By Alec Meer on April 19th, 2011 at 5:22 pm.
Cars. Cars wot go fast. That’s what we need, in this week of shooting and portal-making and dragon-slaying. The Trackmania series remains glorious, giddy and essential, and the full-on sequel’s been far too long coming. The information’s being drip-fed out, annoyingly -so far only one screenshot, but now we get a little look-see at how this grand old racing fantasy looks in motion…
Driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiving!
That’s on the blurry side, so if you want a little more gloss watch the version on the Trackmania 2 teaser site.
19/04/2011 at 17:27 Surgeon says:
Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeow!
19/04/2011 at 17:27 Mashakosha says:
CARS
GOING FAST
This makes me seriously happy. Trackmania has always been one of my favourite racers for what I now call the “Super Meat Boy Aspect” which essentially means fairly short levels where you go through and correct the mistakes as you go, restarting every time you mess up.
This looks quite sexy. the original was no slouch when it comes to looking pretty and this looks even better. Double happy :D
19/04/2011 at 17:32 Bhazor says:
Trackmania… 2?
Trackmania 7 surely.
19/04/2011 at 17:57 Dhatz says:
its like the GTA, not NFS.
19/04/2011 at 18:08 westyfield says:
2rackmania.
19/04/2011 at 22:17 Bhazor says:
7rackmania you mean.
20/04/2011 at 08:18 JohnH says:
I need coffee NOW! I read 2rackmania as rackmania. And I’m pretty sure that’s not a driving game. o.O
19/04/2011 at 17:35 tomeoftom says:
YYYYYYES!
19/04/2011 at 17:38 Tizoc says:
I am excited.
20/04/2011 at 04:52 Killer6 says:
I second this excitement!
19/04/2011 at 17:40 GeorgeB says:
Sounds like Netsky on the backing track
19/04/2011 at 20:21 whizzkidd says:
The track is by Sub Focus
20/04/2011 at 22:28 Delusibeta says:
Absolutely no prizes for guessing the name of the track. For curious people, here’s a YouTube link of the full version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFwMUsd1hRU
The sample in question starts about 1:02 in.
19/04/2011 at 17:47 Dominic White says:
Trackmania United still looks fantastic, and you can pick it up for £5 or so in most places. There’s about eleventy billion tracks for it now.
19/04/2011 at 18:38 Bhazor says:
Wasn’t one of the games given away free? I tried to look for it on google but it just came up with the usual torrents and “Fill in this questionaire for free gamez” websites.
19/04/2011 at 18:45 Dominic White says:
Trackmania Nations – it’s basically a (very) extended demo for Trackmania United. Nations only has one environment/car type (F1 stadium) wheras United has 7. Still, there’s the most levels available for the Stadium environment, so it could stand easily by itself.
http://trackmania.com/
19/04/2011 at 18:50 PoLLeNSKi says:
Yeah – Nations is free on Steam – fully functional on and offline for the one racemode – which since there is a built-in very flexible editor, one race mode means you have access to billions of tracks – some fast races others completely bonkers trick runs.
Online I think you have to sit out 1 race out of every 6 on some servers (about 5mins per 30mins played) which works out perfectly for a cigarette break – bonus.
Definitely worth the download.
19/04/2011 at 18:54 Bhazor says:
Ahh yes here it is.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/11020/?snr=1_4_4__13
Thanks, I’ll be giving this another go tonight.
20/04/2011 at 09:05 Shadowcat says:
You don’t need to subject yourself to Steam to get TM Nations. Also be aware that TM United has about 50 times as much variety as Nations — each car type handles radically different to the others, and there are a heap of different modes besides the basic racing that Nations offers. Nations only offers the tiniest taste of what United has to offer.
19/04/2011 at 18:04 McDan says:
I think I remember playing one of these, maybe the first? Was alright, but then didn’t hear of it until now. Piqued my interest in it again. NEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOWM- That’s what a car wot goes fast sounds like.
19/04/2011 at 18:10 Azrael says:
MMORG !!!
Can’t wait to see how I compare to 256 other drivers simultaneously. Any hints as to what the player limit for this one will be?
19/04/2011 at 18:22 Dhatz says:
raiiight. TM is the right kind of retarded, not like Saint’s Row which is purely retarded.
19/04/2011 at 21:45 Tams80 says:
Obligatory:
http://www.clonnyserver.com/images/full_retard.jpg
That is all.
19/04/2011 at 18:27 Kismet says:
While it doesn’t make it much less annoying, there have been a couple more screenshots released in form of puzzles through Trackmania United:
http://files.trackmania.com/puzzle_b.png
http://files.trackmania.com/puzzle_c.png
19/04/2011 at 23:58 Urthman says:
I seriously don’t understand why they’re trying to sell Trackmania 2 by showing us how shiny the cars look in the new engine.
It’s like trying to hype Doom 4 with details about the conversation engine.
19/04/2011 at 18:28 JohnnyMaverik says:
Bah, that trailer was over before it started… I DEMAND MOAR TRAILER >.<
Still, at least you've confirmed it will indeed contain "cars wot go fast".
19/04/2011 at 18:58 Yosharian says:
Judging by this trailer it’s just a standard racer? Yawn
19/04/2011 at 19:04 Shark says:
Judging by your comment you’re a boring person? Yawn indeed
19/04/2011 at 20:33 Rii says:
Yeah, regardless of one one thinks of Trackmania … that was a pretty lame trailer.
19/04/2011 at 20:48 Italia says:
Definitely. That was basically just another racing game trailer showing you headlights in the many different camera views that you’ll never actually use.
19/04/2011 at 20:52 Al__S says:
Trackmania isn’t a “standard racer”- though I could see how the trailer could give you that impression. Apart from the track having a part barrel roll.
The original has levels that are more puzzle game than racer. The track editor has allowed enormous levels of creativity easily. It’s not a standard racer
19/04/2011 at 22:20 Yosharian says:
You think I don’t know how good the original Trackmania is? The trailer I just watched could have been any crappy console racer.
20/04/2011 at 13:00 Stephen Roberts says:
I think I’ll judge games from now on based on 30 second teaser trailers instead of the past history of the game developers. Instead of the hours and hours of fun I had playing the previous release, I’ll base my opinions on the tiny few seconds of edited footage. What I’m trying to say is that I will readily disregard what I know and have experienced because teaser trailers are clearly a better indication.
20/04/2011 at 20:23 Yosharian says:
For god’s sake, all I was saying is that it’s a crappy trailer…
Watch the TM2 trailer again, then watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdvUP8LxYA0
19/04/2011 at 19:01 Stardog says:
I hope they don’t balls up the name of it, and future games. There’s United, United Forever, Nations Forever, and probably another one… so I just stick to the free servers on Nations Forever.
They really pulled an AMD and probably cost themselves some sales.
19/04/2011 at 19:55 Veracity says:
United Forever Star is the one with everything already in it. I think. Can’t remember what the least recent thing you needed to have to get the free update to that was.
From what I’ve read, they’re talking in terms of 2 being kind of episodic, with frequent mid-price releases of environments that you can opt in or out of. The implications for third-party servers sound utterly horrifying, but they’ve presumably considered that, somehow. Can it be all that much worse than one environment overwhelmingly dwarfing all the others because it’s the free one?
The trailer should really show all the cars driving through one another. I can see why they don’t, but it’d be funny.
Premature to be nervous about the fact Nadeo’s owned by Ubisoft? Probably.
19/04/2011 at 21:11 Urthman says:
I’m hoping this is just a bad trailer. Because that gameplay doesn’t look remotely as crazy fun as this:
http://youtu.be/45FFadT80nE
http://youtu.be/lVWHrSCZkhE
http://youtu.be/5noN9vTsL8E
19/04/2011 at 21:19 rikdaly says:
VERY excited for this!! trackmania is one of the games me and the wife play together and have great fun
19/04/2011 at 22:01 groovymann says:
Where is the red and blue 3D vision that always graces my monitor when I play trackmania. i may not have the required glasses but I’ll be darned if I won’t try to picture the 3D image.
19/04/2011 at 22:06 Targaff says:
Whether or not I invest anything in this will be wholly dependent on DRM, which given it’s Ubi and Nadeo almost certainly means my wallet is safe.
19/04/2011 at 23:07 rocketman71 says:
Sadly true. Nadeo had some really bad years putting the StarForce malware on their games (and insulting customers who dared complain about it), and now that the Ubi idiots bought them, I’m afraid this will come with UbiShitDRM all over it :(
20/04/2011 at 07:37 rikdaly says:
constant internet required for an online game… that would be a strange requirement!
20/04/2011 at 09:11 Shadowcat says:
Trackmania isn’t “an online game”. Sure, its online facilities are extensive, but there are countless hours of fun to be had without ever letting it near a network.
20/04/2011 at 09:22 rikdaly says:
fair point shadowcat, I’ve still not finished the single player part!
20/04/2011 at 13:02 Stephen Roberts says:
Didn’t Ubisoft tone everything down for Ass Creed Bruvs? They actually listened to the unanimous furore. We can hope.
19/04/2011 at 22:21 PoulWrist says:
PC only, my god :O
19/04/2011 at 23:00 wazups2x says:
I really hope this is as crazy as the original.
19/04/2011 at 23:10 Chizu says:
Do want~
I wonder if all the existing environments return, and I hope there are some nice new ones.
Those Canyon cars look a little more sturdy than the ones in the old games, I wonder if they handle as insanely.
Constant 2-wheeled cornering~
20/04/2011 at 03:00 kitchendon says:
Never got on too well with TrackMania, but this thread reminded me of a nifty bit of machinima – The 1K Project. 1,000 race replays all merged into one well edited vid.
http://vimeo.com/775098
Lots of others on YouTube as well. Like the…3K project :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acwvh-9jzvk
20/04/2011 at 10:00 emotionengine says:
What a refreshing (and cute) change to see/hear an actual PEGI THREE announcement at the beginning of the trailer.
20/04/2011 at 10:50 Vexing Vision says:
Love editing Trackmania tracks! Can’t wait to do more crazy stuff!
Jumps! Hurdles! Loopings! Yes! Wrooooam!