Twisted Metal - Distorted Alloy

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Played the fangame for a few hours today.
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It's fucking great, I highly recommend it. It genuinely plays better than most of the official games.
 
I feel like a decent compromise would be that the AI battle each other until they hit a certain threshold (say 50% of health left) and then they ignore each other and only attack the player. Like I do feel like an absolute machine singlehandedly taking down every single player through each run but it's really frustrating to turn a corner and get ganged up on by 3 cars knowing they're not going to even lay a finger on one another.

But ultimately I feel like having the AI being more aggressive towards one another wouldn't actually cheese the game as much as people think it would, you'd still have Minion fucking up everyone's shit once you get down to 1 v 1 after using everyone else as a crutch, I just feel like it'd be categorically more fun and have more organic awesome moments if you squeak by through the skin of your teeth after Grim takes out the guy shooting at you and you JUST manage to get that health pickup that turns the game around.

The reality is that Twisted Metal games were simply budget games that people loved, they were made with all sorts of shortcuts and the AI being trash was a way of extending the playtime out of it because there wasn't actually THAT much content. Even the fan game suffered the same issues as the core franchise as unlocks don't actually unlock, you have to input a code to play as Minion or Dark Tooth etc.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Even the fan game suffered the same issues as the core franchise as unlocks don't actually unlock, you have to input a code to play as Minion or Dark Tooth etc.
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Dark Tooth is unlocked through a stage secret though. Drive around the map's edge in his stage, there's a secret teleporter with an icon hinting how to activate it.

I'm guessing the unlock codes are a leftover from earlier versions.
 
Well, if anyone cares, the TV show's second season wrapped up.

Overall, there's a lot to enjoy once the tournament starts; the action is great, the set pieces have more going on than just 'cars awkwardly lumber around each other until someone gets blown up', you're spending more time with entertaining characters who bounce off of each other instead of just Anthony Mackie making a goofy face or phoning in the next sex joke (though there's still plenty of that.), and there's this cool element that all the contestants technically get their wish granted even in losing ("I want to be able to feel warmth" *Dies getting their head shredded on a treadmill and feeling like they're on fire*). Even the episode that's just the contestants having a shitty prom before the penultimate round was solid.

I eventually warmed up to this version of Calypso and related to his desire to want everyone in this show to die, dude just wants to host his cool death tournament and some of these contestants keep fucking it up for him. I love every scene with Grimm in it, though I don't know if I'm disappointed or impressed that he got through the majority of the tournament based on technicalities. Sweet Tooth, fresh off of carrying the first season on his back, is still solid. Raven is so try hard and cringey that she ends up being entertaining (though I find it hilarious how they adapted her story from 'Girl who wants revenge because bullies murdered her loved one' to 'Girl who wants to revive her loved one because she fell off the roof doing a stupid prank'). Axel is cool for them actually bringing his unique 'vehicle' into live action and making it look good alone.

And I'm also happy that they didn't hold off on the supernatural elements, Calypso' magic and Grimm probably is too. The first season made it seem like they were trying to remain grounded with it.

As cons go, I still don't give a shit about the leads. John and Quiet are just R-Rated Marvel quips merged into two characters who sometimes go 'I miss muh sister and I hate walls'. They get a new annoying teenage sidekick, Mayhem, who's just there so they can have a surrogate daughter because by this point the 'Found Parent/Child' dynamic is easy money. Doesn't help that they have really obvious plot armour. Like, John and Quiet have multiple major fuck ups happen, and not just survive it, but get rewarded for it. "Oh? You barely made it through the first round and lagged behind everyone else? Here's a radar that leads you straight to your objective in this match that's entirely about trying to find the hidden objective. You know what? I'll even throw in a headstart. We'll say it puts a target on your back, but that never becomes a factor."

That leads into a lot of narrative blue balling. Like, there's multiple times where an episode will set up something, only for the payoff to be nothing or inconsequential.

John makes a second wish behind Quiet's back and reveals to her that he might have fucked over her wish? They're separated in the next episode and kiss and make up by the time they actually see each other again.

Calypso offers to fix their wish problem and they wonder what he's gonna do to fuck them over? He lets them compete in two cars instead of just one with no drawbacks or attempts to turn them against one another.

Stu kills his best friend, Mike's, new friend in self defence outside of a sanctioned match and is caught by Calypso? Stu gets to skip the penultimate match entirely, easily clears up the situation for Calypso and is immediately forgiven by Mike.

Quiet needs to kill Mayhem to advance? Raven accidentally blows Mayhem up trying to kill John, Mayhem survives with little actual damage, and the characters whine about Raven daring to try and murder her opponent in the murder tournament (which Quiet was literally about to do).

Mayhem misunderstands something the leads are saying that makes her think that they're going to abandon her? She doesn't tell them that Calypso has a monster in his basement (Fem Minion) which would have changed nothing.

The worst one for me is that we get to the big wish, Stu wins by complete accident (he got knocked out and Mike got killed in the opening minute of the final but no one destroyed his car) and reveals his wish. Calypso grants it, twisting a desire for a safe place for Stu and Mike far from the tournament into teleporting Stu and Mike's corpse into a space ship orbiting the Earth. And then we have a time jump where it's revealed that Stu got back to Earth no problem, and now wants to join up with John and Quiet despite swearing vengeance on them for killing Mike.

The only important characters to die are Raven and Grimm (my goat), and I'm pretty sure they're gonna come back next season anyway. John's sister, Dollface (leader of the Dolls, the all woman raider group who fight the oppression of the evil rich insiders), dies, but is brought back in the finale as Super Sentai monster Minion who has amnesia.

Really, if the show ended just one episode earlier, I'd be satisfied.
 
I tried to get a Twisted Metal TV show thread over in the other forum bit but fuck it, I'll repeat some things here.

The thing I hate the fucking most about the show is how they set up John and Quiet as the 'good guys' but with like the tiniest bit of bad in them which made it fucking hilarious how they entered a MURDER PEOPLE TOURNAMENT. John is going bezerk because his sister died early in the tournament even though to win the tournament he'd probably have to kill her? The two bond with Mayhem because they're absolute retards who don't grasp that to win they'd have to kill Mayhem? John and Quiet have to race in separate cars and... don't have to fight each other?

In fact that's one of the things I hated about it, they set up Season 2 pretty damn good with Dollface dying so quickly to completely hit us with the "We're not going to blueball you guys, we're going to fucking kill people off" only to then twist things so Mayhem, Axel, Sweet Tooth, John and Quiet all lost the tournament but are alive? I can maybe get behind one or two of those surviving for Season 3, but to have ALL of those surviving is fucking bullshit. The way the season started out I figured the show might not get renewed for Season 3 so they were ready to kill everyone off and have a definitive winner... only to presumably get renewed hence the setup for Season 3.

Ideally I'd have had a downer ending where almost everything similar happens in the final fight only fat fuck decides to blast Quiet with machine gun fire while she's trying to revive John, getting him his first legit kill in the series, getting his prize and suffering the same fate. Calypso goes "Thank you for playing Twisted Metal" and the credits roll while we see fat fuck floating in space. It sets up the Twisted Metal concept, wraps up the John/Quiet will they-won't they shit, allows for another set of characters to participate in the next game, actually gives us some form of impact that stakes matter, and ultimately leaves in a state where the show can end OR continue while also feeling complete if it doesn't get renewed.

Like it's a really good show, but that's the biggest sign we're potentially in for some serious fucking bullshit in Season 3.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Ideally I'd have had a downer ending where almost everything similar happens in the final fight only fat fuck decides to blast Quiet with machine gun fire while she's trying to revive John, getting him his first legit kill in the series, getting his prize and suffering the same fate. Calypso goes "Thank you for playing Twisted Metal" and the credits roll while we see fat fuck floating in space. It sets up the Twisted Metal concept, wraps up the John/Quiet will they-won't they shit, allows for another set of characters to participate in the next game, actually gives us some form of impact that stakes matter, and ultimately leaves in a state where the show can end OR continue while also feeling complete if it doesn't get renewed.
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I doubt there's a showrunner that has enough balls for that.
 
ANF said:
I doubt there's a showrunner that has enough balls for that.
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The issue I have is that shows like this always want to have their cake AND eat it, they want a cool exciting death match tournament concept but they don't want to have to make hard writing choices by actually killing people. Twice in the last few episodes I was convinced that they'd made an absolutely ballsy move and committed to the concept: The first was when Mayhem got blasted into the barrier and got eliminated because it was dark as hell and having her pass away in John and Quiet's arms would have been gut wrenching. A high stakes moment with high stakes consequences... and then she got a scratch on her head and that was it. The second was when John 'died' because of how blunt and sudden it was, the knowledge that he'd had so much plot armour up until that moment and it had been stripped away with one stray blast... and then he's revived.

Calypso fucking up the Twisted Metal tournament has all the makings of this turning into an Us vs Them show so they can get away from the icky hard writing decisions of a deathmatch tournament. Considering how long it took them to actually get around to the actual tournament, they'd be very happy with a convenient excuse to do a season of world building and romantic tension and whatever. Who really watches a show about cars or deathmatches anyway?

Here's how I'd have continued that concept I wrote before which would allow the Twisted Metal tournament to continue while also having some high stakes results:


  • Considering Mayhem has been plot armoured by the lightning round I'd keep her alive as she technically wasn't in the final round. She's entering Twisted Metal to bring back John and Quiet. This allows for flashback scenes involving the characters.
  • Sweet Tooth would stay dead which would create two interesting scenarios: Dark Tooth becomes a possibility as Charlie Kane is pissed off at his son dying in the Twisted Metal tournament, but the iconic cab would also work. Cab scenario has him wishing for Sweet Tooth back, Dark Tooth scenario has him wanting to kill Calypso.
  • Calypso being confirmed as a demon makes hell canon in this universe which could potentially allow Satan to send Grimm back to Earth as a new Grim Reaper considering how well he captured souls. He could be competing to bring Sweet Tooth back so he can take his soul himself.
  • Axel staying alive was pretty much a given once we saw his arms were welded to his wheels by lightning, so whatever, he's back. He's wishing for the Twisted Metal 2 ending.
  • Minion would not have been Dollface for obvious reasons. I'd actually keep minion 'alive' but not in Season 3.
  • Dollface on the other hand is dead but her mask is still around for someone to come in as Dollface 2.
  • The tournament has been proven to be especially violent, so I'd see the return of the brother and sister police officer from Season 1 so Outlaw can return with the wish of stopping the tournament.
  • Then of course there's that fat fuck who won the tournament.
So with that I've got half the characters in place to do Season 3 without the retarded terrorism angle. There's a decent chunk of motivations and it remains open ended who could win and who actually has plot armour.

Yes. I'm autistic about my nostalgia game.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
The issue I have is that shows like this always want to have their cake AND eat it, they want a cool exciting death match tournament concept but they don't want to have to make hard writing choices by actually killing people.
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Again, the fact that they couldn't even commit to Calypso fucking over the winner, what is essentially the main thing people know about Twisted Metal, really hurts any notion of stakes for season 3. No one important stays dead (Grimm is almost certainly going to get brought back, and Raven is set up to have a whole gang of identical clones to replace her), it didn't really matter how the tournament ended in the grand scheme of things, and every avenue of major conflict between main characters just kind of gets shrugged off (I love Sweet Tooth and Stu's dynamic overall, but I was getting annoyed at how much they tease Sweet Tooth turning on Stu and Stu getting in his way only to have him just back out at the last moment, or setting up Quiet and John going against each other only for it to go nowhere, ect.). Which is weird, because I feel like losing characters or relationships is the perfect set up for a tournament all about getting a wish to 'fix' your life.

Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
John is going bezerk because his sister died early in the tournament even though to win the tournament he'd probably have to kill her?
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They were under the assumption that they could just stack the roster in their favour and then just have the others forfeit and completely ruin Calypso's tournament. Which, considering Calypso just keeps giving John and Quiet all the unfair advantages they need, maybe they were right on the money.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head when they tried to shame Raven for almost killing Mayhem, someone who Quiet was literally about to try killing if Raven's attempt on John's life didn't interrupt her.

Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Calypso fucking up the Twisted Metal tournament has all the makings of this turning into an Us vs Them show so they can get away from the icky hard writing decisions of a deathmatch tournament. Considering how long it took them to actually get around to the actual tournament, they'd be very happy with a convenient excuse to do a season of world building and romantic tension and whatever. Who really watches a show about cars or deathmatches anyway?
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Yeah, I don't think we're getting the tournament again, especially since they state that the tournament only existed for this weird plan.* Feels like we're setting up just a straightforward fight with Calypso and whatever enforcers he has rather than any tournament shenanigans.

*Like I get that Calypso's powers are usually restrained specifically to the tournament and that's probably what they're going for here, but I feel like there were much easier ways to get the two factions who already hate and fear each other to go to war. Fuck, Krista was literally already planning to invade a walled city (I'm sure the small community of mid-tier lesbians and one soyboy with very limited weaponry were going to fare well against a trained and heavily armed army) anyway, and that would probably set off a war just fine.
 
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