Jak and Daxter

Well, I got, er, I mean Son got a PS2 for Christmas, and I (or he) got several games. First on the list to talk about is Jak and Daxter. I believe I'm correct in calling it a "platform game", which means it's a 3D game that involves jumping from platform to platform as you play the game (as opposed to a side-scroller or first-person-shooter, etc..). (I could be way wrong on that, but that's what I've gleaned so far.)

Anyway, JnD is way cool. Part because the game itself is cool, and part in comparison to the PSX we've been playing for the past few years. Since I'm one of the last people in the country to get a PS2, I'm probably not going to be telling anyone anything they don't already know, but the graphics are way cool. As good as (or better than) most anything I've got on the PC, and some nice effects as well.

For instance, there's heat shimmer above flames. Spray coming out from the splash of a waterfall. Flocks of birds. It's just way cool. (Yeah, eye candy impresses me.) On the downside, some of the female characters are, um, unnaturally rendered. Or immodestly, anyway. But they're shown fairly infrequently, and are more of a nuisance than anything.

On the whole, it's a really great game, having completed about 30% of it so far. Son, age 8, is about 70% along, and darn near counts minutes till he can play again. Quite a winning game.