I’m currently hooked–badly hooked–on a new auto-racing PC game called TrackMania United. It’s the third (I think) in the TrackMania series but the first that I’ve played for any length of time. The TrackMania games, unlike other contemporary racing games like the Grand Turismo series, focus more on a sense of fun rather than a sense of realism. Visually they’re fairly realistic; the tracks have elaborate backgrounds (not that you have much of a chance to see them as they go whipping by) and the cars have articulated suspensions and stuff. The physics, however, definitely stretch the bounds of realism. Gravity seems to be much lower than normal for Earth. Most tracks involve jumps of tens or hundreds of meters, many have loops, and some have turns with vertical banks. The cars are indestructable and your opponents on the track can pass freely through your car and each other without incident.
In addition to the obvious goal of completing the track as quickly as possible, there is an entire section of the game in which the goal is accuracy rather than speed. You can take as long as you want to complete the circuit, but the fewer attempts you make, the better. These tracks have at least one puzzling turn, jump or other obstacle that’s almost impossible to complete the first time you encounter it.
The game has a fast, loose, fun feel to it. It’s as though it was designed by people who played with Hot Wheels as kids and wanted to recreate that sense of play rather than a completely realistic driving simulation. (Think about it: was realism an important aspect of playing with Hot Wheels? No.) The main site is here; it has a photo gallery here (from which I extracted the two photos above) and a video trailer here.
My online player name is blue_robot. Look for me on the server that has a name that says something like “for older players”. I figure I qualify as such; the current world champion is 17 years old.
