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The PlayStation Now games you need to stream
PlayStation Now is bringing PS3 titles to you via the cloud. Here are 10 games you need to play.
PlayStation Now
© Sony
Remember the disappointment of finding out that both the PS4 and the Xbox One wouldn't be backwards compatible? That feeling seems far behind us now. Microsoft shocked us all when it announced backwards compatibility for the Xbox One at E3 this year, and Sony has always had the promise of Gaikai's streaming tech up its sleeve to deliver some classic PlayStation gaming to your home or mobile.
Well, that promise became a reality this month with the open beta launch of PlayStation Now – or 'Netflix for gaming', as many are calling it. Time will tell whether Sony will make this work, or whether they'll fall by the wayside with the likes of OnLive, but one thing's for sure – these next 10 games are unmissable classics, and you can play them all through PlayStation Now, right now. All you need is a PS4, Xperia Android phone or even a Sony or Samsung smart TV and you're good to go.
Just Cause 2
If you can't wait until December to play Just Cause 3, JC2 will do nicely thanks very much. We’ve seen our fair share of sandbox playgrounds – from GTA V to Crackdown – over the last few years, but none of them quite match Just Cause 2 for sheer freedom and limitless carnage. The story is a bit naff, and don't get us started on the terrible voice acting, but you shouldn't pay attention to that. The world is beautiful, the guns are aplenty, and you have a grappling hook that will latch onto bad guys and overhead jumbo jets.
Shadow of the Colossus
No disrespect to the other great games on this list, but if there was one game that makes PlayStation Now a worthy offering, it's Shadow of the Colossus – a game so revered that 10 years after release, people are still trying to figure out all its secrets.
In essence, the game is a puzzler that sends you out on a quest to defeat 16 enormous Colossi, by working out their weak points and exploiting them. But what makes the game truly special is, well, everything else. Shadow of the Colossus was a landmark point in the games industry for game and character design, not to mention its beautiful soundtrack.
The Last of Us
Remastered: The games in need of a next-gen remix
© Sony/Red Bull
When Sony first dropped the announcement trailer for The Last of Us, it left us all open-mouthed at what could be to come, and all that hype was delivered in full when the game finally arrived. There are hundreds of reasons to love The Last of Us; a beautifully realised post-apocalypse America, gripping story and clever, tactical combat are chief among them. But in Joel and Ellie, Naughty Dog created two of the most compelling, thought-provoking characters we've ever seen in a video game. Whether you need to play this on PlayStation Now, PS3, or the remastered PS4 version, just do it – until you have, you've missed out on a once in a generation classic.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Like the God of War trilogy, you ought to play all three of the Uncharted games, preferably before installment number four arrives next year. If we were pushed to pick one though, we'd probably plump for number two – it just has everything you'd want from an action game. There's hours and hours of gameplay in the story alone, but the plot never feels like it's dragging and throws you from one glorious action set-piece to the next, all in the middle of an astonishingly beautiful world. It's so good, it might just be the greatest single player story of all time. Just go and play it already.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Xcom Enemy Unknown
© 2K Games
We'd almost given up clamouring for a new XCom when Enemy Unknown appeared out of nowhere back in January 2012. It's a testament to the quality of the 1994 original – XCOM UFO Defense – that it still had a significant cult following of players nearly 20 years later. When it finally arrived in 2013, Enemy Unknown was predictably excellent on PC, but it was a massive hit on console too – a platform where strategy games had rarely ventured. As you recruit and level-up your elite soldiers, Enemy Unknown expands nicely, giving you loads of new ways to counter the increasing alien threat.
Try ironman mode for the classic UFO Defense experience – no saves, unforgiving CPU and no revives make this one for the toughest cookies.
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
The Ratchet & Clank series was consistently good for fans of casual puzzle-platformers but for our money, R&C Future was the best of the bunch. The fun weaponry and visuals is reminiscent of the likes of Banjo Kazooie, as is the puzzle aspect, but A Crack in Time expands on that with a solid plot – one that actually explains the origins of both Ratchet and Clank, finally. Whether you're a fan of the series or not, you'll find Ratchet & Clank Future is a very pleasant and enjoyable platformer, well worth a few hours of your time.
Mass Effect 2
If you've been a dedicated PlayStation stalwart since the early PS3 days, we have great respect for you, if only because you managed to resist the allure of buying an Xbox 360 during the year that Mass Effect 2 wasn't available on the PlayStation 3. Rightly regarded as the best of the Mass Effect trilogy, ME2 mixes brilliant character writing with deep RPG mechanics and the sort of meticulously woven plot-lines we've come to expect from Bioware. Oh, and don't forget the ending, which is undisputedly one of the greatest gaming finales ever created. Glorious stuff.
God of War II
You know what? We lied. We're sorry. God of War II absolutely belongs at the very top of your priority PS Now list alongside Shadow of the Colossus. You really ought to play the entire God of War saga, but number two was probably Kratos' best outing, and certainly ranks as one of the greatest PS2 games ever made. God of War's signature hack-and-slash quicktime mechanics are in full flow here, as you battle your way through a beautifully realised ancient Greece, amid the war between gods and titans.
Bioshock Infinite
BioShock Infinite
© 2K Games
Unfairly knocked for arguably being inferior to the original Bioshock, Infinite is still a brilliant game that scooped a truckload of awards back in 2013. Like its predecessor, Infinite is no simple first person shooter, and it surrounds solid mechanics with a combat system that gives you a huge number of approaches to every situation.
As you'd expect from Irrational Games, there's a delicately balanced, thought-provoking plot behind-the-scenes too – one that doesn't shy away from racism and extreme religion. As Booker DeWitt, you must journey to the floating city of Columbia to save a young woman called Elizabeth, and work with her to stay alive amid the war between the elite Founders and the rebellious Vox Populi.
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead
© Telltale
Although rather different to the rest of this list, The Walking Dead is no less essential. In fact, you might find it rather easier to play via PlayStation Now, as it's the only one really designed to be played via your mobile or tablet, and it's perfect for your morning commute. It looks simple on the surface – a point and click game that involves surviving a zombie apocalypse – but Telltale's masterpiece blossoms gloriously and unexpectedly into a gripping story of love and loss, the pinnacle of which is the surrogate father-daughter relationship between protagonist Lee and young orphan Clementine.
