The link to that "below expectations" article I see was never updated. It's one of the players in the false mass reporting (especially by Nintendo sites, strangely) that went on about the statement Sega said about the sales at the time.
But anyways, i'm glad the game underperformed. Deserved for an insultingly corporate game having no confidence in its own branding, relying upon a semi-Smash Bros.esque amalgamation of other IPs to do the heavy lifting (or any impressive lifting). They had a great foundation with Team Sonic Racing, which sold really well and was not actually considered a commercial failure, and did a 180 one follow-up immediately after. Stick with actual "Sonic Racing" (with maybe some Sega guest characters ala Rider series) and don't take sell your soul to the devil again... Sega.
Shinobi on the other-hand, that one is unfortunate. That deserved to do better. The passion was evident and the art direction was superb too.
It's cool that the game is acknowledged in the article as a "great hack-n-slash", but that still doesn't override, excuse, or justify the desperately and distractingly forced "gooner" buzzterm generalization across the playerbase. Can the game and its fans so much as breathe without the word and thought living rent free in the mind and being making fans feel potentially guilty for being associated with the game...
I almost (because the PS4 Gen is where the HUGE decline started) can't believe how far Sony first parties have fallen. None of these and whatever else missing that was mentioned elsewhere, are truly interesting or fascinating outside maybe the Marvel fighting game and even then that's because Arc Systems are involved. Other than that I can bet on enjoying whatever Sony Bends are creating (though maybe not after Days Gone largely unreasonably negative pushback and the departure of some key veterans of the studio afterwards). If Sucker Punch are making a Ghost 3 and were to bring back Jin, then we can probably add that too. (Only game I'd openly give the pass too is GT7.) But yeah the rest, ain't it. All SIE has going for themselves are stunning visuals, great cinematic presentation, and not perfect but heavy polishing values. Their games objectively look too similar, play too similar, and prioritize the wrong aspects of gaming, which result in slow, boring, heavily scripted wanna-be Interactive Movie games with good graphics (not necessarily artstyles though). It is not nostalgia that I get more enjoyment out of and am able to literally infinitely replay older generation (first party Sony) games.
This preview did next to nothing to stray me away from concerns and finding reason to actually be hyped other than brand presence. In-fact it did more of the opposite. Need more details on the open environments: how much of the game do they make up, how large are they typically, will the horror tension suffer due to such wide spaces, are the spaces generally "empty", etc, etc? Personally I hope it's more inline with how Dead Space 3 did its exterior sections. How is the Xenomorph's A.I? The sequel is on an entirely different engine iirc, which means the need to redo things exactly like that from scratch (so probably my biggest concern). It also somewhat sounds like they'll be more scripted/walky-talky sections? I'm not signing up for that, unless it's kept to a really small degree. And so fourth. I don't need the best sequel ever seen by man. Don't wanna see a weaker game either... A good or great sequel I'd be pleased with.
Adore AI, but it takes more than the mere presence of a sequel being worked on for me to be excited or at least sold (been burned enough times by disappointing sequels: TLOU "P2", Dying Light 2, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, and the list absolutely goes on). The majority of consumers are weak-willed people who buy anything so long as the brand breathes, but I need to see actual promising things being done to be convinced.
Sonic X Shadow Generations (despite its still weird, bad, and questionable subtitle) is a top tier Sonic game and 3D platformer, deserving and even warranting an actual purchase over subscribed streaming. That said the Shadow Generations side (not the popularly wrongly used "half" terming people use) is the better game of the two too, regardless of what anyone says.
@DylanP Jak X:Combat Racing is peak spinoff idea and execution, and arcade racing. It was absolutely onpar with the best in the genre of its generation and then even exceeded them in a few areas to say the least. That said, much respect for acknowledging Jak 2 as the best in the series. If haters rid away their entitlement (especially for a game clearly not titled "The Precursor Legacy 2") and put actual investment efforts into the game, some would agree and others should at least have a slight understanding from none previously.
We're putting respect on this series legacy today, boys-
The Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie-inspired first game has been overglazed literally forever, so I don't need to speak on it as much. Its sequels though are among and have been considered by many as the most graphically impressive games on PS2 (which why would this be surprising considering these were the CB and soon-to-be Uncharted guys), esp during their release. It is proVably the most polished trilogy of its two main contemporaries (easy to assess with the hate lens replaced). Real quickly- I love how haters of the series always only points out its sub-genre mix-up, while egregiously and disingenuously ignoring Sly's series also abandoning the collectathon sub-genre mid-series and Ratchet & Clank—which made the conscious foundational decision to avoid being a collectathon after the later-starting devs advantageously assessed the evolving gaming market/decline of collectathon platformers at the time—not knowing what it wanted to be between platforming vs shooting every single entry (we can also get into Sly 2 having a much darker story + adopting openworld-esque levels and Ratchet having an entire characterization overhaul in R&C2). Okay, back on track. The (frankly over-pedestalized) Uncharted and TLOU IP, which ironically both started out as new Jak games, would absolutely not exist without Jak regardless of those incapable and too distressed to accept that fact (even Sony has admitted it from time to time). Plus you can effortlessly see Jak's DNA in all their IPs (even Intergalatic has modified scrapped concept from the cancelled Jak 4). There has not and still is not a game series like Jak and Daxter [specifically its sequels] in gaming history. Speaking of which, those anciently outdated ongoing "GTA clone" and "R&C wannabe" regurgitated bottom tier takes are nothing but insanely uneducated, surface level misunderstandings (and hatred) of the type of games the sequels actually are. Also believe it or not but the series has influenced numerous games over the generations: from smaller games like Pumpkin Jack and Duskfade, to flagship IPs from top companies like Sonic The Hedgehog games and seemingly The Legend of Zelda games (which if nothing else at least a TON of gamers have constantly compared specific TLoZ entries like "Twilight Princess" and especially Breath of the Wild" duology" to Jak's trilogy), etc, and get this, Ratchet & Clank! Insomniac Games admitted that in the 2000s they envied Jak's sequels having the superior sales, and then employed similar conventions from Jak's IP into their later R&C games to achieve higher sales. I can easily go on but this has gotten long. The uninformed "controls aged poorly" complaint is so laughable in itself that it forgoes even being entertained.
The Staff/A.Writer's personal negative interjection on the sequels was completely inessential and only serves as a weird distraction to the positive news and revelation here involving this goated series (which yes means the first game ~and~ its more charming, more humorous, more ambitious, more indepth-written, story-richer, characters-deeper, mechanically-superior, content-wider, graphically-evolved, definitely much cooler, surely more intriguing, tonally more satisfying, and far more immersive sequels).
Beyond that evidently the comment section is pretty littered with a lot of questionable takes and warped views on the sequels as well. The unchanged immature 2000s' hate mentality against the sequels still going strong in the 2020s, eh (the butchered PS4 emulations of the first four PS2 entries don't help). The Jak and Daxter series is and always has been officially and definitively one of PS2's top franchises (and for extra fun, the highest selling between itself, Ratchet & Clank's series, and especially Sly Cooper's during that golden generation).
(Apparently had to shorten my larger post. Must however preserve-)
Reminder too: Disappointingly the most accessible versions of the series ever—the sorry PS4 emulations [JaD:TPL, J2, J3, JX]—did not faithfully preserve the greatness of the original releases; they're of actually lower quality compared to their original counterparts: lower framerate, graphical bugs, reduced directional movement (which affects aiming, driving, running, anything control related), and etc. The PS3 versions also has a few notorious issues of its own, a few being somehow decreased dune buggy controls (so you lose control more often than you should compared to PS2) and of course the infamous rng punch bug. The fact that the PS4's has been the most accessible versions for 9yrs straight is disgusting, especially for one of PS2's best and defining IPs. Sony absolutely need to get a handle on giving them quality re-releases under their newer emulation program, at least mirroring the quality of Tomb Raider: Anniversary and the Sly trilogy if not their original PS2 versions.
@Toilet_Goat You hit the nail dead-center and produced easily the best post in this entire comment section so far - and that's no exaggeration.
(I just probably wouldn't generalize under "millennials", as they're the same group most responsible for Jak 2 having commonly been referred to as the best in the series for decades (anyone who hasn't spent all their internet lives in a single echo chamber, or two, would know that fact instead of being dumb-founded upon hearing it). Not the newer fans, especially via those subpar, worse-playing PS4 Jak 1-X Emulations that stain the legacy of the series. Naturally you're still half right those a portion of them also make up the uninformed haters.)
Comments 9
Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance Sell Below SEGA's Expectations
The link to that "below expectations" article I see was never updated. It's one of the players in the false mass reporting (especially by Nintendo sites, strangely) that went on about the statement Sega said about the sales at the time.
But anyways, i'm glad the game underperformed. Deserved for an insultingly corporate game having no confidence in its own branding, relying upon a semi-Smash Bros.esque amalgamation of other IPs to do the heavy lifting (or any impressive lifting). They had a great foundation with Team Sonic Racing, which sold really well and was not actually considered a commercial failure, and did a 180 one follow-up immediately after. Stick with actual "Sonic Racing" (with maybe some Sega guest characters ala Rider series) and don't take sell your soul to the devil again... Sega.
Shinobi on the other-hand, that one is unfortunate. That deserved to do better. The passion was evident and the art direction was superb too.
Re: Ex-PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade Will Let You Goon on the Go with Switch 2 Port
It's cool that the game is acknowledged in the article as a "great hack-n-slash", but that still doesn't override, excuse, or justify the desperately and distractingly forced "gooner" buzzterm generalization across the playerbase. Can the game and its fans so much as breathe without the word and thought living rent free in the mind and being making fans feel potentially guilty for being associated with the game...
Re: PlayStation Studios: All Sony First-Party Developers and What They're Working On
I almost (because the PS4 Gen is where the HUGE decline started) can't believe how far Sony first parties have fallen. None of these and whatever else missing that was mentioned elsewhere, are truly interesting or fascinating outside maybe the Marvel fighting game and even then that's because Arc Systems are involved. Other than that I can bet on enjoying whatever Sony Bends are creating (though maybe not after Days Gone largely unreasonably negative pushback and the departure of some key veterans of the studio afterwards). If Sucker Punch are making a Ghost 3 and were to bring back Jin, then we can probably add that too. (Only game I'd openly give the pass too is GT7.) But yeah the rest, ain't it. All SIE has going for themselves are stunning visuals, great cinematic presentation, and not perfect but heavy polishing values. Their games objectively look too similar, play too similar, and prioritize the wrong aspects of gaming, which result in slow, boring, heavily scripted wanna-be Interactive Movie games with good graphics (not necessarily artstyles though). It is not nostalgia that I get more enjoyment out of and am able to literally infinitely replay older generation (first party Sony) games.
Re: Round Up: Alien: Isolation 2 Previews Say It's More of the Brilliant, Terrifying Same
This preview did next to nothing to stray me away from concerns and finding reason to actually be hyped other than brand presence. In-fact it did more of the opposite. Need more details on the open environments: how much of the game do they make up, how large are they typically, will the horror tension suffer due to such wide spaces, are the spaces generally "empty", etc, etc? Personally I hope it's more inline with how Dead Space 3 did its exterior sections. How is the Xenomorph's A.I? The sequel is on an entirely different engine iirc, which means the need to redo things exactly like that from scratch (so probably my biggest concern). It also somewhat sounds like they'll be more scripted/walky-talky sections? I'm not signing up for that, unless it's kept to a really small degree. And so fourth. I don't need the best sequel ever seen by man. Don't wanna see a weaker game either... A good or great sequel I'd be pleased with.
Adore AI, but it takes more than the mere presence of a sequel being worked on for me to be excited or at least sold (been burned enough times by disappointing sequels: TLOU "P2", Dying Light 2, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, and the list absolutely goes on). The majority of consumers are weak-willed people who buy anything so long as the brand breathes, but I need to see actual promising things being done to be convinced.
Re: 8 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Announced for June 2026
Sonic X Shadow Generations (despite its still weird, bad, and questionable subtitle) is a top tier Sonic game and 3D platformer, deserving and even warranting an actual purchase over subscribed streaming.
That said the Shadow Generations side (not the popularly wrongly used "half" terming people use) is the better game of the two too, regardless of what anyone says.
Re: Here's What a Jak & Daxter PS5 Remake Could've Looked Like
@DylanP Jak X:Combat Racing is peak spinoff idea and execution, and arcade racing. It was absolutely onpar with the best in the genre of its generation and then even exceeded them in a few areas to say the least.
That said, much respect for acknowledging Jak 2 as the best in the series. If haters rid away their entitlement (especially for a game clearly not titled "The Precursor Legacy 2") and put actual investment efforts into the game, some would agree and others should at least have a slight understanding from none previously.
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
We're putting respect on this series legacy today, boys-
The Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie-inspired first game has been overglazed literally forever, so I don't need to speak on it as much. Its sequels though are among and have been considered by many as the most graphically impressive games on PS2 (which why would this be surprising considering these were the CB and soon-to-be Uncharted guys), esp during their release.
It is proVably the most polished trilogy of its two main contemporaries (easy to assess with the hate lens replaced).
Real quickly- I love how haters of the series always only points out its sub-genre mix-up, while egregiously and disingenuously ignoring Sly's series also abandoning the collectathon sub-genre mid-series and Ratchet & Clank—which made the conscious foundational decision to avoid being a collectathon after the later-starting devs advantageously assessed the evolving gaming market/decline of collectathon platformers at the time—not knowing what it wanted to be between platforming vs shooting every single entry (we can also get into Sly 2 having a much darker story + adopting openworld-esque levels and Ratchet having an entire characterization overhaul in R&C2).
Okay, back on track. The (frankly over-pedestalized) Uncharted and TLOU IP, which ironically both started out as new Jak games, would absolutely not exist without Jak regardless of those incapable and too distressed to accept that fact (even Sony has admitted it from time to time). Plus you can effortlessly see Jak's DNA in all their IPs (even Intergalatic has modified scrapped concept from the cancelled Jak 4).
There has not and still is not a game series like Jak and Daxter [specifically its sequels] in gaming history. Speaking of which, those anciently outdated ongoing "GTA clone" and "R&C wannabe" regurgitated bottom tier takes are nothing but insanely uneducated, surface level misunderstandings (and hatred) of the type of games the sequels actually are.
Also believe it or not but the series has influenced numerous games over the generations: from smaller games like Pumpkin Jack and Duskfade, to flagship IPs from top companies like Sonic The Hedgehog games and seemingly The Legend of Zelda games (which if nothing else at least a TON of gamers have constantly compared specific TLoZ entries like "Twilight Princess" and especially Breath of the Wild" duology" to Jak's trilogy), etc, and get this, Ratchet & Clank! Insomniac Games admitted that in the 2000s they envied Jak's sequels having the superior sales, and then employed similar conventions from Jak's IP into their later R&C games to achieve higher sales. I can easily go on but this has gotten long. The uninformed "controls aged poorly" complaint is so laughable in itself that it forgoes even being entertained.
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
The Staff/A.Writer's personal negative interjection on the sequels was completely inessential and only serves as a weird distraction to the positive news and revelation here involving this goated series (which yes means the first game ~and~ its more charming, more humorous, more ambitious, more indepth-written, story-richer, characters-deeper, mechanically-superior, content-wider, graphically-evolved, definitely much cooler, surely more intriguing, tonally more satisfying, and far more immersive sequels).
Beyond that evidently the comment section is pretty littered with a lot of questionable takes and warped views on the sequels as well. The unchanged immature 2000s' hate mentality against the sequels still going strong in the 2020s, eh (the butchered PS4 emulations of the first four PS2 entries don't help). The Jak and Daxter series is and always has been officially and definitively one of PS2's top franchises (and for extra fun, the highest selling between itself, Ratchet & Clank's series, and especially Sly Cooper's during that golden generation).
(Apparently had to shorten my larger post. Must however preserve-)
Reminder too: Disappointingly the most accessible versions of the series ever—the sorry PS4 emulations [JaD:TPL, J2, J3, JX]—did not faithfully preserve the greatness of the original releases; they're of actually lower quality compared to their original counterparts: lower framerate, graphical bugs, reduced directional movement (which affects aiming, driving, running, anything control related), and etc. The PS3 versions also has a few notorious issues of its own, a few being somehow decreased dune buggy controls (so you lose control more often than you should compared to PS2) and of course the infamous rng punch bug.
The fact that the PS4's has been the most accessible versions for 9yrs straight is disgusting, especially for one of PS2's best and defining IPs. Sony absolutely need to get a handle on giving them quality re-releases under their newer emulation program, at least mirroring the quality of Tomb Raider: Anniversary and the Sly trilogy if not their original PS2 versions.
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
@Toilet_Goat You hit the nail dead-center and produced easily the best post in this entire comment section so far - and that's no exaggeration.
(I just probably wouldn't generalize under "millennials", as they're the same group most responsible for Jak 2 having commonly been referred to as the best in the series for decades (anyone who hasn't spent all their internet lives in a single echo chamber, or two, would know that fact instead of being dumb-founded upon hearing it). Not the newer fans, especially via those subpar, worse-playing PS4 Jak 1-X Emulations that stain the legacy of the series. Naturally you're still half right those a portion of them also make up the uninformed haters.)