SolidSnakex
Member
Gamespot just posted some gameplay footage
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/twisted-metal/video/6308745/twisted-metal-daily-demo
GTTV's Twisted Metal segment
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/119?ch=3&sd=1_hd
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1161788p1.html
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/twisted-metal/news.html?sid=6308591&mode=previews
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-twisted-metal-198802.phtml
Interviews
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/t...s-balance-story-and-xp-based-progression.aspx
Extended trailer
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/twisted-metal/video/6308745/twisted-metal-daily-demo
GTTV's Twisted Metal segment
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/119?ch=3&sd=1_hd
My aforementioned beatdown happened on the Sun Springs map. This is sunny little California town with a church, homes and green lawns all over the place. All of that is destructible. I tore into a mansion, smashed through the back wall and ended up in a full pool (where I found a power up). I smashed into the movie theater, did some spins and ripped up the seats. I tore down the goalposts in the high school football stadium. I ran over a whole bunch of pedestrians for bonuses. If Sony would've let me, I'd have driven around Sun Springs wrecking stuff all night.
Sure, the actual gameplay of Twisted Metal "Team Deathmatch" was cool. Highlights included spitting dudes on explosive gurneys out of an ambulance (aka Meat Wagon), using the Gatling gun in the franchise's first helicopter (aka Talon) and popping a wheelie on my motorcycle to drag a chainsaw on the asphalt so that it heated up and did a ton of damage when I hurled it at an opponent. But the mode really boiled down to me seeing what buildings I could knock down.
When I jumped into Twisted Metal's "Last Man Standing," a mode where there's a set number of lives you share with a team until there's only one squad left, I softened racers up with my machine guns before unleashing a special attack to knock them into the pits of lava the Black Rock Arena hides. When I played "Nuke," I raced to the other team's leader and dragged her through the streets.
See, Nuke is one of the game's most complex modes according to Jaffe, but it is also the one that appealed the most to a Twisted Metal noob like me. Teams take turns running offense and defense. The goal is to grab the opposing leader who is standing at a turret, drag him or her through the streets and get the leader to a missile launcher. (If you're on defense, your goal is to stop that from happening. Duh.) Keep the captive at the launcher long enough, and you earn one rocket to pilot toward a massive statue of the opponent. You score points for this and switch sides until a winner is declared.
That's shouldn't come as a surprise, I guess, as the game's an established franchise, and Jaffe knows what he's doing. But passing glances at Twisted Metal never set my hair on fire. I've always thought the graphics looked a little rough, but when I was playing and smashing and shooting and killing, that was the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was how batcrap insane this was and how much fun I was having.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1161788p1.html
For anyone unfamiliar with the series, Twisted Metal is vehicular-based combat that puts warped caricatures behind the wheel as part of a carnage tournament, though director David Jaffe likens it more to Street Fighter and other finely tuned cat-and-mouse games than simply strapping machine guns to cars. Our presentation included looks at old faces and some new ones, such as the introduction of Juggernaut, a huge truck featuring both cab and trailer, as well as the first airborne ride in helicopter, Talon.
Juggernaut's entrance marks a proud moment for Jaffe because he wanted to include a complete truck from the very beginning but never quite made the hurdle until now. The unit acts like a combination of Optimus Prime and the Spy Hunter vehicle, capable of ramming through smaller cars with ease, as well as able to play safe haven to other friendly players by dropping its rear ramp and driving inside. It does have its trade-offs, though. While inside, players will have their choice of one of two heavy mounted guns on the roof to use as turrets. The larger of the two has a limited amount of aiming mobility, needing the shooter to communicate with the driver to let him know he needs to steer the truck in certain directions to hit targets. Likewise, if a player using Juggernaut is kind enough to play host to others, the truck's defenses are lowered significantly while the ramp is down and drivers are entering and exiting. This allows the opposing team a window where Juggernaut takes two or three times more damage.
Talon is Twisted Metal's first attempt at a flying vehicle. While we didn't have a chance to try it out ourselves, it seems to add some interesting new dynamics to gameplay. Its abilities include a giant magnet fitted to a chain dangling from the underside of the cockpit that can lift other cars, both friendly and foe, off the ground. Adversaries will want to be dropped from a great height to kill them instantly, while cooperative uses in modes like Nuke allow you to quickly evacuate a teammate carrying the human flag and capture points from the air or take control of an advantageous raised platform.
Environmental destruction is a hallmark of the brand, and it manifests itself in different ways. Our multiplayer demo kicked off with an innocuous-looking suburban setting that was quickly destroyed with the mayhem of more than a dozen people shooting up the place in Team Deathmatch. This relatively flat and open space was made all the more simple by our option to simply plough through houses, making holes where we wanted them. We opted for Meat Wagon, a retro ambulance with mounted guns and a special ability that fires patients strapped to metal stretchers and holds bombs toward other unsuspecting drivers. It's equal parts sight gag and function, and by using the alternate fire mode, you can manually maneuver your munitions into opponents to gain a damage bonus.
Black Rock Stadium played host to our second match and offered us a look at Team Last Man Standing mode, which focused on making lives count. Each team begins the game with a set number of respawns; once one of the teams has depleted its rival's pool and wiped it out, it is game over. Loosely based on a previous Twisted Metal track, Black Rock Stadium is a huge multistory open playground. Features include a lava pit that damages but doesn't destroy your vehicle on contact; giant wrecking balls that swing like pendulums across roadways; a falling spike room with scattered safe spots (you'll need to learn the pattern to avoid being crushed); electrified zones that drain away your health if you stay inside them; and our favorite part, dynamic walls. The latter means that the level layout changes frequently, stopping players camping power-ups, and it's exciting trying to avoid floors that become walls as you run from another player. Because of its larger size and its ramps, line of sight played a much larger role in this arena, making it tougher to land hits with guided weapons than on flat, open-plan locales like suburbia.
Harbour City was our third and final map, and it gave us a look at Nuke, a multiplayer mode we heard about at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Essentially, it's Twisted Metal's version of Capture the Flag but (surprise) with a quirk. Rather than grab a flag, your job is to capture and hold human hostages, return them to your team's mobile or stationary missile launcher site, and survive long enough to sacrifice them. Doing so kicks them into a manually guided rocket that is then aimed at the opposing team's giant doll or clown statue. Modeled on America's favorite pastime, baseball, teams will alternate between offensive and defensive rounds for three innings. The team with the greatest number of hits wins.
The layout of Harbour City is a busy commercial grid, filled with oil refineries, tanks, and a huge underground canal that runs the length of the map and has ramps back up to street level. Up to three capture targets can be set by the host. Though we only had two in play, it became a frantic fight as our team rushed the targets and scooped them up while the rest of the group attempted to provide cover. Kills earn slightly fewer points than rocket launches, so you may not always be the first one to the abduction scene, but you can stay competitive on the scoreboard by taking out those chasing your leaders. Vehicle speed and strength directly correlates with the time it takes you to sacrifice your victim back at base. While fast, light roadsters can speed along, their relatively weaker shells make them sitting ducks as the try to capture the flag. It's also worth noting that because some of Twisted Metal's cast have ground-to-air and air-to-air weapons, once a nuke is up in the air, it doesn't mean it is game over. These can be shot down while in flight, securing the base and forcing a reset.
We walked away from our first play happy with the way things are coming together. Each character has its own distinct feel to drive, from slow and heavy but bursting with power to lighter and more agile rides. Steering feels great and is nice and loose like an arcade racer, but it can quickly tighten up with a well-timed hand brake tap to take a corner at speed. Most importantly, no single vehicle felt like it was the "I win!" option, and with rumors of a potential beta in the works before release, things will only continue to be balanced. There is no shortage of online multiplayer games available for PlayStation 3 owners, but if developer Eat Sleep Play can build and foster clan play, we can see these turf wars raging late into the night. The game is targeted for an October 2011 global release date. Keep it locked to GameSpot for more info.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/twisted-metal/news.html?sid=6308591&mode=previews
Oh, you're not ready for Twisted Metal. You think you are, but you're not. You may think that you're prepared, being a fan of this PlayStation and PS2 predecessors, but you're not even close to being prepared. This game is insane. There's a million things happening at once, a million bullets flying your way, and million ways to die. It's pure chaos, but it works. It works beautifully.
David Jaffe and his people at Eat Sleep Play have been crafting a game so wild that no existing genre type fits it. It's sure as hell not a racer -- you'd be blown up before you could make it through a single lap in this world. 'Shooter' gets closer, but that doesn't really give the game enough credit, as Twisted Metal feels deeper than the modern shooter.
Jaffe says that Twisted Metal does a good job of bringing forth the fantasy that the original team had for creating their game back in the 1990s. He says this is the first time they've been able to get close to achieving that original vision. I got a better appreciation of that when I saw how deep Twisted Metal could be, and just how much work the team has put into this game. On the surface there's these crazy vehicles and weapons, new modes, and online connectivity to impress you with. But underneath the hood you'll find lots of deep strategy and fine levels of polish on the control and balance. The end result of their work is the ultimate competitive playground.
Twisted Metal is so balanced that I can't find issue with any of the vehicles. You'd think that with so many different types of vehicles and weapons there would be an imbalance, but I couldn't find one. Granted, the game isn't finished yet, and there were a few types of vehicles we couldn't play with at this preview event, but from what I've seen there was no doubt that the development team spent a good amount of time making Twisted Metal fair and fun. Amazingly, despite this balance, no vehicle feels gimped. You truly feel like a badass with nearly limitless power in all of them.
The level of polish also shows in the vehicle control. In all my matches I never had to question steering or braking; it was never an issue. I loved being able to mash the X button to slam on the brakes, turn on a dime, spin around and send a missile right into the windshield of the guy that has been tailing me. That felt great every time. Knowing exactly where you'll turn, skid or stop goes a long way toward making this chaotic game fun, as with so much going on, it could have been a big, sloppy mess. Even the helicopter's controls felt like a lot of thought went into it. Hats off to the Eat Sleep Play on how much polish went into the balance and control in Twisted Metal. Maybe you could meet with some of the modern day fighting game makers and teach them a thing or two.
Beyond all of this, it's clear that so much thought went into making these vehicles play nice together. Just about every unique function of each vehicle seems to promote teamwork. Some functions are completely obvious, while others are uncovered after a bit of play experience. Those with a few battles under their belt can get incredibly deep into vehicle choices and uses in the different mode types.
It should be noted that David Jaffe addressed the level destruction in Twisted Metal. Some people had beef with the destruction model when the game was originally shown at last year's E3. Jaffe made it clear that this had been addressed since then. Now shit blows up real nice.
Twisted Metal expands upon everything that was great about the old series titles and then adds a bunch of depth, connectivity and creativity. Competitive gamers stuck in yet another war shooter will happily crawl out of the trenches for this game come October 4th. Eat Sleep Play have created a beast unlike anything we've ever seen.
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-twisted-metal-198802.phtml
Interviews
Youve previously mentioned that most of the levels in Twisted Metal will be sort of Anytown, USA type locations that you could imagine driving in. Blackrock Stadiums electric tracks and lava pits is something more fantastical. How many of these types of these more far-fetched levels can we expect?
Well, we like to think that theyre all grounded in reality. I look at Blackrock Stadium and say well, its not set on a pirate ship going through outer space. But it is in the fiction a stadium built specifically for the Twisted Metal contest. Id buy that in the world of Twisted Metal. I would say Blackrock is if you call it fantastical the most fantastical that it gets. I think we are doing a lot with this that we learned from Twisted Metal: Black. Were doing a lot of varied color palettes. We dont want to just be grunge. We dont want to be in the world of Twisted Metal: Black. Were also allowing gameplay to rule, not visual style. In the last one there was a lot of imaginative game design that would have benefited that title but it didnt fit the vibe. Were not going to put magical weapons in the game and ****, but were going to make sure that if weve got a great gameplay idea thats going to make the game better, then were going to find a way to couch it in reality as best as possible. But end of the day gameplay rules, whereas in Black we were a little bit too slavish to the vibe and the style, and that did come at the expense of the gameplay, I think.
You stated earlier how hopeful you are that Twisted Metal fans grasp onto the new Nuke mode. Are there any other surprising modes coming down the pipe?
Yeah, there are variations on the modes that youve already learned about. Certain wrinkles based on the level design. For example one particular mode Nuke is a great example of a mode that when you learn of this new level in a couple of months youll go wow, to play Nuke in that level is even a cooler twist. There are some new modes that we havent announced yet. Then theres also in some of the unranked modes - and maybe in some of the ranked modes - lots of host settings that change up how you play them. Theres a lot of variety and there are tons of levels in this game. I look at this and Im so proud of the value that players are going to get for their money in terms of if you like Twisted Metal and I hope a lot of players do theres a lot on that disc to keep you entertained for a long time.
Can you reveal any more about what experience points do in the game?
All I can tell you is that you dont make an online multiplayer game without XP these days. Its a very important part of the meta-game. Players expect, as they should, to have that. Our game supports that. It supports persistence. It supports unlocks that players, I think, will appreciate. However, let me make this very clear this is not a game about getting better because youve got more XP. Everything we give you does not **** up the balance of this game. Were not giving you thousands of things, by the way. It isnt like you get this list of a thousand things. But what we give you is relevant, it matters, and it is built around maintaining the fighting game philosophy that every single character no matter what theyve unlocked should be able to compete one to one with every other character. So specifics are coming, but we cant go into the details yet.
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/t...s-balance-story-and-xp-based-progression.aspx
Cyberia said:Weapons Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upq7HiZZaOI
Gameplay Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaS16cSijKY
Extended trailer
Septimus said:Extended trailer on the blog as well. So good.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/14/twisted-metal-extended-trailer-reveal-pre-order-for-axel/
the graphics wont be that great, but it will be FUN 
