- Watch 20,000 cars drive a single Trackmania course - 5 January 2016
"Don't be absurd," you say. "Twenty thousand cars wouldn't fit on the start line". You're right—they don't, and the result of layering replay upon replay is a mesmerising flow of steel and rubber that took 300 hours to render. Distinct cars blossom from the chromium mass, crashing back down before fountaining over jumps or toppling backwards into the sea. Each one of the cars in this video was, at one point, driven by a real human who submitted their Trackmania United and Trackmania Forever records to YouTuber L4Bomb4 to be compiled into one almighty race in the newer Maniaplanet version of Trackmania Stadium (unique skins were lost in the process). However, 'only' 12,000 of the cars could be rendered simultaneously "at a pretty high quality"—anything more and the game crashed. Not one to be deterred by such obvious development oversights, editor Danixks made a custom chroma…
- Nadeo release time-limited TrackMania 2 and ShootMania demos - 12 July 2014
Nadeo's shooty ShootMania and drivey TrackMania 2 games have both been given sizeable new demos, with the intention of increasing the player count in both Mania titles. The demos are pretty generous, offering access to a good number of environments, modes, tracks and the full editing suite in both games, although this unlimited access will expire after 48 hours, to be replaced with something perhaps a little more reasonable (an hour of play every day, or more if the player count falls below 100). Head here to check out the TrackMania 2 demo, and here to check out the ShootMania one, or stick around to hear exactly what you'll be getting. Download the free trial of ShootMania and you'll be given access to the following: 3 multiplayer ranked modes: Battle, Elite & Siege Full multiplayer experience (Nadeo and user-created gamemodes and Title Packs) Access to all editors (Map, MediaTracker…
- Trackmania releases three new demos to celebrate ten years of going really fast - 9 November 2013
How time flies when you’re in a race car flying through improbable loops and smashing into things. Speaking of which, Trackmania is turning ten years old next month. To celebrate, developer Nadeo is releasing free demos of Trackmania 2: Valley, Stadium and Canyon. If you’ve never tried the insanity that is a Trackmania race, head over to the Maniaplanet website to download. Trackmania specializes in allowing, and encouraging, the construction of absurd, physics-bending tracks within a themed environment. We generally liked Canyons when it was released in 2012, and this year Nadeo unleashed the Valley and Stadium expansions upon players. All three of Trackmania 2’s incarnations are available on Steam, and for the next few days they’re on sale for 50% off. I recommend that you check them out if you haven't played a racing game in a while.
- TrackMania 2: Valley release date set for end of the week - 1 July 2013
Nadeo only recently released TrackMania 2: Stadium, but already they're revving up for the next addition to their series of improbable racers. TrackMania 2: Valley is a rally-focused expansion, and is planned for release this Thursday, July 4th. Incidentally, let's take a moment to congratulate Nadeo for the clear naming of their sequel. It's better than their previous system of bolting extra subtitles with every version - resulting in TrackMania United Forever Star Edition: Origins. Or something. According to Nadeo, the expansion is the result of "years of development," and will offer the player new "rally-style" handling, a 65 track campaign, and new blocks for course creation. TrackMania 2: Valley will be available on ManiaPlanet and Steam.
- TrackMania 2 Stadium is now live on Steam - 24 June 2013
Prepare to burn some rubber and press down hard on that virtual accelerator in a way you can never do as a mild-mannered, law-abiding citizen in real life—TrackMania's latest thing is now on PC. TrackMania 2 Stadium launched quietly over the weekend (well, as quietly as squealing tires can allow, anyway), and going by these screenshots? It's showroom-slick. Currently running for $10 on Steam as well as the somewhat confusing ManiaPlanet platform, Stadium comes with a new single-player campaign, packaged together with overhauled graphics and lighting. There are full content-creation tools, too, to further fortify the community that came in and settled with TrackMania 2 Canyon. A TrackMania 2 Valley is also on its way sometime this year, though no word of a release date.
- PC Gamer ShootMania Launch Cup: team up, shoot maniacally, win money! Sign up now! - 10 April 2013
ShootMania Storm launches today. It’s a competitive shooter built for eSports, and as you might expect from Nadeo, the developers of TrackMania, it’s extremely malleable, with a level editor that lets you plug prefab components together to create your own arenas. It’s a game of breathless pace and precision, with its two-hit kills requiring well-timed projectiles - old hands at Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament should feel right at home. To celebrate ShootMania’s arrival, PC Gamer is holding a tournament from 15th April to 7th May, with £800 in prize money to be divvied up between the three top teams. Whether you’re a pro-player in need of pocketmoney, or just a fan of oldschool shooters looking to recreate the twitchy thrill of a railgun duel, you’re very welcome to enter. Read on to find out how. The game mode we’ll be playing is Elite 3v3, so you’ll have to find two buddies to sign-up as…
- TrackMania 2 and ShootMania Storm now available on Steam - 27 February 2013
TrackMania 2! I'd entirely forgotten it even existed. That's one of the potential dangers when you hide your games away in their own tiny corner of the internet. Fortunately, as of today, Nadeo's various Mania games are getting some added visibility. TrackMania 2: Canyon, TrackMania 2: Stadium and ShootMania Storm have all been added to Steam in various states of release. All games are currently playable through various means. It's a little bit complicated, so I'll break it down with the help of my trusty bullet point sidekicks: TrackMania 2: Canyon is released, so you can buy it with money and then play it. This is all very normal. TrackMania 2: Stadium is in beta, which you can access if you pre-order the game. It appears to be a more direct sequel to Trackmania Ultimate Forever Star Ultra Special Mega Edition: Revengeance: Origins, or whatever the hell that game was called. ShootMani…
- TrackMania 2 expands to Stadium and Valley early next year - 6 November 2012
We hope you've fully explored TrackMania 2: Canyon's... canyon environment, because Nadeo have revealed a couple more. The game's Valley and Stadium expansions will be coming to their ManiaPlanet platform in early 2013, the latter returning from the original TrackMania to (as Eurogamer report) serve as a free-to-play component for the game. Stadium definitely seems to be the crazier of the two tracks, with loop-de-loops and all sorts going on. In related 'Mania news, Nadeo have also revealed a release date for Shootmania: Storm, which will arrive on January 23rd. If you can't wait till next year, there's a Shootmania beta coming in December. This second phase adds a new mode, Royal Team, along with jetpacks and grappling hooks, which for some reason have eluded racing games until now. While you wait, be sure to check out this new TrackMania 2: Stadium video, then pretend you're doing th…
- ShootMania Storm preview: how Nadeo plan to reinvent the competitive FPS - 13 July 2012
FPS e-sports have always struggled to reach the same levels of popularity as RTS and MOBAs - something that Nadeo are hoping to change with ShootMania. Designed for competitive play from the ground up, the French developers are aiming to create a new model for the FPS e-sport to suit players and spectators alike. As with Trackmania, ShootMania will be driven by the community. Maps, skins and even game modes will all be designed, built and tested by players. Not only does this create a pretty much infinite map pool but it also gives players the opportunity to streamline the game into something more fun. If a map or game mode is too one-sided, then it can be tweaked and edited to create a more balanced experience. Most dedicated servers also run a simple map rating system which allows the very best to rise to the top. The most popular game mode for competitive play is currently ‘Elite’. I…
- TrackMania 2: Canyon Powered by Players video gives us racing toilets - 16 December 2011
I played the original TrackMania not so much to death, but to the point where it was six feet under and the flowers had gone mouldy. In a way I’m not surprised by how little I’ve played its latest incarnation, TrackMania 2: Canyon. It’s the same jolly good physics-defying racing as the first, complete with the absurd track designs. But, for me at least, it just feels a bit too similar to the original. This new video has piqued my interest, though. It reminds me of the thing that makes TrackMania great, other than the fact that you can drive upside-down: the community. I spent many a night up until 2am in that “just one more race” mentality, racing a hotchpotch of strangers on un-completable tracks. Once, I was racing three Swedish people on a track that simply consisted of a three-foot diameter tube and nothing else. We were all so determined to finish that we failed to see the futility…
- Trackmania 2: Canyon review - 9 November 2011
After all this time, still nothing compares to that opening sprint. One car, purring on the starting block, becomes a swarm of 20 when the countdown hits zero. Latticed tyre tracks. Wheels clipping through bumpers clipping through bonnets. A turn is coming: easy left into easy right, then an exit into a suicidal drop. Three degrees off and you’ll fluff the angle for the jump at the end. But you’ve trained for this – and so, as the others make their mistakes, you glide dead-bang into the tunnel. Into the mouth of a mountain. Come to mention it, nothing really compares to the middle of a TrackMania race, either, when everyone’s thinking that, yes, this is the lap they get it right. Or indeed the end, when some naughty terrain ensures that no one crosses the finish line forwards, horizontal, or at the same altitude as their windscreen. If you’ve played the series before, you’ll know this i…
- Trackmania 2: Canyon footage shows three perfect laps - 9 August 2011
Here's some lovely footage of Trackmania 2 shot by some folks on the beta, spotted on RPS. The absurdly smooth driving skills make us think that it might be a well-programmed bot doing the driving in this one. Every turn is nailed with unflinching perfection, which means we're free to coast along and enjoy the gorgeous new environments. Like the first games, Trackmania 2 will ship with powerful editing tools that will let players create and share new tracks. The first game, TrackMania Nations Forever, is free to download from Steam. The sequel is due out later this year. Check out the official Trackmania 2: Canyon site for more.
- Shootmania in sixth year of development. Nadeo making it “as pure as possible” - 15 July 2011
Nadeo's International Project Manager, Edouard Beauchemin has shared new Shootmania details with PC Gamer. We fired questions at him before having "one more go" on the upcoming Trackmania Canyons at Ubisoft's Summer Showcase. Three hours later, I left the booth. Shootmania is an ambitious user-driven sandbox of an FPS. Users will be able to create their own gametypes and maps in a few minutes, similar to how the Trackmania community create their own unique courses. I asked Edouard whether Shootmania will feature some form of persistent levelling system similar to the ones featured in most modern FPSs. It wont. According to Edouard, "A whole experience system could have been implemented into Trackmania, but a game based on skill is more interesting for the people we like to play with. With Shootmania, it's the same thing. It's based on skill. There are no RPG mechanics. We want to make i…
- Trackmania 2: Canyons price announced. Will be “free to stay” - 15 July 2011
Nadeo, creators of the Trackmania series, along with the upcoming Shootmania and Questmania title have been speaking to PC Gamer. Edouard Beauchemin is aware of the recent trend in the profitable free-to-play model, but says it's not the best option for the upcoming Trackmania 2: Canyons. Speaking at Ubisoft's Summer Showcase yesterday, the international project manager said: "Free to play is so fashionable at the moment. People come up to us and are like 'Make Trackmania 2: Canyon's free to play' and we're like 'No - Trackmania Nations. That's completely free-to-play. You don't have to pay at any time. And we're still looking at 700,000 different people playing the game each month. "We prefer to call Trackmania 2: Canyons “Free to Stay”. You pay at the entrance and then you stay for as many years as you want. Unlimited content you can download for free from anywhere. You only have the…
- TrackMania 2: Canyon screens feature plenty of flying cars - 3 May 2011
TrackMania's best courses looked like lumps of concrete spaghetti. They were a mess of gravity defying banks and loops, broken up with ridiculous jumps and a hundred different ways to hurtle to your death. The latest TrackMania 2: Canyon trailer shows that the sequel will be staying true to the bendy madness of the original. These new screens prove it's going to look outstanding. Get a closer look below. For more news on TrackMania 2, keep an eye on the newly launched TrackMania 2 website. The game's due out later this year.
- TrackMania 2: Canyon screens feature plenty of flying cars - 3 May 2011
TrackMania's best courses looked like lumps of concrete spaghetti. They were a mess of gravity defying banks and loops, broken up with ridiculous jumps and a hundred different ways to hurtle to your death. The latest TrackMania 2: Canyon trailer shows that the sequel will be staying true to the bendy madness of the original. These new screens prove it's going to look outstanding. Get a closer look below. For more news on TrackMania 2, keep an eye on the newly launched TrackMania 2 website. The game's due out later this year.
- Trackmania 2 trailer features subtle use of the word “TURBO” - 27 April 2011
The sun-bleached canyons, the cars polished to within an inch of their MOTS, the cunning use of the word "Turbo" 47 seconds in. As pointed out by RPS, there's plenty of reasons to get excited for Trackmania 2, even though there's no confirmed release date as yet. For more on Trackmania 2, read our full preview in issue 227 of PC Gamer UK, on sale May 11.
- Trackmania 2 trailer features subtle use of the word “TURBO” - 27 April 2011
The sun-bleached canyons, the cars polished to within an inch of their MOTS, the cunning use of the word "Turbo" 47 seconds in. As pointed out by RPS, there's plenty of reasons to get excited for Trackmania 2, even though there's no confirmed release date as yet. For more on Trackmania 2, read our full preview in issue 227 of PC Gamer UK, on sale May 11.
- Trackmania 2 teaser trailer has new look, same insane tracks - 20 April 2011
The first Trackmania was a free-to-play blast of fresh air in the racing genre. Beneath the straightforward visuals and insane, topsy turvy tracks it was a surprisingly competitive game. Global and local leaderboards provided plenty of reason to keep re-running the tracks, and a the approachable level editor spawned some utterly bonkers creations. Judging from the teaser trailer above, the realistic new look hasn't compromised the avant garde course design. There's no release date yet, but the official Trackmania 2 site says it's coming "very soon!" You'll find the first screen of TrackMania 2 below.
- Trackmania 2 teaser trailer has new look, same insane tracks - 20 April 2011
The first Trackmania was a free-to-play blast of fresh air in the racing genre. Beneath the straightforward visuals and insane, topsy turvy tracks it was a surprisingly competitive game. Global and local leaderboards provided plenty of reason to keep re-running the tracks, and a the approachable level editor spawned some utterly bonkers creations. Judging from the teaser trailer above, the realistic new look hasn't compromised the avant garde course design. There's no release date yet, but the official Trackmania 2 site says it's coming "very soon!" You'll find the first screen of TrackMania 2 below.
