I’m not one to involve price much in a review, but I feel I have to for Valley, because of the situation the franchise finds itself in with these single-environment releases. There are some problems I have with this release that makes me wonder what’s happening for the future of the franchise. The life of a TrackMania game is always extended tenfold thanks to the wonders of the community, and Valley seems no different from the early levels I’ve seen people produce so far.
#Trackmania 2 valley vs canyon download#
It’s extremely easy to join a server with fan-made tracks, as the game will download the map from the server into your game, so you’re never left waiting long to experience the joy of not knowing what to expect on your first encounter with a new track. A server can include up to 100 people at one time, and it’s crazy seeing all these ghost cars driving around the course and often suffering the same fate as yourself. Multiplayer is the same idea, except rather than aiming for gold, you’re aiming to be the fastest person to finish the track from the list of players. It’s addictive, frustrating, but most of all, it’s bloody good fun.
It’s time attack, but built around challenging and exciting tracks that will make you go “whoa! Awesome!” Getting the gold time is where the hair pulling begins, and this is the ultimate test for anyone who has the patience to learn the track and abuse the backspace key to instantly restart with a fresh clock when it all goes wrong. All you need is the arrow keys to control the car to drive through checkpoints situated on amazingly-designed courses and beat the required time to win. Never played it? Then you’ll have no problems trying to grasp the concept. Driving on dirt requires more control on the acceleration and brake to master its trickery, and this makes the valley environment unique compared to the two other themes Nadeo have released.įor everyone wanting to know: Yes, this is more of the brilliant TrackMania gameplay that fans love, and it still plays just as fantastic and snappy as it always has. Handling on tarmac with this rally car is like glue on paper – it holds to the road well, but when thrown into the dirt sections, the car becomes a bit more slippery to control. As for the tracks, the theme is based on rallying, so it includes a small town village with tarmac tracks and trees, and muddy/dirt tracks with splashes of water thrown in for good measure. The car no longer drifts easily – trying to drift in the Valley car ends up slowing it down way too much to become a viable method, so tight corners need the use of heavy breaking and correct cornering to get the best times. The new car, which looks like a deformed sports mini, handles a lot differently than the drift-based car in Canyon and the F1-inspired race car in Stadium. Valley is the third entry for TrackMania 2, bringing a new environment, a vehicle with rally car handling, and 65 new levels in solo play to challenge your skills. This new release also shows how much Nadeo’s design philosophies with content have changed since the ManiaPlanet idea surfaced a couple of years ago (I’ll explain later) for the release of TrackMania Stadium. Let’s move to the present, where TrackMania 2 Valley is now available to buy from Nadeo themselves or on Steam. This was great for the first game, as fans could see the tracks of Rally, Snow and Desert updated with the new Sunrise engine.Įnough reminiscing. Sunrise was my entry into the awesomeness and madness that is the TrackMania gameplay, and because I always want more, I loved Nadeo for releasing an “ultimate” collection with TrackMania United Forever, featuring every environment from Sunrise, the original game and TrackMania Nations. I spent ages roaring in anger over trying to beat and master those levels. I remember hating the Coast environment’s car, because it was a heavy piece of crap with no traction. Environments are a key part of TrackMania: each one has its own appearance and vehicle with unique handling. Sunrise was a great-looking game for its time, coming with the three environments of Island, Bay and Coast for me to experience.
#Trackmania 2 valley vs canyon series#
I jumped into the TrackMania series with TrackMania Sunrise, the second entry in the franchise.