TrackMania United Preview
Posted on January 19th, 2007 at 8:42pm by EripmaVI am speed! I am lightning...
...Sorry forgot where i was for a second.
If you are reading this then you want to know what all the fuss is about. Well TrackMania United is the latest release from the TrackMania stable. If like me you are a total nomad and have never heard of the series then let me tell you what to expect. Tracks! Race car tracks to be precise. lots and lots and lots of them. The reason their are so many tracks is simple. Trackmania has its own Editor, which is easy to use and fun to play with.
Even a complete novice can make a track that they will treasure and pet and call their own, even if it is rubbish compared to some of the tracks available. The Trackmania hardcore follower, and believe me their are a few, work relentlessly pumping out track after track
day in, day out. To be honest you will probably ever only play a very small percentage of them.
The game is in a nutshell, arcade racing at its most fast paced. When you choose a track to play on their are various types. Racing, where you can compete with others to the finish line. Stunt, where you have to get the highest score through a series of insane flips, rolls and loop the loops. Time challenges, complete a lap in the fastest time.
and finally their is puzzle, completly crazy tracks which are more like mazes and you are timed on how fast you can get round.
While playing you really do get a feeling of intense speed. You also get intensely cheesed off. rather than being totally linear, some of the tracks have various routes. various height levels, and various places to get totally stuck. This can be quickly fixed by pressing the enter button, the problem with this is being punted back to the last checkpoint you went through. So a nice lead, after one mistake, can mean returning to the back of the pack. Im sure if you stuck to a particular course and mastered it you could be top racer. Unfortunately most servers run a track for 5 minutes then change to another.
The graphics are bright and colourful, they remind me a bit of wipeout. Admitedly they are not the best graphics you might find on some of the latest titles like NFS:Carbon, but this allows for the editor to be user friendly, allowing people from around the globe to quickly download tracks from other users. When you download a track you have to pay for it with the inbuilt Trackmania currency. Coppers, as they are known, can be earnt by winning races, uploading tracks to other people, and the easiest way is just by logging in everyday.
Trackmania is a MMOG without a plot. But what it lacks in plot it makes up for in community. Their are track sites, mod sites, forums and servers all available from the inbuilt game browser. If you like racing games, if you like editing, if you like modding skins or designing cars then im sure you will find this entertaining. If you only play racing games occasionally this may not be your cup of tea. The price tag is 29.99, which if you are not going to get stuck in may seem a bit high. I myself on the other hand, have been hooked, even if I spend half my time shouting at the lunacy of some of the tracks.
Gentlemen, (and ladies) Start your Engines!
Previewer: Pocketminx
