Jak & Daxter 2 pics

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I can not wait to see vids. :)

Lookin' good. Whet's my appetite for more. :)

http://www.virtualdreams.fr/jeux/jakanddaxter2/02.jpg

He's got some major hair issues, I suggest using less hairgel next time.

What console are those pics from? They don't really look like they are from the PS2.

Ooh, looking good! Some of those background textures are bland but overall it's looking a lot better than J&D and Ratchet. Good to see they fixed that awful aliasing problem.

I really hate that bit of facial hair on Jak's chin though. He looks like some stupid Frenchman.

:D

Well, naturally the background textures are a bit blurry, given the size of the environments. But with what they've shown us so far, the character models have received a MASSIVE improvement from their previous forms. If the backgrounds receive just as an impressive improvement, then it's going to be absolutely borgeous.

And yes, they're PS2.

Some more screenies.

http://www.virtualdreams.fr/jeux/jakanddaxter2/04.jpg
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Shit, get rid of that chin hair!

Pfft, sounds like a personal problem to me.

They fit him, like Robin Hood's little beard thing.

Hands-on Impressions by Gamespot! Enjoy :D

Sony and Naughty Dog unveil the sequel to the PlayStation 2 platformer Jak and Daxter.


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At a press event earlier this month Sony took the wraps off of the sequel to Jak and Daxter, the Naughty Dog-developed platformer for the PlayStation 2 released in 2001. The game, slated to ship Fall 2003 and simply called Jak 2, has been in development at Naughty Dog's Southern California offices for the past two years. We had a chance to hear from the Naughty Dog crew and check out an early build of the game that features a darker look, tighter gameplay, and the next generation of Naughty's Dog's impressive graphics engine.

The game's story initially picks up just after the ending of Jak and Daxter as the pair investigates a strange energy portal which propels them 500 years into the future. Unfortunately the future isn't the fun place you'd think it would be after the events of the first game. Jak is promptly attacked and captured by a mysterious group that puts him in prison. Daxter, in true form, saves his own furry butt and avoids being caught. The game then jumps ahead two years and follows Jak's Daxter-aided prison break. Apparently it's taken the furry chatterbox that long to get round to springing his friend. During the break we get a taste of what life in prison, and two years worth of unpleasant scientific experimentation, has done to young Jak as he transforms into a Dark Jak, a feral incarnation that feeds on dark eco. Following the prison break, the pair meets an old man, who fills them in on current events, and a mysterious young boy in his care. Apparently the future, in a rather unsurprising revelation given Jak's experiences so far, kind of sucks as a whole. The people are ruled by a shadowy figure called Baron Praxis, who was responsible for the experimentation done to Jak during his prison stay, and a mechanical menace called the metal heads looms over everyone. An underground resistance has formed to combat the Baron's rule and figure out a way to keep safe from the metal heads. But, whereas most platform heroes would nobly plan to help out the locals with their various problems, Jak is pretty unfazed and remains focused on two simple goals: revenge on the Baron for the two years of experimentation and imprisonment, and a return ticket to his time.

Now if the game's story sounds like a bit of a departure from the tone of the previous one, it is. Although the game's rating has yet to be finalized, Jak 2's darker tone and more mature approach to storytelling will likely make it the first T rated release in Naughty Dog's game catalog in quite some time. Jak 2 features a darker tone that is reflected in every aspect of the game. Jak's character model has been redesigned and sports a sleeker look. The various characters you'll encounter in the game, both good and bad, feature a mature design that skews older. Along the same lines, the world you'll be exploring will feature a darker tone overall and have a far colder feel to it. While many of the environments in the game will be much colder and more sterile than the ones in the previous game, even the more organic locales will be far less inviting thanks to a color palette that leans towards a darker look overall.

While Jak 2's darker look is conveyed by the game's more mature designs and darker color scheme, Naughty Dog's impressive graphics engine pumps out a rich visual experience that blows the original Jak and Daxter completely out of the water. Thanks to a combination of Naughty Dog's own tinkering and some shared technology courtesy of its collaboration with Insomniac, Jak 2's graphics look as though they may well set new standards on the PlayStation 2. Characters in the game are incredibly detailed and made up of 10-15,000 polygons and move much more fluidly than in the original game. The massive environments in the game, which are much larger than those found in the original game, sport a higher level of detail and a host of new special effects such as lighting and a subtle but impressive technique to simulate eye moisture to name just a few. Couple all of the above with cleverly streamed loading to provide a seamless experience and you have a title that is shaping up to be quite a showcase for the PlayStation 2.

As far as gameplay goes, Jak 2 sticks closely with what worked in the original game and tweaks what didn't. Jak's core moves set has come over intact and has been beefed up with the addition of unique weapons and vehicles. Jak 2 will arm you with four guns that you can upgrade over the course of your adventures. You'll also be able to ride a hoverboard that will be integral to some segments in the game and a nice option to use in others. You'll also be able to make use of local vehicles for transportation if you're in a pinch. Jak's Dark Jak incarnation also adds a new element to the game thanks to its powerful attacks and invulnerability effect.

In terms of its structure, Jak 2 features some radical, and welcome, changes to its predecessor. The game will offer a less linear experience overall. Although the game's main narrative will require certain linear elements to tell the game's story, you'll find those instances limited to key points in the game. The rest of the time, you'll be exploring a number of open-ended options as you make your way through the game. You'll still have a mission-based structure in the game but the amount of collection you'll be doing in the game has been seriously cut back and simplified. Mandatory collection in the game is limited to one item; other items you'll find are optional. You'll also find a broader degree of freedom in the game thanks to the number of options open to you via the vehicles and weapons you'll be able to use.

Audio in the game is coming together pretty well. Gamers unnerved by Jak's near homicidal silence in the first game will find him to be one chatty dude in Jak 2. Unfortunately, given his desire for revenge and time spent in prison, he's not exactly a very happy guy. Daxter, on the other hand, is still his chatty self although thankfully he's far more tolerable in this outing. Thanks to the game's T rating the furry critter will be spouting some saucy one-liners that would have been impossible to do in an E rated game.

Based on our time with the game we have to say we're quite impressed by the promising state Jak 2 is in. The game handles great, moves smoothly, and has some pretty polished gameplay. There are a few rough spots, mostly focusing on the camera and some framerate issues, but nothing that can't be fixed by the game's anticipated fall release. Look for more on Jak 2 in the coming weeks.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/jak2/news_6023378.html



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http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/news/03/17/jak_screen009.jpg [/B]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Oh..

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/news/03/17/jak_screen005.jpg

Can anyone else spot the bump-mapping?

can anyone spot cloning?
cearly this is a clone of rachet and clank.

The hole modern city thing and the lazer wepaons.

Originally posted by alien space marine
can anyone spot cloning?
cearly this is a clone of rachet and clank.

The hole modern city thing and the lazer wepaons.

Right, because Ratchet & Clank is the only game to take place in the future.

Although, I'm sure they would have taken inspiration in R&C's art direction, the game was certainly going to be set in a futuristic world since well before R&C was released.

GameSpy: Jak II is graphically stunning. How difficult was it to coax such great performance out of the PS2 hardware?

Jason Rubin: We're always pushing the hardware. It's always hard no matter what system it is, no matter what we're doing. The nice thing about Jak II is the fact that since we already had a base engine, we weren't struggling to get gameplay up. The gameplay immediately came up under the old engine. At that point we could just improve. We could do more smaller special effects like lightning, distortions, the lens flares and glows that you see all over. The icing, as opposed to what we had to do in Jak & Daxter, which was just get a game up. So it really was nice to be able to do the more detail work this time around as opposed to the vital engine stuff that we had to do last game.
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GameSpy: So, a lot of the stuff from the first engine's come back for this second-generation engine?

Jason Rubin: Yes. Everything from the first engine game back, some parts were rewritten and improved, and then additional engines like the lightning you saw and then the glows that are happening everywhere. We have more glows onscreen than just about anyone else I've ever seen -- stuff like that was additionally added on to the engine that was already there.

GameSpy: Why do you think other studios have trouble getting such performance out of the PS2?

Jason Rubin: The big advantage that Naughty Dog has is that Sony backs Naughty Dog with a huge amount of resources that we can spend on programming talent. We have a lot more programmers than most studios can afford; we have better programmers than a lot of studios can afford. It's not a level playing field in video games. There's smaller teams, there's bigger teams, there's publishers that help you out more, there's publishers that help you out less. Additionally, we have the advantage that we get to share technology across all of Sony's internal studios. Mark of Kri's sound tool is now our sound tool. The stuff that Zipper Interactive was doing with progressive scan, they sent us the code for it. And Insomniac which isn't even owned by Sony, and Naughty Dog share engine code back and forth. A lot of teams have an, "If it wasn't done here, we don't want it" attitude -- the programmers want to do it themselves. We have a, "If we can get it in the game, get it in the game" attitude. We don't care who did it ... so long as it's up for grabs, we'll take it. That gives us a great advantage.

GameSpy: Could you see having a possible future side business of licensing your technology to other developers?

Jason Rubin: I don't know whether we'd ever license our technology to other development groups outside of Sony that involves a lot of maintenance and support and things like that that would probably cut into us making games. But we already share internally in Sony, and as we go forward and systems get more difficult, I can see Sony internally sharing more. It'll be harder and harder to make games in the future. This is not the pinnacle of difficulty, this is just the ramp-up toward the next generation and the generation after that, so I think you'll see a lot more sharing between companies.

GameSpy: Jak & Daxter ran at 60 fps, and Jak II will run at 60. Is there a certain design philosophy behind this?

Jason Rubin: The most important thing about running at a good framerate is that your button input is read at the framerate you're running. So when you're running at 30 frames per second, your character has the ability to change what he's doing 30 times per second. If you're 60 frames per second he has literally double the input, which is effectively saying he's twice as controllable. You have much more detail in what you're doing. Certain games do okay at low framerates, I tend to really steer away from slow framerate. I think as a company culture we don't like slow framerate games, so we always try to peg it at 60. There will be times because of the open nature of the game where if there's enough guys -- you can run away from guys and they'll keep chasing you -- so if you keep running you'll keep getting more and more guys around you and eventually it'll get to the point where the system slows down. So it is possible to run at 30 frames, but we try to maintain 60 as much as we can. I think especially in the character action genre that is an absolute necessity.

GameSpy: What is the single greatest improvement in Jak II?

Jason Rubin: That's a hard question to answer...

GameSpy: Just one.

Jason Rubin: I think the single most important thing that we've done with this game is that we've allowed the player to use all of the mechanics that we give them on all of the levels all of the time. So you can use all of Jak I's moveset, the guns, interangeably at any given time, the hoverboard, the Dark Jak moveset ... it's all around, all the time. It's not like you can only use Dark Jak in certain levels and only use the gun in other levels and things like that. We allow you an absolutely massive moveset by layering all those things on top of each other, and make the game truly integrated as opposed to a bunch of stuff strung together where we setup a puzzle, give you a solution, and let you go through it. We setup a puzzle, give you multiple solutions, and let you go through it. And that I think is the single most important differentiation between us and all other games out there.

Ratchet & Clank started to show some of that, we were really excited by it, but you still only could use your skate boots on the rail ... the rail boots, I don't remember what they were called. You could only use your magnetic boots in the magnetic area, so while you could change some of your guns you couldn't change everything all the time. We allow you to pull out your board in the most ridiculous situations in the world and use it, and if it kills you then you won't do it again. We really do allow you to do a lot more of that interchangeability and I think that's the single biggest improvement, and gamers will recognize that.

GameSpy: So do you think it's fair to say that while your story is linear, your gameplay is non-linear in a sense, because you have multiple ways to conquer the objectives...

Jason Rubin: Yes, exactly. The game overall feels less constrained even though from a story standpoint it's far more constrained. Having said that, there are still branches in the story. Sometimes you have two or three, maybe even four options that you can do at any given time. But it's not as open as Jak & Daxter; most people play through the game one time. If you play through the game one time it's always linear, right? Because you're always choosing one specific path. It only becomes non-linear if you go back and play a second time and decide to play it in a different order.

GameSpy: What are your top three platform games of all time?

Jason Rubin: Let's see ... that's a difficult one. I was absolutely addicted to the first Donkey Kong Country. I really thought that the way they setup their gameplay -- which was the foundation for Crash Bandicoot really, more than Mario was -- was stunning. I liked a bunch of the Marios, I don't really remember which one I liked most. It's been a while and they all blur together. And I was a real big fan of the first Sonic.

3D, if you want to go into more recently, I loved Mario 64 but I wasn't wild about Sunshine. I didn't think that they had added enough to Sunshine to make it really that different. And I liked Spyro ... 2 the best of the Spyros. I really liked Spyro 2.

GameSpy: A lot of those games are old -- this is really a classic genre. Why do you think platforming has seen a resurgence lately?

Jason Rubin: As a new system starts, these games ... different games take different amounts of work. A game like ATV though it's a brilliant game is much more constrained than a character action game. You make the ATV mechanic, you make the human on top of it mechanic, you make your levels, you're done. You don't have to do as much as we do for a game like Jak & Daxter, with a seamless world with different vehicle types, the enemy AI. The AI is much simpler in a racing game. I know this because we did Crash Team Racing, which is a much more constrained game. So it takes a while to design a new character and on a new system to get an engine powerful enough to show all this stuff.

One of the reasons I don't like a lot of the recent games is that people have decided that the character action genre is a specific type of game and they're not pushing the limits. Look at a game like Ty. It's just not exciting. It's old news. I don't like fuzzy characters anymore. I don't like animals with attitude anymore. It's been done, it's old, we're moving on, we're doing something new now. Personally, if I see a game that looks like a Nintendo 64 or PlayStation game in high-res, I'm not excited by it. What could we do now that we couldn't do then? Jak II. And Jak I, too. And Ratchet is another good example of a game you couldn't do on the previous console, it just didn't have the power to do it. You could have done Ty. You could have done Sly Cooper, which is a good game, but to me it's a little old-generation with new graphics. Fixed movement through the worlds, very very straightforward gameplay. I like the game a lot, but it doesn't excite me the same way because it sort of hearkens back. Blinx was interesting, but it didn't come together quite right.

GameSpy: I ... didn't like Blinx.

Jason Rubin: Yeah, interesting idea though. At least they tried something new, gotta give them credit for that. They tried something that was truly original, it just didn't quite come together well.
GameSpy: Along those lines, where do you see the genre going in the future?
Jason Rubin: It's an interesting question. I think that the genre has to expand beyond simple levels and simple tasks, and that's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to create a story more like a Metal Gear, although it took 1,500 messages on message boards to figure out what Metal Gear's plot really was. But Metal Gear does have at least a story going with it. We're trying for something along the lines of the Onimushas or the Devil May Crys or something where you have that kind of story going along with it. And we're also trying to add a little of the excitement you get out of Grand Theft Auto being able to do things different ways. Throw on top of that the Tony Hawk ability to grind and just sort of have fun with the environments you're in, and the other stuff that we also throw in from other little games here and there and hopefully bring the genre into more of a world and less of a game with levels that are just set out there. So you feel like you're really in an environment as opposed to playing a game.

GameSpy: So you're navigating an environment and encountering challenges that grow naturally out of that environment.

Jason Rubin: Exactly. And there's things going on in the environment, plot points that are sending you in specific directions. But if you go somewhere else there's still a world there and there's still stuff going on. That's kind of what we're trying to do.

GameSpy: Do you see Naughty Dog remaining at the forefront of platform game development in the future?

Jason Rubin: It's hard to say what we'll do. At the end of every game we try to figure out what we want to do next, and at some point that may not be a character action game -- no promises. I think we'll continue to try to push forward whatever genre we work in. We try at this point to lead as opposed to follow, and I say that knowing that back in the days we were doing Way of the Warrior we were in a lot of ways ripping off everybody else. But I think now what we're doing with Jak II, we're actually pushing the genre as opposed to pulling along behind.

GameSpy: What were some of the new ideas that Mr. Yasuhara brought to the development process?

Jason Rubin: He brings a real openness to do kind of ... wacky stuff that we never would have done. We were much more structured than he is. There's this one thing that he put in the game in one of the levels that we haven't shown yet that reminds me of Yasuhara's style. We have a hoverboard, right? So he created a tube to go through that has holes in the sides of it and it rotates. And it's a simple thing, but it requires some pretty complex timing to get through. And it's just something we never would have done, because we never pushed. It required Andy, as a programmer, to totally redo the way board was done, because it meant that the board had to handle the rotating pipe that you're going through. But it was cool. It's visually simple, easy to understand what you need to do, but with very complex gameplay. That's the kind of thing he does. That's what he did with Sonic.

Visually it's very easy to see what you have to do, but it has complex gameplay. He's really, really good at that stuff. And he's really good at just kind of creating little mini-universes where things are kind of interesting in themselves. He did this one area where you have these floating boxes and it's a puzzle. And you just have to hit the boxes in exactly the right direction at the right time to open it up and create a path. That stuff is his hallmark. He does all that stuff.

GameSpy: You touched on physics a bit when talking about the rotating pipe. Do you think enhanced or better physics will be a large part of future platform games?

Jason Rubin: Yes and no. The vehicles in our city are physics-based. The hoverboard is not physics-based, because it plays better as a classic hack, which is what Jak's movement is too. Jak is not physics-based, Jak is a hack. When you try to create a physics-based character, you end up losing the control that you have when you do a hack and allow, for example, the character to leap off the ground in the same frame that you hit the button. When you do a physics model he has to recoil and jump and that ruins the gameplay, because it takes too long and you have to think too far ahead.
GameSpy: In the early 1990's you made a game called Rings of Power that a rather risque Easter egg. Do you think that would fly today?
Jason Rubin: Yes, I think it would fly today, but I don't think we would do it. We've grown up. We were 18 years old when we put that in and we did it because we thought it was cool at the time. I have new responsibilities as the president of a company owned by Sony. I don't really have a problem and I don't regret putting it in, but it's not the kind of thing that a company of 45 people with a multi-million dollar budget tends to do. It's the kind of thing that a couple kids sitting in their den do when they're 18 years old.

GameSpy: Who does your hair? It's ... fabulous.

Jason Rubin: I do it, what are you... Actually I haven't had a haircut in two months.

GameSpy: Oh, you ... you're dispelling the magic now.

Jason Rubin: It's true, I don't cut it.

Jack and daxter needs more action !

They had alot of interesting ideas but failed to really stucture it.

Also collecting Items is so cleche!

what happened to good old adventures that had twist and turns , rather then this easter egg hunting garbage.

Originally posted by alien space marine
Jack and daxter needs more action !

They had alot of interesting ideas but failed to really stucture it.

Also collecting Items is so cleche!

what happened to good old adventures that had twist and turns , rather then this easter egg hunting garbage.

What the fuck? Did you read the article I just posted?

Originally posted by Private Hudson
Oh..

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/news/03/17/jak_screen005.jpg

Can anyone else spot the bump-mapping?

None of those gamespot images work for me for some stupid reason. Could you save the picture and upload it?

Haha, Jason Rubin cracks me up:

3D, if you want to go into more recently, I loved Mario 64 but I wasn't wild about Sunshine. I didn't think that they had added enough to Sunshine to make it really that different. And I liked Spyro ... 2 the best of the Spyros. I really liked Spyro 2.


The dude is known for doing absolutely nothing original at all, and prides himself on stealing ideas from other people and making them "better". He even stated last year that he was dissapointed by the sales of J&D and that it was because gamers don't like polished games that have been done before but instead require something totally original.

I'm glad that he cares about framerate though.

Overall I'm looking forward to the game. Again it's not that original (it wouldn't be a Naughty Dog game if it were) since it's basically J&D meets Ratchet meets GTA. But I'm sure it'll be fun.

Time sweeper was alot more orginal.
"A cat with vaccum cleaner who can time travel" now that is original.

You bet yor ass it is!

Too bad the execution was less than stellar though.

I'm really looking forward to Jak 2, despite the stupid facial hair. It'll be like GTA meets... Jak and Daxter!

...

ahem.

Originally posted by OB1
Haha, Jason Rubin cracks me up:



The dude is known for doing absolutely nothing original at all, and prides himself on stealing ideas from other people and making them "better". He even stated last year that he was dissapointed by the sales of J&D and that it was because gamers don't like polished games that have been done before but instead require something totally original.

I'm glad that he cares about framerate though.

Overall I'm looking forward to the game. Again it's not that original (it wouldn't be a Naughty Dog game if it were) since it's basically J&D meets Ratchet meets GTA. But I'm sure it'll be fun.

I found the irony to be quite funny as well. It's one of the reasons I wanted to post it here.

The difference is, though, is that people were EXPECTING Mario Sunshine to be another revolution, but were let down.

Unfair, yes. But it's the truth for most people out there.

Oh, and here's the bump-mapping picture
http://www.gametrigger.net/message/images/Jk-Bump.jpg

Anyways, this one actually sounds a lot more interesting than the last one. Perhaps on the scale of the stellar Ratchet & Clank, so I'll keep my eye out for it.

Mario Sunshine is the finest 3-D platformer ever made, period. Nothing even comes close.

BTW that doesn't look like bump-mapping.

Originally posted by OB1
Mario Sunshine is the finest 3-D platformer ever made, period. Nothing even comes close.

In your opinion.

BTW that doesn't look like bump-mapping.

Small 3D indentations into flat textures doesn't look like bump-mapping to you?

Hell, even the boys over at TXB noted that it was bump-mapping.

It's only bump-mapping if it looks like the indentations have actually been modeled. It's too hard to tell with that screen. If it is bump-mapping then it's not very good bump-mapping.

And man, they really need to turn on anisotropic filtering in that game. The floor textures start to blur just a few in-game feet away from Jak.

Here's an example of good bump-mapping which I took from my leaked pre-alpha version of Doom 3:

Edit: Look at below post to see the screen.

Originally posted by OB1
It's only bump-mapping if it looks like the indentations have actually been modeled.

It does..

And man, they really need to turn on anisotropic filtering in that game. The floor textures start to blur just a few in-game feet away from Jak.

Meh.. LOD's a bitch.

Oh.. and I'm referring to the bump-mapping on the ground, BTW.. in case you didn't realise. :)

LOD?

I'm still not sure if that's bump-mapped or not. It really doesn't look like it. Let me show you a larger version of that Doom 3 screen.

Here are a few more great examples of bump-mapping:

http://lucasarts.com/products/rogueleader/images/screens/53.jpg[/img]
http://lucasarts.com/products/rogueleader/images/screens/21.jpg
http://lucasarts.com/products/rogueleader/images/levels/endor/5.jpg

Damn, those Factor 5 guys are incredible. A year and a half after its release, Rogue Leader is still one of (if not [i]the) the best examples of multiple layer texturing and bump-mapping on any system, PC included.

This is the PS2 we are talking about, OB1. It has major trouble with multi-layered texturing, and bump-mapping was previously thought impossible on the machine.

That's all I was trying to point out, that it's in it. While it's not as advanced as say, Rogue Leader (not many games are) it still does look nice.

Yes, the game looks very nice. The bump-mapping does not, but everything else looks great.

http://www.virtualdreams.fr/jeux/jakanddaxter2/08.jpg

The bump mapping is fine, and adds to the overall effect.

I hope you get to ride animals in this game.

That still doesn't really look like bump-mapping to me. I'll have to see some movies.

Originally posted by alien space marine
I hope you get to ride animals in this game.

:confused:

I take it that was your favorite part in the original?

That still doesn't really look like bump-mapping to me. I'll have to see some movies.

Well perhaps it's just lighting prebaked into the textures. While games have obviously been doing for years, though they never looked as effective as that.

Either way, it does look very nice. So.. *shrugs*

I used to enjoy head butting the cows in the ass to round them up.The farmer didnt seem to like being herded though.:D

Why should people be excited about Jak II: Renegade?

Naughty Dog always tries to push the character action genre forward with each new release. Jak II does this in a few key areas. First, we move away from collection as the basic motivator for gameplay, and move towards story and tasks instead. The pick-up of yesterday has been replaced by tasks specifically linked to furthering the plot. No random farmer asks you to collect his cows. Each person you meet is specifically linked to a greater plot and sends you on tasks that relate to your moving the story forward.

Second, we have integrated everything. In the character action games of yesterday you were given a specific ability in a specific level. When you get hold of a gun, you can take it anywhere and never have to give it back. When we give you a hover board, you can take it out anywhere and at any time. It might be stupid, but you can do it. And when Jak gains 'dark' abilities, we let you decide when to use them. This is very different than putting you in a biplane on level 32, or letting you use magnetic boots on very specific flooring. You have to experience this to see how much more adventurous and less forced Jak II is.

Third, the tone of the game has changed. Jak is seeking revenge. Important characters (good and bad) die in the course of the game. Jak is put in prison and experimented on and his attitude reflects this. When has Mario sought revenge? When did Crash lose a friend? When did Sonic go to prison? This isn't your little brother's character action game. And fourth, there's have more variety, and more re-playability, and more cool stuff than any game we've done to date. Jak II is the game Naughty Dog has wanted to make for 8 years. I've never said that before.

First time around you produced a truly original free-roaming platform game - what innovations do you have in store for Jak II?

Jak II has a city 24 times the size of the biggest Jak level :eek: The main character in Jak2 has more abilities and can use more items than any character action hero I am aware of. Jak II also has more intense action than any character action game Naughty Dog has worked on. Jak II has over one hour of some of the best real-time animation seen anywhere. Jak II is so integrated between story and game that you will really feel involved in the plot. Jak II is much larger and takes longer. The list goes on and on. We shot for the moon with Jak II.

Does Jak II pick up where the Precursor Legacy left off? Where will the new story take us?

The intro to the game starts right after the end of the first title. We find out what was behind the blinding white light at the end of the first game, but then within 30 seconds we are teleported away to an entirely different time and place. The scenery in Jak II is very different from the first game. Hopefully the player will feel both nostalgia for the first title, and the novelty that they experienced when first playing a Jak game, at the same time.

When the Precursor Legacy was released it was praised for its phenomenal visual achievements. Graphically, how much has Jak II improved in comparison?

Jak II's engine is greatly improved from the one in Jak And Daxter. It is the first game using the Naughty Dog engine version 2.0. I am confident that at its release, Jak II will have the most powerful engine in its genre... on any system. Having said that, Jak II is still on PlayStation 2, rather than new hardware, so you certainly won't see the 100x performance leap you saw from Crash 3 to the original Jak And Daxter. We hope the player will be amazed at the added detail and rendering style of the backgrounds, and the vastly improved quality of the foreground characters.

Are you introducing any new main characters? If so, will any of them be playable?

The only characters from Jak And Daxter: The Precursor Legacy who return in Jak II are Jak, Daxter, Samos, and Kiera. But there are some surprising changes to these characters. There is also a cast of 20 additional characters. The models for these characters have been boosted from 3000 polygons in the first title to 12,000 polygons in Jak II. Tons of surface effects have been added as well. I am really excited about the look of our cast for this game. Yes, there is another playable character besides Jak, but only in a few places. Really, this is Jak's story.

fondly remember the Zoomer bike - what kind of new vehicles will be at our disposal in Jak II?

The Zoomer Bike itself does not return, but a dozen or so new vehicles do exist. And they all interact with each other (using a brand new rigid body physics engine) in a city 24 times the size of the Zoomer level in the original Jak. Zoomer fans will not be disappointed!

t new locations and environments can we expect the game to take place in?

The areas in Jak II are darker and bleaker than those in the first game. They range from sewers to towers, strip mines to forests, mountains to underwater ship graveyards and so on. Of course, there's also the city: a sprawling mega-level that acts as the center of your quest and contains a third of the tasks in the game.

e the game dynamics changed? Will we still be collecting power cells and scout flies?

Collection has been minimized as a gameplay element. There are no power cells. There are no scout flies. Tasks are not completed with simplistic collection. Instead, players will find themselves blowing open entrances, returning water to parched areas of the city, transporting cargo for 'the underground' and fighting against invading armies of metal heads. There is a reason for everything that the player is asked to do. If the player fails to do the task, then they will understand why the plot cannot move forward. Every task is introduced and concluded with a story element.

ently, PS2 game sales have been dominated by 'adult' games like Grand Theft Auto. Is there still a place for character-action games like Jak II?

This is a tough question. The landscape of gaming has changed. There is no doubt that character action games no longer dominate as they did in the 8 and 16-bit eras. Part of this is due to the industries slow realization that times change. This year a dozen or so 'animal with attitude' and 'wacky human' games came out... and they all failed. The days of this type of character making an impression on the mass market may be over. But I don't believe that character action gameplay is dead. Certainly, it has shown itself to be incredibly addicting and rewarding. With Jak II we try to both satisfy the character action fanatic as well as target the game for the 2003 audience. We hope that it will work.


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Rogue Leader is in many ways still one of the best looking games on the market... I wonder how much they can improve it in the sequel?

Oh, and for the PS2 that does look nice... but PS2 just can't match NGC or X-Box...

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
Oh, and for the PS2 that does look nice... but PS2 just can't match NGC or X-Box...

Well, in many ways, no it can't. But it already has some games that are comparable to the best that both systems has to offer.

Although I haven't seen movies of this game (J&D2), I'm willing to bet it will match or exceed all but the very best looking GCN or XBox games.

I don't think I'd say 'comparable to the best'... PS2 isn't that good... comparable to better-looking games on the other two consoles? Yeah... but not to the best...

Definitely not. No PS2 game looks anywhere near as good as the best stuff on the X-Box and GC. You can have high poly counts in a PS2 game, but then the textures will suffer horribly (see J&D, Rachet and Clank), or great textures with a low poly count (SH 3, believe it or not, because the environments are small and simple).

I was thinking about that Jason Rubin interview and I realized that the reason he was dissapointed with Mario Sunshine had to have been because there wasn't much for him to steal from, which he always does. So Naughty Dog had to steal from Ratchet & Clank and GTA.

I don't think I'd say 'comparable to the best'... PS2 isn't that good... comparable to better-looking games on the other two consoles? Yeah... but not to the best...

Definitely not. No PS2 game looks anywhere near as good as the best stuff on the X-Box and GC. You can have high poly counts in a PS2 game, but then the textures will suffer horribly (see J&D, Rachet and Clank), or great textures with a low poly count (SH 3, believe it or not, because the environments are small and simple).

That's what I said.. all but the very best...

The difference would be more obvious if third parties would bother to make most of their games actually push the NGC and X-Box (and especially NGC... its close to the X-Box in power put often the ports on it are just upgraded PS2 versions...) hardware it would be more so but since PS2 sells the most games they don't care much...

Not particularly. As some developers are already pushing the GCN. There's the ever consistant Factor 5, and Capcom are definately turning heads with Resident Evil 4.

With that said, I'd love to see a game like Zone of the Enders 2 optimised for the GameCube's, or Xbox's hardware, to see just how (much more) amazing it could look.

Again, ZOE 2 has a great framerate, great particle effects, tons of things on the screen all at once, but plain textures.

Which is why I'd like to see it optimised (redone) for the GameCube, just to see what it could achieve.

Sure.