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Play both games at your leisure throughout the month. There aren't really spoilers in these types of games, other than specific character endings, so all talk is safe. However is a matter of organization, let's discuss Twisted Metal 2 for the first half of the month, and Twisted Metal Black during the latter half.

Good to see you're going to try:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Screamer_Coverart.png)

You may say I'm a Screamer. But I'm not the only one.

Really?  No more guesses?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61T3PRP64PL._SX342_.jpg)

Only thing I could think of with ice cream, screaming, and rockets.

You sir, have nailed it! Except we'll be playing two games from the series and this is not one of them....but very very close

2 games twice in a row. Interesting choice. If it's the two I think you may have picked it'll be neat to compare them.

Not twice in a row though because of Detroit, I think.

You're totally right. I haven't started yet so I'm still on Limbo/Inside mode I guess

I'm so ready for this one. The TM 2 took so much of my senior year.

I’m in for Twisted Metal Black since I can download it on the PSN. Not sure about TM2 though.

TM2 is also on psn.

Well, this seems to be the perfect pick for June. As you might have heard on the podcast, I will be traveling to Austin in about a week and will meet Shawn for the first time!  We are excited about recording the Detroit show in front of each other, and we plan to play some Twisted Metal against each other. Should be a fun time!

Can't remember about Black off the top of my head, but 2 definitely has co-op mode if you guys don't want to kill each other.

That awesome, for the end of the year, you both can come to Cincinnati and hang with me for the last podcast.

I know the dudes are busy living it up in Texas currently and haven't had a chance to get the checkpoints up yet so I wont jump too far ahead spoiler-wise, but I've already been playing the heck outta both of these. I got an early start on Twisted Metal 2 during the last week of May and have already beat it with 5 different characters. I don't plan to beat it with everyone, but I played a lot of this game back in the day and remember several characters endings so I'm just trying to beat it with the vehicles that I don't remember how they end up. So far I've done it with Thumper (my favorite vehicle and one I did remember, but he's my fav so I had to start off with him), Mr. Slam, Outlaw 2, Sweet Tooth and Minion. With Sweet Tooth I had to use God Mode (a code which I actually remembered from childhood!) because beating that game in 2 lives with no passwords is insane. Everyone else was legit wins as you can just input the level code and try again with 2 lives. The exception to that is Minion who also doesn't  give level codes, but he's so overpowered it wasn't a problem to finish it on my first attempt with him. His special and armor are both insane. I love so much about this game I can't wait to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Also started playing Twisted Metal Black more recently and I don't have nearly the same attachment to it as I do with 2. First of all it's so much harder in comparison. A lot easier to die and harder to take down heavily armored vehicles. The freeze which is incredibly handy in 2 is unusable in Black so I favored the shield over it for this game. I've beaten it with Brimstone. Mr. Grimm and Darkside so far. Story wise it seems like a total reboot of the series and they went for a dark gritty realism as opposed to the goofy campy B-movie style from the previous games in the series. It's a tone that I don't like nearly as much. Calypso isn't some sort of magical genie that grants twisted wishes, but just a man who has something that each of the contestants wants such as information or an object. It sounds good in theory, but the story stuff is just really bad for the most part and while 2 is no Shakespeare it's got a lot of charm to it that I find missing in Black.

Another thing that sticks out to me is how much I like the music in 2 and how much I dislike it in Black. It's so generic and forgettable in Black in every level. I don't think there is one stand out track. It was nice to hear Paint it Black during the credits just to not hear the rest of the ost anymore. I think every level in 2 except for maybe the first 2 are pretty fun and interesting, but it's the reverse for Black. There are only a couple levels I like as much as I do in 2.

I do like that they kept the "secrets" in Black that 2 had, but made them quite a bit more interesting. In 2 there are a lot of levels that have secret areas with powerups or environments you can destroy to find in game codes. Black has these black cubes you can find to unlock the levels in other modes and also the hidden racers are in secret levels in certain areas. I was able to find 2 racers and 1 black cube on my own and then on my third play I looked up the rest and am close to having everything unlocked. Most of the cube locations are interesting, but 2 of the late game ones are super dumb and force you to kill yourself to even get them.  After I've got about 5 players done legitimately I may just look up the God Mode and get a feel for the rest of the cast. I gotta say that the Minion boss in Black is terribly challenging. The idea to give the bosses shields you have to take down before you can fight them is not a lot of fun.

Are we starting with 2?

It’s probably safe to assume you could start with either since there isn’t any check points set up.

Yes, let's start with TM2, but please feel free to play Black at any time. Since there are really no spoilers for these types of games, discussion can be open.

Let's discuss TM2 for the first half of the month (through the 15th) and Black for the remainder.

Anyone else started either game up yet? I've finished TM2 with everyone now and have everything unlocked in Black, but still about half the characters to beat it with. Black is SO much harder so progress is slow with some of the less armored characters. The game really seems to lean super hard into the heavy characters being the "best" characters, because I'm not sure how you are supposed to survive any encounter for more than 3 seconds with someone like Mr. Grimm. In Twisted Metal 2 it's also pretty hard to play with some of the characters with weaker armor like Grimm, Grasshopper or Twister (doesn't help with Grasshopper or Twister that their specials force you to get point blank with your target either), but all the mid tier characters seem viable and because of some of the characters specials like Shadow, Thumper or Specter they are downright power houses if used strategically. I don't feel like Black is nearly as balanced in that regard.

I have played them both.  I did tm2 with minoin, just because he's got my favorite ending.  And played Tmb as darkside and shadow.  Not a fan of how they made the stories in black, and the game is too dark. 

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I've been banging my head against Black for the past few days. I've been trying to see how I can do before resorting to cheats, and all I can do is knock out one or two enemies before getting a game over, and the process of chasing down an enemy that you've damaged as they run around like a headless roadrunner is really not fun. I'm having better luck with the slower vehicles, because the faster ones are really unwieldy and I just find myself spamming back and forth between gas/brake/gas/brake/gas/brake just to line myself up for a shot. Then launch off some missiles, pray they hit the mark, then go chase them down again. The game is just way too chaotic for me to enjoy it so far. It reminds me of Unreal Tournament, but in a bad way.

I'm gonna dive back in with cheats on so I can least see a few of the characters' stories, but this game is really dead on arrival for me. And to be clear, because I tend to run to the thread and shitpost immediately when I don't like a game, I've made sure to sleep on it and play the game for a few days before posting. Having said that, this game was released in 2001 and it's safe to say it's the worst thing that happened that year. 

Yeah, I played black a bit without cheats, and decided it was wasting my time and used the cheats.

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I honestly am feeling the same way about the faster vehicle characters, I for real feel like I spend most of my time in a level correcting myself than actually attacking the other driver's. I haven't used any cheats yet, but I'm going to put them on just so I can go through all of the character stories.

I totally agree with you guys regarding Black. To playthrough it without the cheats I have to cheese the AI a bit and play it incredibly safe. I usually find a spot that had me covered from 2-3 sides and has a weapon that will replenish and is ideally a short drive from a health pick up. I just wait patiently keeping an eye on the radar until an enemy drives in front of me and I put up my shields and fire 2 shots on them and then they typically retreat. Rinse and repeat until the level is cleared. When I'd be down to one guy is when I'd take the chance to explore the stages a bit as they are actually pretty cool stages. I had a hell of a time beating the Drive-In Theater stage because there is no where safe to stay put. That one I just had to keep retrying until I got a lucky run.

I also prefer the bosses in 2 to the ones in Black. I really hate having to disable the shield on Minion (always have trouble getting that rear shield down) and the tanker trucks to disable the Warhawk shields is not great either. The Warhawk fight seems really hard or really easy depending on your character. Some characters specials can just decimate him, but several of them can't even connect with a flying enemy.

I'm not usually one to advocate for using cheats over learning the game, but for Twisted Metal Black there is definitely a lot more joy to be had playing with God Mode on than beating the levels legit.

What do you guys think of the endings for Black compared to 2? I really like the campy silliness and supernatural stuff in 2. You know that everyone's wish is going to be "twisted" in some way that they didn't intend to and a lot of them were just fun to see.

Black is so super serious and even though you have Sweet Tooth and Minion in this game they try to ground the rest in something close to reality. Instead of granting wishes Calpyso granting a truth to the winner is pretty lame by comparison. Really don't find these character stories very interesting like I did in 2

With Black a lot of the “story” endings were just too hokey and ridiculous while trying to be serious. With the two (Dollface and Bloody Mary) I was able to force myself to play through, the conflict that led them to the asylum in the first place were just dumb. I wish I was able to play 2 but the copy I picked up was too scratched up (I’ll have to see about getting it buffed), I remember the storyline’s being so much better....

Late to the game, literally this month, but for the last few days, I have been putting some quality time into TM2.  As far as the series goes, I really only had experience with the first game when growing up. Boy did I miss out!  I'm really enjoying the combat in this game, the various characters, the music, and even the graphical presentation isn't bad for an older game. I guess my only critique is that sometimes it's hard to distinguish between an enemy and an obstacle in the distance. For this reason, I'm a big fan of the map. :)

So of course, I started the game on easy to get a feel for it and managed to defeat Minion with Spectre. To my surprise (sarcasm here of course), there was one of those gatekeeping roadblocks I was so all familiar with growing up: must play on medium or hard difficulty to advance further... In my defense, easy wasn't a cakewalk and I'm not looking forward to trying to eek out a finish this month. Anyway, it seems that more modern games have basically eliminated this type of gatekeeping, which as many problems I have with modern gaming, I feel that this change is a good one. I'm curious to hear from you guys as to who the best option might be to finish the game with.  I've always been a fan of Mr. Grimm, but his lack of armor would make completing really tedious and IMO Spectre doesn't do enough damage. I really do not want to resort to cheats here.....though I probably will in Black.

I think Warthog is probably your best bet for 2. He's heavy armored and his special is very damaging and long distance. He's also got a great ending twist.