The Return of Abe and Oddworld!!!

I posted about this on the Friday Night Gamers blog; but I have to talk about it here too.

Abe is a part of my past. A part I almost recently revived when I was cleaning up my office some and ran into my Abe's Exoddus CD. These games will have you in stitches as you help Abe rescue his friends from slavery and impending doom.

Failures in the game are almost as fun as successes; and you'll find yourself repeating them for laughs as you go through the game. You interact with the friends to get them to team up to help you past obstacles. Depending on your actions... your friends will react in different ways (including getting into slap fights...)

The slap is useful when your friends seem "punch-drunk" from happy gas ... and speaking of gas... the games are loaded with farts.

Demos are available for both Oddworld games, so get downloading now... then go buy it, play them and come back and tell us what you think!
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (demo)
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (demo)

Old School RPG Gaming

Going through some pictures today, I discovered some pictures I had taken of some maps I'd drawn up while playing through a couple of Role Playing Games (RPGs) I was into right after I married Gwen.




It's a fun kayak trip down the Nostalgia Nile... and I tell you, it's certainly not like it used to be anymore. In the old days, half the fun of the game was drawing up these things while you played through. Sure, walkthroughs were available on Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) but the maps weren't.

The map above is of a game called Times of Lore. Incidentally, while looking around for links to the game, I found these maps... puts my maps to shame, but I still think mine are cool (no matter how inaccurate they might be compared... Hey, they got me through the game, so they're good for something!)

The map below is of an area of Phantasie III (screenshots), a game I used to play tons in high school with my friend Russ.



Now with the advent of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), especially World of Warcraft (WoW)... there is such a wealth of information online about the game (including character stats, guild forums, etc.) that the "world" of the game involves much more than actually playing the game. It's much more involved (and costs a lot more money) than I'd care to indulge in... but it's enough for millions of others.

For the record, I don't care what anyone says, I had some mad map-making skillz back then. :)

TrackMania Forever!!!

TrackMania United Forever - Quiet Ride Down a Country Road at Night

Many people dread April 15th (at least if they live in the United States and they owe the Government taxes...) but not me.

No way, April 15th 2008 (April 16th in France) was one of the best days in video-gaming history for me.

That's right... TrackMania United Forever (TMUF) and TrackMania Nations Forever (TNF) were released today; the latter being the free version.

Nadeo, the game's creator, took the United engine for the Stadium environment and put it into TMNF. Basically, Nations Forever is like taking Stadium straight out of United and put in a standalone game. What makes this great is that owners of TMUF (which contains an additional 6 environments spanning the entire TrackMania series) can connect to TMNF servers without having Nations Forever installed (prior to this release, one had to install both TrackMania United (TMU) and TrackMania Nations (TMN) to play both.)

That's the first really exciting piece of goodness I discovered when I updated my game to TrackMania United Forever... but wait, there's more!!!

Some of my favorite additions:

• Easier Player/Server search functionality


• The TrackMania Original (TMO) environments have all had major graphics engine revamps done to them and they're incredibly beautiful. I'll post pics when I get some time.


• We can now change video settings in-game; which we've been dying for!


• Rumor is there are two new block types: a blue block in Stadium that makes it easier to carve a turn; and a "rainbow turbo" that is timed to be 100% power for 1 second, then amp up to 150% for 1 second, then 200% for 1 second, then cycle back to 100%, etc. I haven't seen these yet, but am looking forward to them. An "Engine Killer" block was added to TMU and it added a whole new dynamic to the gameplay; so I look forward to these two new blocks.


• Tracks seem to load faster (though that might be due to the new hardware some too...)


• All environments seem to play smoother and look prettier (even the ones that didn't get the face-lift seem to have better lighting, etc.)

I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg; as I only got to play for a couple of hours tonight.

I will say this: Nadeo has put a TON of time and effort into enhancing this game and it shines like the sun. I can't believe they made it a free upgrade. I'd pay for it... in fact, I'm considering making a donation to the cause anyway; the enhancements are more than worth it.

I can't wait to see what else lies ahead as we play TrackMania Forever... you know where you'll find me late Friday Night! (Dang I need to get some time to update that site... holy old...)

Rumor was that the people in the USA that bought TrackMania United from Steam wouldn't be able to get the Forever update yet... but I pointed the update installer at my "Program Files\TrackMania United" folder and it worked fine... then when trying to launch TrackMania United from Steam after I played TMUF from the manual update, Steam decided to update the game automatically in its install folder... I just hope it didn't overwrite my car skins and gamepad configuration :)

See you at the races...

(By the way, if you're interested in getting into the world of TrackMania; contact me first... TMUF has a feature where I can invite friends to get the game... and if you get it from the invite using the same email for your account, I can be your sponsor. I'm not sure what that means, but I'd like to find out... so let me know.)

The World of TrackMania Just Keeps Getting Better and Better!

Nadeo announced, in an interview with TMX that they will be releasing upgrades for their popular TrackMania Nations and TrackMania United franchises; called TrackMania Nations: Forever and TrackMania United: Forever.

Nations lovers will be happy to know that the Forever upgrade will still be free; though the ladder will be reset (which has been needed for a long time anyway.) Nations players will also look forward to getting the updated Stadium engine enjoyed in TrackMania United.

United lovers will enjoy some enhancements as well; one of the majors being a truly No-CD system without the 3-install crap we had to deal with through the online distribution apparatus so many of us have come to know and not love. Steam resolved this for players in the USA thankfully, as well as provided an inexpensive license to the game.

United lovers will also be happy to note that the TrackMania United: Forever (TMU-F) upgrade will also be free.

Nadeo also mentioned they had originally planned two new environments called "Toy" and "Moon"; and holy crap how fun would those be?! My mind starts racing when I think of what kind of tracks those would bring.

Sadly, they need to use the talent that would've been putting those together in other arenas for now and there is no scheduled plans of making these come to fruition. We'll just have to keep begging for them to still be born in a future release; I'd so love to see them!

United lovers that enjoy Stunts mode will enjoy knowing that there will be a Single-Player Stunt campaign (and hopefully an easier way to launch Stunt tracks in multiplayer when starting a server from in-game; as opposed to a dedicated server.)

There is a buttload of information on the upcoming changes in the interview, so I'll leave you to go research on your own. I'm stoked for the new releases and will continue to enjoy TrackMania in all forms until then.

Read the Interview

CrackMania Forever... ;)

Portal - Energy Ball Fireworks

It's 4th of July time at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center! (Note: No Weighted Companion Cubes were harmed during the making of this film...)

BTW, this film brought to you by the ultra-cool custom level for Portal called "Weighted Companion Cube Map" by MrCow (hosted by myApertureLabs.com)

The map contains some anti-gravity beams that are part of the puzzles of the level - it's really quite cool. Download it and enjoy - I highly recommend it!

Portal: First Slice - Free Demo for nVidia Gamers

Copyright Valve Software - used without permission

I can't believe this is my first post about Portal since the game's release... probably because what little free time I finally get in the middle of the night is spent playing it. :)

Portal is a unique game where you run an android through a test center course armed with only a gun that shoots blue and orange portals. When you enter one portal, you're ejected out the other; and you must use these to navigate your way through interesting puzzles in order to advance to the next level.

Portal is based on a fabulous free game created by Nuclear Monkey Software called "Narbacular Drop" which I raved about last March.

For those that own nVidia graphics cards, Steam will detect your card when you click the image above and confirm you have nVidia, then allow you to download FOR FREE: Portal: First Slice demo, Half-Life 2: DeathMatch, Peggle Extreme and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. Pretty generous (and good bait to get you sucked into buying Half-Life 2 as well...) :) Smart move, Valve.

The full Portal game (only $19.95 on Steam or comes with the various versions of The Orange Box that Valve sells...) comes complete with the Source SDK which means custom levels can be made.

I found some cool sites for obtaining custom Portal maps, but the best one I've seen so far is myApertureLabs.com

The game is highly addicting and has gained quite the following. People everywhere are chanting "The cake is a lie..." and mimicking cool female computer voices that remind you that the companion cube cannot speak; but if it does, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice.

Give it a shot, then buy it, play through it, and hit up myAperatureLabs for more Portal goodness.

And remember: "There's no use crying over every mistake; you just keep on trying til you run out of cake... and the science gets done and you make a neat gun for the people who are still alive."

EDIT: It looks like Portal: First Slice is the first 10 levels of the real game. You don't get to play with the Orange Portals, but you get enough of a taste for how the game works to want to play through the rest of the fully enjoyable levels. I highly recommend purchasing the game as it unlocks 9 more levels (the last being quite a bit longer than the rest) as well as challenge versions of the original levels, and the ability to import custom maps made by other players. Start thinking with Portals!

TrackMania United Only $22.45 Until 02 January 2008!

Buy TrackMania United on Steam before 02 January 2008 and get it for only $22.45!

This (along with Motocross Madness 2) is the coolest PC racing game made-to-date. Nadeo has done a fantastic job bringing unlimited replay value by creating an easy-to-learn track editor with really cool features.

They even include a Puzzle mode that allows you to have fun while learning how to build tracks.

I highly recommend this game. Go buy it and join FNG for some high-flying, fast-driving, non-stop good times!

Reason #42 Why I Hate Windows Vista - Some CDs appear blank to Vista's Windows Explorer, but read fine when done from a Command Prompt window

Ok, most of you have heard my gripes about Windows Vista verbally, so the title doesn't make sense to those of you that haven't.

I've decided I'm going to start ranting about the problems I run into with Vista here in hopes that if enough people do the same (and believe me there are plenty out there...) Microsoft will get some of this crap fixed.

I have two older video games that I've tried to get to work with Vista that have previously worked with older Windows operating systems.

Two of them exploit a very interesting anomaly in Vista. If I put the CD in, it's name won't show up in the Vista Windows Explorer interface; though it will show the size used on it. If I try to Open/Explore the CD, I get the blank CD dialog that asks how you want to format the disc.

If I open a Command Prompt Window, on-the-other-hand, and do a "dir" command; I can see the files just fine. I can then proceed to launch the install of the game.

How did I find out about this? Luck of the draw... does it mean the given game will work? That I'm not sure... I'm installing one as we speak (Star Wars: Jedi Academy.)

The other I've tried is Titan Quest. Titan Quest works until I click on a merchant. Once I do that, I get booted out of the game and to the Windows Desktop without warning or reason why it did so. I'm not sure if that is a related bug, but I can reproduce it consistently on my laptop and find it equally annoying.

I'd love to hear from others who have had similar experiences; and to hear from those that don't have the same issue with their Jedi Academy and Titan Quest discs.
I have an Asus G2S-A1 laptop with Vista Home Premium.

Incidentally, both games work without these issues in Windows XP Pro and Windows 98SE (Jedi Academy) on multiple desktops in my home.

EDIT: Looks like Jedi Academy seems to work fine so far... I played some multiplayer with Brennan and had good luck... we'll find out later how Single Player fares.

Fun Motocross Madness 2 Screenshot

I was looking through some old FNG (Friday Night Gaming) screenshots this morning and had to post this one. It's from Roswell stunt quarry. Close Encounters of the Nac-Nac Kind

Yes, there was a crash... the UFO didn't fly away quick enough.

Do Try This at Home...

Oh yeah, there's not much better than a good hour-or-two long round of high-flying, speed-rushing, nausea-inducing TrackMania United action!

If you haven't tried it yet, you're seriously missing out. It's on Steam now for only $29.95!

TrackMania United - Released on Steam

Ok, I know I'm late posting about this... but did I mention, I'm on hiatus?!

After playing the wild-goose chase for months checking GameSpot's website and all other vendors it lists as USA distributors for Nadeo's fan-freaking-tastic game, "TrackMania United" - I finally find out on the TrackMania Forums that it's been released to the USA via Valve Software's Steam engine.

Steam is Valve's way of offering their games through online distribution. What's really cool about this is that anyone can download the game for $29.95 US Dollars. What sucks, is that I've been waiting to get my 2nd copy in DVD format. So here I sit, still going insane, with no news in sight about when the DVD version will come out.

Get TrackMania United (TMU) on Steam Now!

I can still get the TrackMania United (TMU) English UK DVD via GoGamer.com but it's $37.90; so I'll wait a little longer and see if an official DVD version is released in the USA.

If you haven't read it before... I HIGHLY recommend this game. (did I mention fan-freaking-tastic?!)

Starcraft II Announced

A few weeks ago, I'd heard Blizzard Entertainment was going to be making a huge announcement in Korea.

Korea, incidentally, is where the still popular video game Starcraft is massively played. It's so popular there, they televise tournaments for it.

Naturally, it was my hope that being the 10-year anniversary of the release of the original Starcraft the announcement would be about a Starcraft II.

I'm happy to announce that Starcraft II is indeed a reality; and it looks to be incredibly cool.

One thing I'm really excited about is the fact that Blizzard states in their FAQ that they're shooting for a "T" rating on the game. Morals seem to be decaying with increasing speed in the entertainment industries, so I'm hoping this will be kept relatively kid-friendly.

I don't care for the swearing (Starcraft had it too) but I can handle it if it's kept to a minimum.

There is a picture on the artwork page that has me slightly worried, and I hope that kind of thing doesn't make it into the game; a picture of Kerrigan (a genetically manipulated Terran "Ghost" woman that was assimilated by an alien race called the "Zerg") and became the "Queen of Blades."

What the picture depicts is interesting though. I was hoping that if Blizzard did a sequel that the plot would offer a way that the Terrans find a way to reclaim and return Kerrigan her former self. The picture suggests this may very well happen in the game. I just hope they depict it in a more tasteful way that doesn't involve mostly nude shots with strategically covered parts... it's really not necessary.

Aside from that, the game looks incredibly cool and I can't wait to see what all they're going to do to the game.

Our Friday Night Gaming crew still enjoys the original game on several occasions; it's a classic.

Kudos, Blizzard for not solely dumping all your eggs into the World of Warcraft basket and leaving them there. Hopefully you'll resurrect the Starcraft: Ghost project that got shelved a time ago too.

"Narbacular Drop": Predecessor to "Portal: The Video Game"

I'm really excited about a new puzzle game in the works by Valve Software called Portal.

I found out today from my friend Rich that the game is based on an earlier game made by Nuclear Monkey Software called Narbacular Drop.

The game is incredible and so much fun. Download it, get addicted, then curse the fact that Portal won't be released until late September of this year (or later if the deadline gets moved back.)

The good news... The nice folks at Nuclear Monkey Software have given us a level editor, and their site contains links to a bunch of already created ones for your enjoyment to help tide over until Portal is released.

I highly recommend this and thank those that have put a lot of hard work, heart and soul into such a simple yet incredibly complex game.

Check out the Portal Trailer:

Why TrackMania Will Never Get Old

Yes, that is a track ... yes, it's a commode ... and yes, it's really made with TrackMania United track pieces. For more info, check out the track at the TMX (TrackMania Exchange) website.

FNG Turkey Bowl 2006 (happened in 2007)

My Friday Night Gaming crew held our annual Turkey Bowl for 2006 a little later than normal (had to postpone twice from the original scheduled date in 2006.)

It was a fun time despite only having three of the seven committed riders there. Hopefully we'll be able to do a rematch later; especially on the Accelerate track.

The Accelerate track is a figure eight that goes very fast and has a high probability of collision with a bunch of players riding at the same time. There were a couple other tracks with a lot of crossover points as well.

"Bail Jumper" has some high-flying fun to it and despite its horrible spline (the method used for determining the track's boundaries so people stay on the track and don't take cuts...) was deemed the FNG favorite new track for this year's bowl.

We definitely had better luck with connectivity this year... which is good considering the first bowls had many people failing to connect or dropping out of the game prematurely due to connection issues and game crashes. Maybe having the Turkey Bowl on a weekend other than Thanksgiving weekend is a good idea. :) We'll have to rename it.

Anyway, check out the recap over at the Friday Night Gaming site.

FNG - Motocross Madness 2 - Pepsi Max to the extreme

This was one of the most fun and exciting races we've had on this track in FNG history. Despite several stupid mistakes resulting in big wrecks, I still almost took Tsam ... until my last fatal mistake near the end of the third lap.

The spring-loaded jump through the finish is phenomenal ... the best one I've ever pulled on that part of the track.

Good times!!!

TrackMania United: Laser Beams of Love

Don't mess with FNG_ThatOneGuy ...

The PC Motocross Dream Is Dead...?

It's all but official. My last hope for a resurrection of excellent PC motocross gaming is all but dead.

Holy crap this rant is long... if you'd like to get to the point quicker, feel free...

In January 2006, Rainbow Studios released MX vs. ATV Unleashed it's first PC motocross game since Motocross Madness 2; released in 2000.

The Motocross Madness (MCM) series wasted any other motocross games on the PC hands-down with it's excellent graphics, realistic (for its time) racing feel, super sik high air, intense racing, mega-fun tag mode, stunts and more.

The game had infinite replay value thanks to the ability to create custom content. "Kamshaft", of Cameron Graphics fame, hosted the biggest central repository of this custom content on the web ... and it was awesome. The whole MCM community participated in the forums and MCM file sharing at his site. The site was put up as "Motocross Madness Central" for the first game in the MCM series. It then turned to "Motocross Madness 2 Central" when MCM2 was released.

In late 2005, Kamshaft took down the site after bandwidth restrictions and cost of running the site became too much and MCM2 play had lowered significantly over time with the advent of newer games with better graphics and what not. Yet there were some still dedicated to the game (like my own Team FNG.)

Kamshaft was still offering his entire MCM2 custom content collection on 6 DVDs for $80, which I purchased. 19GB of compressed custom content ... the game will never die for me.

In around November of 2005 (maybe a little earlier...) we caught wind of news that Rainbow Studios had finally decided to give another shot to the PC crowd by releasing MX vs ATV Unleashed in January 2006. Kamshaft put up a new "MX vs ATV Central" site and the community once again flocked together in eager anticipation for what we hoped would have as much heart and soul (and endless fun) that the MCM series provided us.

Sadly, the game failed miserably for several reasons:

1. The game was released later than promised; and when it finally was, it was a ridiculous search to try to find which stores actually had it. (I pre-ordered two copies paid in full from a local EBGames shop and didn't have mine on release day. Online orders placed the day before release day from EBGames site were sold to those people who had their game on release day... which enraged me, but that's another story...)


2. By the time we finally got the game... it's user-interface (UI) was completely horrid. It was a direct port from the console version of the game with no modifications to the navigation menus which could've been done MUCH simpler for a PC version.


3. Related to the UI issue was the fact that only half the PC gamers could get connected to games online. The defacto was provided was through in-game menus connecting through GameSpy. If the fact that we had to go through 15 menus to just set up a game for people to connect to wasn't bad enough... you had to click through 2 extra screens to chat with the people in your game lobby, and then click back through two more to get back to the "lobby" to see who was in your game. It was pathetic


4. Once you had your lobby set up, no one could join your game, because the required ports to play through today's firewalls were incorrectly documented; and despite spending several hours myself testing and discovering the correct ports... half the community had resorted to using Hamachi to try to set up private VPNs to play on. Since there was no good central place to matchmake, the online portion of the game pretty much died; essentially killing off the greatness of the game.


5. They kept the console approach of "We're going to lock all of the tracks and let you 'unlock' them, to simulate the feel of "new content" since we can't offer you the ability on a console to create new content yourselves. Two words... Weak... sauce... Thankfully, there was a cheat code to unlock them all so we could *ahem* attempt to get online and race. But since we couldn't get online and race... the few tracks available in the game got boring real fast.


6. Stunt mode sucked. Stunts was one of my favorite aspects of the game, taking unrealistically high air and coming down and landing it was an adrenaline rush like no other... Stunts in MX vs ATV Unleashed were fun for about 10 minutes, and only because we could pull backflips and 360's. But the fact that your score dwindled dramatically for trying to pull the same stunt/combo more than once, it was extremely difficult to pull any REALLY high scores; especially because the only way to get a high score on a given jump was to pull a backflip or 360 combo. In their attempts to make the game feel more realistic, they went too far and limitd the amount of air you could take on your jumps as well - and even when you springloaded for extra air - it the landing ramps weren't conducive to landing things that high... maybe I'm just still used to how MCM2 worked, but it tanked.

The game's only saving grace was the fact that they did still provide a way to make custom content for the game. Some of my favorite track creators returned and made a few new tracks. But alas, by the time the new tracks had come out... the community had peetered out from the online scene due to reasons listed above.

One racer posted a link to a new game a few weeks later called TrackMania Nations. It was a free racing game created for the Electronic Sports World Cup, created by a French company named Nadeo.

Yes, many of you already are familiar with this, because it was the nail-in-the-coffin for MX vs ATV Unleashed as far as FNG was concerned. It consumed all of our time for nearly a year. We were so sucked in, we bought the previously released versions of TrackMania as well. In late 2006, we were even more amazed by TrackMania United.

Why is TrackMania so successful?

1. Easy to use interface - setting up local or online games is incredibly easy.


2. Not only did they provide a full-blown in-game track editor, they provide a full-blown replay editor, so you can show off your awesome runs with incredible camera effects. Like the MCM series... endless replay value


3. The same intense racing rush and high flying action (with the added benefit of driving on walls, through corkscrews and other fun action...) that MCM used to offer... just a lack of motorcycles.

So why am I writing this rant?

During the hustle and bustle surrounding the excitement for the release of MX vs ATV Unleashed back in late 2005, I discovered that Robb Rinard of MCM fame had defected from Rainbow Studios (makers of the MCM series) and with some other colleagues created a new company called 2XL Games.

I emailed Robb back then, in fears that this console port would disappoint (because I'd previously played MX Unleashed on the Xbox and was sorely disappointed... went right back to my Motocross Madness 2.)

I asked Robb if they were going to make another really fun motocross game for the PC. He said he couldn't tell me yet what they were up to, but that they were in the process of making a framework for some incredible new games that would start being available maybe 2 years later or so. I decided I would be as patient as possible and wait.

Well, with the death of MVA and TrackMania consuming my game time for so long... I decided to check in on the 2XL website the other day to see if any updates had been posted there. This is what I found...
"2XL games is currently developing multiple console titles on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 for a major game publisher..."

HELLO!?!?!!!!! This is what pissed me off about Rainbow in the first place... they sold out to consoles because they could crank games out faster and potentially make more money since games were harder to pirate. While I can understand that business decision, my heart was crushed as I had seen the demise of good PC motocross racing. And with each subsequent Rainbow release, it felt to me that the heart put into their games was less and less and it was now just a cash-flow machine and not a team devoted to making fun games.

So now my dreams for a new PC Motocross game with the same magic and fun that the two MCM games provided are once again dashed to pieces.

Don't get me wrong... the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are great pieces of hardware, but online gaming in the console arena is still in its infant stages; and with the lack of user content creation for console games... it's simply not as fun as the PC gaming world has been. Sorry, but it isn't.

So I try to go to Kamshaft's MX vs ATV Central site to post the bad news, and when I went to the old link... mxvsatvcentral.com I was redirected to the Xbox Addict website.

Buh-bye any hopes for new PC Motocross games that will be worth playing... it was a nice dream while it lasted. Nadeo, don't pull a Rainbow.

TrackMania Tournament and TrackMania United Thoughts

Well, I was knocked out of the tournament on Friday night; coming in with rank #372... not too shabby considering I only had 2-3 hours per track and those hours were scattered. For not having as much time as I'd have liked to get the groove I wanted, I feel pretty good about how I did.

Despite my grumblings about how it was a persistence contest where he/she who had the most time on their hands wins, the tournament was still an awful lot of fun to be a part of.

Every night at 10:00pm my time, qualified racers from around the world all jumped into the PlayLinc server lobby and eagerly awaited the new track meant to torture with technicalities. What I loved is that playing in the tournament wasn't much different than playing on my two favorite USA servers for all my TrackMania Career... "KOFS 440 (the server formerly known as 440 Mods and Boost)" and "Air Time."

Those servers always kept fresh, new and challenging tracks; which attracted some of the best racers around the world constantly. The thing that makes online play in TrackMania so special is the camaraderie between racers. Whenever a new track is encountered on these servers, the racers all anxiously try to be the first one to "solve" the track. Then it's a race to see who can get the best time.

As the racers figure out parts of the track, they openly share information with each other on how to better take the track. It was no different with this tournament. Mind you, there was $40,000 in cash prizes hanging in the balance; but the contestants still shared tips and tricks they'd find on the tracks through the rounds of competition I participated in. It truly is a wonderful community in the world of TrackMania.

Needless to say, my heart wasn't broken as bad as it could've been when I didn't make it past Friday night in the competition. You see, TrackMania United was released to the public Friday (well in France and some other French speaking countries...) but as mentioned previously, 10,000 copies were sold online and myself (That One Guy), Dan (Tsam314) and Jarin (Thundr) all scored copies; and were more than eager to take it for a test-drive.

And that's just what we did. Three-and-half adrenaline-filled turbo-boosted dirt-spewing hours of pure pleasure. United combines all the previous goodness packed into the existing TrackMania games and steps it up a notch.

One of my favorite parts is the new track block we lovingly call "The Engine Killer." This is a red-block of doom that when driven over, causes you to coast to the next checkpoint. As if it were only that easy. No, curves and other things that cause you to lose momentum stand between the Engine Killer and the next Checkpoint.

We played this really awesome track that has two Engine Killers... one that happens just before a huge run of turbo pads that launch you off a platform over a huge pool of water that you must skip your car like a stone over to a grassy area, navigate a sharp turn and still make it to the finish gate. (Video and screenshots to come...)

The new scenery is awesome, the improved Stadium environment (from Nations) is insanely cool (especially the dynamic lighting) and the game is just too much fun.

I recommend anyone that hasn't tasted the goodness of all things TrackMania, try TrackMania Nations. You'll be hooked too, and find yourself purchasing them all. (You'll have to wait for United in the USA until February or March, unless they have some of the 10,000 copies left -- personally speaking, I think they won't stop with 10,000 but we'll see.)

TrackMania United - FNG Will Play Before the USA Release

Alright I admit it. I am an ABSOLUTE TrackMania JUNKIE. I learned today that the game I'm so eagerly anticipating... "TrackMania United" is to be released this year only (on November 17th!!!) in France, Australia, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland (French parts). For all other territories, it will be released in February/March 2007.

I also learned that they aren't leaving their TrackManiacs outside of these areas high and dry. They are offering 10,000 copies to be purchased online and pre-downloaded for the first addicts that get to them.

I'm proud to say that I'm downloading mine as we speak. I'm hoping that more of the Friday Night Gamers will score copies as well, so we don't all have to wait til next year to play.

Check out the Trailer and you'll get glimpse (that doesn't quite do it justice) of the festival of fun that is the world of TrackMania. In TrackMania United, we get the best of all TrackMania worlds combined... all pieces of all track styles are available in one game. If you thought the tracks were insanely cool and creative in the previous TrackMania games, wait until you see what gets brewed when desert and snow are mixed in one, and more!

It's a good thing I have the TrackMania Nations tournament to keep my mind occupied until I get my key for United... hehe... and if I lose in the tournament quickly; I'll have something to help me get over it quickly. *Cackle!*

Got Vroom?! Check out TrackMania today...