|
For every racing simulation, there’s an arcade parallel. Everytime Gran Turismo crops up; a new Burnout counters its rigorous driving experience. Even so, no current racing title, simulation or arcade comes close to TrackMania’s ludicrous pace and hilarity. TrackMania United Forever (TMUF) laughs in the face of race days and championships and instead gives the player control of a variety of vehicles to throw round outlandish tracks. ‘Forever’ is the latest edition of the long running series, tagged onto 2007’s United (the paid for, uber collection) or Nations, the E-Sports free game which only features the Formula 1-esque Stadium cars. If you already own United, then Forever is a free expansion, downloadable from NADEO’s official website. 900 megabytes later you’ll be ready for refreshed visuals and textures, an improved physics system and a variety of new tracks to plough through in the single player mode. Does the mania last forever or has it overstepped the line, an inch too far?
Anyone who hasn’t played a TrackMania title before will have trouble understanding why it is so popular. We’ve got Nations Forever hosted, so feel free to download it to see what all the fuss is about. In terms of scale, TMUF is akin to the Micro Machines days. You race around gigantic tracks in (miniature scaled) cars trying to beat your opponent. In offline TMUF, that’s trying to thrash a Bronze, Silver or Gold (and Author’s) medal in the form of a Ghost replay. Getting gold in an event will unlock the next one and you’ll progress through a linear tree for each car type until you’ve mastered the black section. To beat the gold you’ll need to put in a flawless lap. Hit a wall and it’s restart. Mistime a jump and it’s restart. Drive too slow and it’s restart. Luckily, TMUF maps restart onto the delete key and there’s no loading between hitting it and racing through the track again. Most of the time, you’ll be plagued with frustration, but still wish to try again. It’s unusually addictive, all the while causing you to curse and swing at empty targets. If you think you’ve cracked a track, you can enter official mode and wager coppers (the in-game currency) to set an official time. If you succeed then you’re ranked against your region (South-East England), your country (England), your State (United Kingdom) and finally the world. TMUF manages to merge the online and offline together, also allowing for downloadable ghosts (of the best times), tracks and challenges.  The game has you racing single or multi-lapped tracks, platform contests, and puzzle sections. There are seven car types on offer and each handles drastically differently. They each reflect the environment that you race them in so you won’t be racing a coastal car in an alpine forest. You can download skins and completely recreated 3D models to change the appearance of your cars from the TM-Mania Links / Zone (an online in-game web space), but officially the track-type and car-type are set in stone. There are grippy stadium F1, slippy rally, snow-ridden alpine, desert muscle cars, coastal ‘handling-centric’ vehicles, uber fast Island and 4x4 Bay. Each car type has its distinct personality and you’ll soon have favourites. When playing online, you’ll find a preference to certain types, but search long enough with the easy to use set-to-nationality server browser and you’ll find a server that’s set to your means. Online works the same way as Offline, but it replaces the set-tracks created by Nadeo with preposterously intricate user-created roadways. Gone are the ghost cars and in are human controlled opponents that have names and skill. Online TMUF is a completely different experience and blows away what the game has to offer off the internet. You’ll never play the same track twice (unless you wish to) and loading / downloading times are minimal. There’s no lag and it’s completely fluid. Most servers have records, copper lotteries and active communities that make racing a joy. After each race you’ll be given Skill Points that add to your SP pool, in turn moving you up the ladders you belong to. Graphically the game is on par with any existing title and is refreshingly colourful after the grey / brown colour pallets of the next-gen era. The game can run on pretty much any machine, but own a decent rig and you get motion blur, impressive shadows and detailed environments. Framerates are consistent and the game is as stable as they come. Sound is varied depending on the car type but surround sound is fully utilized with meaty bass and roaring engine sounds. The game is best suited to a control pad, but the arrow keys work just as well. There’s really not much you can fault with TMUF. Its online user base is in the millions, the interface rivals Microsoft’s Xbox Live, and it’s addictive as they come, but still has the pickup and play feel of a casual game. This is the best TrackMania yet and the future is bright. It’s a shining example of how games should be made and how developers should support their titles. Score: 9/10
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved |
