Twisted Metal delayed in Europe

The European release of forthcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive Twisted Metal has been delayed, according to co-creator David Jaffe.

The car combat revival had been due to launch on 14th February but it will now be out some time in March.

Posting on NeoGAF, Jaffe explained that the hold up is down to "localisation taking just a touch longer" than expected.

Sony hasn't confirmed a new date, but Jaffe noted that he'd "heard" it will now release on 1st March.

He also confirmed that a few cuts have been made to the European release, at the request of SCEE, mostly to the game's cut scenes.

"99 per cent of the cuts were in the movies and the movies are still intact and I sat with the editor - who was the same editor of the American movies - and we went thru and addressed the notes from Europe and made sure the stories still worked," he wrote.

"And to be fair, there have not been that many cuts. For example, in the scene we've released on the net from the intro - 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. The story itself tho totally works and - for some folks even who tend to think this kinda stuff plays better left to your imagination anyway - perhaps it even works better."

There are a few minor gameplay changes too.

"I think the guy on the gurney from Meat Wagon is dead so you are exploding a corpse covered with TNT vs. a screaming man trapped to the gurney," explained Jaffe.

He added that although he was reluctant to make changes, he can see the rationale behind SCEE's decision.

"You think I wanted to change content? F*** no - for a bunch of reasons 'f*** no'," he insisted.

"But it ain't my game (Sony owns the IP and funded it) and certain countries have - obviously - much stricter guidelines. AND since TM has never been a big seller outside of America, I guess it didn't make sense to have a whole bunch of different discs for each country (i.e. Germany gets disc ver. 3, UK gets disc ver 6, etc.)."

For more on Jaffe's latest opus, take a look at Eurogamer's Twisted Metal preview, or check out the demo which went live on PSN yesterday.