Cyborg Haven Update: Jak and Daxter Artist Bob Rafei has a website!!

The following website has been added to my list of favorite websites:

• Bob Rafei Concept Art and Illustration     http://www.bobrafei.com/home.htm

Bob Rafei is the concept artist behind the Jak and Daxter series, one of my favorite video game fanchises for the PlayStation 2.  There is concept art and illustrations included in galleries for:

• Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
• Jak II
• Jak 3
• Jak X: Combat Racing
• A couple of Crash Bandicoot titles
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

I couldn't help it and had to look at the character art for Jak and Daxter: TPL and Jak II, and I love those galleries a whole lot!!  I have yet to look at the art for Jak 3 and Jak X.  Bob Rafei's artwork inspires me to want to draw my own artwork of Jak, but I don't know which Jak to start drawing.  I could start with Jak from the first game because he's Bambi-eyed and there are less details to worry about  :3  Plus which ever game he is in, he has a cute nose.  Why did I say that?  Maybe because I like the way Rafei draws his nose/nostrils.  0__O   Anyway, I got to know more of Rafei's art  years ago when I got the Jak 3 official strategy guide book.  The book features a lot of his art and I fell in love with it.  I didn't know he had the website back in 2004.  Now I know about it.  I'm so happy I stumbled upon it today!

So fans of Jak and Daxter series, if you love Bob Rafei's artwork, go check out his gallery website.  A lot of the pieces he did will surprise you, especially the very early concepts of Jak, what is called "Pre-Jak."  Wanna know what I'm talking about?  You'll see on page 2 of the gallery for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.

I'll just say that I am very pleased with the way Jak finally turned out...   :3 

Art by Bob Rafei

This image is from the Jak 3 strategy guide.  I wanted

to include this here to give my readers an idea of what

Bob Rafei's art style is, at least for Jak 3.  To see more of

his artwork, check out http://www.bobrafei.com/home.htm .

Revisited Jak II on November 14th

Okay, I am still in my Jak and Daxter nostalgia attack.  I brought myself to return to another game that I lost the data to on my corrupted memory card:  the now-classic, PS2 Greatest Hit Jak II.
     Hey, you know what else are PS2 Greatest Hits?  Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy; Jak 3; Jak X; Final Fantasy XII (uh, yeah!).  Yeah, even Jak X is a Greatest Hit, baby (ya hear that, Jak X haters?)!
     I don't know when was the last time I played Jak II.  Years ago; maybe in 2004?  Wow.
     I've also had one of my current PS2 controllers since I started playing on the console in 2002, so it is probably...seven years old, at least?  Huh.  That kinda might explain why it went haywire on the third mission, the first mission that Torn gives Jak (something about stealing or taking down the Baron Praxis banner).  In the middle of the mission, the game paused on its own.  And then it unpaused.  The game resumed, but I couldn't have Jak move forward or left or right, any direction.  He was stuck.  WTF?!  Sure, he could move forward by punching, but I could not even turn him around!  Hey, what gives?!  The controller's left analog stick went crazy on me.  I went to the menu and then Sound Options, and it turned everything down to 0%:  the SFX, the speech volume, and the music volume.  Godd----t!!
      I thought I might even have to switch the controller in port 1 to port 2 so that the second controller will have to be used form now on...and that reminds me it is about time (and it might be a good idea now) to buy a new PS2 controller in case this seven-year-old one breaks down for good.  Sigh. >:(
     But I didn't want to do that just yet.  After taking the game out and turning the unit off, I tried pushing in the controller's plug in a little more into the port.  Wow, it actually went in a little more!  Could it be that the controller just needed to be pushed back in?  I mean, I might have been pulling at the controller's cord when I tensed up and didn't realize it (maybe when I'm close to losing in a versus battle during Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4).  I had a sigh of relief there.  After adjusting the plug to the controller port, I turned on the unit, put the game back in and everything worked just fine.  I was able to finish the mission.
     So then, Jak brought back the banner, and Torn accepts Jak and Daxter and says "Yeah. I guess you guys are in."  Then voila! he disappeared.  The night stars were disappering as well.  I noticed that so then I said, "What? Torn? Where is he?  It's the morning now!  Make me my breakfast!!"  Lol!
     I completed 11% of the game in that one session, compared to the maybe three or four missions I completed the first time I played this game (because back in 2003 playing a half-hour of Jak II was too much for me to take, I was just so excited).  The last mission Jak did for this session was the training course for the Scatter Gun, and next time he's gonna protect Sig while he does his Wastelander stuff.

Whew!  ^,^