Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Last Days Of Twisted Metal #2 (plus random pics from game production!)

Hey all! Here's me heading in for what will probably be my last Twisted Metal visit with the San Diego QA crew!


Tell you what: this amazing QA team been instrumental in the game's tuning and gameplay quality, working tirelessly (and I mean TIRELESSLY- these mofos work some CRAZY ASS hours!) with myself, the rest of the Eat Sleep Play crew out in the Lake Of Salt, and the boyz up at Sony Santa Monica! Thanks Bill, Jon, Gregg, and the whole SDQA staff for helping to make this Twisted Metal the best one we've ever made!

Talk soon-

David

ps. hoping to get some one on one QA interviews for the blog with some of the team who have tested the game and helped us tune it. Stay tuned for those!

pps. oh, some random pics! :)

I have no recollection of how or why this amazing tradition began but DAMN am I glad I get to be on the receiving end of it! :) Every Christmas my amazing GOD OF WAR co-writer Marianne Krawczyk gets me a full on pack of fantastic bubble gum! For a few years running it's been Bazooka but I was just in Santa Monica for our final TWISTED METAL playtest and damn if the woman didn't go and get me a 90 piece pak of the best fucking bubble gum IN THE WORLD: SUPER BUBBLE!!! This is just the kinda gum I got as a kid when I'd get a hair cut and I fucking love it! Thank you MA! Oh, and for those of you not in the know, Marianne was also a writer on ALL of the the other GOW games, as well as this year's mega phenom SKYLANDERS and this summer's sure to be hit game STAR TREK!



My view from the playtest last Thursday/Friday! Always fun to watch the last playtest because- barring anything major (and yes, we did find one dial we wanted to tweak!), the game is done and you can just sit back and watch and see how the game came out! And if you are curious by the way, we had 5 play testers last week and here are the results...

Again, as I've said, we never expect/assume these OVERALL SCORES will= review scores and we also never assume just because they BRPs (Buy/Rent/Pass) answers are all YES that the world- or even these folks- will buy the game. In a play test like this - where they are IN the office of the people who are working on the game- you never know if you are getting a 100% accurate response to the game or if someone is fishing for a job! BUT- all of that said- the scores have been pretty consistent as of late and so, hey, I won't like: these are nice to see! 

25 comments:

RJ said...

very cool, i just went out and got a copy of TM Small brawl(the only twisted metal i never got) just to get ready for the new one.

Cant wait for the midnight launch

Lewis W said...

Great, thanks for the update!

As a UK fan of Twisted Metal, I beg you to keep looking into whether we're getting the same pre-order bonuses as the USA (i.e. Axel and TM: Black). THEN I'll buy my copy!

I can't wait! :D

maxrenderer said...

I popped TM2 into my laptop today (can't be bothered to hook up my PSX) and played for old time's sake. That game is still a blast. In fact, I'd pay $60 for TM2 all over again. Anyway, I'm really excited about TM for PS3 as I'm sure a lot of people are. Without even testing it, I'll say BUY! Thank you ESP!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I second what Lewis said. Really interested to know if we will get the same Pre-Order bonuses in the UK as the USA guys get. If you could let us know that would be great. Even though my Pre-Order is paid for in whatever form it comes out!

Very cool update man and a massive thank you to you and the whole of your team for bringing this game back to us this generation!

Loving the look of the game from the shots. All the best, Craig.

Chris said...

I never realized how much of an important role the San Diego QA and Sony Santa Monica teams played in Twisted Metal, so my hat goes off to them! Congrats to you Jaffe and the rest of the Eat Sleep Play team, as well as the San Diego QA and Santa Monica teams on the completion of this game. I have no doubt in my mind that all of the hard work you guys have done will pay off and be amazingly successful. I am counting down the days until Twisted Metal!

Cody Goggin said...

I sent a picture of my receipt for Twisted Metal pre-order as a comment and it got removed. :(

Rory Hutchings said...

Ah man, If i knew how to get a hold of you, I would of bought you a beer. I know its the least I can do but Id love to give you some fan appreciation.

Was awesome talking to you at comic con in 2011. Hope to talk to you again in 2012

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Firecrest Neoflames said...

Hey Dave, thanks for keeping us posted. Glad to hear that TM is scoring fantastically across the board with the playtesters, and I have a feeling that'll stay true with the general masses when the game releases next month.

Just wondering, have you ever tried Double Bubble bubblegum? I'm wondering how that stacks up to the bag of awesomeness you have there. (I dare you to chew all those at once.)

gdinsmore said...

Just heard that the twisted demo is coming out next week! guess i know what im going to be doing for the next two weeks. so pumped! nice work jaffe and to everyone on the team. gonna be the best TM yet!

M1das said...

Already have my pre-order placed. I'm looking forward so much to the online deathmatches. David, it would be kick ass if TM2 was released as an HD remix at a later time ie God of War / Shadow of Colossus. Throw in a playable Dark Tooth and people would instantly crap themselves in unison. Here's hoping to the greatest franchise in existence.

Anonymous said...

Had to cancel my Pre-Order, gutted. Family member lost their job and need to keep hold of the money.

Will have to pick the game up at a later date. I made two other pre-orders and they are effected too. Obviously, not happy about this but yeah whatever life throws at you.

Unknown said...

Cool stuff! Definitely gonna pick it up day 1! Haven't done that with a game since God of War 3 and FF13.
I just miss that 90's mechanic-based game design. I miss the depth and people playing multiplayer for the gameplay and not for the metagame unlocks.

maxrenderer said...

HOLY CRAP!!! I just played the single player part of the demo. This game is freakin' insane! It's Twisted Metal 2 on steroids. THIS is what I've been waiting for for a long time. Thank you Dave and the ESP Team. I can't wait for this.

maxrenderer said...

Also, I'm glad to hear about AI being fixed in the final game. During the demo, Crimson Fury was just riding my ass the whole time spamming me with everything. I'm glad it's not that bad in the final game.

I'm loving this!

gdinsmore said...

HOLY SHIT JAFFE! just played the TM demo and i was blown away. it was exactly what i thought it was and i was not dissapointed. the controls, weapons, map layout. everything is so fine tuned and perfect. aweomse work!

Linked said...

David is the maximum you

TM2 fan said...

I can not purchase this game until you fix the problem of steering in reverse: You inverted the lateral controls again, just like Twisted Metal Black!

In real life when you're driving in reverse and you turn the steering wheel to the left, the front of the car (with the headlights) swings to the right.

In this game (and in TM:B (but not in TM:2)) you inverted this. I had to stop playing the demo last night because it was too frustrating to always turn the wrong direction when in reverse (contrary to real-life steering controls).

Driving in reverse is a basic and very important part of car combat and this needs to be fixed. Please and thank you!

maxrenderer said...

I agree about the reverse steering that TM2 fan pointed out...hopefully it will be fixed as it's counter-intuitive. But, it's not stopping me from buying it...it's way too much fun.

Michael Alan said...

David,

Just download the demo and it is fucking awesome. One question, will the production build support the G27 as it doesn't appear the demo does. I will buy the game regardless but blowing shit up from my playseat would be awesome.

Rivaliti said...

I have a question please... It's true that TM is delayed in Europe? and that the content is censored ? Please, is a joke?.. I living in France...

psdmaniac said...

Hi David,
I play in demo and must say thats gameplay is similar to "Driver" in surviwal mode... Why they do not shoot each other? There a lot o cheos, too much for me.
Seound: I am Polish player and i love TM(i bought psx for this game)thats why i dont like Polish language version. Why the translate cars names? Ist sound very lame..."Crimson fury" is translate to "fury" olny. Why "freez" is translated like somthing like a freezer(ice, cold, etc.). In English freez mean also "stop" but in Polish translation is only to freeze sombody by ice. I know, i play in other TM- there was "frozen" freez but here is electric impuls. In polish version i am shoothing electric impuls and i see that is somthing like "frozzen missle"... Where is a snow, ice and so on? It is stupid translation.. .
Third: Swimmingpool is awsome, game speed is awsome.
Plese make DLC with warthog as a hamvie with old special weapon( i love its sound;)

Pablo said...

Hey dave, I've seen a lot of news about sony fixing multiplayer connection issues in the demo, but what are you doing about those crashes? Forums explode with topics about crashes and people are really concerned about their PS3s. Mine crashed twice already and I'm really afraid to play this agian.

I'm new to TM and so far this game is pure fun, but I'm not sure if i want to preorder this with all those problems.

João Pires said...

will the matchmaking work if i buy the US version to play on European soil?

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