Look, one can easily make the argument that four or five of the best games of the generation thus far are all PlayStation 3 exclusives; candidates would include Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, God of War III, LittleBigPlanet, Heavy Rain, Killzone 2, and Demon's Souls. And while I understand that we all have budgets and time constraints, which could indeed translate to only playing the best of the best (i.e., exclusives), too many PlayStation 3 owners have started to dismiss multiplatform titles. This is a combination of the aforementioned exclusives and the remnants of a time when there were many inferior ports on the PS3. But as for the latter, times have - for the most part - changed. Developers are more often using the PS3 as the lead development platform and these days, most projects are developed simultaneously on the PS3 and Xbox 360, which results in two nearly identical versions.
There are still a few exceptions; Bayonetta, despite the insistent claims from Sega that it would be identical on the PS3, was vastly inferior on Sony's machine because the primary drawback was the bad frame rate. So this can still happen. But in general, most multiplatform games in 2010 are going to be very, very similar across platforms and PS3 versions may even start to look and play a bit better as more developers start with the PS3. It's too bad that even retailers like GameStop haven't caught up to this - in addition to the register biscuit - I've heard many an employee tell a customer that multiplats are "usually better" on the 360. This is no longer true. And besides, do you realize what you're missing if you pass on too many multiplats? Okay, so MGS4 dominated Game of the Year Awards in 2008, Uncharted 2 dominated last year, God of War III will likely dominate this year, and hell, Uncharted 3 might dominate in 2011. But even so, look-
Grand Theft Auto IV
Assassin's Creed II
Final Fantasy XIII
Bioshock 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Fallout 3
Street Fighter IV
Dragon Age: Origins
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dead Space
Guitar Hero 5
Rock Band 2
Borderlands
Red Faction: Guerrilla
And those are just a few; remember, most games are multiplats and there are a ton of awesome ones. I would've been seriously annoyed had I missed out on some of those I just listed, and bear in mind I'm only listing one title from certain franchises, like Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. Yes, exclusives tend to be better on any platform - Gears of War, Mass Effect, Forza, and Alan Wake prove that for the 360 - but multiplats can indeed be fantastic experiences. Just this month we've got Red Dead Redemption, Lost Planet 2 and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, all of which have the potential to be excellent.
So please, if you only own the PS3 and you feel you've been spoiled by top-notch exclusives or you're still smarting from the sting of all those inferior ports early on, don't ignore the great stuff for these reasons. We all want the most fun possible, right?
