loved Lightning and the battle system. It was fun to unlock themes for it via in game achievements rather than just buying everything, and it's the console where I really got into trophy hunting. 

 

My dad was against video games when I used be a kid living at my parents house, and the only way I convinced him to get me a PS3 was saying it works as a region free DVD player, as he imports a lot of movies or buys all these foreign (pirated) ones in Asia... however he rarely if ever got to watch his movies on it as me and my brother ended up hogging it

[Bloodytears1666]

I still have it, and recently even booted Dark Souls 2 on it, and yes it feels nostalgic for me already. The only way for me to enjoy such great games like Silent Hill, all four parts, Lords of Shadow, Midnight Club LA, NFS Shift 2 and Pro Street. First online experience and countless hours there. Didn't played them for quite a while, even though a console itself right nearby PS5, and it feels ages ago when I have enyoed those games. 

To add, I am still considering XMB the best, so every time seeing ugly PS5 menu, looking at 3 with a nostalgic melancholic tear:).

 

And I am also kinda miss GTA Online those time, really a gangster paradice it was, so fun and grounded. What it has become turned me out quick, but how it has began will remain in me forever.

Edited August 8, 2022 by Bloodytears1666

[JPtheNeurotic]

Hmm no and I think thats because I didnt really invest into one until much later. For a big part of that gen, I was on the 360 but was slowly transitioning away as MS was moving in a direction I didnt really like.

And tbh, the ps3 feels very messy compared ot the 360. It was weird it doesnt even have a built-in upscaler like the 360 does.

Still love my ps3 and I use it all the time still.

[Redgrave]

Yeah I hold some nostalgia for it. When it came to that generation I didn't get an Xbox 360 or a Wii (well I got the Wii later on but that's a different story) and settled on a PS3 since my cousins had one and the free (at the time) online was more appealing. I remembered how amazed I was when I first played Modern Warfare which nowadays doesn't look as good but back then it was great doing that first level and seeing all the details on the ship and the other levels in the campaign. It was also probably more special for me because the PS3 and Modern Warfare were a Christmas gift.

 

Along with that there were a lot of games I have good memories of and/or would replay them often like GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, Saints Row 2 and 3, Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age, The Force Unleashed, all of the Call of Duty games up until Modern Warfare 3, H.A.W.X., Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and a bunch of other stuff that would just become its own paragraph. I even remember watching my cousins play a couple games that people would think I'm making up if I described them since they were just that forgotten at this point. I also remember playing PlayStation Home before they added trophies to it which from my understanding were both really different.

 

So yeah I think even with some games that were kind of "eh" and other stuff that could be considered forgettable I still have some kind of fondness for them and the console in general.

[the1andonly654]

Not really. I got it late in the generation, when the PS4 was already out, after having a long break from gaming. I'm a bit nostalgic when it comes to certain games but the actual platform has nothing to do with it. In terms of hardware, I'm definitely nostalgic towards the original PSX (as my first console, when I got into gaming, not counting the Mega Drive), the original Xbox and partially the Dreamcast. But the PS3... It's kind of just a console to me. I feel like in order to feel any kind of nostalgia towards something, it has to be connected to something more, as in the first console, the first one you bought with your own money, stuff like that. The PS3 was just something to continue playing games on and while it was rekindling an old romance, in a way, it didn't have enough of an impact on me to feel anything towards the hardware itself. 

 

Edit: Astro's Playroom might be the ultimate nostalgia level checker for Sony's platforms ? 

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by the1andonly654

[WeepingScorpion]

No, it's still too new of a device to me. I barely consider the PS2 nostalgic/retro. To me the limit is pretty much the Pentium III > Pentium 4 switch and all consoles that belong to that generation. Probably makes me sound like an old fart but oh well...

[ObsiEez]

Honestly not really I got my PS3 near the end of 2012 & really only played it until late 2013, so I only played it for about a year. I started a new account & played more PS3 in 2016 but by the end of the year I bought a PS4, so I honestly didn't play PS3 very much & have missed a whole lot of titles on it. Though I have been doing my due diligence & keep going back every so often to play some more PS3 titles. I'm more nostalgic to the Xbox 360 since I played that a hell of a lot more. God how I'd love Fable & Gears of War on Playstation

[GT__Jedi]

Got two of those suckers I love, even though I can't use them.  They introduced me to Journey, GTAV and Gran Turismo 5, which was a real turning point for me on using a console instead of the PC.

[Flamingknux]

I personally don't think the console is old enough to be considered for nostalgia, but I am also bias for when I got mine and how much I use it. It's only been six years since I got my PlayStation 3, it has never been unplugged, and I occasionally go back to it for trophies. If I got my console at launch in 2006 for NA instead of 2016, then that would heavily sway my opinion and say the console is old. Gotta love being bias

[aimeraya]

On PS3 there are varies of games, not like today only cheap platinum + 3A sandbox shooting.

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

I still use it and plan to continue to use it so no. 

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

1 hour ago, WeepingScorpion said:

No, it's still too new of a device to me. I barely consider the PS2 nostalgic/retro. To me the limit is pretty much the Pentium III > Pentium 4 switch and all consoles that belong to that generation. Probably makes me sound like an old fart but oh well...

Nah.  You don't sound old.  Nostalgic for me is the Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Donkey Kong, Jr. in the arcades.

 

Well, now that I wrote that, I guess I am old. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Spider-Man916

[Jamescush147]

I bought my PS3 in 2016. Totally missed that era of gaming. ?

[GABAergic]

Yes. I still use one today. I also miss how much more special getting any platinum trophy was back then. It carried a lot more weight now that you can find people with 600 $1 press x plats stacked, it takes away from the intended effect of the trophy system. Don't get me wrong I have some easy ones on my profile too (ratalaika, mayo, massagy etc), but 5 minute plats have become an industry. At least 6 days a week you'll see new ones on psn store.

[RoastedPeanut]

I got my PS3 back in 2008. Loved it back then and still love it today. I still fire it up every other day and my backlog is huge so I can see myself chipping away at it for years to come. I grew up with a Sega Master System and Mega Drive, so thats where the real nostalgic moments for me come from

 

[Xillynoc]

Extremely so, even though (and partially because) I play my second one to this day. The PS3 is the console that I really "got serious" about gaming on with so many classics and hits (inFAMOUS 1/2/FOB, Prototype 1/2, Brutal Legend, the Kingdom Hearts collections, Darksiders 1/2, the early AC games, etc.), and even though some of those have been ported to PS4 my fondest memories are of experiencing them for the first time after class and on the weekends as a lad.