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Twisted Metal series on sale this week on PSN
To celebrate the one year anniversary of Twisted Metal on the PS3, the entire series is discounted on PSN for the next week. It all starts with the PS3 entry, which has had its price shot, run over and exploded down to a manageable $29.99 for the next week.PS One Classics Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 are both on sale for $4.99 each; Twisted Metal Black, the PS2 entry in the series, is on sale for $7.99 – you may recall it was included in first edition copies of 2012's Twisted Metal gratis. If purchasing piecemeal isn't your idea of a good deal, you can get everything together in the Twisted Birthday Bundle for $39.99.Last year's Twisted Metal made its PSN debut in October for $40 – if you missed out on Eat Sleep Play's entry in the long-running series, be sure to read our review.
Twisted Metal coming to PSN October 30 for $40
Twisted Metal is heading to PSN October 30, as announced in a recent PlayStation blog podcast. The game will also see a drop in price, as it will be available on the service for $40.Creative Director David Jaffe said the game was "not a dud, not a hit" back in August. Jaffe left Twisted Metal developer Eat Sleep Play after the game's launch in March. If $40 still has you feeling uncertain, our review of the game might help you decide where to put your wallet.
Twisted Metal sold 'fine,' was 'not a dud,' says Jaffe
Last year's Twisted Metal reboot "sold fine," says creative director David Jaffe. "Not a dud, not a hit," he adds. "It was not a mega blockbuster or even a big hit (was it even a 'hit'?...not sure what is in between 'dud' and 'hit' but I think TM PS3 falls into that category)." He stops short of offering any specific sales numbers, but notes, "I hope Sony will be satisfied that it made a decent investment in the game and in us."It's unclear how large of a financial investment Sony made in the Twisted Metal reboot, but it apparently wasn't enough to keep Jaffe's Eat Sleep Play studio from facing cuts following the launch last year. Jaffe himself also left the company; he is now pursuing free-to-play games.Jaffe also outlines eerily specific plans for another Twisted Metal franchise entry, saying it'd be digital-only and aggressively truncated. "But again, this is just me pie in the sky thinking out loud," he notes. "None of this is planned." Mmmmhmmmm, Mr. Jaffe. We've heard that song before.
Axel free to all in Twisted Metal tomorrow, Sweet Tooth skin for Starhawk previewed
For those of you still firing missiles in Twisted Metal (but didn't think of pre-ordering it ahead of time), good news! Axel was formerly only available as a pre-order bonus, but as of tomorrow, April 18, his vehicle will be available to all. You too can run around on two wheels, pushing smaller vehicles around with your special moves. The PSBlog has also posted a video, embedded below, of the Sweet Tooth skin going to Starhawk when it launches early next month. Every (new) copy of Twisted Metal has a code for the Outcast skin, so you'll just have to punch that in when the Starhawk comes out.
A look into Twisted Metal's 'greenlight' process, with cut content
David Jaffe posted a video made for a "green light" meeting – an early Twisted Metal clip put together to demonstrate modes that were being considered for the final game. Some of the content in this video never made it into the retail game!For example, in early versions of the game, Sweet Tooth was not a clown, but a librarian. A sexy librarian. Are we kidding? You'll have to watch the video to be sure!
Jaffe walks through the Twisted Metal car customizer web app
You've had Twisted Metal for a few days now, and you're already sick of Sweet Tooth's vanilla-style ice cream truck. Frankly, you want a cheetah print one. And series creator David Jaffe is happy to walk you through just how you'll be able to do that in a yet-to-be-released web application, as seen above.
Report: Sony preparing Twisted Metal movie
Sony has reportedly signed a deal with writer and director Brian Taylor (the auteur behind both Crank movies, the Jonah Hex screenplay, and the most recent Ghost Rider flick) to make a movie based on the Twisted Metal car combat games. Avi and Ari Arad (who formerly worked with Marvel on the Spider-Man series, among other projects) are said to be producing the movie, should it come to fruition.If the deal pans out, the screenplay would follow the story of the games, pitting a series of vehicular combatants, including the iconic Doll Face and Sweet Tooth, against each other in a tournament to win a wish from the devilish Calypso. We don't have a lot of attachment to the game's "story," so we already expect Taylor to take all of the liberties he wants. We do have one fan request, though: Can we get a David Jaffe cameo? Please?
Twisted Metal review: On cruise control
We all have guilty pleasures, those things we enjoy but are afraid to tell others about, because deep down we know how terrible we are for enjoying them. The Twisted Metal series has always been that way for me. As my prepubescent self might have exclaimed at the series' introduction so many years ago, "A clown with a perpetually flaming head drives around in an ice cream truck killing people? That is so cool."Imagine my stifled pleasure when a new installment of Twisted Metal was announced for the PS3. I envisioned how much the old arcade gameplay might benefit from some modern influence, and how much technology could augment the formula and push the series into exciting new territories.Too bad that isn't the case here. Instead, Twisted Metal does little to shake things up and takes the safe, careful approach with its PS3 debut.
Jaffe outlines plans post-Eat Sleep Play; no Twisted Metal DLC or sequel planned
As we learned earlier this week, Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe will be leaving Eat Sleep Play sometime after the series relaunch of Twisted Metal hits store shelves. Jaffe sat down with our own Alexander Sliwinski during this week's DICE summit for a segment on The Joystiq Show, during which he elaborated on his waning presence at Eat Sleep Play and his plans for creating a new studio based out of San Diego."I will be with Eat Sleep Play until we finish what's called the 'maintenance contract' we have and have been working on with Sony. That will allow us, post-launch, to stay and address issues that there's no way we can know of. Cleaning things up in terms of balance, bugs, tuning, tweaks." This maintenance contract expires at the end of March, at which point Jaffe plans on cultivating new ideas, as well as a new team, for his fledgling studio."There's no corporate filings, there's no official company name yet; 99 percent of my day is Twisted Metal right now. There's four games I would love to do, the one I do really depends on the team I can put together and the money that I can find to make it." His ideas for new titles include both console and browser-based offerings, with a "guerilla-style" survival-horror thrown in for good measure: "There's a survival-horror genre in there, a real low-budget survival horror, kinda guerilla film making style. Not in terms of the look, but in terms of that kind of financing and that kind of production."Jaffe recently told Game Informer that there are no sequel or DLC plans for Twisted Metal, although that doesn't mean he's left the series for good. "You never know what the future holds, I'd love to make another Twisted down the road with these guys one day, if that opportunity presents itself." For now, though, Jaffe's focus is on building new experiences with new IPs.
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update]
Eat Sleep Play, which will shortly ship Twisted Metal, has reportedly laid off eight employees. The Salt Lake City Tribune also reports that co-founder David Jaffe is out and expected to pursue "casual games." Jaffe responded to the "rumor" of him making casual games after Twisted Metal as "highly exaggerated."Eat Sleep Play now has a staff of 26 and will transition to iPhone and iPad development. "It's a platform that is in our pockets almost 24/7. It's kind of the size and types of games we're playing," said other co-founder Scott Campbell to the Salt Lake Trib. "You can certainly reach a lot more people. That's pretty exciting for us."Campbell confirmed Jaffe's departure and said that the company and Jaffe are "going down two separate paths." Twisted Metal is Eat Sleep Play's second project, following the disappointing reception and sales of Calling all Cars. We've contacted Jaffe for clarification of his current status.Update: David Jaffe has confirmed that following the release of Twisted Metal (along with sticking around for balancing and bug fixing), he will step away from Eat Sleep Play. Jaffe also confirmed an undisclosed number of layoffs. ESP's office is located in Utah, while co-founder David Jaffe currently resides in California. Jaffe cited issues with directing a big game from a distance and a fondness for internal game development as reasons behind his decision to leave.The Twisted Metal director plans to open a new studio in San Diego and says he is "talking2peeps" for his new company to tackle some "big, huge next gen game ideas" or even "stuff in the browser space" that he labeled as "gamer centric."
Twisted Metal hits Europe on March 7
After the European launch of Twisted Metal was stalled last week, a new date has been announced by creator David Jaffe. The European release has been pushed back to March 7, according to Jaffe's Twitter account, thanks to localization issues and cuts that had to be made in cutscenes.Last week, Jaffe assured players that Twisted Metal's story -- surely its most integral component -- would remain intact despite the alterations.
Twisted Metal launch stalled in Europe, pushed back to March
Localization issues are holding up the launch of Twisted Metal in Europe, David Jaffe confirmed in a NeoGAF post today. Though he couldn't say exactly when the title would launch in March, it seems the whole month is in play -- it could pull into retail as early as March 1 or at the end of the month. Twisted Metal is still on board for a Valentine's Day launch on February 14 in North America.In addition to the delay, the European version will be modified. Jaffe says SCEE censored certain portions of cutscenes and minor gameplay elements have been tweaked. "99 percent of the cuts were in the movies and the movies are still intact and I sat with the editor -- who was the same editor of the American movies -- and we went thru and addressed the notes from Europe and made sure the stories still worked," Jaffe wrote in his post. As for the gameplay edits, Jaffe only spoke of one minor change: the guy laying on the gurney from Meat Wagon is now a cadaver rather than a live, screaming corpse. Yep, we're furious too.Oh well, at least you've got that demo to keep you company in the meanwhile.
PSN Tuesday: Twisted Metal demo, Puddle, Madden
This week on PSN, you can try out the latest entry in the Clown Car Combat genre, with the Twisted Metal multiplayer demo, or Corporate Combat in Syndicate. Or ... not really combat with Puddle.You can also download Madden NFL 12 -- just in time for the Super Bowl! Not that you'll be playing Madden while the game is on, of course. That release joins a trio of IO Interactive games newly available for download: both Kanes & Lynches and Mini Ninjas. Find everything available this week on the PlayStation Blog.
Twisted Metal demo shoots up PSN on January 31
During this week's PlayStation Blogcast, on which our own Ludwig Kietzmann is a "special guest," PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Sid Shuman (yay, alliteration!) confirmed the planned multiplayer demo for Twisted Metal would hit PSN next week, on January 31. If you like your manslaughter a bit less vehicular, you may want to check out a demo for another February-bound title, EA's rebooted Syndicate. It will also be a multiplayer demo, focusing on the game's co-op side, but you already knew that. Who needs expensive implants and cool tech for remembering things? Not you, buddy!
Twisted Metal's PSN Pass, demo, and day-one patch: Jaffe explains
Yes, Twisted Metal will use a PSN Pass, creator David Jaffe confirmed in a half-hour-long video blog. Skip to about 15 minutes in if you want to hear all of his thoughts on it, but to summarize he's "torn" on online passes in general. He supports them for most games, but opposed its inclusion in Twisted Metal, as he wanted there to be a low barrier of entry for as many players as possible, to let them all experience online play and get back into the series. In the end, "It wasn't my call," Jaffe said. "It's Sony's game, and they funded it, and I respect their decision."Other news for the car combat game include confirmation of an upcoming demo, and a day-one patch. Jaffe explained that ramming was doing too much damage, especially ramming from a shake-activated move he calls the "SIXAXIS Slam," so the team is fixing that and other balance tweaks in a small patch. There are things he'd like to change about the levels, but that won't be in the initial patch out of concern for long, annoying download times. "We'd love to do future tweaks and adjustments to the game," he said, "and some of those hopefully will be level-based, and those might be a little longer. Key balance issues and some of the bugs."
Report: Twisted Metal to include PSN Pass
It looks like Twisted Metal may include a PSN Pass after all, despite the hopes of director David Jaffe. According to The Gamers Hub, QA lead Justin Trease responded with a succinct "yes" during CES when asked about the inclusion of a pass. No other details as to what the pass will entail were mentioned, though typically the online pass model is used to restrict online content -- multiplayer, etc. -- to those who purchase new copies of a given title.We've contacted Sony for confirmation. The publisher has more or less stated that all of its titles going forward will implement PSN Pass.[Thanks, Cian.]
Twisted Metal blows up Europe on February 17
According to MCV, David Jaffe's Twisted Metal reboot will launch in Europe a few days after its North American cousin launches on Valentine's Day. European drivers will be able to get behind the wheel of Jaffe's latest on February 17. Early adopters receive a free voucher to download the 2001 PS2 title Twisted Metal Black, included in the first pressing of Twisted Metal.
Twisted Metal includes Twisted Metal: Black download code
Over on the PlayStation Blog, David Jaffe reveals that early adopters of Sony's upcoming Twisted Metal reboot will get a bonus game free of charge. Each "Limited Edition" copy of Twisted Metal will be bundled with a download code for Twisted Metal: Black, the 2001 PS2 title, as "a thank you to our hardcore fans," Jaffe notes. The download voucher will only be included in the first pressing of the game – similar examples of recent memory include Battlefield 3 and Bulletstorm, both of which included bonuses in their first pressings – though Jaffe didn't say how many "Limited Edition" copies would be sent out to retail. Twisted Metal launches in North America on February 14, 2012.
Twisted Metal trailer introduces The Brothers Grimm
In Twisted Metal, having a vehicle outfitted with rockets and guns and other destructive things may get you far, but it may not do much against The Brothers Grimm. They drive trucks that are bigger than mansions.
Twisted Metal trailer depicts the morbid consequences of divine effacement
Alternate headline: A lady's face gets totally smashed, and then a CG chainsaw comes right at you. This is Twisted Metal.
