Race Awhile...Race Forever!

Pssst! Hey, kid! Do you want to race forever? Trackmania United (PC)is the latest in a series of games specifically built to do just that. Despite the screenshots, the game is not a driving simulator like Gran Turismo or Forza. It is arcade racing at it's best. It has everything: flatout racing, beautiful environments, stunts, a playful physics engine, replays, and extensive online racing with tournament modes. Best of all is the track editor which is only limited by the memory model and your imagination.

The game, which can be downloaded from the link above, may seem expensive at $40 USD, but it comes packed to the hilt with features. There are many built-in levels to keep you racing for hours. There are three main modes in the Solo Career: Race, Puzzle, and Platform.

Race is what it sounds like. Get the best time on the track. You race against Nadeo (the publisher) ghost runs for the bronze, silver, and gold medals. Beat the ghost, win the medal. You unlock the harder races by placing at least at the bronze level in all races. The game requires you to finish the 5 practice (class A) races to play the easiest level, and completing the Easy mode unlocks the next set of tracks and more in a new environment. You can quickly unlock all environments this way.

Puzzle is unique to the driving genre. It takes the level editor and makes it into a game. Each puzzle is the same goal: go thru the checkpoints (if there are any) and reach the finish. The setup is pre-defined, so things like water, ditches, track sections, and obstacles are already in place and cannot be edited. Then, in the parts box, you are given a limited amount of building blocks from which you connect thru the checkpoints to the exit. That's it, but the solutions tend to be unconventional to reach the finish in a medal-earning time.

Platform is another race mode that I've only seen in the games Gripshift and Crazy Taxi Crazy Box. You race as normal, but the levels are setup such that several jumps must be navigated to reach the end. There is no time limit in platform mode, and when you play it you'll see why.

In addition to all of these, Trackmania United encourages and rewards online play and collaboration. You can race online, create your own team pages (there's an internal browser functions), share tracks, place in official events, and make official runs to put your best time on the leaderboards. The game even localizes your experience in your chosen country and state/province--complete with the correct flags. The French...they are thorough! Sharing and competing will earn you Coppers to share and compete online even more.

"Why have I never heard of this game?" You may ask. That would most likely be because you are a US citizen. For some reason, this game just rules all of Europe, but marketing in the USA was sparse. Let's face it, sales in the USA are just icing on the cake for Nadeo after they make all of their profits in Europe. Trackmania United is the most recent in the series, so it offers the most features and probably the least invasive DRM. So loop, jump, flip, compete, challenge, communicate, and even create machinima your way to race forever.