Quarterly Report: The 25 Best PlayStation 3 Games

Comments: ↓ 9 user comments
by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
Publish Date: December 31, 2011

Our "Quarterly Reports" provide a handy list of the 25 best games for each platform, both for the current year so far and for all time. There's a separate report for each platform, and they will be updated again during the first week in April.

Best-reviewed PS3 games of 2011 (through Dec. 31)

Games released during the last three months (if any) are marked with a symbol.

	Game		Publisher	Metascore	Users
1		Batman: Arkham City	Warner Bros. Interactive	96	8.1
1		Arkham City edges out Portal 2 (which held the top spot for much of 2011) to take the title of best PS3 game of 2011. In fact, it was the highest-scoring game for any platform in 2011.
2	Portal 2		Valve Software	95	8.0
3	Mass Effect 2		Electronic Arts	94	8.2
4	Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception		SCEA	92	8.4
5	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim		Bethesda Softworks	92	5.2
6	The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection		SCEA	91	8.1
7	LittleBigPlanet 2		SCEA	91	8.1
8	Metal Gear Solid HD Collection		Konami	91	9.2
9	NBA 2K12		2K Sports	91	6.6
10	FIFA Soccer 12		Electronic Arts	90	7.2
11	MLB 11: The Show		SCEA	90	7.9
12	LIMBO		PLAYDEAD	90	7.8
13	Dead Space 2		Electronic Arts	89	8.2
14	Deus Ex: Human Revolution		Square Enix/Eidos	89	8.3
15	L.A. Noire		Rockstar Games	89	7.3
16	Dark Souls		Namco Bandai	89	8.4
17	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3		Activision	88	2.9
18	DiRT 3		Codemasters	87	7.6
19	Rayman Origins		Ubisoft	87	8.4
20	Bastion		Warner Bros. Interactive	87	8.5
21	NHL 12		Electronic Arts	86	8.3
22	Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition		Capcom	86	6.5
23	Plants vs. Zombies		PopCap	85	7.9
24	Battlefield 3		Electronic Arts	85	7.5
25	Crysis 2		EA Games	85	7.3
... and the worst-reviewed:
224	PlayStation Move Ape Escape		SCEA	43	n/a
225	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2		Electronic Arts	43	4.8
226	Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime		Atari	42	4.0
227	Thor: God of Thunder		Sega	39	2.6
228	Kung Fu Panda 2: The Video Game		THQ	31	3.5

Includes games released between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011 with at least seven reviews in our database. Note that games are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. The Metascore is a weighted average of critic reviews on a scale of 0 (bad) to 100 (good). User scores are an average of ratings submitted by Metacritic users on a scale of 0 (bad) to 10 (good). All scores are from December 30, 2011.

Best-reviewed PS3 games of all time

Games released during the last three months (if any) are marked with a symbol.

	Game	Publisher	Metascore	Users
1	Grand Theft Auto IV	Rockstar Games	98	7.5
2	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves	SCEA	96	8.8
3	Batman: Arkham City	Warner Bros. Interactive	96	8.1
4	LittleBigPlanet	SCEA	95	6.5
5	Red Dead Redemption	Rockstar Games	95	8.4
6	Portal 2	Valve Software	95	8.0
7	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	Activision	94	5.8
8	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare	Activision	94	8.7
9	BioShock	2K Games	94	8.3
10	Mass Effect 2	Electronic Arts	94	8.2
11	Street Fighter IV	Capcom	94	7.5
12	Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	Konami	94	8.9
13	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion	Bethesda Softworks	93	7.8
14	Braid	Number None Inc.	93	7.3
15	God of War III	SCEA	92	8.6
16	Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception	SCEA	92	8.4
17	Super Street Fighter IV	Capcom	92	7.7
18	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Bethesda Softworks	92	5.2
19	Rock Band	MTV Games/Electronic Arts	92	8.8
20	The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection	SCEA	91	8.1
21	Pac-Man Championship Edition DX	Namco Bandai	91	8.2
22	Rock Band 2	MTV Games	91	8.1
23	LittleBigPlanet 2	SCEA	91	8.1
24	Rock Band 3	MTV Games	91	7.5
25	FIFA Soccer 10	Electronic Arts	91	7.8

Games with fewer than 7 reviews are not eligible for inclusion.

For a complete list of all PS3 high (and low) scores, visit Metacritic's PlayStation 3 section.

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Comments (9)

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Latest

Zeek
- Apr 18, 2011 12:31PM
There's never going to be unbiased lists. I mean, look at the target audience when it comes to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. Pretty much every game that has realistic violence is going to get points just for that. I mean, if I designed and published the "perfect" falling piece puzzle game (think Tetris and Puyo Puyo games), even if it deserved at least a 95/100, it wouldn't break the top 10 list because it doesn't involve shooting someone.

I get the idea of lists, but really they're only meaningful if you seperate them by genre. If you stick just M-rated shooters in a column, then you can figure out which ones are the best. Same with less violent adventure games or RPG's. And, of course, the no-longer-existant puzzle types.
Bernardo
- Apr 17, 2011 3:22PM
@ BlackArmorTails

I'm not saying user reviews in general aren't reliable. Metacritic user scores aren't though. This place is awfully prone to troll attacks. How else would you explain why LittleBigPlanet, Mordern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age 2 are rated so low here but are in the 7-8-9s in pretty much in every other site out there? (and yes I'm talking user scores)

And the MW2 multiplayer issues only had to do with the PC version anyway, why are they reflected in the PS3 version's user score? Just further proof these numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
BlackArmorTails
- Apr 17, 2011 2:07PM
@Bernardo, User reviews are more legitimate than critic reviews. Proven fact, given that there are legitimate complaints for MW2 regarding the broken multiplayer. There are times where critics admit to grading scores not out of opinion, but on what people will like.
Bernardo
- Apr 17, 2011 11:16AM
Dragon Age 2 is as much a 3.9 as LittleBigPlanet is a 6.5, MW2 is a 5.7 or Hyperdimension Neptunia is a 8.3.

Metacritic user reviews... smh
BlackArmorTails
- Apr 16, 2011 8:16PM
@Gustav, Spoken for truth. This sort of bias needs to be regulated, honestly. What I saw on this list is worse than any form of anti-Wii bias on the web combined (by the way, I own a PS3 & Wii). These PS360 folk need to wake up and expose these money-drunken "critics" (really shareholders in disguise) for who they really are.
gustav
- Apr 16, 2011 6:56PM
This is why I ignore the critics. They give good scores to big games that don't deserve it and ignore or bash smaller games. This is especially true when the big game is developed in the West and the other is a niche Japanese game (Hyperdimension Neptunia is a good example) that the fans like but the reviewer doesn't even like the genre to begin with and it shows.
lolja
- Apr 16, 2011 12:45PM
indeed, a game who received an average score of 8.3 for user reviews is THE "worst" reviewed...

I see a list of bias filled with FPS and Western corporations like Electronic Arts who fills half the freakin chart.
BlackArmorTails
- Apr 15, 2011 5:14AM
@Barry, you're right, too. In fact, not only are some of these games not exclusives, but they also have awful ratings from actual users. For example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has a critic rating of 94, but a user rating 0f 5.7. Dragon Age 2 has it the worst: critic rating - 82, user rating - 3.9 (!!!)

Also, why are games like Peggle and TETRIS on the list? Where's Gran Turismo 5? Even if GT5 is a trainwreck at best, at least it is a somewhat worthy exclusive, considering the sales that game is earning is equal to the worst game everyone played known as MW2.
Barry
- Apr 15, 2011 2:21AM
This is probably the most biased list I have ever seen. Every game you have posted is what is considered a blockbuster hit due to large amounts of money spent on marketing, development, and reviewer giveaways. You don't even make a mention of the 2009 Game of the Year and overall underdog Demon's Souls. Hell this game beat COD: MW2, Halo 3, and GTA IV for game of the year with $0 spent on advertising and broke records for moving both software and hardware. Get your list straight man, because coming from me, all I see is a corporate shill who buys everything paid reviewers tell him to.

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