Trackmania
Trackmania is a game I have played for years. I remember picking the first version of the game at a school book fair and I fell in love with it. It combined the modular building capabilities of legos with the fun of driving. I sunk many hours into it. I also bought the sequel, trackmania sunrise. When a new version, Trackmania Nations was released (for free) I jumped onto it and played it for hours. At least until Left 4 Dead came out, this was the go-to game during freshman and sophmore year of college. I forgot about it for a while, until recently.
It was nice, hopping into a server and being in the top third, finishing first or second in many matches. I downloaded a custom car (A volvo 240) to drive around it. And for a while I had the “just one more” rush that I haven’t felt in a while.
And then today, I was reminded why I left.
Most of the matches are time events, who can finish the course the fastest. Players have a set amount of time to get a good time on the track. The game becomes less about racing and more about precision driving, matches become bad enough so that one ends up restarting dozens of times because they didn’t get the first jump or turn right. If you continue then you’ll be behind on every other checkpoint, and end up with a time that won’t raise your rank, so it’s a wasted run. It makes more sense to just restart every time if the run isn’t perfect, since it’ll be wasted time. During this time you see other players go faster than you, and your rank decreases, and there’s nothing you can do because you can’t hit the first jump JUST right in order to get a PERFECT run. It’s frustrating.
And, sometimes player created levels are just cruel to players. Dead ends, blind turn jumps, and other awful design decisions make the game harder to play. One one map there was a spot that was impassible unless players drove along the edge of the wall enough to tilt the car onto the higher platform. One had to force their way through. Not every map is this way, but it’s apparent every once in a while.
On the good side, there are some brilliantly made levels that are always a treat to drive on. Some with custom themes. These are, unfortunately, few and far between.
I think I’ll keep playing Trackmania, as I have no racing game with such an active online community that is also free. I dabbled in sim racing with Race 07, but I found the online experience lacking. One of the problems with Race 07 was that people would quit if they were losing, leading me to be the last one on the track along with the drivers who were perfect. Another problem is that it’s three goddamn years old and nobody plays it.
I also have Forza racing, which I should put more time into. I spend all my time on the computer so time spent staring at my TV feels “wasted” and “unproductive” (Like this is any more productive) but also my little router died (netgear! fuck) and I’ve been to lazy to buy a new one.
Racing, while not the most popular genre among gamers, feels like the most primal a thing to do in a computer game.
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