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Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!
Latest Update: FINALE: 12-Pak at The Death Port



Twisted Metal: Black revives a beloved series by taking it in a horrific new direction. The first two Twisted Metal games, developed by SingleTrac, were massively successful and popularized the vehicular combat genre, just in time for 989 Studios to take over and crank out two sub-par installments that were crushed by other upstart series in the genre. After four years of the series being dragged through the mud, Incognito Entertainment, a new studio founded by former members of SingleTrac, decided it was time to restore the good name of their classic franchise, but they weren't satisfied with simply returning to the formula everyone had loved back in the day.

By removing all the colors and the sardonic sense of humor as essential elements of the design, Twisted Metal's love of pointless destruction and tales of wishes gone awry suddenly went from delightfully whimsical to crushingly bleak. In Black, the most colorful thing we're likely to see is spilled blood, and our goal in every video will be to provide a vile human being with their greatest desire. This is a grim and disturbing journey that is nonetheless a fan favorite of the series, like a car crash you can't look away from.

:siren:NO SPOILERS:siren:
Please do not post any of the details of the characters' stories until after we've seen them in the videos, not even in spoiler tags. Same goes for story and character elements from ensuing games in the series, although spoilers from any of the Playstation 1 Twisted Metal games may be discussed in spoiler tags.

Stories

Sweet Tooth at The Junkyard



Junkyard Dog at The Suburbs



Shadow at The Freeway



Roadkill at Downtown



Brimstone at The Highway Loop



Crazy 8 at Minion's Stadium



Outlaw at The Prison Passage



Darkside at The Snowy Roads



Spectre at The Drive-In Movie



Mr. Grimm at The Skyscrapers



Axel at Warhawk's Rooftop



Warthog at Suburban Terror



Manslaughter at The Stadium Slaughter



Yellow Jacket at The Carnival of Darkness



12-Pak at The Death Port

Fiendly fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Oct 25, 2016

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Ometeotl
Feb 13, 2012



It's MISSEL! Or SISSLE!
I confused myself...



I love this series, even 3 and 4.

...But not the PS3 reboot, though. That was unmitigated garbage.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


I did always like the style of the old Twisted Metal games even though I didn't really care for the gameplay that much. The vehicle physics and handling just don't do it for me.

Anyway, I remember reading about Black in the European PSM2 in late 2001. Since we didn't get any of the cutscenes in our version of the game (thanks Sony, you really saved our innocent minds there), the magazine introduced all the drivers and described what happened in their storylines. My reaction to some of the more, uh, intense ones was basically :dogbutton:

Arcade Rabbit
Nov 11, 2013


Yeah, that's pretty much the correct response. Sweet Tooth actually manages to be one of the tamer character stories in here, believe it or not.

I really like how you're doing the LP. Having each character get a level to themselves is a good way to do it. Its a fun game, but seeing everyone play through all eight stages would get pretty old, pretty quickly. I also quite like the tone of the narration you're giving it, very fitting. How are you going to handle the unlockable characters? it'd be a shame not getting to see them in action too.

Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!

Arcade Rabbit posted:

How are you going to handle the unlockable characters? it'd be a shame not getting to see them in action too.

No need to worry about that, it so happens that the way I plan to do this LP provides exactly as many unique levels as there are playable characters, so everyone will have their moment in the sun.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

This is arguably one of the few 'darker and edgier' reboots that actually works. Not all of the stories work, but those that do are great. One or two I can see getting some reactions from the thread in particular.

Doc Morbid posted:

I did always like the style of the old Twisted Metal games even though I didn't really care for the gameplay that much. The vehicle physics and handling just don't do it for me.

Anyway, I remember reading about Black in the European PSM2 in late 2001. Since we didn't get any of the cutscenes in our version of the game (thanks Sony, you really saved our innocent minds there), the magazine introduced all the drivers and described what happened in their storylines. My reaction to some of the more, uh, intense ones was basically :dogbutton:

I almost bought it off PSN when it was rereleased a while back, because there was some confusion at the time as to whether or not it was the US/'uncut' version or not. Turns out it was the cut PAL version, which disappointed me. It's been 15 years, man, give us a break!

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


Kaboom Dragoon posted:

I almost bought it off PSN when it was rereleased a while back, because there was some confusion at the time as to whether or not it was the US/'uncut' version or not. Turns out it was the cut PAL version, which disappointed me. It's been 15 years, man, give us a break!
I figured as much after I saw that the GTA rereleases on EU PS4 were the PAL versions, with bonus framepacing issues due to shoddy 60Hz conversion. Thanks again, lads!

I guess you could always buy it from US PSN?

Skippy Granola
Sep 3, 2011

It's not what it looks like.
A gritty reboot of a game starring a psycho clown in an ice cream truck? Sign me up!

The Vosgian Beast
Aug 13, 2011

Business is slow
Oh hey, it's that sweet car destruction game with EC Comics-esque macabre plot twists I always wanted to get, but never did! Glad this LP is here to show me what I missed.

Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
I remember playing a couple of these back as a kid, but I could never find Black. Looking forward to seeing what sort of horror this game can invoke.

rotinaj
Sep 5, 2008

Fun Shoe
Aw, this game ruled. I'm glad you're getting around to this, because you're one of my favorite LPers, Fiendly, and you're doing all the hella rad brutal games I loved as a teenager.

Seriously, you have a really cool voice and it's suited well for doing commentary on this kind of game.

DukeofCA
Aug 18, 2011

I am shocked and appalled.
Twisted Metal was probably my most played series on the PS1, even 3 and 4. I recognized they were inferior games but I still played the hell out them. I really loved Black too and the direction the series has taken since then makes me sad.

KillingPablo
Apr 5, 2003

WHOO! I am DEFINITELY not afraid of the fucking POLICE right now!
I was a Nintendo kid, so the closest thing I had to this was Vigilante 8 (which was still a pretty awesome game). I'm really surprised at how dark this game was for it's time, it's somewhat understandable how so much content got cut overseas. I have to admit that the character models in the cut-scenes are really distracting and unpleasant though, like the very nadir of the uncanny valley. Still, looking forward to seeing more of the characters stories though!

Dreadwroth
Dec 12, 2009

by R. Guyovich
/\/\Hellll yes Vigilante 8 was loving awesome too!
Twisted Metal Black is awesome, I used to ply this and I think the second one with a friend of mine like all the time. I nearly always played as Roadkill or Crazy 8, as they looked the most like Mad Max characters to me.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

Hello! I see you.


KillingPablo posted:

I'm really surprised at how dark this game was for it's time, it's somewhat understandable how so much content got cut overseas.
Black definitely was super dark for an early PS2 release, and I'm kind of surprised some of the stuff even made it into the released game in the first place. We do have an M rating equivalent over here, though, and it's usually only Germany that censors games as heavily as this. I actually thought the PAL censorship was done to get Black a 15+ rating instead of an 18+ one, but I just checked and the PAL version is in fact rated 18+.

I'll cut SCEE some slack since it was after 9/11 and this was far from the only case of questionable media censorship around that time, but you'd think that they could've at least released the uncut version on PSN 15 years later.

counterfeitsaint
Feb 26, 2010

I'm a girl, and you're
gnomes, and it's like
what? Yikes.
I remember when I first started working at a garbage call center, which was currently contracted out to SCEA, the playstation/video games division of Sony in early 2002. This was the only game they warned us about, and showed the sweet tooth cutscenes I guess so we'd know why people were complaining or something? Our canned response was supposed to be basically 'It's an M rated game, M means Mature.' I never did get a call about it though. They also had several PS2s and we played the poo poo out of the game during lunch.

There was never any mention of the plane though, I wasn't even aware of that.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Okay, wow, I know I haven't thought of Twisted Metal for a long time, but I didn't realize this game was that old now.

Kibayasu
Mar 28, 2010

If nothing else (and there's a bunch of else mind you, Black is great) you gotta respect a game that chooses Paint it Black as its theme and makes it work outside of just being there for recognition.

ParliamentOfDogs
Jan 29, 2009

My genre's thriller... What's yours?
Does this genre even exist anymore? I played the poo poo out of all the twisted metals and Vigilante 8 and even Rogue Trip.

Coolness Averted
Feb 20, 2007

oh don't worry, I can't smell asparagus piss, it's in my DNA

GO HOGG WILD!
🐗🐗🐗🐗🐗

ParliamentOfDogs posted:

Does this genre even exist anymore? I played the poo poo out of all the twisted metals and Vigilante 8 and even Rogue Trip.

I think the problem is now minigames in GTA and Saints Row kinda encompass that whole genre and in some ways even out do them.

Arcade Rabbit
Nov 11, 2013

Did anybody ever do an LP on the newest of the Twisted Metal game? I've always been a bit interested in seeing just how far the rabbit hole goes, but really can't be bothered to play it myself. For once, the things the angry fans are saying lines up entirely with the few small things I've seen of the game itself.

AnxiousSloth
Jul 22, 2007
Red and filled with butter, just like nature intended
I think I still have a copy of this game floating around somewhere. I loved the old Twisted Metal games (even the ridiculously bad ones past 3), but this was a return to form so awesome I am glad that it stopped here. That is until the new one for PS3 came out, but I didn't play that one so as the above poster said I dunno how bad/dumb it is. I do remember the fact that there were only (3?) playable characters made a lot of people angry. I like the idea of the whole gang warfare between to rival Twisted Metal competitors, but couldn't you have just had all the over drivers fall into the two camps, while still giving each their own story/motivations?

Vicissitude
Jan 26, 2004

You ever do the chicken dance at a wake? That really bothers people.

Arcade Rabbit posted:

Did anybody ever do an LP on the newest of the Twisted Metal game? I've always been a bit interested in seeing just how far the rabbit hole goes, but really can't be bothered to play it myself. For once, the things the angry fans are saying lines up entirely with the few small things I've seen of the game itself.

It's alright and the combat is very similar to the original game. My problems with it are that they only have the 3 characters instead of a whole gaggle of crazies seeking their One Wish, and that the stages throw in new scenarios for you to play instead of sticking to the original theme of a tournament between said crazies. It's more of a gang war, which makes sense given the setting they build the game, but I think it misses more often than hits.

Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!
Update:

Junkyard Dog at The Suburbs


KillingPablo posted:

I was a Nintendo kid, so the closest thing I had to this was Vigilante 8 (which was still a pretty awesome game).

Same here, Black was my first Twisted Metal and to date I've still only played the PS2 games in the series. Vigilante 8 was a killer game, too, I rented it to death and just used the code to unlock the UFO because flying that thing around was mindblowing at the time.

Arcade Rabbit posted:

Did anybody ever do an LP on the newest of the Twisted Metal game? I've always been a bit interested in seeing just how far the rabbit hole goes, but really can't be bothered to play it myself. For once, the things the angry fans are saying lines up entirely with the few small things I've seen of the game itself.

According to the master list, no one on the forums has ever attempted a Twisted Metal LP before. I'm interested in doing the remake myself if all goes well, but it's definitely a long term plan.

Boardroom Jimmy
Aug 20, 2006

Ahhh ballet
Nice, Black is such a great game. One little touch I really like is that each weapon appears on the car, coming out of panels on the body instead of just firing straight ahead. That can also be a bit of a thing because that means weapons will be either slightly to the right or left when they fire. Also, you mentioned the dynamic music but I think the music also changes when you're down to one opponent.

Anyway, definitely gonna be following this.

The Vosgian Beast
Aug 13, 2011

Business is slow
I'm not aware of any pesticide that turns people into pigmen, but I could be ignorant here.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

Well that's why you're not a cropduster, isn't it.

Vicissitude
Jan 26, 2004

You ever do the chicken dance at a wake? That really bothers people.
Considering the way it completely killed the crops I'm guessing it was some sort of defoliant that you probably don't want to breathe.

Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
Christ, you really weren't kidding about the AI being brutal in this one.

ditty bout my clitty
May 28, 2011

by FactsAreUseless
Fun Shoe
Loving the story on this one

Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!
Update:

Shadow at The Freeway


Content warning for self injury, if that sort of imagery would be an unpleasant shock to you, skip the first minute or so of this video.

Fiendly fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Apr 14, 2016

matureaudiencesonly
May 6, 2009

The Twisted Metal games were my favorite series as a kid. I played all of them to completion over and over again except for the first one, which I don't think I ever got past the second level of. Black is by far my favorite though. Glad to see a LP of this!

I didn't notice you doing this in the videos yet, but I think I remember a neat little health boost that you can get during a round. Once you kill a NPC there's a little dude on fire that runs away from the burning car; if you run that guy over, it gives you a slight bit of health (I'm pretty sure, but it's been a decade since I last played this).

Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!

matureaudiencesonly posted:

I didn't notice you doing this in the videos yet, but I think I remember a neat little health boost that you can get during a round. Once you kill a NPC there's a little dude on fire that runs away from the burning car; if you run that guy over, it gives you a slight bit of health (I'm pretty sure, but it's been a decade since I last played this).

I'm definitely going to have to talk about this on the next video, but I checked one of the times this happened accidentally in the LP already and you're correct. I either forgot about this or never knew, but either way, thanks a ton, this will make a world of difference on the later, harder levels.

The Vosgian Beast
Aug 13, 2011

Business is slow
Yeah this one seemed a bit phoned in. Eh, they can't all be winners.

Psychotic Weasel
Jun 24, 2004

Bang! You're dead.
Twisted Metal was one of the first PS1 games I owned back when I was a teen and I loved it to death - this series, along with Jet Moto (ironically by 989 Studios), Vigilante 8 and Wipe Out were a blast to play but Black seems to be missing some of the... charm, I guess you could say? It just doesn't seem the same though that could be 15+ years of rose coloured glasses talking as it's been a very, very long time since I played any of them. Never did play any of the later ones in the series that came out for the PS2 onward as I never owned one but it's a shame to hear they turned into shovelwear.

Are all the character stories just the 1 level? I seem to remember in the earlier games each player had their own campaign to go through but this seems rather short. Still, fun to watch and brings back some memories.

Sel Nar
Dec 19, 2013

Psychotic Weasel posted:

Are all the character stories just the 1 level? I seem to remember in the earlier games each player had their own campaign to go through but this seems rather short. Still, fun to watch and brings back some memories.

Nah. You have to go through 8 levels, with a mid and final boss. The second cutscene for the character is after you beat the level 4 boss, and the last is after you beat the final boss.

Needless to say, It can be both fun, and a bit frustrating, going through a dozen or so characters with 8 levels each for their stories.

Kibayasu
Mar 28, 2010

Psychotic Weasel posted:

Twisted Metal was one of the first PS1 games I owned back when I was a teen and I loved it to death - this series, along with Jet Moto (ironically by 989 Studios), Vigilante 8 and Wipe Out were a blast to play but Black seems to be missing some of the... charm, I guess you could say? It just doesn't seem the same though that could be 15+ years of rose coloured glasses talking as it's been a very, very long time since I played any of them. Never did play any of the later ones in the series that came out for the PS2 onward as I never owned one but it's a shame to hear they turned into shovelwear.

Are all the character stories just the 1 level? I seem to remember in the earlier games each player had their own campaign to go through but this seems rather short. Still, fun to watch and brings back some memories.

Black seems to be a pretty deliberate choice in tone after Twisted Metal 3 and 4 went a bit more light-hearted and cartoony in aesthetic. I also wouldn't be surprised if that choice was deliberately spiteful because, although I only have interviews to go on, David Jaffe seems like the kind of person to do that.

I never played Head-On but while I wouldn't describe the PS3 Twisted Metal as shovelware it was a multiplayer focused game (with some single player) which, while certainly a part of past Twisted Metals, wasn't really what people liked from it before advent of console multiplayer. It's not bad but there was just wasn't enough to grab onto beyond that.

Gotenks0053
Sep 2, 2011

Kibayasu posted:

I never played Head-On but while I wouldn't describe the PS3 Twisted Metal as shovelware it was a multiplayer focused game (with some single player) which, while certainly a part of past Twisted Metals, wasn't really what people liked from it before advent of console multiplayer. It's not bad but there was just wasn't enough to grab onto beyond that.

The multiplayer is actually what could've sold me, if the studio didn't dissolve the day before release. As a result no support or content was added to the game, which could've helped people's issues with the game and given us a pretty unique online multiplayer game at the time.

Mr.Flibble
Jul 23, 2008
Are you going to cover Twisted Metal "Lost" in this LP?

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Fiendly
May 27, 2010

That's not right!

Sel Nar posted:

Needless to say, It can be both fun, and a bit frustrating, going through a dozen or so characters with 8 levels each for their stories.

It's a bummer when the story turns out to be a dud like Raven's, but that's only an issue a few times.

Mr.Flibble posted:

Are you going to cover Twisted Metal "Lost" in this LP?

Yep.

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