Twisted Metal: Black (PS2)-
One of the early killer-apps for the PS2, Twisted Metal: Black took the popular Twisted Metal franchise into a new darker direction. From the storylines, to the arenas, and the whole art direction, this game is without a doubt the most Twisted (pun intended) game in the series. Not that Calypso wasn't already a pretty messed up guy in the previous games, but this time he raids a local loony-bin for contestants in his latest TM tournament.
TM:B also marks the return of the franchise to members of the team responsible for the first two TM games. Singletrac developed the first two Twisted Metal games, but was (according to wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt) later bought out by GT interactive, and lost the rights to the Twisted Metal franchise. Sony then gave development privileges to 989 Studios who developed TM3 and TM4. Though I haven't played the 989 TM games much myself, they are seen as a big letdown by a lot of fans of the series.
In 1999, members of SingleTrac left to form Incognito Inc which was a part of SCEA's Santa Monica studio. Incog took back the development of Twisted Metal, and gave us arguably the best game in the series (I say arguably, because my personal favorite is TM2), and more importantly reinvented the series which was growing stagnant. Twisted Metal: Black has all the classic TM gameplay with a great dark atmosphere, and it even added some new things to the formula as well. It's easily the best car-combat game of last generation, and remains a great game to this day.
Later, when Sony released the Network Adapter for the PS2, it came with a voucher to get Twisted Metal: Black Online for free. TM:BO was a multiplayer-only version of TM:B, but was a great freebie for the early Network Adapter adopters. The official servers for the game have long since been taken down, but it still supports bot deathmatches, and LAN play from PS2 to PS2 (which requires the Network Adapter). You can play it with your friends, or more importantly use a tunneling service like Xlink to play it online still. TM:B Online isn't a required buy, but you can still get some use out of it if you decide to buy it.
Here is a vid uploaded by Youtube user Lazyhoboguy of Twisted Metal Black Online being played on Xlink:
Oh wow my video. I really need to play twisted metal black's singleplayer. I have owned it for awhile but I have so many games to play it is taking me awhile to get to it.
ReplyDeleteYou vid was great. It showed TMB: Online's Gameplay, and that you can still play it online.
ReplyDeleteAs for having a big backlog, I hear you there man. So many games, so little time.