It is very difficult for me to talk about Uncharted: Golden Abyss, because although I think the game is good, I don't think it fits right in with the other 3 games so snugly. At least nowhere near as snug as Killzone: Mercenary anyway.
I like to compare Uncharted: GA to Killzone: M all the time, because many would argue the exact opposite of what I believe, which can be found in the following spoiler tag (THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS SPOILER)
Uncharted is a series of games that knows exactly what it is, and plays out very nicely from the first game to the last. That is that these games are trying to tell a cinematic story without taking too much control away from the player in a far-superior-to-Indiana-Jones-type-story. It would be easy to dump cutsecenes on us like MGS4 does, or even easier to just unload a whole heap of exposition on us in codec-like moments. But Uncharted tells it's story through short and (reasonably) well-written witty dialogue across gameplay and fairly brief cutscenes. All four current Uncharted games do this, although I feel that Golden Abyss starts to slip a bit, as I do not feel very interested in it's plot as it tries to be a bit deeper that it can really explain to us through the traditional Uncharted story telling system.
But the main issue I have with the game is that it is stuck in a sort of Uncharted gameplay limbo. It's decided to take the environments we liked in the first game as inspiration. But where Uncharted 1 had mystery and a generally creepy atmosphere, this game has Uncharted 2's loud shooting action clouding up what made the first game feel so special. We don't have the stunning visuals and action Uncharted 2 introduced or the eerie atmosphere of the first game. And seeing as how the transitions between 1, 2, and 3 have introduced such extraordinary new and amazing set-pieces and world designs with each new release, it just doesn't feel right playing Golden Abyss when it introduces so little original content I can be interested in. The puzzles were fun, and the touch gameplay was a funny little extra addition, and while the story (characters, dialogue, plot) and graphics (resolution, framerate, level designs, colour schemes, etc.) are incredibly nice, they feel weaker than the games before it.
And why would I not like to idea of other developers touching Jak and Daxter of a true sequel/re-boot to the series? Click the spoiler below (THERE ARE NO ACTUAL SPOILERS) to find out!
Jak and Daxter can't have the same shoulder shooting as The Last of Us. That just can't work, and I'm hoping it was a joke. Jak and Daxter games are platformer games with guns, not shooters with platforming. And having a cover-based shooting layout would pretty much throw the whole platforming thing out the window. No, Jak and Daxter needs to improve in a different sort of way. It needs to take a look at Rayman 3 or the Ratchet & Clank games before A4O. It shouldn't try to copy these games exactly, but just try to make a better camera (in the world we live in today, it would be hard to make a crappy camera), include a way to move relative to where the camera is pointing for weapon combat(Rayman's lock-on or R&C's strafing), and to work on more responsive platforming controls.
Anything more, would probably be going too far (J&D have a pretty fixed formula, unlike R&C which have a bit of room for leeway) and anything less would make the game feel a bit dated. But I worry about the writing and story more than anything. You can talk to any Jak fan to find that TLF stuffed this up pretty bad. I also worry that ND might not even be up for it, as the team seems to be right into dark and gritty-type games as of late. I could be completely wrong though.
It it is a remake, I don't see it going well. They will either drop the whole "darkness" thing, or they will drop the really happy tone of the first game. Both games also do their own type of gameplay so well, that seeing a remake with the Jak II type gameplay would kind of ruin it, but seeing the Jak 1 type gameplay could mean bad things for the change in tone we should expect with Jak II.
I will give the new R&C game a lot of leniency, because the series is less tied down by lore and "special" gameplay. Jak and Daxter will not be getting the same treatment. I might sound a bit mean, but it's just because I love the original trilogy so much!
EDIT: I just realised I never brought up KZ:M to compare to U:GA. Well to put it simply, Killzone is a series that is always struggling to add more fun into its games by re-inventing it's mechanics. Killzone: Mercenary features the pinnacle of PS3/Vita-era gameplay as it totally blows 2 and 3 out of the water. It also has a setup very suited to mobile devices. It's just a shame that it's the only Killzone game in existence that contributes nothing to the overarching story.
we are currently financing a number of films based on Sony PlayStation video game franchises including Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and several others currently in production but yet to be announced.
