No Twisted Metal hype?

Nerdkiller1991

I'm surprised that there's barely any mention of this game on Boards. I sure as hell am excited for this game, come October 4th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtTYExs_49s

So...any thoughts on the game and are you going to get it?

bradlente

Gonna be 1 seriously hard game to pull off on next gen,So much CARnage!

If its anything near as good as world tour I'll be picking it up.

Nerdkiller1991

Sweet Tooth's opening movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGcOteaU7ho

Panel talk, part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq02kjlf1I4

Part 2:

Part 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Y_MlehnzQ

Q&A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGlLKZA3A00

Old McGroin

Twisted Metal is gonna rock! Day one purchase for me, lot of good memories for TM, especially part 2's co-op campaign, can't wait to take it online!

Nerdkiller1991

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/05/twisted-metal-release-update/

David Jaffe wrote:

Hey all! David Jaffe here with some good news and bad news on behalf of myself, my Eat Sleep Play partner and Twisted Metal co-director Scott Campbell, the entire Eat Sleep Play team, and Sony Santa Monica.

First the good news: Eat Sleep Play and Sony Santa Monica are cranking like mad to get a fantastic Twisted Metal build ready for both Gamescom and PAX Prime! For those not in the know: Gamescom is August 17th-21st in Cologne, Germany and PAX Prime will take place here in America August 26th-28th in Seattle, Washington. Both shows are open to the public but PAX – I believe- is already sold out. If you’ve got PAX Prime tickets, I can’t wait to see you there! I hope you’ll swing by the Twisted Metal booth and give our game a try!

At Gamescom and PAX we’ll be showing off a brand new level called Thrills & Spills Amusement Park! It’s one of our favorite all time Twisted Metal levels and it’s filled with the over the top destruction, strategic level choices, and twisted humor that fans of the series have come to love and expect. Players at both shows will also get hands on with TEAM HUNTED, a brand new mode that we’ll be unveiling – for the first time ever – at Gamescom. We’ll also be premiering the new Dollface story trailer which delves into just what makes that nutty-but-sexy pink-haired freak tick.

And at both shows we’ll be handing out some super cool, super creepy Sweet Tooth masks! Halloween will be here before you know it and we want Twisted Fans to be able to represent their favorite slasher in style!

Ok, so now…the bad news. Or at least the ‘news that seems bad at first but after you read the rest of my post I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s actually fantastic news’ news. So here it is:

We’re not shipping Twisted Metal October 4th, 2011. We’re going to miss our date. We’re going to be late.

Ugh! I know, I know. A lot of dedicated, supportive, passionate Twisted Metal fans have been waiting for the return of Calypso’s demented contest for a long time but the truth is: we’re just not ready yet.

Sony has been – and remains – a super supportive champion and collaborator on this title and all of us at Eat Sleep Play are so grateful that their patience and generosity will allow us the extra time needed to polish our demented baby until it shines. NOTE: I don’t actually think that qualifies as a mixed metaphor… just a bad one. But the ‘demented baby’ part was really cool to me, and it felt very Twisted Metal-y, so I’m keeping it in this post.

Anyway – it sucks bad when games miss their announced launch dates. We’re gamers too and we know how annoying it is. It’s disappointing and frustrating and it really takes the wind out of your sails if you’re a fan that has been looking forward to playing a title for a long time. Thing is, you gotta trust me when I tell you that – with this extra time for tuning and polish – the game is going to be so much better than it already is. And if you played Twisted Metal and liked it at E3 or Comic-Con, or if you get to play it (and you enjoy it) at one of the August shows, just imagine how much more fun the final game will be with some extra time, polish, and love.

There’s a great, classic industry saying by legendary Nintendo designer – and personal hero – Shigeru Miyamoto that goes a little something like this:

‘A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad until the end of time.’

Now, if we shipped Twisted Metal tomorrow – going off the response from folks who have played it – I assure you, it would never be a bad game. Not even close. But we’re aiming for a heck of a lot more than that! With Twisted Metal we plan to ship a multiplayer classic. We plan to ship the best Twisted Metal ever made. We plan to convert a lot of folks who think vehicle combat is a relic best left to 90′s nostalgia. And we plan to explode the belief that the only relevant kind of shooter is a first person one (or a 3rd person one, where you play a human… with a tee shirt not all the way tucked in …).

Most importantly, we plan on treating you – the kind folks who play our game (and pay our bills) – like the VIPs that you are. You only deserve our best and we appreciate your understanding as we take a little more time to guarantee that our best is what we deliver.

Twisted Metal for PS3 will ship early 2012. Stay tuned for more details.

DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT! Well, at least I can be glad its out of a crowded week for gaming and that it'll have some extra polish.

Old McGroin

That's the very definition of gayness, sure how bad, we've waited this long already, what's another couple o months?

Nerdkiller1991

http://www.destructoid.com/twisted-metal-a-different-kind-of-multiplayer-game-218141.phtml

Samit Sarkar wrote:

Unless you count the continued popularity of Mario Kart, we’re a long way from the ’90s heyday of car combat games. Modern multiplayer combat primarily concerns games in which people shoot each other, but David Jaffe, Scott Campbell, and their team at Eat Sleep Play are aiming to amend that phrase to end with the words “with cars.” They’re working on a new Twisted Metal title, the first original one to hit consoles since Twisted Metal: Black launched on the PlayStation 2 a decade ago.

Twisted Metal differs from shooters in more ways than the “shooting people while driving” part. In some respects, it’s more accessible than those games; in others, it’s even more impenetrable.

In the hour or so that I spent with Twisted Metal, I kept noticing one aspect of the combat: it can take a pretty long time to kill someone. That’s not an accident, according to the Sony producer who demoed the game for me. He explained that the design decision was a result of Jaffe’s dislike of the pace in most multiplayer shooters -- the series co-creator isn’t a fan of the endless spawn-die-spawn cycle. In those games, it doesn’t take many bullets to kill you, and firefights rarely last long.

Twisted Metal, on the other hand, offers a much higher degree of “survivability,” said the producer. You’re going to have to work for a kill, but the designers believe that increased survivability only makes the game more thrilling. Here, combat is “all about the chase,” which, I guess, makes sense for a game featuring vehicular mayhem. In addition, the folks at Eat Sleep Play are hoping that longer lives will help to reduce the amount of frustration that new players have to endure while learning the ropes.

That decision makes a lot of sense, since it will likely take more than a few hours to understand Twisted Metal’s chaos. Multiplayer is the focus of this game, and it’s clear that Eat Sleep Play is devoting a great deal of development time to important facets such as balancing vehicles’ abilities and tweaking weapon damage, but the modes and options are so numerous and varied that I found myself overwhelmed during the demo. Jaffe has likened Twisted Metal to a fighting game, and the comparison seems apt -- I don’t have any understanding of the minutiae of fighting games, and it’s impossible for me to have fun with them unless I’m playing someone who’s just as clueless. The depth here is staggering; with such a steep learning curve, it’s important for the game to teach newbies well, and ensure that they can have fun, too.

You can outfit vehicles with an arsenal of your choosing. Each car has two special attacks, in addition to its standard firepower. A high degree of destructibility means that level geometry is always in flux. Some of the cars are better used as support vehicles, like the Juggernaut, a slow tractor-trailer that can open its rear doors for up to two teammates to hang out and man turrets. Many weapons employ a risk/reward mechanic: charging attacks makes them more effective, but in many cases, also more difficult to succeed with. One of the playable vehicles is a damn helicopter, and Sweet Tooth can transform into a freakin’ mech. The variety of opportunities will likely give rise to high-level strategic play, and will hopefully lend Twisted Metal a long shelf life.

I played in three different levels: one set in the suburbs, another in a theme park, and a snowy take on New York. Although there’s plenty of work to be done before the game’s Valentine’s Day launch, the environments impressed me with their size, destructibility, and variability. The level set in a fictionalized New York is full of secret shortcuts, and its verticality -- you can go up into buildings, or head down into the subway -- provides for great hide-and-seek gameplay. The theme park balances a large open area, complete with a Ferris wheel that can be detached from its moorings, and winding narrow paths on its outskirts. The suburban landscape is sparsely populated and offers near-total destruction. All of them seem to offer play spaces that are “fair” to both sides without having mirrored halves.

I played with the classic control scheme, where the face buttons cover vehicle control and the triggers fire weapons. Eat Sleep Play is also including controls based on modern racing games, with acceleration and braking on the triggers. As I said earlier, Twisted Metal isn’t exactly a pick-up-and-play experience, but once I figured out the controls, I did manage to race around the maps and score some kills. The frame rate never dropped during the fast-paced action, and I didn’t see any silly AI bot behavior.

While online play is the star of the show, the game also offers local split-screen action for up to four players, just like old times. However you play, you’ll need to invest a good amount of time to learn the ins and outs of Twisted Metal, even if you’re not new to the series. Thankfully, it looks like it will be worth it.

Also, new trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgixp4fK0sg

CiDeRmAn

Have to say, I found the whole Twisted Metal series a bore since the second one, not sure a new one is going to relight any enthusiasm here.