GT Blitz doesn’t seem all that bothered by the fact his dad was killed by Mizo’s men. And yet, he seems increasingly bothered by our heroes’ continued efforts to win the whole racing season.

Eh, there’s probably nothing there. It’s not like he’s Mizo or anything.

Since I’d rather not whine about sewer levels again, I’ll instead focus on the plot, such as it is. As far as Jak and Daxter plots go, it’s a strange one. We’ve started with Jak and company needed to race Mizo’s goons so that they can win the antidote, and that status quo has mostly been maintained for all this time.

There have been mentions of political maneuvering and gang activity that permeate the background of the story. (Mizo and Krew have a bet over control of all crime in both cities.) However, by and large, our cast has no interest and no stake in all of that beyond their immediate need for an antidote to the poison. If someone handed them all a cure right now, they would drop out of the race and that would be the end of the story.

And that’s honestly probably the big mistake Jak X makes with its story. If I could ask for anything, it would be a more connective issue between our heroes and the underlying machinations of the plot. I’d like more reason for us to be here than “Krew poisoned us”, something that helps the audience get emotionally invested beyond an excuse to race.

That never really happens here, and that’s odd coming from Naughty Dog.

This is it, baby! We’re on the third Grand Pri… Wait. Another goddamn sewer track!? Can we not!? Can we please not!?

*sigh* Figures.

At least once we’re out of the sewers, the last two tracks we need to race on are a lot more gentle on us.

And after that, we have a novel race where we have to win despite our weapons being jammed and useless for the entire race. We just need to focus purely on driving. Thankfully, on the snowy track it takes place on, the driving feels smooth like butter.

When Jak X plays well, it plays extremely well.

We’re nearly ready for the Blue Eco Cup Grand Prix, but we must get more medals and complete a few qualifiers first. Let’s scorch the pavement and leave our opponents in the dust.

There’s nothing quite like figuring out exactly what about a game drives one crazy, and this episode was the one that finally gave me clarity on that.

I don’t understand why someone would want to create terrain that both causes drift and is filled with so many sharp turns and twists that driving through it is a complete nightmare, but that is a choice that the team at Naughty Dog made when building these sewer-themed tracks.

It has the unfortunate side effect of leaning into all of the worst aspects of Jak X’s systems, shown by the Freeze Rally we participate in. Because vehicles are floaty and fragile, we’re getting destroyed even when there are no other racers on track to fight us, swerving uncontrollably into walls and awkward angles.

And unfortunately for us, there’s yet another that we’ll need to deal with.

With two Cups under our belt, it looks like it’s time for the finer details to make themselves known.

Of course, it could never be anything as simple as a racing championship. Now we know that between Krew and Mizo, the winner shall have full rights to all organized crime in both Haven and Kras City.

I’m particularly fond of the exchange between Ashlin and Rayn after this reveal. The fact that Rayn is wondering whether or not Mizo will agree to hand over his empire is strong foreshadowing, and I like how Ashlin states outright that it doesn’t matter to her as long as she gets her antidote. It’s a good way of subtly broadcasting to the audience that something’s not right with this picture.

That said, we still need to race either way, so next time we’re back on the circuit.

The Green Cup Grand Prix is proceeding apace. All we have left to do is close out the competition and stay on top.

Shouldn’t be too difficult.

It’s so odd to see a TV show host lose his cool and ask contestants what they think about possible death threats. I certainly hope that’s not some kind of foreshadowing to indicate he may have ulterior motives.

We’re almost finished with the Green Eco Cup, and once we are we’ll be halfway through the game. I hope Mizo is nervous because we’re ready to win the whole damn thing.

I can’t believe I missed that I still had a qualifier to do. Oh well. Mistakes happen. And assuming we go back for full completion, it’s one fewer race than we’ll need to complete later.

As far as the story is concerned, we still haven’t made any meaningful advancements. We still don’t know why Mizo is still trying to stop us. Thankfully, we’ll start to get some answers next time!

With each successful race, the competition only grows in skill. Fortunately, so do we! Right?

Right!?

Looking back on the tape, while theirs a floatiness to the vehicles in the game, a lot of what happened appears to actually come down to operator error. I don’t remember hitting the breaks to power slide as often as I did, but the footage doesn’t lie. And that might be a large part of my problem. Fortunately, that means it’s something I can work on.

Unfortunately, it means I’m colder towards the game than I realistically should be. We’ll just have to fix that as we keep going.

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.