ic-games Review - TrackMania - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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TrackMania

Information
Reviewer: Andrew St.Denis
Developer: Nadeo
Publisher: Digital Jesters
Reviewed: PC
Genre: Racing
UK Release: 28th Nov 2003
Article Date: 03rd Mar 2004
Difficulty: N/A
Retail Price:
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 88%

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Pros

Nice Graphics

Great Playability

Addictive.. Just one more go, honest

It's what time?

Cons

Menu sounds and Music

Screenshots

16 of 20

In another collaboration between developers Nadeo and publishers Digital Jesters, we move from the yacht racing (Virtual Skipper 3) to car racing with TrackMania. This however is motor racing with a twist; it’s more then time trials or racing against yourself and friends. For every win in the time trials of the single player game you gain ‘coppers’ (the number depending on how low you keep your time) these coppers can then be spent on pieces of track to build your very own course, the track can then be raced by yourself and friends on your PC or, taken online to be raced on by people from all over the world.

Now that is not the whole game, there are single player games to keep you occupied for hours, utilising one of the three vehicles available you move through each series of races, each one is not necessarily more difficult then the next, but there are some fiendishly difficult ones in there. The terrain and vehicles vary the Snow: environment is driven using a Pickup, and allows for very difficult courses where you move from wooden track onto snow or even ice, it also includes obstacles. Rally: is associated with the Turbo2 car and tends towards green countryside. The car has very fast acceleration, and with twisty courses on wet asphalt or dirt roads, the power slides and controlled skids really count. Finally there is Speed: this is driven with the American car, on desert terrain, the car has fast acceleration and good brakes.

The entire point of the single player mode though is to earn points (coppers) so you can build your own tracks, each piece costs you coppers to lay, and the further you get in the game, the more points and the better tiles you can choose. After all the building is done, you can then check out your course building prowess yourself, and your best time on that course becomes the Gold Medal time. So you better practice and make sure you are right on the edge, or people will soon be putting your abilities to shame. The finished project can then be put online to astound and infuriate the racers world-wide, if you’ve done a good enough job!

The courses are, at times exceptionally tricky, you start off with a map of the track, which allows you to look over everything, but, with the more detailed and layered courses since there is no way of removing the upper levels while you look underneath, it does mean that sometimes you really don’t know what’s around that bend. Luckily though there’s a simple reset button, and believe me, you will be using it.

Graphics are, well, nice… nothing particularly stunning or amazing, but then nothing bad either, well, all except the fact that when you drive through snow, there are no trails left, but hey, that’s about the only thing wrong. Backdrops to all the courses are actually very well done, and the detail to the car/truck you are driving is also nice. There isn’t much of a damage model for your vehicle, but you will find the door, boot (trunk to the Americans out there) or the bonnet (hood) comes loose.

Sounds, well, the sound effects are pretty good, the effect of driving through snow is especially impressive and the growl of the engines is music to the ears, which is just as well, because the music and the menu sounds do leave a lot to be desired. Believe me you will soon be restarting the game and resetting the sound levels for the music.

TrackMania is a cracking game for just one person or for hot seat multiplay or for online multiplayer gamering and even after the single player races and the puzzle section all completed with gold medals all around there will still be a worthwhile game there, and that folks isn’t all that common in this gaming world we live in. As for the age group TrackMania is best suited for? Well, anyone with the hand-eye co-ordination to steer the car around the course actually, and on top of all that there’s the one-up-man-ship ability to keep it close to the top of the pile, for quite a while to come. You will find TrackMania fiendishly addictive and it will keep you up glued to the chair for some time to come.

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