On the final part of our countdown we're going to crown our most anticipated PS3 exclusive - enjoy.
5. Infamous 2: The world's only electric postman returns with a brand-new postcode.
Cole MacGrath, the human equivalent of a Starbucks coffee cup and possibly the most urban man to ever exist, has found a better place to free-run.
The occasionally flooded New Marais - think New Orleans - is a far more organic, attractive and downright interesting place than the original's New York-alike.
Early gameplay suggests a greater flow to the lines Cole can take, a city more open to his unique electrical powers.
Pulses of power fire him up drainpipes, along cables and across building facades with frantic ease, while set-pieces are frequent and cheerfully over-the-top.
Cole thinks nothing of chasing a car that's under police escort and fighting a helicopter he's accidentally made angry. But will he ever deliver that parcel?
4. Resistance 3: Insomniac's stunning shooter heads from St Louis to New York, as the Chimera brings humanity to its knees.
The second game ends with Chimera infected hero Nathan Hale - boosted by an alien infection that increases his strength, but slowly erodes his humanity - killing Chimeran leader Daedalus, and planting a nuclear bomb on the alien fleet.
The celebration's dashed when Nathan Hale (yes, you) touches Daedalus, suffers a psychic shock and - so we're led to believe - turns into a Chimeran villain. So, er, where does that leave Resistance 3?
Easy. With you playing as Joseph Capelli, the last of the human, but alien powered, Sentinels, who keep their infection under control with inhibitors - and, as fate would have it, the feller who reluctantly puts a bullet in Hale's brain, presumably killing him, at the end of Resistance 2. "Forgive me Sir, It was an honour".
Confused? Basically, the game's set in an alternative post-WWII circa 1951, where humanity is overrun by mysterious Chimeran 'aliens', who may be of our own origin, or have existed on Earth for centuries before their awakening. Er, yes.
With America under Chimeran control, and 80 million humans dying at the end of Resistance 2, the third game's tone is bleak. It looks like Capelli is trying to round up 'resistance' members, driven underground, while heading to New York via train, boat and on foot.
Why? We're not sure, but we're guessing it's to a) Kill Hale (again) or b) Inject him with something to make him good again in time for Resistance 4.
Above all, we hope it's erased the linearity and dull set-pieces of the last game, so we can focus on the improved visuals, superb weapons and intriguing plot. It's in the balance, but this could yet turn into 2011's best shooter.
3. Ico: PS2 classic Ico returns - and with HD and 3D visuals, it's more breathtaking than ever.
A young boy - gangly frame, ethnic tunic, horns protruding from his head - clasps the hand of an angelic young girl, and they run through a gigantic, inhospitable fortress.
The boy lets go of her hand to investigate the path ahead and make it easier for the less nimble girl to progress. But as the boy's back is turned, a horde of shadowy demons materialise from a vortex in the ground and begin to drag the girl away. The boy attacks with a wooden stick and pulls her free.
The player sighs with relief. Welcome back to Ico.
"There are some areas where I look back on Ico and I think, 'Why did I spend so much time and energy on this part of the game?'", says auteur director Fumito Ueda of the 2001 masterpiece that started one of PlayStation's most epic, original adventure sagas.
"Now I realise that I put an unusual balance of energy into its development. Maybe I'd do that differently now."
Thank goodness he didn't back then. Ico's deceptively simplistic gameplay, emotional concept and breathtaking vistas inspired not only follow-ups Shadow Of The Colossus and The Last Guardian but also much-loved games like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
And the reissue for PlayStation 3, packaged on one disc with SOTC, is set to look better than ever, with upscaled HD graphics, a widescreen ratio and optional 3D. The bundle price is currently unknown, but we'd be more than happy to pay a regular £40 RRP come the HD collection's rumoured April 2011 UK release - though the God of War HD collection was only £25.
"Both Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus were designed in a very 3D environment with a lot of depth of field," says Ueda.
"So the power of the PS3 will allow these environments to come to life in real 3D at last." We haven't seen the 3D yet, but Ueda is not one to let quality slide. Throw in Trophy support and you've got an unmissable package due in spring 2011 - just in time to get you up to speed for The Last Guardian's winter release.
2. Shadow of the Colossus: One of the PS2's most immense experiences reveals its hulking frame to a new generation.
Felling a giant beast is never easy. For one thing, their weak spot is nearly always on top of their head.
And then there's the matter of getting up there, gripping tightly to the monster's matted hair as it tries wildly to shake you off. Plus, you need to figure out how to get a grip of some hair in the first place, because the thing about giant beasts is that they keep their hairy bits quite high off the ground.
No, it's never easy. But, oh, so very fulfilling.
Back in 2005, Shadow Of The Colossus on PS2 took Ico's grand landscapes to a whole new level, with young Wander saddling his horse Agro to ride across vast plains in search of monsters that are, well, colossal.
Unlike Ico - now being developed for a Hollywood film - this focuses on the thrill of bringing down one gigantic Colossus at a time.
"The natural assumption is that we've simply ported the PS2 versions of the two games to PS3, but it's not that simple," says director Fumito Ueda.
"We're reworking all the textures into HD, which is coming along very nicely. And there were areas in Shadow Of The Colossus where I was unhappy with the framerate, but this time it will have solid 30fps throughout."
Like Ico, Shadow Of The Colossus will run in 3D and feature Trophy support. So far we've only seen a work in progress version, but the visuals are incredibly bold in HD - well, they always were - and the game runs like an absolute dream.
As for speculation that some Colossi cut from the original release might be reinstated, Ueda killed it stone dead. "Immediately after completing Ico or Shadow Of The Colossus, there were moments when I thought, 'I wish I could have done this or that.' But after all these years, I think they play really well just the way they are."
1. The Last Guardian: Ico creator sets 2011 date for his technically astonishing epic.
The Last Guardian is going to be big. Literally. In a small conference room at the recent Tokyo Game Show, Fumito Ueda - reclusive director of PlayStation 2 epics Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus (both due HD remakes) - revealed to a reverent media crowd the latest information about his long-awaited new game, in which a small boy makes a larger than life friend.
There are plenty of parallels to be drawn with the previous two games in the Ico trilogy. The Last Guardian has, at its core, a buddy system: Just as Ico protected Yorda in the first game and Wander's horse Agro sacrificed itself for him in the second, so too does the as-yet-unnamed young boy in the new game rely on the Trico, a gargantuan bird-cat hybrid with a mind of its own.
"Real-life interaction between humans and animals is not always smooth," said Ueda at the presentation, explaining that the Trico will not always respond to the player's commands.
But bonding with the beast will be crucial to cracking the environment-based puzzles, which appear similar to those in Ico.
Gameplay footage flashed across a screen showing the Trico swiping at guards with its mammoth paws or crushing barrels in its mighty jaws; another clip showed the boy scaling the slumbering creature's feathered body and waking it with a bounce on the head.
"This is our fi rst game for PS3, and with all that extra power, we're making the most of the scale of the Trico character and the boy, and the dynamic between them," explained Ueda.
He also hinted that the beast may interfere with partly destructible environments, hampering the boy's progress from time to time.
The boy, by the way, has had a sex change. Originally, Ueda had intended the hero of The Last Guardian to be a heroine, to accentuate the difference in proportions between the playable character and the Trico.
"The Trico is a very powerful creature," said Ueda. "If we'd had a beefed-up, powerful hero, it would have thrown off the balance a little bit, so the design naturally drove me to create an adolescent female character who was light on her feet.
But in the end I decided a boy would have a little more grip power to climb the Trico. Another problem is that girls tend to wear skirts, and The Last Guardian features a lot of climbing..."
The landscape will be just as impressive as you'd hope, with an oversized derelict fortress not dissimilar to that in Ico seemingly providing the game's main arena.
While the Hi-def PS3 reissues of Ico and SOTC will render these spaces in 3D, Ueda has yet to decide whether to include it for the new title. Not that a game this ambitious needs to rely on such gimmicks: its late 2011 release will be huge. Or did we say that already?
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