TAW Motorsports

"Drivers, start your engines!" Now can be heard through the halls of TAW's teamspeak server. For the first time, TAW is fielding a motorsports team. Our first jaunt into the racing realm is with the game, Trackmania Nations Forever from the French company Nadeo. It's a free game in the truest sense of the word. TrackMania lets you drive at mind-blowing speeds on fun and spectacular tracks in solo and multiplayer modes. Racing simulation purists probably won't be interested in this game since it is not a hard-core simulation. This game was designed for multiplayer fun in mind rather than creating realisitic setting and car dynamics. TAW Motorsports will be focusing on creating fun racing-series events open to all members and the public alike. Check the VG Unit pages (Under the Unit Menu) for updates on the latest racing information.

Gameplay

In contrast with most other racing games, the TrackMania series lets the player race a track as many times as he/she wants, until time runs out. He/she can choose to respawn at any time possible, due to landing upside down, going off the track, or even just because the start did not go optimally. Although in multiplayer games multiple cars race on the same track, they cannot actually collide or otherwise influence each other. It all comes down to who can finish the fastest.

Track Creation

One astounding feature of this free game is the ease with which you can create your own custom tracks. From dirt tracks to standard ovals, to crazy, unbelievable stunt tracks, Nadeo took cues from vintage games, Racing Destruction Set, and Stunts in their ease-of-creation philosophy.

TrackMania includes some pre-made tracks the player can race on to unlock "Coppers", TrackMania's unique currency. The player can use these Coppers to buy different building blocks, simply called "Blocks", for his track, including: regular road, checkpoints, long bends, loop-de-loops, and jumps, which all snap to a grid automatically. Regular roads can be dragged to create straight sections as well as 90 degree corners. Most other blocks are automatically connected by placing them next to each other. There are three themes, or environments, to choose from: Rally, Alpine, and Speed. Each environment has a unique car for the player to race in.

The Community

The community-driven site TM Exchange contains a large number of tracks for both the game series. Skins and 3D car models are also available from the community, TrackMania Carpark being the most prolific for car models and TM Skincenter for skins ranging from the original TrackMania Sunrise car models to the ones available from the TrackMania Carpark website.

Expansion

Trackmania United Forever is a complete multiplayer package of the whole Trackmania racing series that is available for purchase online. At this point, TAW Motorsports will be focusing on the free version, but will most likely be looking into this for expanded multiplayer, car, and track creation options, down the road (no pun intended).

Longevity

Nadeo has committed to continually updating and improving many aspects of this wonderful game. The already stunning graphics are continually being updated. They have publicly stated they want to give the game series a long life, and are therefore working on the engine and user interface for continual improvement and upgrades.