TrackMania PC Review Dallas TX

provided by: 

TrackMania was released late last year and has since developed quite a following. Incase you aren't already one of the fans, TrackMania is a unique concept which combines the elements of tracking design, construction and racing, or as the officialslogan goes, "Design it. Build it. Race it". Recently, Nadeo released an addon pack to include even more gameplay elements to the original, dubbed "Power Up! Expansion Pack", and we check out the new standalone retail version available which includes the Power Up! pack inbuilt.

Included in the Power Up! Pack is the ability to construct underground passages, a new solo mode called "survival" and 40 new blocks to be unlocked. In all, you have over 300 different blocks on hand, with the possibility to use up to 2000 on your designed tracks. However, gamers aren't given unlimited access straight off the bat, first they must complete the ingame tasks and earn new blocks as well as "coppers", the in-game currency. Eventually, after playing a significant part of the offline modes, which include "Racing", "Puzzle" and "Survival", gamers will have unlimited access to track design.

Racing mode is self explanatory, you must simply race the computer around inbuilt tracks trying to score the best times. Puzzle mode involves a little more skill however, as not only do you have to race the clock from start the finish, you also have to design the track itself. Basically, you are given a certain amount of blocks to play with for each level, and you must thenuse these given blocks to design the best possible track that allows you to go from the set start and finish point in the least amount of time. This mode gets tough quickly, so it will require a fair amount of design and driving skill. Finally, you have Survival, which is sort of like the classic Survival mode seen in fighting games. You are given 18 unique tracks, and you must survive by beating the clock on as many tracks in a row as you can. Finish poorly once, and the game is over.All in all, the amount of variation in TrackMania's game modes is quite impressive, and should offer as a reasonably good challenge for almost any gamer.

Probably the best characteristic of TrackMania is its ability to go into Multiplayer mode, online or over a LAN. If you think you have the skill to outwit other gamers online with your designing and building techniques then you're half way there, but of course, you also have to race them. One thing we noticed is most servers tend to be European based, which is no surprise coming from a European developer, however we found that lag was not a huge factor in the gameplay anyway, so most people world wide should be able to enjoy this online. If that doesn't work out though, you also have LAN, making for a very fun party game at home or the next public LAN party.