Product description DESTRUCTIVE 3D ENGINE. Experience an all-new next generation 3D engine with TruPhysics . Feel your vehicle get waxed! MORE TWISTED METAL. Get twisted with 14 high-powered vehicles, an arsenal of all new weapons and unbeatable bosses! Try Vibration Mode with the Dual Shock analog controller for a heightened sense of mass destruction! DEADLY BATTLEGROUNDS. Ten new and explosive battlegrounds to torch, each with its own gameplay style and strategy, featuring two and four-player modes with special multi-player arenas and head-to-head mayhem! WICKED TUNES. Take a ride on the wild side with adrenaline-pumpin' music for your soul by Rob Zombie. Shred it up! .com Combining the road rage-inspired dark fantasies of Mad Max with a twist of campy black humor, Twisted Metal III is a worthy addition to the emerging car combat genre. Though the game is sure to be a hit with newcomers of the series, fans of the previous Twisted Metal games will find that TM III doesn't quite fire on all cylinders. The story runs somewhere between Mortal Kombat and your wildest dreams of demolition derbies. But the paper-thin plot doesn't matter: you have a rad car and aren't afraid to use it. Whether you choose to control the monster truck driven by the little old lady, Mr. Grimm's motorcycle o' death, or what is quite possibly the coolest ice-cream truck ever, you'll speed and skid around the asphalt-covered levels, grabbing power-ups and blowing up your opponents with a wide array of vehicle-mounted weaponry. In a game like this, several things are key: physics, control, and level design. Twisted Metal III departs from the previous games in the franchise. The levels are smaller and the physics and controls conspire to make the vehicles handle oddly. The bottom line: car-smashing fun that doesn't quite live up to the glories of the prequels. --John CockingPros:Cool vehiclesThe London levelKnocking your foes off the rooftops in TokyoCons:Driving in reverse using the analog controlsThere are some small, small levels P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review If you've made it to this point in your life without playing a Twisted Metal game, that's all right, we'll explain it to you. The trilogy is probably best described as a vehicular version of Midway's Mortal Kombat or else a James Cameron's Terminator take on a demolition derby. In it, a horde of over-the-top characters compete against each other in cars and trucks armed with missiles, freeze rays, and other assorted weapons of destruction. This time out, there are a few new cars and weapons, and you have an option to have a computer-controlled ally aide you in the tournament, though he always seems to be the first one blown up in the fight. The biggest change to the series though is that its developer has changed from SingleTrac (who've started a new, but like-minded, auto-combat series under the moniker Rogue Trip for GT Interactive) to 989 Studios, a Sony-owned development studio. This affects the game on nearly every level. Graphically, the game appears much differently from the previous titles in the line, though it's not necessarily improved. There are various shading and lighting effects at work, but the end result is somehow grainy and washed out. The title's soundtrack, which is comprised of songs by Rob Zombie and Pitch Shifter, is very fitting, but the supporting sound effects are very weak. For example, the machine gun sounds like a cap pistol and driving through water inexplicably sounds pretty similar to that. The game's much-touted new physics engine turns out pretty strange in function. The cars will now dip and roll upon collision, which sounds fantastic in theory, but in practice is fairly questionable since vehicles will often flip over after hitting a small curb or even a snowman. The collision detection is also highly suspect, as instances where you'll find yourself stuck on a ledge or halfway into a wall are frequent. It's very nice to have analog control this time, but the physics engine really works against it. The main downfall of Twisted Metal III though is its lackluster level design. Most of the stages are, if not modeled after, extremely reminiscent of levels from the first two games, and those that aren't are even more uninspired. The Washington level, for instance, is a long rectangular courtyard with a ramped area on one end and teleportation sphere (which sends vehicles to the ramped area) on the other. Snore. In the two player modes, the default horizontal split-screen runs into the same problem found in SingleTrac's Rogue Trip. Since the levels are no longer as flat as in the previous TM games, having half you horizon cut away makes it hard to see in hilly or ramp-heavy levels. Fortunately, the designers had the foresight to include a wide variety of split-screen perspectives, such as a vertical cut and variations on a four-way split where the other two boxes are filled with radar, speedometer, and weapons info (these are the best since you view the world through a smaller version of the full screen). In the three- and four-player modes, the perspective is similarly cornered. Both appear to cut into the frame rate and increase the visible seams between surfaces, but not majorly. Multiple views aside though, the game is as much fun in multiplayer mode as it is in single player. As there, you'll be struck with the feelings of "Why am I here?" and "Why am I playing this" after a level or two. There are a few good ideas at work within Twisted Metal III (such as the multiple perspectives), but they're not nearly enough to counter the fact that improvements to the gameplay are pretty slight and the level design is a big step backwards, making the game a real lemon overall. If this is the direction the series is taking, it should probably stop right here. Take a look at Activision's Vigilante 8 or GT Interactive's Rogue Trip instead. --Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review See more
