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Trackmania
2 : Canyon
By Tristan Tancredi
Trackmania has returned. The fast paced online car
racing simulation is back, taking online gaming to another level.
Buckle
in and test your skills against gamers from all around the world. Clock
a time and see where you stack up against the worlds best (That's the
basic premise of the game).
After choosing your difficulty
setting (White, Green, Blue, Red or Black), you hit the track for some
high intense time trial racing.
Solo racing enables gamers the
options to knock off best times whilst unlocking harder tracks
and
harder levels. Each time is recorded, with Personal Best, Local Records
and World Records tracked.
Ladder Points are displayed after races and Medal
Rankings are given after beating time trials.
Times
are posted online and compared to gamers from your town, country and
worldwide. World Records are ridiculously hard to crack (or
even
come close to), so alot of practice and Trackmania hours are needed to
reach that "Brock'esque" level of racing.
Advanced hosting and
customisation possibilities make Trackmania a pure online game.
Dedicated servers and regionalised leaderboards take the game to pure
'global' status. Everyone can host a game and everyone can be a
champion (to an extent).
Multiplayer mode allows racers to join
a game and race off against a number of other gamers from around the
world (Network capacity allows up to 200 players to race simaltaneously
on the one track).
200 Cars on the One Track??? How does that bloody work???
Good
thing you asked. Despite alot of other gamers vying for top time, you
are only ever racing against yourself. The other cars are visible, but
you can drive right through them and vice versa.
Now, onto the gameplay.
Car
handling is good and easy to master. Accelerate, Brake, Left and Right.
Once you have those 4 buttons sorted, you should be fine.
The
tracks are all well designed (albeit somewhat tricky). Whether it be
climbing walls, narrow tunnelling or falling off cliffs, the challenges
are plenty.
Map creation and Track Building is the second half to Trackmania 2:
Canyon.
A
robust map editor based on a bloc system allows every player the
capabilities to create and share their own original racetrack. The
created tracks are easily uploaded and accessible from the game browser.
The
Track Creation includes fun LOL Maps; short, humorous challenges and
Full Speed Maps, highly detailed and highly challenging (for the more
hardened racer).
Time and patience are required when creating
tracks. It's not too difficult, but it's not much fun either. It's much
more fun burning rubber around a racetrack attempting to beat the track
record held by a 12 year old kid from Texas.
Trackmania 2:
Canyon will appeal to the online gamer. If you come to this game
expecting a 'Need For Speed' or a 'Midnight Club', you will be
dissapointed, it's a different kettle of fish entirely and it's meant
to be.
Since the last Trackmania game, in 2008, the popularity
of the game has grown substantially and the excitement and anticipation
of Canyon was well worth it.
Trackmania 2: Canyon is fun and addictive, it will bring you back for
more and more.
Game: Trackmania 2: Canyon
System: Nadeo
Developer/Co-Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rating: 75%
(Ratings
Key/Explanation)
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