This week Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time rolls out on the 27th and IGN has handed it a 9.0 and Editor’s Choice award. I’m a very big fan of the series so this game is an easy purchase for me, so much so that I’m not reading reviews and I’m even debating whether or not to download the first, Clank demo that arrived on Thursday or the second, Ratchet demo coming next week. The Podcast Beyond crew took a look at the set of Sony games that rolled in this year in this week’s podcast 112, but I think the net should be cast wider to all PS3 exclusives over the past 12 months. It’s surprising how much great stuff we’ve seen for the system.

October 29, 2008: LittleBigPlanet jumped into view, created an adorable yet completely configurable and costume-friendly mascot, and redefined user-generated content as well as what to me looks like the longest-running and most viable console downloadable content market yet. The game’s not finished yet, either. Liquid water is coming, and the first music pack for the game was recently put on sale. Metascore: 95. (Note: Metascores are from metacritic.com.)

November 4, 2008: Resistance 2 brought Nathan Hale further into the grips of his chimeran mutation and increased the first-game’s large-scale multiplayer while breaking it down into goal-oriented teams. It also sported a three-class co-op component that is still popular today. Metascore: 87.

February 27, 2009: Killzone 2 opened eyes wide and garnered a very strong following from the hardcore shooter crowd. Most critics said it didn’t do anything particularly new, but what it did it did exceptionally well. Metacritic Metascore: 91.

May 26, 2009: inFAMOUS brought a brand new super-powered comic-book-styled universe to life and let gamers take the goody-protect-the-innocents or fry-em-all-let-God-sort-em-out route routes for two different story arcs and some mission variety all in a very wide open city that doubled as Cole’s giant, climbable, stunt-friendly jungle gym. Metascore: 85.

October 6, 2009: Demon’s Souls is From Software’s crushingly hard game that Sony declined to publish, leaving Atlus to pick up the pieces and, with really high praise from critics and probably an equal number of tears of frustration from reviewers, reap the rewards. Just this week they’ve had to put out new copies of the game to meet demand. Metascore: 89.

October 13, 2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves brought back Nathan Drake and friends with new enemies in tow on a game that takes the great characters, chemistry, and realistic animation and from the first Uncharted game and kicks it up a few notches. Throw in a surprisingly strong set of multiplayer offerings, including some 3-person co-op and it’s a gem the critics adore. Metascore: 97.

Now I’m sure I’ve missed something along the way, so please correct me in the comments below, but next week we get Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time to sew things up for the year. That doesn’t cover the PlayStation Network offerings we’ve seen, either. While it’s true that not every game is for everyone, and not everyone will enjoy every genre, gamers just joining the world of the PlayStation 3 have quite a few meaty games to at least try out demos for, if not buy outright.

What PS3 game haven’t you played yet that you’ve been meaning to get?