Twisted Metal delayed, edited for Europe - Jaffe

While Twisted Metal is on the home stretch of its development cycle, the game has suffered a last-minute delay in European territories due to localization issues.

According to a post made by the game's director David Jaffe on the gaming board NeoGaf, Twisted Metal has been delayed in European territories due to publisher Sony insisting on cuts being made to the game.

In the post, Jaffe assures readers the cuts are only minor, revealing the tiny edits were made to both the gameplay and cutscenes. While he didn't detail the exact changes, he did provide an example of the edited gameplay, saying that instead of shooting a live man strapped to a gurney full of TNT, the game will now feature a dead man strapped to the explosives.

As for cutscenes, the Twisted Metal director assured fans that the cuts are nowhere near as drastic as those made to Twisted Metal: Black, where, according to Jaffe, all the character videos were removed from the game ahead of its European release.

"I sat with the editor--who was the same editor of the American movies--and we went through and addressed the notes from Europe and made sure the stories still worked," Jaffe said in the post. "And to be fair, there have not been that many cuts. For example, in the scene we've released on the Internet from the introduction where the girl stabs Tooth in the eye, the SCEE version has this, but we cut away right before the scissors make contact with Tooth's face. It's clear what she's doing, and I think we even keep the sound effects in and such, but the last few frames are gone."

Jaffe went to say that like every other PlayStation 3 game, Twisted Metal would not be region locked. In regards to how long this would delay the game's release in Europe, Jaffe speculated that the game would arrive in Europe in March.

These changes put Australian gamers in a precarious position as Sony Computer Entertainment Australia usually sources the same code as its European counterparts.

GameSpot AU contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Australia to find out whether or not Australia would be getting the edited version but was told:

"SCE Australia have yet to confirm the exact street date for Twisted Metal. [We] look forward to sharing more detail with you shortly."

GameSpot AU will continue to chase this story and will update it as information develops.