Jak 3

It sure took me a while to get around to playing this one. I don't have anything against the series really, I think it's a solid platformer. I just can not understand, for the life of me, the numerous people who prefer it to Ratchet and Clank. It's literally incomprehensible to me. The only think Jak has over Ratchet is animation, and storyline I guess. His games are more frustrating, control worse, and just less... good.

Jak II was a radical departure from the first game, misguidedly turning Jak into a quasi-badass and making it a more open world with a Grand Theft Auto feel to a lot of the core design. The platforming sections were still there, but in their own sectioned-off areas, you spent a lot of time roaming the irritatingly designed streets of Haven City and racing and fighting stuff there. It got very punishing at times, and was just too aggravating to be a great game. They don't fix most of the issues with the sequel, which sticks close to the philosophy of it's predecessor. I really wish they spent more time making sure everything worked right. The double-jump is way too specific about the timing. There's a common glitch where the game will pause itself during the action. I'm pretty sure it's not my controller since it doesn't happen with other games. There's no targeting system, so you have to rely on the spotty auto-aim. Jak 3 definitely suffers from Donkey Kong 64 Syndrome, which has two key parts.

1) Weak enemies that serve no other purpose than to piss you off when you're trying to do other things.
2) A perceived variety of gameplay that isn't actually that creative, but usually the same basic types of activities repeated with more frustrating restrictions each time.

The trilogy's plot is wrapped up well. The Jak story is interesting, full of twists and it sometimes approaches actual humor. The problem is the characters aren't very good. There's not much to Jak besides his anger, and he isn't really developed that much. And Daxter is supposed to be the hilarious sidekick, but he's really just a pain in the ass. He's always taking credit and complaining, and sometimes when you get killed there's a little cutscene where he mocks you before you restart. Gee, thanks. You self-aggrandizing piece of shit. Oh, and I almost forgot how restarting is annoying. It remembers the ammo and power-ups you used up, but respawns all the enemies. Awesome.

I'm really dumping on the game here, but I honestly did like it. There are lots of cheap enemy placements and not enough checkpoints, so it's hard not to be at least mildly pissed-off while you're playing, but it's ultimately a pretty rewarding experience. Despite the frustrations, the game itself is pretty fun to run around in. The different vehicles and weapons are cool, the pure platforming can be fun, and it's a really great looking game. The wasteland is an interesting new area to explore, and the dune buggies are fun when they aren't spinning out of control. You can unlock commentary for a lot of the cutscenes, and it's pretty interesting and shows the developers' care for their series. It definitely could have been handled better, because I honestly feel like they forgot to playtest it and make sure it was fun in some places. But if you can handle some annoyances, it's still a pretty good platformer from the last generation.