Tristan Cole [elocnat]

Preamble: I wasn't sure I was gonna do a preamble for this one, but I like things a certain way and it's easy to just copy the top of the last post as a template, so here we are! Currently listening to Oddisee's latest project, And Yet Still, and sitting out on my deck smoking ribs again - I mentioned in the last post that I started twice but never finished/posted that this seems to be the best way to relax (and in this case write stuff). I think I'll finish that one at a later date as it's still something on my mind - and realized I have at least one more fully done one I could post so maybe I'll do that.

This post is going to be my first in a series of posts titled "Games from my childhood". Lately I've been firing up my PS2 and replaying some games in my stash, mostly stuff I played or remember from my childhood. For the record, PS2 is the best console of all time and Sony consoles were my shit for my whole childhood, so I've got fond memories of games I've played and even those random ones you'd see in EB Games or on the shelves at Blockbuster. Not to spoil anything, but seems nostalgia goggles are definitely better left off sometimes...

Jak X: Combat Racing is the fourth game in the Jak & Daxter series. If you don't know about the series or have never played the games, you're missing out: Jak & Daxter alongside Ratchet & Clank were the best action-adventure platformers of that gen hands down. Jak X is a different in the fact that it's set in the J&D universe but is strictly a combat racing game. For me and most fans this was an unexpected move, especially since I don't remember the driving in Jak 2 or Jak 3 being anything special; at best it added some cool variety across the story. While a seemingly large deviation from the core of what the series has always been, it still has the same feel of a J&D game given the familiar characters, environments, and overall setting/theme/etc.

As mentioned, the game _feels_ like Jak & Daxter and continues the plot after the third game. (This is from memory so forgive me if it's not exactly right.) The game opens up with Daxter being his overconfident big talking self in a bar getting into trouble, then Jak arrives in spectacular fashion to rescue him right before disaster. The game's enjoyable writing and light-hearted humor are all present here and all the cutscenes are fun to watch. The story isn't anything "great" and you could argue the "twist" at the end was obvious, but it's lovable regardless and I enjoyed it. One small complaint is that Daxter, while at the front of some cutscenes, could've been more present in the game itself - he had a line here and there but otherwise just visually hung onto the vehicle.

A lot of the cutscenes take place as 'live broadcasts' featuring a TV host GT Blitz and co-host Pecker. I really enjoy the stupid back and forth with them, and the game clearly just doesn't take itself seriously. Especially after a frustrating race, that tension being broken with a humorous cutscene is a nice touch. I will say that some of the one-liners before races are...questionable. A not-so-great one that comes to mind was something like "I like my men like I like my tracks...I start from the bottom and work up." Some of these work better than others but if you can ignore the occasional badly forced innuendos they're fine. The one-liners during racers are also okay and don't get annoying or overused as you'd expect in a lot of games.

The menu design & loading screens etc. are cool looking; main thing that pissed me off was that you have to press [O] instead of [X] to start the race or it takes you to the upgrades screen instead. I get why that was done, but it's super annoying if you're just trying to get into a race and don't want to change your car - more on that later. The vehicles are interesting but they feel relatively samey (both in looks and somewhat in handling). The customization was a nice addition but I didn't bother doing it most of the time outside of vehicle upgrades and just selecting all new parts because why not.

The level art is also really well done, again it feels like you're driving on racetracks that could be anywhere in the J&D universe. The _race_ track design is interesting, I enjoy the choice of multiple paths and different elevations, jumps, and surface changes throughout. Ignoring how they play, there's a nice variety of game modes and it tries to keep it switching up enough to where you don't feel like any one mode dominates the others.

This game is frustrating beyond belief. I have no idea why Naughty Dog decided to make a racing game without any outside help or consultants - not that they aren't talented but focusing a whole game on racing where the actual racing and vehicle handling fucking suck doesn't work. The game came out in 2005, so it wasn't like we didn't have great examples of racing games/studios at that time they could've gotten help from (even PlayStation exclusive studios). I see so many people online praising it for being an "amazing arcade racer" - fucking bullshit. Unless you have never played other racing games or only played through the first section (four total) of this game, you're lying, need to take off the nostalgia goggles, or the PSN/re-release version has fixed all the stupid fucking issues.

Again, if you played the first section only and that's what you remember, I'd forgive you for thinking the racing is good. In the beginning with the slower vehicles the game has a nice pace, the vehicles feel mostly okay, and the races are generally enjoyable. As you go on and upgrade your vehicle, specifically giving it engine/boost upgrades, the fucking things become impossible to control. The game rewards you for drifting and high jumps by giving you boost - but the boost fucks you over more than it helps in anything but a straight line. Once you get to the second section and start upgrading cars, it becomes clear that they must not have bothered testing the game with upgrade and/or added them as an afterthought to the track design. Had your vehicle angled right towards a pickup? Here's a slight bump in your way so you do a 180. Boosting and trying to turn? Good luck fucko, we'll spin you out when we feel like it. Trying to ride a wall in an arcade racer? How dare you, here's some shitty geometry poking out to make you crash. Flip on your roof or do a 180? Maybe we'll respawn you if we're feeling generous - but it will likely be faced at the wall so you boost straight into it and destroy yourself again.

Who the fuck thought it was a good idea in an arcade racing game to take damage when you hit walls? As you upgrade your car it becomes more unwieldy. Your best bet is to stick to stock with full armor for as long as you can, because otherwise you're fighting the terrible driving physics the whole race. There's no stabilization of the vehicle, so a small bump will send you into a 180 and hitting/riding the walls gives you damage so if you're constantly having to bump into them (just as the AI does in these scenarios just to note) you're risking death and/or falling behind. Oh and the catch up mechanics? Enemies basically respawn behind you half the time, and they can take a huge lead you can't recover from but you will never be in the lead or able to take a death without at least half the pack jumping ahead.

The powerups are okay but only half of them are useful, the other half are crap or completely overpowered. I don't remember playing this game online but I cannot imagine being in front because I'm a much better driver and then getting nuked or hit with that stupid electricity ball from the last player. Ignoring catchup mechanics the enemy racers are not overpowered and are relatively easily destroyed, but you'll be about to cross the finish line on the last lap and one of them comes out of nowhere to destroy you which 90% of the time means you lose.

The camera is not great (not even gonna mention the terrible secondary cam); you can't see what is in front of you half the time, and by the time you're upon an obstacle it's too late to correct and you're either off the edge or exploding. The bad camera just makes the not-so-great level design feel really even worse in some cases. Blind jumps, corners & paths that aren't obvious, edges of buildings jutting out that you can't really see or avoid, etc. - and that's just the actual race tracks. The level design for all other races is _awful_. Again - in the first part of the game, it kinda works because everything is slow. Once you start upgrading cars the "artifact races" and "deathmatch" modes become complete chores to get through. The levels are extremely cramped, full of stupid elevation changes that add nothing to the gameplay, and in some cases have fences and shit that you would _think_ you could easily jump over but nope turns out your jump button is actually useless as you suspected. It's a small complaint but controls are also not the greatest and at the very least they should've mapped gas to R2 instead of boost.

I feel like I could go on all day about Jak X and how fucking frustrating it is for multiple reasons. I wanted to love the game, I kept trying to go back to it every time I got frustrated and it kept begging me not to play it. (Note: I got 3/3 in every race because that's just how I am, maybe if you didn't care it would be slightly more enjoyable.) For fuck's sake the game didn't even count some objectives right - I had 140 kills on the screen at the end of a race, decided to let the next 10 seconds just end the race, and finished with 139. I almost fully rage quit after that session. I finished the game a week ago and purposely gave it some time to sit so I wouldn't be as lit up writing this and I'm still pissed off thinking about it.

Jak X draws you in with the great characters and familiar settings, but then almost immediately tells you to fuck off if you want anything more than 10 minutes of surface level fun during the first chapter. It almost feels like Naughty Dog had a contract with Sony and _had_ to put out a 4th game to satisfy it, so they just said screw it and went left instead of keeping grounded in the series' roots. If they truly wanted to put this out there should have been a LOT more testing and refinement to the racing itself without making the extra modes and vehicle upgrades feel like an afterthought that completely ruin the great feel of the core game in the first couple of races.

If you're a fan of the series but haven't played this, my advice is to just skip this one and just watch the cutscenes on YouTube. It's not worth the frustration, and knowing how good the game could have been makes it even worse. If this game wasn't made by Naughty Dog and didn't have the Jak & Daxter name, I can almost guarantee it would have been _slammed_ by reviewers and players alike. Instead most people seem to give it a pass and either haven't played much of it or are completely blinded by nostalgia.

Later.