First off, have a gander at the new in-game teaser of the Sweet Tooth truck available in-game. What’s that? You thought you saw it already when it was running around like a mecha in the official reveal last E3? View on, my friends! It has a few more tricks that surprised even me.
“She was the one that got away… She needs to be cut.”
It can friggin’ FLY too?! How awesome is that? Granted, I think that video was pure cheese with all the gimmicky titles disrupting the action, but still, that’s badazz.
Jaffe said that the Sweet Tooth truck will be the only transforming vehicle, and minus the Talon helicopter, it will be the only one able to fly. Now, based on the video it looks more like a hovering Ice Cream Harrier, but it does have it’s advantages, especially after seeing these fairly in-depth strategy videos posted on GameTrailers.
The videos are only about four minutes a piece, but to summarize: Twisted Metal will have far more depth and strategy for such an action-based game, and that is a welcomed change. Last year Dave said that he dislikes the way modern shooters are set up that you spawn, walk out of the base and get one-shot. That is not the type of game he wants to make, as that type of gameplay doesn’t promote epic moments or create a connection between players. He wants to promote a sense of relationship similar to what Valve tried to do when TF2 first came out. (I think a great deal of it went down the crapper since, but at least it *started* out good.)
Also similar to TF2 is the emphasis on class-based combat. In this case, you can change the vehicle you wish to drive to suit the needs of your team. For example, the tow truck’s special weapon allows the driver to launch taxi-cabs like a cannon/catapult for hefty damage or it can use its secondary Special attack and instead drop repair boxes to aid the team (a la Medic).
The helicopter (Talon) can pick up a teammate and drop them off to either nab the mission objective, get them out of a fire-fight, or join in and open fire on the same target as they tag-team whatever’s unlucky enough to be in the way. Heck, they can even pick up the enemy instead of a friendly target and drop them from a high enough height that it kills them on landing. (This is what I meant about the flying aspect having advantages, in theory you could pop into that form just before impact and pop back into truck for a cool, clean get away).
Another example of tiered depth is the Meat Wagon whose special can either be instantly fired for about 20 damage, or it can be directly piloted (you take control of a patient strapped on a gurney with TNT) and you can blow it up with an AoE attack of 40 all around you. If you want to go the extra mile, and have the knack for it, you can pilot it and directly collide with an enemy vehicle for some massive damage. You choose how in-depth you wish to go. If you are just starting out, you’ll probably just fire the weak version off and build your way up. Or maybe the battle is getting too hectic and manning the gurney directly might leave your car wide open so the smart thing to do is just fire it off the hip.
It’s like a deadly, barbed wire encoiled onion.
Jaffe even posted a few tips himself via twitter:
TWISTED METAL PS3 PRO TIP #1: All shock wave weapons can be jumped in order to avoid them. Most shockwave weapons must be charged up and if you can damage the enemy while he is charging or fully charged with anything more powerful than a fire missile, you bring him out of the charge. There are sounds to cue you in that the enemy is charting up (Axel grunts, for example). So these are not cheap, instant hits. You can learn to defend against them. source
TWISTED METAL PS3 PRO TIP #2: In FREE FOR ALL games, JUNKYARD DOG doesn’t have his healing taxi. Instead his alt fire is a taxi with TNT that you can either throw and then detonate or drop in the level- remote bomb style- and detonate it at your leisure. In TEAM GAMES, his BOMB TAXI becomes a HEALTH TAXI BOMB so when you detonate it it sends out a healing shockwave that heals all team mates caught in the wave by 30%….you can also throw the healing taxi into a scrum battle and detonate it from afar, healing your team from a distance. source
Again stating that Twisted Metal is more of an action-endurance style of combat compared to Call of Dooky:
I assure you- there will be no spawn-die-spawn-die in this game. We are still balancing out weapons and trying to make sure some weapons (special and pick ups) have enough juice to merit the effort to go after them/pick them while at the same time making sure there are no one hit kills. It’s a balance for sure but Scott and I are both opposed to traditional shooter pacing and that will be reflected in the final game. Eager to see what folks think of E3 as well as the new trailer for Twisted that hits this Friday!
source
Finally, here is a teaser image he posted. So Dollface really was a doll face before she got Twisted, eh?
If you can't read the text, click the pic for the source image.
We’ll see what crazy things come out of E3 this year. Based on comments to the videos I linked to above, people are either eating up the over-the-top heavy metal action and pre-ordering ASAP, or thinking the game is too different from the original. I think it’s right where it should be. The storyline might be a wee bit wacky, but that’s par for the course. The action and the gameplay is really where the meat of this bad boy is, and for a group of people who never really made an online shooter… actually, this might just be the first online supporting game they have worked on, ever. Well, dang! That just makes their efforts even more outstanding.
Pardon the mini-sidetrack there haha As I was saying, for people so inexperienced at making online combat games, the ideas they are pumping into the game are staggering yet intuitive. I can very easily see other gaming companies swooping down and gobbling up the ideas Eat Sleep Play is coming up with on their path to glory.
October 10th is gettin’ closer, peeps! Go Clowns!
