Well, every once in a while I go hunting to see if there's more info out there. To a Twisted Metal: Black fan like me, any new tidbit of TMB2 is like a holy grail of "what ifs." The game was pretty much done, and then it was buried. How can that not put a stake through your heart? Today's info was awesome to run into.
I did learn one other thing. This is probably small potatoes from a sane perspective, but I hadn't noticed something on this page before:
http://kevinpulleyart.blogspot.com/2008/10/sony-computer-entertainment-of-americ...One thing that always pissed me off about TMHO, and the TM that followed, is how many of Black's critically acclaimed ideas were buried and forgotten as if they were embarrassed about them or something. Particularly one of Black’s most awesome ideas, skill weapons was forgotten.
I’ve never been able to figure out if Harbor City would have kept the skill weapons, which would indicate it was closer in spirit to Black, or ditched them like TMHO did, and among other things, embrace a more “good luck dodging this sucker” idea that TMHO ushered in.
However, in some of the above pics, you clearly see the “zoomy” weapon listed. That could be a sign it really was true to form with Black.
Well, one final link for now. These have probably been seen before too but it is worth repeating:
http://mileswoodsart.blogspot.com/2008/09/twisted-metal-black-2.htmlI’m always struck by how proud of the game the team was. At least in regards to those who worked on it for eighteen months, they felt it was a special game that should have been completed. I 100% think that when they, at the eleventh hour, stuck in grand theft auto elements they fracked it all to hell, but I can’t help but feel the game was probably awesome before that happened.
Admit it, doesn’t it bug some of you to know sitting in a vault or on a shelf somewhere is a playable build of TMB2? That will always drive me nuts. I often wish when ESP did their $20 port of TMHO (which I loved) they had also just decided to pull TMB2 out of mothballs and slap it on there, unfinished or not. Maybe they could have pasted the seams together and made it semi-workable. I mean, it was clearly a fan effort anyway, why not? Not like it would have hurt sales . . . money and time maybe . . . what if it’d helped sales though?
Oh well. That’s the neat part about being a fan. You stay alive on “what ifs” and forever un-baked dreams.