#16 - Jak 3 (PS2)
Naughty Dog - whos Crash Bandicoot series had always played second fiddle to Insomniac's Spyro in my heart in the fifth generation - blew my mind with the original Jak and Daxter. Such a beautiful, seamlessly connected world seemed like a revolution. They blew my mind even further with the GTA-inspired Jak 2, but Jak 3 proved they still had some tricks up their sleeve for the final part of this trilogy.
Changing the whole motif of the game from the dark and murky Haven City (which isn't completely forgotten in this game) and shifting it up to the deserted wastelands on the edge of the world provided a huge new sandbox (literally!) for you to mess around in. The same open-ended approach was taken with the game but this time you'd be bombing around the desert in buggies; exploring the nooks and crannies of a settlement for precusor orbs etc. Add in a much more focused and improved story with a sweet payoff, some still-beautiful graphics and the great platforming that made the first two games in the series such a hit and it's easy to see why Jak 3 is a signature-worthy game!
