Twisted Metal was originally scheduled to debut in October but was delayed until this February where it sits oddly perfectly with a Valentine’s Day release. As the weeks count down, Eat Sleep Play game director David Jaffe wants to make sure your expectations aren’t too high for the game’s campaign.

Jaffe’s tweets over the last week haven’t been the most positive. He talked about sales numbers needed to turn a profit (1-2 million units sold at full price), his mixed feelings on the cover art being just “good enough” and potentially the most alarming, trying to set (read: lower) expectations for what players will get with Twisted Metal. Read for yourself:

So, if you don’t like multiplayer, Twisted Metal isn’t worth the asking price. Again, at least he’s honest. There are quite a few other games over the last few years that have strong multiplayer component but short or weak campaigns (looking at you, Homefront). To his credit, Jaffe’s very active in responding to community and fan questions and being honest, and he does make a valid point about it being very difficult to compete with the likes of last year’s best titles in terms of campaigns or stories.

None of the Twisted Metal games have been sold on their stories, so perhaps this isn’t alarming at all. They’ve always been about the car combat and this game we can say from first-hand experiences, delivers that in spades. If you dig Twisted Metal, you’re really going to dig the new Twisted Metal.

Despite having dated graphics and as we know now, perhaps not a worthwhile campaign, Twisted Metal easily made our list of top 25 most anticipated games of 2012 for exactly the reason Jaffe explains, the multiplayer. We played it at a Sony holiday event and that was the game that we spent the most time on. Let’s just hope the multiplayer is comprehensive in offering varied modes and replayability.

We can appreciate the old school style of the game - no 3D or motion control gimmicks - and we can most certainly appreciate Jaffe’s desire to not have the game force Online Passes on users. And of course, we here at Game Rant always love local co-op which this game supports with 4-player splitscreen.

If the game is a hit, expect more characters through DLC and perhaps a PS Vita version down the road. If you do purchase Twisted Metal, it comes with a voucher for Twisted Metal: Black although it’s not in HD and does not include multiplayer.

Twisted Metal is scheduled to speed onto the PS3 on February 14th.

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Source: David Jaffe