If you like racing, speed, stunts, fun, multiplayer, editors, variability and replay value, you'll like Trackmania.
Trackmania United Forever is the 7th installment in Nadeo's should-be-award-winning series. Moving away from the tiny free stadium into snowy mountains or European vistas, the game suddenly becomes the place you will spend most of your spare time.
If you are offline or maybe just boring, there are 4 major solo modes in United: Race, Platform, Stunts, and Puzzle. Race is pretty straightforward, but there are five more divisions here, ranging from the easiest White to a Black league that puts everything you've learned to the test. There are usually 3 medals to collect on each track, and the gold medal could have you needing to run around the block a few times before you smash the computer in, as the slightest mistake could put you into 2nd. The tracks aren't a rage, though; very few of them go for longer than a minute or two, and some of them are fun fests that you could be repeating for an age without ever getting bored. And if you think race is too easy, when you've got all the golds you can try to beat Nadeo themselves and claim the author medal for each track. You can even check the tables to see how many medals your buddies have got and where you are paced in your state, country, and the world.
After race comes platform, where you'll be challenged to get from point A to point B in as little restarts as possible, and it isn't always straightforward when you have tracks that take you from the startline, across a jump, avoiding the pole and making it through the tiny hole in the wall, before landing on the edge of a floating platform and trying not to fall in the drink.
Stunts is all about getting as many points as possible before the time limit runs out and you lose them all again, and you even get some faint trails, just to look good, while Puzzle challenges you to use a limited amount of pieces to make a path from the start to the finish, and then beating Nadeo along it. And if you manage to finish all of that, then the 256 Nations league tracks are here too.
Case in point: It takes longer than a week.
And if your not happy with just that, the game comes with a track editor. Want to string together a boost, a wallride and an upside-down corner? Do it. All of the tracks were created with it, and it even has a mediatracker that lets you add awesome camera and colour effects to your track.
United's Forever version has given it revamped physics and a new set of graphics, which look absolutely phenomenal on a high-end system. And if your computer doesn't have neons, don't fret. United can set itself to your graphics card to run to its best ability, or you can take over an set it to look awesome. Its also treating Nations players to 6 more environments: Snow, Rally, Desert, Island, Bay, and Coast. Each has a different car and each handles differently. The snow car grips like you wouldn't believe; The desert's American goes to wheels at any corner. The Rally car turns on a dime; The island car is a monster speed machine. The bay's Grand Class lets you do astonishing jumps from rooftop to rooftop, and the coast car slides everywhere. Whatever race you fancy, you can find it.
One of the best features of the Trackmania series is the online play, and in TMUF it is at the top of its capabilities. Winning races against other players around the world earns you Ladder Points, which you can use to show off to your friends. The game has a very neat set of tables that show you just how much you are flogging Eymi82, and just how much your being flogged by the rest of your buddies.
The peer 2 peer system lets anyone around the world see your customizations, be it A new avatar or your own paint job. Players can even make mini-websites, called Manialinks, to trade cars, tracks, avatars, music, and anything else the wish. You don't even need to leave the game; it all appears at the touch of a button. And the game has an enormous fan base; when you start playing you'll very quickly become acquainted with the Track exchange websites, the Carpark, and TMC, which offers tutorials on just about everything. And the best part about the game is that you can change -anything-. Menu music, track music, car models, car skins, enviroMods, Billboards and binks of all sizes, sounds and pictures for the Mediatracker, and even your own cars shadow.
If you like real racing, arcade racing, creating, editors, Nadeo, craziness, multiplayer and just about anything else, you'll like TMUF. Its only $40 off of Nadeo's website, and you can download it straight to your computer. TMUF will most likely keep you going for years.