TrackMania Nations Forever Review

By John Walker Published 30 April, 2008

There is such a thing as a free launch ramp.

Version tested: PC

At 1.30am last night, I couldn't tell you whether I loved or hated TrackMania. What I can tell you is that I was playing it. Or more specifically, playing one track. Again and again. Determined to beat it. Increasingly tired, and as such increasingly unable to make the perfectly timed turns to get that Gold medal that sat between me and sleep.

Right, so there's some confusion to deal with. What exactly is going on with Nations Forever? It's free. Utterly and entirely free. As was the previous TrackMania Nations - a stripped down version of the series created for use in the Electronic Sports World Cup. However, Forever is also a free add-on for the most recent retail release, TrackMania United. The result is, United is now called TrackMania United Forever, and when purchased new will come with 3D glasses to take advantage of the new 3D mode. Muddled yet? Well, wait.

United's big hook was the online play. You could play the game in the offline mode, and then at any time attempt an "official" run, which would upload the results to the international database, and rank you alongside anyone else who'd attempted that track. Well, now the same appears in Nations Forever, along with 65 completely new stadium tracks, for both solo and multiplayer racing. Previously Nations was completely separate from the rest of the TrackMania series, but now Nations Forever and United Forever are fully integrated. People with Nations can race on the Nations-specific tracks against people playing United.

'TrackMania Nations Forever' Screenshot 1

Don’t be fooled by the "United" banners. This is Nations inside of United.

Just in case anyone's not clear, TrackMania is about flinging zippy cars around utterly impossible tracks, looping loops, bouncing on water, all combined with taking perfectly timed corners to shave a hundredth of a second off the previous best time. It's about undiluted fun, combined with precision driving (although without any stupid "realism" to ruin the fun). And since United, it's about being better at that track than anyone in the world, or at least, in my case, trying to be better than someone in the South West of England, which is as specific as it gets in its league tables. With United you get various modes of play familiar to all in the non-free series: racing, platform and puzzle, with a large variety of vehicles. Nations, however, is all about the racing, and about driving the Formula 1-style cars.

'TrackMania Nations Forever' Screenshot 2

The car customisation allows an artist to express himself to his fullest maturity.

But what's most important about TrackMania - what makes it stand out from everything else - is the instant restart. Screw up, and you will about 39034 times a day, and you just stab "Enter" and it takes you back to the last checkpoint, or hit "Backspace" to get to the start of the race. It happens so quickly you'll wonder if it's psychic. This is exactly how games should treat you. A second's load time and it might get annoying. The split-second restart ensures you'll play until your fingers fall off.

So if you download Nations Forever, as is, what exactly are you getting? As I mentioned, it's 65 new tracks in five difficulty bands, unlocked by successfully completing earlier tracks in each category. And as is becoming fantastically familiar with Nadeo's series, they are superbly designed and novel courses, created with a precision that makes scoring a Bronze engagingly simple, and achieving the Gold maddeningly tricky. These medals are represented in-game by "ghost" cars, meaning you literally race against the goal times, which is a billion times more satisfying than keeping an eye on the clock. It also means you can study their technique and steal it for success.

It's designed for e-sports, but also for just having a stupidly excellent time mucking around with. And while it doesn't contain Puzzle or Platform, it does nod toward the latter with its "Obstacle" courses, which require some inventive leaping and bouncing. But more than anything, it's 65 tracks for free! Free! And you can play online against the world, both in the solo mode, or in the madcap, sometimes unintelligible multiplayer mode.

TrackMania cars can't touch each other. Everyone's a ghost to everyone else. So in multiplayer you're all on the same track at the same time, racing to see who can get the best times, but starting whenever you like. It's bedlam. It's also ranked on the international ladders.

Nations Forever also comes with its own track editor, so it doesn't end with the 65. Downloadable player-created content means the game will expand to infinity. You can customise your cars with the painting facilities. You can edit videos of your own driving. Then there's Party Play for LAN and a gang of people sat around one computer, and the Explorer, which works like a cross between a mini-internet and a social networking site, from which you can download tracks, replays, movies, etc, created by other players.

If you're picking up Forever to expand your copy of United, you won't only get the new "Nations" category in your sidebar with the new levels, but you'll also find there's extra materials appearing in the track editor, and a graphical overhaul of the original race categories, Desert, Snow and Rally, to bring them up to speed with the more recent courses.

'TrackMania Nations Forever' Screenshot 3

Since TrackMania Sunrise, Nadeo have been the best at sunsets.

There's some (more) confusion over the pricing of picking up United Forever new. The US price on Steam went up from USD 30 to USD 40 when the free add-on was added (it's stayed at USD 40 for Europe). Which doesn't seem so free, but of course it's within Nadeo/Ascaron's remit to charge whatever they wish for their game. It does seem a bit much to increase the price of a year-old game, and the new retail version will of course cost more than finding a year-old copy of United and then adding the download. Um, we recommend you do that quickly before the shops switch them all over. You'll miss out on the 3D glasses, but, well, yes.

In the cold light of day I can tell you, emphatically, that I love TrackMania. In the cold light of day I was able to get the Gold and move on. If United got anything wrong, it's that it was too hard. As the lead dev, Florent Castelnerac, said in the comments of the United review, "I even [can't] get the gold medal on the last one: PlatformE, but I wanted to give lasting appeal to the expert out there." Forever's new tracks absolutely nail the difficulty. Oh, and by the way, the minimum specs are a 1.6GHz CPU, 256MB RAM and a 16MB video card.

I'm not sure what a gift horse is, but I'm told one shouldn't look at its mouth. I don't understand how this is relevant. Meanwhile, get a copy of Nations Forever, or for goodness sake upgrade your United. This is a ludicrous amount of excellent fun to get for free, and in that price bracket, it automatically gains an extra point on the Out-Of-Ten-o-Meter.

9 / 10

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About John Walker

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Comments (47) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • syphaa #1 4 years ago

    Have always been a fan of TrackMania...shame its on PC though...my PC is well and truly redundant at present. Why not port it to 360? That would be a nice system running on Live! Perfect for the platform.

  • monkie_king #2 4 years ago

    ^^ This

  • Katsumoto #3 4 years ago

    Syphaa, Dude. From the review: "Oh, and by the way, the minimum specs are a 1.6GHz CPU, 256MB RAM and a 16MB video card."

    Did you buy your PC in 1998?

    edit: unless you just mean you don't like turning your PC on anymore, in which case apologies!
    Edited by 1 at 30/04/08 @ 11:48

  • botherer #4 4 years ago

    I don't quite follow. Those are the specs of the lowest-end machine the game will run on. They claim. Meanwhile my PC is made entirely of lasers.

  • simiankid #5 4 years ago

    Trackmania is the best thing to happen to my PC in ages. I haven't got the horsepower to run all the latest shiney FPS, but even my dodgy setup can cope with TM at a decent resolution. I liked Nations so much that almost immediately lashed out the UKP20 to get United Forever, and guess what, it's also fucking ace.

    Get it and then come and join the Eurogamer Trackmania Group.

    /shameless pimpage

  • Katsumoto #6 4 years ago

    Botherer: I was talking to the guy who was implying this wouldn't run on his PC, not you! :)

  • botherer #7 4 years ago

    Ah! That makes MUCH more sense : )

  • Skeletor #8 4 years ago

    @syphaa

    Because it's the freedom to create tracks and custom car skins and share them for free that keeps Trackmania alive.

    I'm currently playing the hell out of the free version of TMNF with 3d glasses on and absolutely loving it. Haven't had such a blast playing online since Quake 3. Also, everything running supersmooth on my over 3 years old single core (amd3200+) with 6800le gpu. This is PC gaming done right!

    Get it here and try it for yourself:
    http://ww w.trackmania.com/en/index.php?l...
    Edited by 1 at 30/04/08 @ 11:51

  • Valver #9 4 years ago

    Buy the full version of Trackmania United for £4.95 from play.com
    Update it via the patch from the TMF website and you get the entire Trackmania United Forever game (including all the Nations Forever stuff) for a ludicrously low price!!

  • WJF #10 4 years ago

    Played this for hours last week, ended up buying the full version. It's bloody good.

  • espy #11 4 years ago

    The playerbase of Nations is completely ridiculous. In Trials 2, which is conceptually similar, but costs 19$, I am #120 in the international ranking for one track. In Nations, my best ranking for a track is about 1600. Not internationally, not nationally, but just among the players in the city I live in. Nuts.

    I'll have to get United, though. The Sunrise tracks are just so much more beautiful than those in Nations.

    e: @valver: Sunrise is 4 Quid on play, not United. United is 25. I doubt you can upgrade from Sunrise, or can you?
    Edited by 1 at 30/04/08 @ 12:05

  • brokenkey #12 4 years ago

    @ valver: link to the cheap Trackmania on play, please?

  • spongebob #13 4 years ago

    Nice penis car, EG. Who's the artist behind it?
    Edited by 1 at 30/04/08 @ 12:08

  • smurphs #14 4 years ago

    At last - a new game that runs on my creaky old ATI 9000 'equipped' ('burdened'?) laptop. It does get worryingly asthmatic on some of the more detailed courses though.

    I love the leaderboards, but think they could have gone further with the localisation. To soothe my ego I could do with a street-specific leaderboard please.

  • TessaTickle #15 4 years ago

    They used to bundle that poxy StarForce protection scheme with earlier versions of TrackMania. Do they still do that ? If they do, no way am I going to touch this game.

  • simiankid #16 4 years ago

    @TessaTickle

    I downloaded my copy of TMUF from the trackmania website, so I'm pretty sure there's no starforce, as there's no disc to check.

    Or am i just being an eejit?

    EDIT: for eejitness
    Edited by 1 at 30/04/08 @ 12:27

  • Mattb90 #17 4 years ago

    Well, the Steam versions of both TMNF and TMUF are free of StarForce, at least.

  • botherer #18 4 years ago

    There's no Starforce on Nations Forever.

  • Shrub #19 4 years ago

    TM United is 4.99 at Game
    It includes Starforce but it is the newer version that doesnt install drivers so its no worse than Safedisc or Securom in that way.

    Install it, create your profile, enter your CD key. It will not connect to the servers because they have been taken down. Now go download the TM United Forever updater and install that in its own folder. When you start TMU Forever it will import your TMU profile and CD Key, will connect to the servers and work just fine.

    Then, believe it or not, you can uninstall your original TMU and still play TMUF without needing the CD in the drive! :)

  • Altrezia #20 4 years ago

    Good game, but 9?

  • Valver #21 4 years ago

    Gah, play.com have obv realised this little ruse and put their price back up! Not to worry, as Shrub says, its still £4.99 @ Game:

    [link url=http://www.game.co.uk/PC/Racing/~r330006/Trackmania-U nited/
    ]http://ww w.game.co.uk/PC/Racing/~r330006...[/link]

  • asphaltcowboy #22 4 years ago

    Hey guys! Loving the love for TM!

    EG Trackmania Group
    Official Trackmania Thread

    For those of you that have United Forever, check the thread for EG in-game group login!

  • hahayou #23 4 years ago

    Great game. I'm convinced some highly-talented jerk in my region is making multiple profiles and getting loads of medals in all of them, I can't really be 17th...

    If you stick to just downloading Nations Forever it's definitely totally starforce free.

  • xandoodle #24 4 years ago

    ffs

    Want this game so bad on a mac

  • YourMessageHere #25 4 years ago

    Hooray for free games.

  • WJF #26 4 years ago

    I managed to get 2nd place in London on one of the tracks.

    Cue much rejoicing at 1am and sudden onset of cramp

  • sickpuppysoftware #27 4 years ago

    One thing that surprises and annoys me about the game is that it doesn't seem to store your solo play centrally. All the logging on and I still have to complete the tracks twice, once at work and once at home. I have two completely different rankings for the same username.

    I tried multiplayer once and was so put off I think I'll stick with the solo modes.
    Apart from that it's the usual TM goodness.

  • dsmx #28 4 years ago

    @Altrezia how can you give a game that looks that good, plays brilliant, plenty on content and is fun anything other other than 9 in fact you could argue it should be 10 considering it's free.

  • Snooz #29 4 years ago

    What a game, bought a gamepad just for this, chillstream ... mmmm. Analogue throttle is key to getting the top times.

    I NEVER play in singleplayer, that's where the neverending fun is :) What a game, really strange they don't port the game, but for a beigebox fanboi like me that is not kind of a problem.

    My ninjapc stutters if i go for all maxed out graphics with 8x antialiasing and 16x anisotropic filtering, no clue what it is, but just as soon as the grass appears my pc goes into slideshow mode. Who cares, the game looks great on lower settings as well.

    Anyone noticed the dynamic lighting simulating clouds blocking the sunlight? Cool but fun for 30 sec, would love to try the 3d goggles though.

  • bicky316 #30 4 years ago

    After reading this I downloaded the free version. 4 hours later and with the onset of repetative strain injury in my hand, I was still playing it. You can't ask more than that from a game, especially a FREE 1!

  • bicky316 #31 4 years ago

    Oh, what's it like with the 3d goggles?

  • botherer #32 4 years ago

    Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try the 3D until after the review was written, so let me add this to it now:

    OMG! It actually works! 3D is universally terrible all the time, and yet here it's brilliant! I think it's thanks to the slider, so you can make it the right 3D for your eyes. The colours dull, obviously, but the first time you crash you're in love.

  • smelly #33 4 years ago

    3d glasses? how do you download them?

  • NoQuarter #34 4 years ago

    Quickly, go to ebay and spend a few quid on United.

    I spent £5 on United from playtrade (they've all sold out) a fortnight before Forever came out. Bargain.

  • nakke #35 4 years ago

    @smelly: Just get the cheapest red-cyan glasses you can find, should work.

  • botherer #36 4 years ago

    I used the ones from my copy of Spy Kids 3D on DVD.

    I suggest using the ones from your copy of Spy Kids 3D on DVD.

  • asphaltcowboy #37 4 years ago

    One thing that surprises and annoys me about the game is that it doesn't seem to store your solo play centrally. All the logging on and I still have to complete the tracks twice, once at work and once at home. I have two completely different rankings for the same username.

    That is a problem - means you have to keep taking the Trackmania folder from My Documents back and forth to work - annoying - is the problem fixed if you set the config to use single profile only, rather than multiple? Luckily, it stores your officials timeson the servers, so make sure you post those!

    I love TM multiplayer - shame I can't access it from work :(

  • tripitaka #38 4 years ago

    THIS. GAME. IS. AWESOME.

  • Talha #39 4 years ago

    Tip: Adding United Forever (not Nations Forever) to United will remove StarForce. And

    BEST
    RACING
    GAME
    EVER

  • coastal #40 4 years ago

    What a strange year we're having on the PC. First Trials 2 for £10 or so. A great little game and a close cousin of trackmania. Now this TM Nations Forever for free .. and then followed by Battlefield Heroes. All of them kind of low powered spec games. Takes the pressure off trying to keep the PC all spec-up'd. And all for next to nothing. When does that ever happen?

  • layor #41 4 years ago

    @xandoodle: the game runs fine on my Macbook using Crossover Games

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #42 4 years ago

    "Have always been a fan of TrackMania...shame its on PC though...my PC is well and truly redundant at present. Why not port it to 360? That would be a nice system running on Live! Perfect for the platform."

    Why not just buy Gripshift for XBLA instead, which is pretty much the same idea only a lot better?

  • AtomicBanana #43 4 years ago

    'Why not just buy Gripshift for XBLA instead, which is pretty much the same idea only a lot better?'

    Because that's simply not true I'm afraid :p

  • steveb07 #44 4 years ago

    I downloaded and installed this a couple of weeks ago after another site editor blog recommended it.
    Lets me honest a lot Free games are shit, this is not. I planned last night to play this for ten minutes before having another long game of Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP.

    An hour later I was too tired to play FFT...

  • asphaltcowboy #45 4 years ago

    Gripshift is dreadful! :/

  • fluff_the_tiger #46 4 years ago

    yep i would have to agree this game was born for xbox live, make it happen!

  • L42yB #47 4 years ago

    @Rev. Stuart Campbell -

    Why not just buy Gripshift for XBLA instead, which is pretty much the same idea only a lot better?

    LOL!

    You are joking right? Gripshit is OK, but it is *nothing* compared to Trackmania. Graphically, the physics, the online component - all a bagillion times better in Trackmania (at least).

    Infact, make that a bagillionplex!