Trackmania 2

[HHC]

I haven't played Trackmania in a while, but the other day I felt like checking out whether there was any progress in the development of Trackmania 2. Apparently the new game is set to be released for september 2011 (although with Nadeo you need to be careful).

It will cost a mere 20 euro and feature just 1 environment: Canyon. Apparently the plan is to release the other environments as seperate games. That may sound like a rip-off, but when you look at Canyon itself you'll understand you really don't need much more to keep you occupied for a long while.



For newbies: trackmania is a racing game where you try to set the fastest time on a track that is compiled of a number of building blocks. In the track editor users can make their own tracks within minutes and share them with other people through the internet. Trackmania is very popular online and is actively engaged in the most popular European based gaming leagues.

An excellent preview to the Canyon title can be found here:
http://www.gameon.co.uk/game/preview/trackmania-2-canyon-in-depth-hands-on-preview
(you may want to skip the intro-part).

The game trailers look awesome, that I do know!

(I hope the cars do indeed sound like that haha, VROOOAAAMMM)

The landscape looks really sweet. I like the look of the cars, the fact you can damage the skin (without losing out on performance) and the smooth way in which the building blocks are integrated into eachother and into the terrain.

Nadeo certainly is no Team17. They know what makes a game great and they are not shy to finetune it even further after release (by adding new building blocks and the like). Should become a new classic PC-title.  



Can't wait till september arrives  


p.s. Trackmania Nations is still downloadable for free (just look it up on google). Had a great time with that game (and so did a lot of other wormers). This is a video of one of my old clan mates (clan GameSNirvana.. it's our official team car haha):

I'm still a honorary member of the clan, but no longer active  
They were in the second division of the major clan league (that means, something like 12th or 13th best clan on the servers), but yeah, I never attained that level. During my peak we were in division 7 out of 9 or something and afterwards I played for the second team. Good days  

[TheKomodo]

Is this PC only or something or is it PS3  etc too?

I want it, but not for PC, i'd buy it for console...

Great review mate xD I haven't had time to play my PS3 for a while, too busy getting things ready here, but after August i'll get an updated review on Duke Nukem, and i'm definately getting Toy Story 3, it's minigames are just so epic xDxD

[CJ]

had fun with trackmania nations back in the day, and this looks like a totally improved version. think i may have to purchase, what are the minimum specs etc??? and will it be available to buy in shops or do u have to purchase online ?

edit: komo: i think its only pc only, although im sure they released a trackmania game on the wii and ds, cant see it being remotely the same though. would be sick on a ps3/360 though.

anyway, 5.08am. GOOD night :p

[HHC]

PC only Komo. And I agree, would be nicer on PS3. 

had fun with trackmania nations back in the day, and this looks like a totally improved version. think i may have to purchase, what are the minimum specs etc??? and will it be available to buy in shops or do u have to purchase online ?

I've read the quality of the graphics can be adjusted so that it suits most people's PC. But indeed, it still looks like it demands a lot.
Purchase online I think.


And good night 

[Ryan]

Agreed, Trackmania 2 will be a big success.

The first one (United Nations Forever?) is so active.
Shame I can't play due to my onboard laptop graphics!

Racing based on physics/momentum, only arrows needed.
Timetrial at it's best!

[DumbBongChow]

Cool looking game. Ubisoft develope and publish a great games in general; I wonder if this will be an another one of those.

[HHC]

Just a few more days till release.. the 14th, that's when it kicks off.

You can preorder the game on the official site and gain instant access to the multiplayer beta:
http://www.trackmania.com


I haven't played it yet... need to wait for my bank to transfer money to my paypal account 
I should be good to go on the 12th or 13th. I'll try to post a preview/review before the official release 

[HHC]

The car looks to be driving fine, kinda like the Stadium-car from TMN/TMU.. but it's even more VROAOOAOAMMMMM 

I'm not sure how well this one is suited for technical tracks though. The first part of the track has a lot of corners, but the car fires through it like there's no tomorrow. Even without the acceleration-tiles the speed is abnormal. This is a shame, cause I always liked the technical maps with slow speed best. This one is more suited for speed-junks who like mad loops and whacky jumps.

[Impossible]

sounds cool, played trackmania such a 5 years ago or smth..
btw there also demo of fifa12 in next will be released  

[HHC]

First impression: Nice.

It's basically a graphical overhaul of TM Nations (that is of the Stadium environment). The speed of the car is good (not too fast, not too slow), and it slides just like the F1-car from TMN. Good thing though is that it doesn't take as much trouble to slide. Slide-maps still hurt the shoulders a bit, but it's by far not as demanding as in TMN. It also makes it much more easy for noobs to learn how to slide.

You don't have to use the brakes to often. One tap at the start of the corner to get it into a slide will get you through most corners.

The visuals are excellent, at least on my comp. There's also no lag at all. When the cpu gets into trouble the other cars start lagging/disappearing but your own car stays on track and doesn't lag at all. Thus, it doesn't affect your time.

The community is fairly smaller than TMN. I started the game ranked 25.000th.

People with Stadium-experience will get into this quickly. I won my first game (with 23 other drivers) within 2 hours. It's easy to learn.

I'm also satisfied with the diversity of the levels. Sure it's all canyon, but there's a lot you can do with it. There's F1-type asphalt/building blocks, there's roads through the desert (like the Coast-environment on TMU), there's offroad parts, tunnels, huge concrete blocks to race on, etc. Plenty to make a unique track envi.
I've played on karting circuits, indy-stadiums and cosy dark F1 tracks carved out into the rocks. I also played on something that looked like Hitler's bunker.. huge concrete walls and pitchdark! Scary shit.

The community is nice like in WA. Much better than it was in the free TMN (naturally). Half the players are old-school TM players, the other half are noobish or intermediate. Something for all 

Menu interface is identical to TMU.

[HHC]

Not that enthusiastic about it anymore. It's still a fun game, but it's pretty much the same as TM United. The Solo campaign was released on wednesday, but it only contained a whole bunch of time attacks  Combined with multiplayer, which is also mostly time attack, there's not much variance. At least TMU featured special races like platform and puzzles. Maybe they will come later, but I dunno. TMU also has 7 different landscape themes & cars. The Canyon theme is bigger, but it's still one car with one driving style. 


The price was just 20 euro, so that's a real bargain, but otherwise, it's much the same as TMU.. looks better, but less options 

[Anubis]

So practically TMU has more and TM2 has less for more money?
Why change to TM2 if TMU is better would be my logical question to the TM Community. ^^

[NAiL]

TM always looked fun to me, do you know any videos of a big race with many players on a good map I can watch?

[HHC]

Hmm, not really.

This is a decent impression:

I tend to put the riders tags on, then you can see the name of who's in front of you.
Most races are timetrial, you all start at different times then, only in rounds everybody starts at the same time and the first to the line gets the points. This is my favourite game mode in principle, but online it's often not so good because someone who knows the map has a much bigger advantage than in regular time trial mode.


Trackmania nations is still free if you're really not sure whether to give it a try:
http://trackmaniaforever.com/nations/
It features the stadium environment and car from TM United.