I don’t know what Shiv has against me, but I know he’s the leading cause of my losing races. And I’m going to make him pay.

I am starting to realize that I vastly favor events that result in large chains of enemy vehicles being felled by my own bloody hands. And to be honest, I’m not sure what that says about me.

Apologies for the wonky audio this week. I’ve installed a new standing desk, and the microphone was not set up properly to accommodate me standing versus sitting. I’ve adjusted it, so we should be fine next week.

As our rank grows, the number and types of events we can take part in continue to expand. We’ve got some new challenges on the docket, and Mizo’s men are still hassling us, so let’s take them both on.

Something I’m starting to notice about the story in Jak X is that the circumstances haven’t changed at all in the 4 hours we’ve been playing. New racers have been introduced to the game, but in general, we’re still forced to race in order to get the antidote from Krew, and Mizo’s gang, whoever he is, is trying to stop us for reasons we don’t understand. We’re picking up small hints and foreshadowing, but the actual plot has not meaningfully advanced in any way.

Of course, we’re so busy having fun on the track that it’s probably not an issue. The only reason it occurred to be at all is that when reviewing the footage, I realized that I didn’t have much to actually say about the cutscenes. I’ve been mostly focused on the action.

And I guess that’s kinda the point, so it might not even be a problem.

Though Jak X still remains an incredible game, it’s only now that I start to see one of the big cracks in its facade.

All aspects of game design are trade-offs, logical exchanges that must be considered in order to cultivate the type of experience designers wish to impart upon their players. And though the hyper-lethality and aggressive playstyle promoted by the game leads to engaging races where the winner isn’t locked in until they cross the finish line, it does come with drawbacks.

Sometimes players can make all correct split-second decisions, and lose the race because a stray missile or Peace Maker shot is aimed squarely at them just as they’re about to cross the finish line. It’s always going to lead to some amount of bad feelings when it happens, and there’s no avoiding that. However, when the race is five minutes long and it comes down to that final hit, that can be brutal to have to redo the entire race for another shot.

Part of this is exacerbated by the fact that even in those long races, the only portion of it that realistically determines the final result, assuming all drivers are performing decently, is the last minute or so. Everything else is more or less a preamble to that final minute of driving.

Fortunately, I’m having enough fun that I don’t care about that, but I can imagine feeling different if I wasn’t in the correct headspace.

As it turns out, my fears that Jak X wouldn’t be a fun stream game were unfounded. And since we’re enjoying ourselves so much, let’s keep going.

Perhaps the biggest improvement of this game’s Adventure Mode over something like Crash Team Racing is the way that we’re rarely playing the same types of events repeatedly.

In CTR, most players finish all the normal races first, then the boss race of a given hub, before they can even think about the CTR challenges and Relic Races. All of the events of a specific type are discreetly handed out at roughly the same time, so we tend to do them in batches.

But here, the structure is different. As we accumulate medals, new events open up in a given Cup, and those events can be anything. We may do a Circuit Race only to be greeted by a Deathmatch or a Freeze Rally immediately afterward. This means there’s a constant variety and diversity that keeps gameplay fresh and exciting as we progress through it.

Additionally, while we still have to win the bulk of events, there’s some built-in leeway since we only need 50/60 medals per cup. If a particular race is causing us problems, we can be content to come in second or third and move on to something different.

It’s a smart way to make sure players don’t get bored or frustrated for long, while still allowing for challenging and exciting events.

Nothing can bring us down. We’re rapidly climbing the ranks until we can qualify for the Grand Prix. Onward and upward!

Though I find myself enjoying how aggressive and offensive Jak X is as a racing game, I do think there are a few issues with how aggressive it is that could put people off, and they’re worth mentioning.

While the emphasis on offensive weapons means that players falling behind always have a means of catching up, the reverse is that if they’re ahead, there’s a good chance they could be taken out and thrown behind without due recourse. The most obvious example of this is the ratio of front-facing to rear-facing weapons. In theory, if we have a rear weapon, we can always use it to deflect a missile coming at us. In practice, missiles always come in sets of two, while rear weapons like mines always come in sets of one. That means that it’s usually impossible to fully deflect a volley, and you’ll always at least take a few hits.

Additionally, most games of this nature, like Crash Team Racing, have systems in place to prevent AI-controlled racers from gaining access to the Blue Shell equivalent, the Peace Maker in this game. In the hands of a player, this weapon means that there’s always a chance they’ll be able to hit the person in front to take the lead. But when the AI has access to it, especially at the frequency we’re seeing it here in Jak X, it often means if the player takes first, they’re likely to immediately be taken out without almost no possible counterplay to stop it.

Even though I personally haven’t gotten frustrated by this yet, I see an alternate reality in which I am. And to people who do have that frustration while playing Jak X, I want you to know that I see and acknowledge you.

Whoever this Mizo guy is, he’s certainly doing whatever it takes to stop us from winning our antidote. Fortunately for us, his henchmen aren’t too bright.

We can take them.

One of the things I enjoy most about replaying a game like this actually, shocking does have to do with the story and writing. When we already know what the big plot twist is, it’s fun to replay it and watch scenes again in the light of the information. Things that might have read as off or awkward the first time around make much more sense in hindsight, giving us a brand new appreciation for how the latter plot points were set up.

Obviously, I can’t go into details now, but pay attention to how certain characters act. Credit to the team at Naughty Dog for frequently doing a good job at this.

Now that we’ve been given a “warm welcome” from the denizens of Kras City, I say it’s time to take the racing circuit by storm.

Let’s give these clowns a lesson they won’t soon forget!

Somehow, I forgot how good the driving feels in this game. Our vehicles have a weight and momentum to them that is extremely fun to manipulate through power sliding and effective use of turbo. It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain, but easy to demonstrate in action.

But that leaves the “combat” aspect of “Combat Racing”, and using weapons strategically can make a big difference. I like the innovation here of giving each racer the ability to hold two weapons at a time, an offensive weapon in the front, and a defensive weapon in the rear. No matter where we are in the pack, we always have a reason to have a weapon in both slots, to both try to claw our way further up the rankings into first, or defend our position from would-be aggressors. And when we’re at the front or the back of the pack, we’re still able to have a response ready for when that position gets threatened.

This does have the net effect of increasing the overall lethality of the game compared to CTR. In every race we’ve played, the top positions are fiercely contested throughout the duration, and the one in first is never fully secure. There are a few criticisms that can be levied at a game that skews its balance more heavily towards offense than defense, but I think those drawbacks are worth it for a more interactive match where no one ever truly feels like they have no chance to clawing back from disaster.

After all, it’s not over until we’ve crossed the finish line.

After wrapping up Drake’s Deception, I found myself unsure of what game I wished to play next for the channel and for Twitch. That’s when someone suggested Jak X: Combat Racing off-hand. I had been skeptical of doing it for the channel because I know some of the later races can be frustrating, but ultimately it still seemed like the best option.

So here we are, playing Jak X: Combat Racing.

Let us take a moment to acknowledge that the canon for Jak and Daxter has always been “loose”. Everything we take as fact is liable to be changed or contradicted by the premise of a future game, such is the case with Haven City being the last city on the planet. Turns out there is a whole other city that takes combat racing as the most important aspect of their culture. No, it doesn’t make sense. No, it doesn’t need to make sense, so let’s just go with it.

Once we do, the premise of this game is actually quite strong, giving our heroes and their allies ample motivation to continue racing when they have nothing else. After all, they’re literally die if they refuse to. It’s also perfectly natural for someone like Krew to issue this ultimatum from the dead, in the event that his plans back in the second game were interrupted. And in typical PS2-era Naughty Dog fashion, all of those stakes are established quickly, in the span of a few minutes, before we’re thrust immediately into basic tutorials to make sure we know all of the mechanics.

We’re off to a solid start. Let’s hope the game continues to deliver.

Now that we’ve wrapped up Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, let’s talk about our experience.

Overall, this is decisively my least favorite game in the mainline Uncharted franchise, disregarding any portable spinoffs. It’s not the worst game in the world, but it falls flat in almost every way when compared even just to its PS3 brethren.

Next time, we’ll give Jak X: Combat Racing a shot.

To think, this whole time it wasn’t a djinn. It was actually a hallucino-djinn. The big supernatural twist is that it’s not a supernatural twist. The City of Brass fell because there were drugs in the water.

And the British want to use those drugs to do it to other civilizations. There’s no way we’re going to let them.

Jokes aside, I don’t actually take issue with the idea that there’s no big supernatural twist and that this mystery has a mundane explanation behind it. I’m not sure why Marlowe and her order need this specific hallucinogen when they already have no trouble whatsoever with brainwashing people, but it does hit solidly into their MO. It’s one of those things that’s not an inconsistency, just a gap in our understanding of the plot that could be better served filled in. But we don’t have much time left in the game, and this script likely already had some major rework it went through on account of Cutter’s actor having to leave the production.

This probably explains how strange the ending scene feels. I don’t understand the thematic purpose of Nathan going back to try to save Marlowe. His spoken words that he’s “got nothin’ to prove” imply that he won’t give in to her provocations, but then his next action is to immediately try to save her. Sully is right to point out that he can, and probably should, just walk away and let her perish.

If he did, I would understand Talbot coming after us for one final boss fight, consumed with righteous fury that we stood there and did nothing. But Nathan tried, which makes this last-ditch assault look petty and ridiculous at best. I’ve never believed either the Hermetic Order or Marlowe/Talbot were credible threats. For all their bluster, they are routinely thwarted time and time again without fail, never taking even a single decisive victory. But if I did have any illusions to the contrary, this pathetic tantrum would’ve easily quashed them.

At least the trio of Nate, Elena, and Sully get a strong scene to finish out the trilogy. Next time, we’ll have a short post-game discussion and plan for our next project.