portablebin
1 review liked by portablebin
Jak II
2003
i dipped back into jak II last night, mainly out of spite re: druckmann’s recent comments on ai. tbh i’m mostly ambivalent towards games’ adoption of genAI. what can i do, i’m just one man, etc., and that train is already in motion anyways. i’ll save my energy. what irked me more was druckmann shitting on his own studio’s legacy.
it was always clear that naughty dog wanted the world to forget its pre-uncharted history. they claimed it was important to move on, that ND must mature if they were to make truly impactful experiences. this line continued in many of druckmann’s post-uncharted 4 (the most boring one) comments, now indicating fresh disdain for the first three games, striking them from the record. it seemed tlou was the pinnacle of achievement. i guess it makes sense. it takes a certain type of person to (co-) create one game and immediately crown themself the king of videogaming.
i don’t have much to say about tlou here, except to note that it laid bare ND’s conception of ‘maturity’ – ultimately that of an angsty, childish teen firing on all cylinders, begging to be taken seriously. to no one’s surprise, violence and unsubtle cynicism were in, while dynamism, colour, and fun were out. time gave us uncharted 4 and tlou 2, eliminating any lingering doubt in our minds. it’s still crazy to think this was ND sending their best.
jak II though? it’s fun as hell. shades of gta III, of blade runner, of rayman 2, of tony hawk’s pro skater, filtered through the saturday morning cartoon machine. if there’s one thing naughty dog have always done well, it is their skirting of genre boundaries with an approach grounded not in whiplash, but holism. it’s a shame they now only mix things up as far as, for example, letting you ride a horse for all of five minutes in tlou. even better, jak II has some actual teeth, with ND still riding the coattails of challenge-based play. it is willing to demand that we keep our focus. beyond that, as a cursory mention lest i keep waffling: environments, visual language, characters, dialogue, etc., are all simply fun. uncomplicated, but fun. i can’t truly say i’m in love with the game, but it’s hard not to respect what it’s putting down.
let’s go back to druckmann’s AI comments:
“at naughty dog, we transitioned from hand-animating jak and daxter to using motion capture in uncharted, significantly enhancing our storytelling. ai will allow us to create nuanced dialogues and characters, expanding creative possibilities”
where to begin… maybe with this being a straight up lie. ND have always championed fine-tuned manual animination. does druckmann think everyone forgot the pains he took to express how tlou 2’s visual cohesion was only made possible through the attention to detail of their expert animators? because mo-cap alone couldn’t cut it?? i know he’s now blowing smoke up some corporate asses but damn, it’s crazy to state you’re oh-so over it while throwing some of the studio’s most formative work under the bus.
taken for what it was (is), jak II’s animation quality is superb, both in cutscenes and gameplay. again, saturday morning cartoon vibes. wind waker levels of expression. they are as vibrant and dynamic as the rest of the game, emblematic of an experience that never kowtows to a self-conscious sense of ‘maturity’ or ‘dignity’. for druckmann to bristle at this, yet again placing ND above such ‘childish’ things, feels like a rosetta stone for the studio’s future. time to pack it up. we’ll never see anything like this—anything so fun—from this bunch again.
anyway. hope everyone is excited for tlou 3. surely genAI, hand-in-hand with the power of the PlayStation®5, will be harnessed to enable the most pro-genocide game yet seen.
it was always clear that naughty dog wanted the world to forget its pre-uncharted history. they claimed it was important to move on, that ND must mature if they were to make truly impactful experiences. this line continued in many of druckmann’s post-uncharted 4 (the most boring one) comments, now indicating fresh disdain for the first three games, striking them from the record. it seemed tlou was the pinnacle of achievement. i guess it makes sense. it takes a certain type of person to (co-) create one game and immediately crown themself the king of videogaming.
i don’t have much to say about tlou here, except to note that it laid bare ND’s conception of ‘maturity’ – ultimately that of an angsty, childish teen firing on all cylinders, begging to be taken seriously. to no one’s surprise, violence and unsubtle cynicism were in, while dynamism, colour, and fun were out. time gave us uncharted 4 and tlou 2, eliminating any lingering doubt in our minds. it’s still crazy to think this was ND sending their best.
jak II though? it’s fun as hell. shades of gta III, of blade runner, of rayman 2, of tony hawk’s pro skater, filtered through the saturday morning cartoon machine. if there’s one thing naughty dog have always done well, it is their skirting of genre boundaries with an approach grounded not in whiplash, but holism. it’s a shame they now only mix things up as far as, for example, letting you ride a horse for all of five minutes in tlou. even better, jak II has some actual teeth, with ND still riding the coattails of challenge-based play. it is willing to demand that we keep our focus. beyond that, as a cursory mention lest i keep waffling: environments, visual language, characters, dialogue, etc., are all simply fun. uncomplicated, but fun. i can’t truly say i’m in love with the game, but it’s hard not to respect what it’s putting down.
let’s go back to druckmann’s AI comments:
“at naughty dog, we transitioned from hand-animating jak and daxter to using motion capture in uncharted, significantly enhancing our storytelling. ai will allow us to create nuanced dialogues and characters, expanding creative possibilities”
where to begin… maybe with this being a straight up lie. ND have always championed fine-tuned manual animination. does druckmann think everyone forgot the pains he took to express how tlou 2’s visual cohesion was only made possible through the attention to detail of their expert animators? because mo-cap alone couldn’t cut it?? i know he’s now blowing smoke up some corporate asses but damn, it’s crazy to state you’re oh-so over it while throwing some of the studio’s most formative work under the bus.
taken for what it was (is), jak II’s animation quality is superb, both in cutscenes and gameplay. again, saturday morning cartoon vibes. wind waker levels of expression. they are as vibrant and dynamic as the rest of the game, emblematic of an experience that never kowtows to a self-conscious sense of ‘maturity’ or ‘dignity’. for druckmann to bristle at this, yet again placing ND above such ‘childish’ things, feels like a rosetta stone for the studio’s future. time to pack it up. we’ll never see anything like this—anything so fun—from this bunch again.
anyway. hope everyone is excited for tlou 3. surely genAI, hand-in-hand with the power of the PlayStation®5, will be harnessed to enable the most pro-genocide game yet seen.
