Throwback platformers are enjoying something of a renaissance in 2017, but outside of a certain plumber scheduled to arrive imminently on the Nintendo Switch, you may be hard pressed to find a better collectathon than Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on any console this year. Sure, Yooka-Laylee was all new – but you’d be surprised how well Naughty Dog’s 2001 adventure holds up today.
We decided to play the first few minutes of the freshly emulated PS2 Classics version on the PlayStation 4 – and you can watch the gameplay footage embedded above. To our untrained eyes, it looks sharper than the remastered PlayStation 3 release, though the framerate isn’t silky smooth – even on a PS4 Pro.
The thing that made this game impressive in the day is that it takes place within a single, seamless open world. While we may be used to massive sandboxes like Horizon: Zero Dawn now, it was a newer concept over 15 years ago, and many of the best platformers at the time like Super Mario 64 loaded in and out of different levels. Here, the transitions between stages are seamless – magic!
[source bit.ly]
Comments 37
Looks good. Will get it in a sale. Frame rate problems hurt my brain though. C'mon.
Are jak and daxter 2 and 3 games getting remade for the ps4? Do we get this free as a pre-order bonus for uncharted legacy on ps store?
This is included in UC:TLL right? If so, I'll happily give it a bash at some point after tomorrow.
Rather have a Bluepoint remaster.
Fun game, the Jak series were my main games back on PS2. Jak II is still a very hard game though.
@daveofduncan just checked my library . Lost legacy and jak and daxter available to download. Woop
@daveofduncan @johnny30 Yeah, free with The Lost Legacy pre-orders. The other two games are being ported, as is Jak X: Combat Racing!
From the above video it looks good to me. A bit disappointed that I need the disc in order to redeem the code for Jak & Daxter, I had planned on playing Jak & Daxter until uncharted the lost legacy arrived tomorrow. I got a code for the last of us remastered when I bought my original ps4 and I didn't need any additional requirements. Oh well looking forward to playing this classic as I didn't get to properly years ago.
This and Ape escape 2 have aged well in my personal opinion. So many great ps2 games out there but at this rate we won't see most of them for a long while, if at all.....
@Nesstark88 You may be able to play it in the morning to be honest. I don't think it's the disc — it's just that the codes haven't gone live yet in Europe.
@get2sammyb Hmm ok I will try, I only say that because that is what amazon uk said in the email lol and it failed when I tried, I will give it a shot tomorrow, thanks.
Just tried again and it's working lol smh....
It won't be framerate issues, it will be frame pacing. If you got it on the uk/eur store then it's running at 24fps which it ups to 30 or 48 if it was unlocked on the ps2 but causes framepacing issues. The American version is 30fps or 60 if unlocked so runs smoother with no pacing issues.
It's the reason I get all my ps2 classics on the Canadian store - ps need to replace the Eur versions with the US ones or give a choice because by default we get the worse, which is a shame.
@Turniplord I'm no expert but the PAL game does have a 60hz option which I turned on before recording this.
@get2sammyb - ohhh, that's new. It must have had it on ps2 as well then. I might pick it up on eBay as it's only 6 quid for a code. I usually just get the USA Ones to guarantee a better framerate.
If it is having issues then it most likely won't be patched - don't think I've ever seen a PS2 title receive a patch
Oh good. Frame rate issues. Well Ill stick to the original disc then. Thats actually a shame and....weird. Then those PS2 Trilogies on PS3 had oddities galore with sound, frame rates and bugs. Even the PS2 Classic Sonic Heroes has weird bugs not in the original.
Thats a shame, I was looking forward to this.
Been playing it for a couple hours now. The frame rate does have some issues, but it hasn't been a deal breaker so far. It's mostly happened in cutscenes rather than gameplay, but what drops I've had during gameplay haven't been bad.
Game itself still holds up well too, although the early PS2 graphics can be a bit distracting.
Has there been any wind of when Jak II, 3, and Combat Racing will be on PSN? As fun as TPL is, those are the ones I'm really looking forward to.
Not my type of game but I gave it a go for about ten minutes and nope. It's nicely done, not a great fan of the slightly wonky controls but it's otherwise fine, not for me though.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi not into jumping games are ya?
@DLB3 Check again, should get a code via email when the game ships. If not check junk mail.
got my code tuesday and it downloaded
@Turniplord GTA SA got patched on PS4.
@DLB3 No problem, happy to help!
@Nesstark88 really? What did they update/patch? I don't own that one as I've never been a big GTA fan - got most of the others tho
@BLP_Software lol calm down it's not game breaking. Personally while playing I get a smooth framerate with no issues so far. I have boost mode and 60hz mode turned on in the game. p.s I'm using Beta 5.0 firmware as well.
@Turniplord It reads
''- Refresh rate has been upgraded from 50hz /25fps to 60 hz/30fps
''- Bug fixes.''
wish they could do some anti aliasing lol
@Nesstark88 ahhh. So they actually fixed the stuttering by basically using the USA code I would imagine - of working on backend to tweak it. All PS2 classics should do that over here. It's hit and miss - the resident evil one was supposedly really obvious with the pacing issues.
I would rather play these PS2 classics where developers where trying their best to make the game look as best as it could on PS2 hardware, rather than play these new indie retro style 8bit games where they are purposely making the visuals look unattractive. Jak & Daxter 3 should look even better as the PS2 games in the later years looked the best compared to the earlier games. Give us more classic ps2 games sony!
@Turniplord Pressing options on a PS2 game will show the "check for update" and "update history" options.
@Nesstark88 I have a standard PS4
@BLP_Software I'd be surprised if the PS2 original holds a rock solid 60 frames-per-second. I mean, I haven't played it in years so I couldn't tell you, but I'd guess the minor chugs in this version are present in the original, too.
@get2sammyb It doesnt. I think its either locked to 30 or stays consistent. It definitely doesnt go up and down though.
Just playing it now. Its aiming for 60 but has drops ocassionally but nowhere near as noticeable.
Which is impressive given...ya know...PS2.
It was so much fun back in the day. If there wasn't already a lot of other games that I'd like to play, then I would have happily picked this up again.
This is the PS2 Classic? So its running through their emulator then.. while its good at times, rarely does the PS2 emulation hit 60fps, let alone 1080p on the games I bought. FPS dips are to be expected.. the PS2 is not an easy machine to emulate without decent power.. and the jaguar cores in the PS4 do not make powerful number-crunchers.
@kyleforrester87 my destiny jumping is much improved but no, smashing boxes is crap too
@Flopsy To be fair, the PS3 remaster wasn't amazing to begin with.
the vita version was wayyyyy better than the ps3 version imho
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