Jak & Daxter Collection - Playstation 3 Review

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If you're looking for a review of the games themselves, I suggest looking up the original reviews for the games here; Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy Jak II Jak 3. I will simply be reviewing the new features for the trilogy package as a whole.

1. HD: The visuals in this game have definitely had a huge overhaul. The frame rate is a smooth 60fps, with hardly any hiccups or slowdowns. The character models look much more detailed and fine tuned. Environments look beautiful as well, and seeing many iconic locations remastered with detailed HD graphics can only be described as nostalgic. I hope they keep up the good work they've done with updating these PS2 classics when they make the Ratchet & Clank Collection.

2. 3D: For many, this won't matter since the number of 3D TVs in households is still a slim number, but for those who do (myself included) it's a feature well worth mentioning. They did a great job making the visuals really "pop". The multiple layers are well placed for dynamic depth perception. It' really been a joy to play the trilogy in 3D so far. You can adjust the depth to your liking, but I found the default setting to be just about right.

3. Trophies: If you're looking for a few challenges while replaying the trilogy, Naughty Dog's got you covered. The trophies range from challenging to pushover, but it's still been fun collecting them, as they have you doing things you might have otherwise never tried. The platinum trophy should give gamers a pretty big challenge to obtain, but with games like these, you'll enjoy every moment of the effort.

Naughty Dog's Jak Trilogy has long been a staple of the platforming world and replaying these games is a stark reminder why. It's a steal for $40, but for any less it's a must own! They just don't make games like these anymore, and they probably never will again, so it's definitely worth picking up a copy and reliving the joys of playing the original trilogy.

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I may be biased because Jak & Daxter is my favorite platformer and I think it paved the way for other great series' such as Ratchet & Clank. I've long waited for Jak 4 on the PS3 -but Naughty Dog just revealed that "Last of Us" was made instead of a Jak 4 because the team ran into trouble while attempting to design it. But as they always say "never say never".

As for this collection, it's the next best thing. The HD visuals are definitely an upgrade to the originals on PS2 (particularly 2 & 3). Frame rate is smooth and the environments look great. I do not own a 3D television so I can't comment on that, although I have read that it is well done.

If you're a fan of the series, you'll be very pleased. If you've never played Jak & Daxter before, this is a perfect opportunity to enjoy the best platformer created IMO for $39. In addition, there are trophies to collect! Enjoy!

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Nostalgia is exactly what companies are banking on when they re-release games like this. Having sold off this game a long time ago with my first PS2 I was happy to see one of the most charming platformers of last generation return. Obviously they can't change the very dated polygon counts, but the textures look sharp and after a while you realize how great these games looked for the time they were released. Worth buying if you like the series, personally I'm a bit partial to the first Jak & Daxter.

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Before I begin, let's get one thing straight. I am not reviewing any of the games right now, I am simply reviewing the quality of the HD ports themselves. The Jak and Daxter games are by far one of my favorite games in the world, so if you want to know whether I like these games, I do. I like them a lot.

Now. The games are still good, and still playable even against today's standards. But the quality of the HD port is probably one of the worst in the HD Remasters series. Elements that are present in other HD ports are missing from the port. The games run at a fluid 60FPS, but all of the Jak games ran at 60FPS to begin with. All previous framerate issues with the PS2 versions have been fixed, so instead of being a variable 60FPS, it now runs at a constant 60FPS.

A new Stereoscopic 3D effect was added into all three games for all of you people who own a 3DTV, and it does the job. It's pretty good for a simple conversion. But, as you'll read below, I feel like the need for 3D was unnecessary, and easily could have been put on hold so that more pressing technical matters could have been fixed first.

What can be considered a huge negative towards the quality of the ports themselves is the apparent lack of anti-aliasing. Previous HD Collections, such as Metal Gear Solid HD, God of War HD, etc., all have rendering resolutions of 720p. Jak and Daxter HD also renders at 720p, but it lacks the sufficient amount of anti-aliasing that the other ports have that really give the makeovers that fresh, satisfying look that we expect from a big collection. In MGS HD and GoW HD, jagged lines are limited to almost none. On the flipside, Jak HD suffers from many jagged lines that are plainly noticeable. Someone over at Mass-Media (the people who ported the Jak games to the collection) forgot that anti-aliasing is something of importance to these remasters, and the difference really shows.

To be fair, however, the lack of anti-aliasing is certainly an issue but it's something that's not noticeable when you're in constant motion in the game. You'll notice the jaggies when you're standing still or when things are going slowly, but the "natural motion-blur" that comes with the framerate will usually blur up all the jaggies enough so that you won't see them when you move.

Also present is a few rendering issues that come with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Jak 1 did not support 16:9 resolutions, it only supported 4:3. In the collection, the aspect ratio was changed and fixed, so now we have a full 16:9 ratio. However, some foliage and details in the background seem to "pop-in" when they're outside of the 4:3 border. This wouldn't be a problem if the borders were there, except now they're not, so the player can plainly see those extra few leaves on the tree and a few boulders and rocks just popping in every time you move the camera a little bit. It doesn't happen too often, and usually it's not really noticeable unless you're REALLY looking for it, but the issue is there. Thankfully, because Jak II and Jak 3 natively supported 16:9 resolutions, no additional work was really required, and that problem is eliminated.

Overall, a solid 4/5. The collection itself is great; sticking 3 of the best PS2 games onto one Blu-Ray disc and adding trophies and 3D for just $40 is an excellent deal. However, the HD port themselves just seems rather lazy; it seems like Mass-Media just stuck the games onto a PS3, forced it to render at 720p, added 3D and widescreen to Jak 1 and called it a day. It feels sort of rushed, and as you play you'll feel like the port could have been improved so much more with just a little bit more time focused into adding something as simple as anti-aliasing to games that don't even use up the PS3's power. I can't really see a reason why the collection didn't use anti-aliasing in the first place, and thus, the port just seems sloppy and lazy.

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The Jak trilogy was games made by Naughty Dog during the early to mid part of the last decade. However this collection was not made by Naughty Dog but it was ported by a different company. Anyway if you have never played Jak then I would recomend to pick it up right now, cause these games are defiantly in my top 10 ever made. The genre that these were in is just about dead on this generation of consoles (except for super mario galaxy and very few others) thanks to all the first person shooters so this was a nice break to relieve my childhood and remember where everything was for the trophy s. Which speaking of trophys there is trophys for each of the 3 games and while the 1st is a mostly an easy platinum (except for finding every single orb in the game)the 2nd and 3rd games are very challenging to get all the trophy's for. The Graphics have been extremely improved expecilly the 2nd and 3rd games. The 1st has been improved a lot to but not quite as impressive but keep in mind that was one of the 1st good ps2 games. Anyway I'll have a short review for each of the games but if you have never played Jak and Daxter stop reading and buy it now.

Jak and Daxter-9/10 My first ps2 game also one of my favorite games of all time unlike the other Jak games this one is more like Super Mario 64 but better

Jak 2-10/10 Same as the first one this is one of my favorite games ever made and I know a lot of people like the 3rd better I actually preferred this one but this game is pretty much more platforming game and gran theft auto combined to make one epic game

Jak 3-8.5/10 this is a good end to the trilogy but I have only played this one a few times before and its they only jak game in this collection I haven't beat on ps2 which will change with this collection