Just got around to my PS3 and I need some advice on games to play.

So I bought this PS3 from a CAG about 2 years ago and I just got around to gaming on it. I have never even held a Dualshock 3 controller until I got this one. I have been gaming on every system since Atari days... I have owned every system ever realeased, including handhelds, so I am a pretty seasoned gamer .
I have been letting my daughters use it upstairs to watch Netflix, but I want to start gaming on it. I am booting up Kingdom Hearts 2 on it at the moment, but I'd like to spend some more time with it after that. I have Ni No Kuni and Spec Ops: The Line that I heard was awesome, so that will probably be next. I have Nier for it and Killer is Dead.
I like JRPGs and things like that, not really into sports games, so what do you guys recommend?

If you need an idea of where to point me, I played Persona 5 for 100+ hours, I played The Witcher 3 for a few months. I don't even know if you can see an hour count anywhere, but I played it from last November until April when Persona 5 came out. I play Overwatch Competitively on my Xbox One, and I am into Resident Evil style games (Haven't yet played 7.) I am mostly into RPGs, so those are always a plus. I like VNs also, so maybe I should look into Heavy Rain... Also heard good things.

I really did skip that whole console generation. I was enlisted at the time and met my wife, so gaming took a back seat for a while... Still kinda does from time to time.

Thoughts and recommendations?

omitting games that got ported to ps4, and there's a LOT that did and the fact the ps3 era didn't have have many good jrpgs

tales of grace f 1 & 2

yakuza 3, 4, 5
fallout 3, fallout new vegas
dragon's dogma
demons soul

metal gear solid 4

fps:
fear 1, 2, 3.
resistance 2,3* [1 was a launch title]
the darkness 1, 2
Deus ex human revolution


i could add 25 more games but you'd be better off playing the ported ps4 versions.

other genres saw better releases in ps3 era; racing, fighting, horror,fps,action adventure.

Heavy Rain and the lot aren't VNs. if anything they are closer to point & click adventure games, puzzle mystery kinda games.
A VN would be pure reading like Psycho Pass or Xblaze which were both recently free on ps plus.

Dragon's Dogma is amazing but it's also on PS4 now. Demon's Souls is the one exclusive that does come to mind as being the last to not receive a remaster or be current gen. Servers might be shut down now for it though, if not soon. I can't really think of any other games that I've played that stayed exclusive to PS3 or haven't had a remaster by now. Ni No Kuni was the only other one but you have it so there's that. MGS4 was completely forgettable TBH and I finally bought my PS3 just for it when it came out. MGSV was far more fun IMO. Obviously there's Red Dead Redemption but there's better options for playing that one now. Journey, but that's on PS4 now. . .

Yeah, skipping last gen you didn't really miss much since they've remastered everything 10x over. Just pick up the few exclusives that are worth it and the rest on PS4/X1 for remasters.

If you are even remotely interested in survival horror you should probably give the Dead Space trilogy a shot, at least the first two games anyway. In my mind it is the definitive space horror game, although Alien Isolation (which released at the very end of the PS3 lifecycle) is good too. That got put on PS4 though also so you could just play that on a PS4.

Don't know how much you are into fighting games but the PS3 had a ton of good ones, and some that were heavily based on anime characters so you might recognize them from Mangas or JRPGS. Persona had it's own fighting game, and there was also stuff like Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax and Undernight In-Birth. 

Thanks for the suggestions! I did already get some of those remasters, and I am willing to give Dark Souls Remastered a shot... after a good price drop since remasters drop pretty quickly (With the exception of GTAV.)
I do have MGS4, so I'll definitely boot that up. I do have Mass Effect collection that I got on a good PSN deal, so I will try that, too. I haven't heard of Dead Space, but I will look into that.

If anyone else has any suggestions, please keep them coming!

Spec Ops the line is a very memorable game to play.

I second Dead Space if you like that genre.  Make sure you play it in the dark.

Thanks guys! I was trying Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix and it is just bland. It seems like I'm just doing the same thing as I did years ago in the first one. Not a lot of story going on there... Does it pick up at all? I just cleared the last world and I guess I'm about to start doing them all again...

I'm trying to think of PS3 games that weren't ported to the PS4 or available on other consoles and honestly can't think of that many... I spent a a ton of time my PS3 too. I think these games are all PS3 exclusive. 

MGS4 - this is just like the other pre-MGS5 games, story driven fairly linear gameplay. If love the open world MGSV, you probably won't care for this. I love older MGS games (the ones before V, not to say V wasn't fantastic) and this game was probably my 2nd favorite behind the original MGS. 
Ni No Kuni - old school JRPG/Pokemon-esque catch 'em all game. It can be a bit difficult at times and does require some grinding but it is a charming game. 

Heavenly Sword - I'm shocked this one wasn't mentioned but it's wonderfully cinematic game with a fantastic story, great voice acting... but it's  gameplay wasn't all that great... which funnily enough doesn't become a major issue because the game is insanely short. 

Infamous 1 & 2 - well made games, solid in all areas, you basically play a super human in an open world. They're fun games. The first one has a really good comic book story feel to it. 

God of War Ascension - probably the worst God of War game but it was still pretty damn fun if you liked any other GoW game. 

The one other game I'd love to recommend but no longer has any appeal is Killzone 2, which had one of the most fun online MP ever (and I hate online gaming) but I assume nobody plays it anymore. SP was decent too, if a little generic shooter. Demon's Souls as well but I never made it very far and don't know how much the online aspect impacts the game. 

Even though it's roughly a month late, I wanted to chime in because vic wrongly said Tales of Graces f had two games when it was only one. The Tales game with two on the PS3 is Tales of Xillia. Both are good, but a bit different. Graces tends to have a more well liked battle system, but pretty terrible story premise with them spouting about a lot of 'friendship' stuff far more than usual. Xillia on the other hand I felt had a decent battle system, but a much stronger story and characters in comparison to Graces. The second game takes a bit of a nosedive due to the whole debt thing, but it's still a decent playthrough.

If you don't mind time limits (that are quite forgiving), I recommend checking out the Atelier games. There are six on the PS3:

Arland Trilogy:

- Atelier Rorona Plus (Not the regular version, this one has gameplay improvements)

- Atelier Totori (Often considered the best Atelier game story/character wise)

- Atelier Meruru

Dusk Trilogy:

- Atelier Ayesha

- Atelier Escha & Logy (A lot of people really liked this one, but for whatever reason I absolutely hated Logy as a character)

- Atelier Shallie (No real time limit system like past games. Decent with two choices of main characters)

All of the above have plus versions on the Vita, but they don't really add much outside of Rorona Plus which was also on the PS3. Not to mention the framerate on the Vita versions wasn't particularly good either. There's another trilogy on the PS4 (Sophie -> Firis -> Lydie & Suelle) with the third game coming out next month in English. They don't rely on time limits outside of Firis which is extremely lenient.

I do recommend the Arland trilogy and time limits for RPG veterans shouldn't really be an issue at all. Your very first playthrough on an Atelier with a time limit may cause a game over due to it, which isn't uncommon. However you can NG+ your save and speed back to where you were pretty easily along with more knowledge on how to approach things which helps.

The only other game I feel the need to plug is Trails of Cold Steel I & II. It is being ported to the PS4 in Japan, so it might get brought over in English since it's not an Evolution type port. If it does, I would grab those instead because they have some nice quality of life additions like turbo mode.

They're fairly lengthy games, but pretty good. They're part of a larger series and will have two more directly sequels coming out for the Cold Steel arc (III & IV). There are five previous games in the series, but we've only got Trails in the Sky, Trails in the Sky SC & Trails in the Sky the 3rd. They are only on PSP & PC with 3rd being PC only. All the games in English so far have PC ports and all include some nice quality of life features that the console/handheld versions do not have. So I tend to recommend the PC versions over the other ones. Plus the PC version of Cold Steel has a metric ton more voice acting added to it.

You can start with Cold Steel no problem, but it will spoil some things that went on in Trails in the Sky as well as the Crossbell arc we don't have in English. Granted the Crossbell arc spoils some Cold Steel stuff as well since they take place simultaneously for quite a bit of it. It's probably my favorite RPG series when it comes to characters, story and world lore as a whole (not necessarily individually). They aren't without their problems, but if you try it I do recommend sticking it out if you're not feeling it. I know Falcom really likes to use common anime'ish tropes.

Dunno if you've played Infamous 1 & 2 but they are pretty fun.

Also, you can refer to any “new ps3 owner, please recommend games “ thread in existence as this is the oldest “new” console on earth/in america [because its not a new console at all Lol and this thread is ao dated you could literally pick sny recommendation lol]

HAVE FUN!

Yakuza 3                     

Yakuza 4

Yakuza Dead Souls
Dragon's Crown               

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom  
Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll    

DuckTales Remastered (Retail Copy)
Castlevania: Lord of Shadows

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Folklore                        
Ghostbusters                  
3D Dot Game Heroes           
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Collection
Nier                          

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2
Demon Souls                  

Lord of the Rings: War in the North   
Dead Space                    

Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut

Tales of Symphonia Chronicles
Tales of Xillia               
Tales of Xillia 2             

Tales of Zestiria
Tales of Graces f             
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 

Dante's Inferno                  
Alice: The Madness Returns      
X-Men Origins: Wolverine         
Shadows of the Damned
Under Defeat HD              

Beyonetta
Knight's Contract                            
Doom 3: BFG Edition
 

Katamari Forever 

Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Yakuza games

Demon Souls

Tales of....

Resonance of Fate

3d Dot Heroes