Jakking It All In

Eurogamer: What do you think makes Jak and Daxter such appealing characters?
Evan Wells: The two of them Kinah for sale each other very well. Daxter is all talk and no walk, while Jak is big on action but

light on the communication skills. It's also been very important to us to make sure that the characters' personalities and

relationships continue to grow and evolve from game to game. This adds a dimensionality to them that most video game

characters lack.
Eurogamer: Why's it all gone so wrong for them? Everything seemed to be going so swimmingly at the end of Jak II. Heck, we

thought it was all over...
Evan Wells: It seems to be their lot in life. Kinah sale follows them wherever they go. I guess it makes for a more interesting

game than watching the two of them sit at home fighting like an old married couple.
Eurogamer: Jak II introduced some very entertaining new characters, most notably Pecker - who should we look out for in Jak

3?
Evan Wells: The Pecker fans should be happy to hear that he's back in Jak 3 with a bigger role than ever. Also, all of the

favourites from Jak II are making a come back (including Ashelin!) and Jak 3 introduces a host of new friends and foes for

our heroes to meet. In fact, the Aion down load begins with Jak being banished from Haven City by Count Veger, who is the head of the

new City Council and a religious zealot who despises anything associated with Dark Eco.
Eurogamer: You've spoken about and demonstrated new features like the buggy sections, rhythm-action elements and turret

gunnery that make up some of the missions in Jak 3. Apart from those, what other sorts of things can we expect to see this

time around that perhaps you haven't talked about yet?
Evan Wells: One of the things that we are most proud of about Jak 3 is the sheer amount of variety between the missions.

Every task presents a new and unique challenge from the last. On one mission you may be hang gliding, on the next you may be

called upon to use Jak's new Light Eco powers, and in the very next you might be put in control of Daxter on a run-away

torpedo!
Eurogamer: Around how many missions are there in the Aion ncsoft this time, and do you have any particular favourites?
Evan Wells: There are over 60 main path missions required to complete the game and additionally there are more than 70 side

missions that help you unlock all of the game's secrets. My personal favourite is the mission when Jak gets to team up with

Sig and head out into a raging sand storm to track down and take out a band of Metal Heads.
Eurogamer: One of the criticisms levels at Jak II related to some pretty challenging (read: harsh) difficulty spikes, and the

way that - despite the generally non-linear Aion kina - sometimes you were faced with a very tough mission and given no choice

to go off and do other things. One in particular set in the slums with hordes of guards springs to mind. Are you worried

about difficulty spikes this time?
Evan Wells: Difficulty spikes where a very important issue that we addressed during the development of Jak 3. We took

extraordinary care, conducted 1,000's of hours of focus testing, and carefully examined all of the gameplay data gathered

from these Aion cd key. From this data we were able to refine the difficulty to an appropriate level. I'm certain that we don't

have the frustrating spikes that were in Jak II.

02:17 - 4/12/2009