Trackmania II Canyon

[eunoia]

Bought this because I played way too many hours of the free TrackMania Forever. I was even playing TM Forever after getting Dirt 3, so little was my patience for all the non-racing waiting time in Dirt 3.

The TM2 car feels heavier, the drifting is much much better and it's gotten faster if you can believe it. Same setup as the original with 4 levels of medals/achievements for each track and rankings for local, national and world. Not sure how many solo tracks are included, I can currently see 65 and the 63rd is currently driving me nuts!

As it was in the original, the strength of the game isn't so much the included tracks as the online fanbase creating their own tracks and servers. Have seen some pretty wild ones already, but the word in the community is that changes to the track editor isn't to everyone's liking. The ranking ladder looks the same, but there are a bunch of things I haven't figured out because I can't seem to improve my ranking as quickly as TM1.

There also isn't as much server action yet, I don't know if that's because there aren't a lot of players, or there are servers I can't see. Quebec was a hotbed for TM1 players. Tough to play at 3 a.m. when everyone's asleep and non-local servers aren't visible, but for now my solo part isn't completed to my liking so I'll worry about that later.

I like racing games because of the adrenaline, this isn't meant to be a simulator-type of game, just fun. It delivers, and I have the shiny arrows keys to prove it. One down side, it seems the loops and ramps don't feel as fast as TM1, I hope it doesn't dissuade the community from making speed tracks and servers. Speed's the thing, oh yeah.

 

[eunoia]

Don't know much about the politics of gaming, but wanted to mention also that Ubisoft is distributing it, so no Steam, and it has that always-on internet thing.

I have my own grudge againt Ubisoft because of all their terrible games, but this doesn't feel like a Ubisoft game i.e. like some game designer really wants to be a Hollywood movie director. No eternal waits, no sappy stories, just open and race against the world.

 

[eunoia]

A good review covering most points:

http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/trackmania-2-canyon-review

Really stuck at solo race E03, when a track takes 10X longer to get a gold medal than the last one, and that medal is needed to open the next track, it's a major mistake. I'm starting to think this won't fly, seems purposely frustrating and confusing, mitigating all the fun of the original. Without the community content, it's an empty shell and people may be boycotting.

 

[eunoia]

Seems to be the consensus that this isn't a success. 60,000 buyers may seem O.K. but it's only 0.6% of those that tried the free TM1.

I think by trying to make it more "realistic" like other racing games, they moved away from cornering the market for arcade-style fun racer to something still far out of the top ten for serious racing. Complaints include:

1) an involuntary braking after crashes, which a useless additional penalty and kills the illusion of control on the vehicle
2) the damage which is cosmetic doesn't affect performance, but makes it more complicated (prevents?) making custom cars, thwarting user creativity, which is this franchise's strongest asset
3) the loops and wallrides are slippery and often counter-intuitive, making the game more articially difficult and shifting the focus from fun to frustrating micro-manoeuvres, and are another form of involuntary braking
4) optimal racing line and practice become the most important thing on the competitive side, and there aren't multiple solutions to "puzzles" or even creative shortcuts, so it ends up being another Ubisoft game that feels more like a chore