Sweet Tooth is back!

Sony ended its E3 2010 press conference by unveiling Twisted Metal for PlayStation 3. The long-standing car combat series makes its return to consoles. Famed series director David Jaffe took the stage to show off the game, detailing numerous multiplayer features.

The standard multiplayer deathmatch mode includes up to 16 players online, as well as 4-player local split-screen. For the first time, flight is added to the series. In the demonstration, a helicopter is shown flying high above the action destroying players below. Each vehicle also has two special attacks.

Another mode called Twisted Metal Nuke was shown. The mode pits two teams in a race against each other as they try and destroy the other team's giant metallic statue.

No specific release date was provided, but the game will ship in 2011.

Helicopters and transformers: hands-on with revamped PS3 Twisted Metal

By Andrew Webster | Published <abbr class="timeago datetime">about 3 hours ago</abbr>

I didn't realize how much I'd missed vehicular combat games until I sat down and played a bit of the revamped Twisted Metal on PlayStation 3. The game is quite simply ridiculous. On the surface it looks somewhat tame, with what looks to be a fairly safe line-up of vehicles and its off-putting, Juggalo-inspired characters, but when it comes to action, the game offers just what you'd want. Plus, it has giant robots.
The game felt a lot like previous entries in the long-running series—sort of like a shooter on wheels—but the most significant difference, at least initially, is just how vertical the world has become. Because helicopters have joined the assortment of ground vehicles, the levels have been designed accordingly. If you're in a helicopter, there are plenty of little places to discover higher up, and if you're in a car or truck, you'll need to keep an eye not only on the road, but on the skies. It adds an interesting new dynamic to the game and helps make the world feel larger and more substantial than in past games.
Actually controlling the helicopters feels surprisingly natural, and they're quite nimble, though necessarily much more susceptible to damage. The cars, meanwhile, are fast and loose. There's no semblance of realism in Twisted Metal and the way the driving feels is evidence of this. It's very arcadey. The series has always been about chaos on the streets and the controls fit into this well. You'll smash into other cars and trucks, but it still feels like you're in control. Organized chaos is probably the best way to describe it.


While the combat-oriented gameplay feels suitably over-the-top, the actual selection of cars feels much more tame by comparison. There are Mad Max-style sedans with guns strapped to them, a carbon copy of Ecto-1, the improbable guy-in-between-two-giant-wheels from past games, and of course the ice cream truck. While the different vehicles types all seem to have a unique feel, the crazy, sometimes goofy, characters from previous installments appear to be gone. In spite of its ridiculous premise, the world of Twisted Metal is quite dark.
Well, except for the part where the ice cream truck can turn into a robot. This, again, adds a new style of movement and control to the game, and feels a lot like more recent Transformers games, as you stampede around an urban environment stamping on cars and firing weapons. It's a welcome breath of crazy.
Only the multiplayer section was available to play at the demo, and a combination of connection issues and an overly loud location made it difficult for anyone to really get organized and use any sort of co-operative tactics. Everyone was pretty much just blowing everyone else up. And it was a lot of fun. Though it has a number of new elements, Twisted Metal still has that same feel that made the original PlayStation games such memorable split-screen experiences. Only this time there's no Rob Zombie.
Twisted Metal is coming to the PS3 in early 2012.