TrackMania2: Centralised News about the Game

[Ravious]

I find a lot of Americans (I am one), don't really understand TM either. They are so used to Burnout and NFS and GT series that something so profoundly different is hard to understand.

With Steam and GiantBomb's recent actual play it is slowly gaining more traction.

[Mac_Matrix]

I live in America and I can tell you that very few people here have even heard of Trackmania. I read about the Original online but couldn't find it in any stores. I finaly ordered a copy and had it shipped to me and have been hooked ever since. However I have still never seen any versions of Trackmania in any stores here. If it was stocked in more stores people would buy it here for sure. If they ran a trailer in a television ad here I'm sure they'd sell millions. I've bought every version that has come out so far and each time it gets harder to find.
In my opinion there is no better driving game with an in game track editor than Trackmania.

You're not alone, mate; I've only ever found one copy of a Trackmania game in boxed form and that was a copy of Trackmania United I deliberately pre-ordered to ensure I got one. There are apparently boxed copies of Trackmania Forever but I've failed to find any.

Funny though, since I only discovered Trackmania through chance whilst walking through the local market with a friend ... computer tech store there was demoing Trackmania Nations on several PCs. Heh.

[isamu]

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and can tell you that most Americans' tastes in games are very one dimensional. Most of us like either First Person Shooters, Third person action games or Sports games. Some of us who are more the otaku type, enjoy the occasional JRPG.

I enjoy pretty much everything but mostly racing games. Those of us in the US who enjoy racing games tend to like the more sim-ish titles like GT, Forza and iRacing. Hardly anyone I've spoken to have heard of Trackmania.

It's really a shame, because I consider TM one of the BEST arcade racing franchises ever made. But I think reason for its unpopularity is the fact that it's strictly on the PC, and most Americans who play on PC play FPS or WoW. Very few play arcade racing games, but I am hoping that will all change with the release of TM2. I personally am excited about TM2 more than ANY other videogame coming out this year!!! I love arcade racing games to DEATH and this one looks like it's gonna blow my mind! Can't wait!!!

[Insomnia]

Also, the way of consuming is different in the US, than in Europe. Just compare it to the way of how to buy a car:
Americans mostly go to their local car dealers, look at several models in the showroom and finally decide "this is what I want", pay it and take it with them. Europeans rather like to setup their car (or computer or whatever) on the internet or from a list of pieces, order it, and then even accept to wait a few weeks until their indiviual car has been built for them.
This is just a different mentality, and I guess it's the same with games. With download versions you win in Europe. But without boxes present in stores, you won't win in America.

[elitechris]

Reffering to what Insomnia said and in my own experience: Americans are just making their life more simple. Just.

[fng_thatoneguy]

I live in America and I can tell you that very few people here have even heard of Trackmania. I read about the Original online but couldn't find it in any stores. I finaly ordered a copy and had it shipped to me and have been hooked ever since. However I have still never seen any versions of Trackmania in any stores here. If it was stocked in more stores people would buy it here for sure. If they ran a trailer in a television ad here I'm sure they'd sell millions. I've bought every version that has come out so far and each time it gets harder to find.
In my opinion there is no better driving game with an in game track editor than Trackmania.

You're not alone, mate; I've only ever found one copy of a Trackmania game in boxed form and that was a copy of Trackmania United I deliberately pre-ordered to ensure I got one. There are apparently boxed copies of Trackmania Forever but I've failed to find any.

Funny though, since I only discovered Trackmania through chance whilst walking through the local market with a friend ... computer tech store there was demoing Trackmania Nations on several PCs. Heh.

I saw it TrackMania Sunrise in Software Etc. (before they merged with GameStop) a few times, but only after I'd discovered TrackMania Nations online through the MX vs ATV Unleashed forums and had fallen in love with the game. I sought out the other versions after that so I could buy those too.

I'm definitely excited to see how much TM picks up in the states after the conference in E3 today. I think the biggest help will be if the PC gaming media picks it up and runs with it in magazines like PC Gamer and what not.

A lot will have to get over the mindset of player collision, but all but 1-2 of the PC Gaming friends I've introduced the game to have liked it after getting past that (if they had to get past it... some of them liked it immediately as I did.)

How does one not enjoy driving a car on walls and through corkscrews/loops, etc?

[Trackmaniack]

I miss collisions, yet I don't miss them... I know I'm weird. TM is -so- awesome as it is, and I know that TM2's gonna be even better, and with all the tools available for user customization, there's gonna be insane stuff coming out of it--but then, conversely, -with- collisions, I think TM could blow every other racing game out of the water. But that's going to finally be up to Nadeo, not the fans, no matter how dedicated some of us might be.

Anyway, on the topic of the stories being presented now, as an American (Midwesterner) myself, the only time I've ever seen TM in a box was at a Scholastic Book Fair where they had TMS as a racing game in a jewel case for like 10 bucks. Saw it, was like "Okay, new racing game." And the rest is history. The only other time I've seen a box TM was when I ordered TMU when TMF came out off of eBay and it came boxed from the UK.

[Electron]

New infos (a description of ManiaPlanet) and 4 new screenshots are available in the E3 press assets:

http://pressextranet.ubisoft.com/EMEA/U ... spx?eid=11

[fastforza]

New infos (a description of ManiaPlanet) and 4 new screenshots are available in the E3 press assets:

http://pressextranet.ubisoft.com/EMEA/U ... spx?eid=11

Cheers Electron. Awesome quality.

[eyebo]

Here's a gallery of screenshots of the E3 trailer I took from the 1080p version downloaded from the E3 Assets page.

Every frame was saved out to png files and then I sorted through all 2000+ of them. I tried to get the sharpest image of every scene. Sometimes I opted for several of each scene so you could see the progression of blocks and get an idea what each block would be for that part of the track.