Twisted Metal - first impressions

[Koko Ricky]

I do not own a PS3. In fact, I'm borrowing one from a friend, and have rented "Twisted Metal," as I have the opportunity to review it for my college newspaper. It's easily my favorite video game franchise outside of "Doom." I've so far only explored the single player campaign, and hope to check out multiplayer and 2-player split-screen today.

So how is it? Fucking amazing, for starters. It's completely met my expectations, and in some cases blown them away. It's the same familiar vehicular combat game that it was in 1995, except that a ton of subtle new features have been added to keep it fresh. It's incredibly challenging yet still eases you in. I'm considering buying a PS3 just to own this game. Thoughts?

[The Pursuer]

If i owned a PS3, this would be one of the few games i would own for it. Used to play the original titles quite a bit back in the day

[Remilia Scarlet]

Whoa, they have a new one? I must find out more about this...

[Technician]

I was more fond of Vigilante 8, myself.

[40oz]

I haven't played any twisted metal games since Twisted Metal Black, which was fucking amazing by the way. I've seen a few ads for the new one and it looks more akin to the original two games, which is pretty sweet.

[Vordakk]

I'm more of a Road Rash kinda guy. :)

I remember when the very first Twisted Metal came out for PS1. I guess it was fairly popular since the franchise is still going strong. Yep.

[hobomaster22]

I loved these back when they came out on the playstayion. I just recently came across this game actually:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_Metal:_Small_Brawl

[kmxexii]

I heard great things about this in the SA thread. I might actually get some use out of my PS3 after all!

I played the Hell out of TM2 with my friends. Just turn on super homing napalms for everyone and have a big fiery free for all.

I used to just let this title music run forever, such a great soundtrack

[PRIMEVAL]

Great franchise...really want the new game.

[Orchid87]

TM2 was my favorite, and after awful TM3 I kinda stopped caring about the series. I'd like to try the new TM game but I've sold my PS3 last year.

[Koko Ricky]

Twisted Metal 3 was playable, but pretty fucking bad overall. Really wonky physics and controls. The fourth game was a slight improvement, but still boring. It was "Black" that brought the series back from stagnation, and the PSP version "Head On" (which was ported to PS2 a couple years later) is actually a lot of fun. The new version, simply titled "Twisted Metal," is easily the best one since "Twisted Metal 2" and "Twisted Metal: Black."

I tried out the multiplayer function and it's a lot of fun. Unfortunately, you need an online pass (10 bucks) to access the online component. This is really unfair, because anyone buying the game quickly learns that the 40 or 50 bucks they just shelled out didn't get them the complete package. There's really no justification behind it and the creators of the game spoke out against this feature, but Sony has final say, so whaddaya gonna do?

Multiplayer is a bit broken at the moment (there's no official servers and the connection is really dodgy), but once you find a stable one, it's fucking mayhem. Huge environments, fast cars, tons of weapons, lots of strategic opportunities, massive amounts of destruction. It's a really hardcore experience. You can also gain experience points and up your rank, granting you access to better weapons and cars.