Discover TrackMania with the unofficial trailer!

Trailers are cool. Videos in general are cool. TrackMania is cool. What can possibly go wrong? Here’s an unofficial trailer by POBmaestro. I’ll let him do the talking himeslf:

In appreciation of Nadeo’s generous hard work in releasing the free upgrade Trackmania Forever, I have created an Unofficial Trackmania Trailer. This project took four weeks of many a late night while trying to balancing work and study. The trailer, released initially by Florent of Nadeo, is designed to appeal to new and veteran players alike, in that it traces TM back to its roots back with the original Trackmania, then through to the masterpiece that is TMF. In its first week of release, the trailer has already received a great deal of wonderful feedback, which has made all the efforts feel well worth it and then some more.

Tmx downtime, again sadly…

As you may have noticed, TMX is down for about 3 days now. Again because of hosting problems. As MrA states on the official TM forums:

Yep, the host wants TMX to pay for a dedicated bandwidth due to what they are calling a high level of ‘acculated traffic’ … In other words we are busy…
However, we are not anywhere near our month limit (or close to it) from our own measurements and so at the moment we dispute this…
I’m quite annoyed that they choose to suspend the site, I don’t think its correct behaviour from them, but we will not be bullied by that…

As MrA states in an additional post, they hope to get access today. When they do get it, the site needs to be taken offline.

We wish the TMX-staff good luck in getting tmx back online.

Read more here

Eat My Dust - What’s your favorite typ of online track?

With Forever, I’ve started playing a lot more online (meaning I play an hour or two in the evening ). And I’ve realized that Stadium dirt is excellent for online play! I’ve always been on the “dirt is too random to be fun”-side, and avoided it online, but now I’ve changed my mind. A possible reason could be the fact that it’s now possible to play on Nations servers even if you log in to United. Thus, I’ve played on more “Stadium only” servers. Add to this the fact that Nations players can now use dirt.

Dirt isn’t all I play, though. Technical tracks have always been a personal favorite of mine, at least in Stadium. And it still is - it even beats dirt!

Now, my problem is that, since I usually play only in the evenings (23-01 local time, that would be 21-23 GMT, I believe), most of my online buddies are offline. I could solve this in numerous different ways: get more buddies, play earlier in the day (or later, not sure when people play, in fact), or perhaps I should point out a time and place (server) and invite all of you to come and play with me! (If that sounds like a good idea, please suggest servers and a suitable date and time - perhaps someone can even host a private server for us?).

For now, though, I’ll keep playing online with strangers, and perhaps meet a new friend or two. But for you guys, I have one final question: what’s your favorite type of online track?

Forever?

So, you’ve all had the time to test Forever thorughly now. Now let’s hear your thoughts! Will Forever really last… forever? Or is it just the news that is appealing, and then it will die out? And how good did Nadeo succeed anyway? Did Forever meet your expectations, or did it leave you wanting more? Would you say Nado listened to the community, or did they just add their own stuff?

Come on, let’s hear it

Buddy List

TM Forever is out, but you knew that already. Since most of you guys who read this blog know each other, both from here and from TMX, let’s add each other to the in-game buddy list. You can add me (Jozii), and write your in-game login in the comments if you wish, so others are able to add you to their lists

You can never have too many friends, at least not in a game that has a buddy list

Screenshots

We have plenty of screenshots laying around, but I’m not publishing any So, got any suggestions/thoughts about what do to with these? All in one post? A contest using these screenshots? Anything?

I’d love to hear your ideas on what we should do with the yet to be published screenshots

Cool TM Vid

TimeBreaker has made a really cool TM video, through a special website called Animoto.com. The video features some of TB’s own screenshots (some even featured in this blog) and some nice music.

Check it out!

Holiday

I’ll be off skiing until Sunday. There probably won’t be any posting until then (in other words, not much different than the last few weeks ).

However, in the mean time, don’t forget the following:

• 8th Question Quest - The quiz ends on Sunday! Make sure you’ve entered before then.
• Coppers Donation Contest - I still haven’t posted any results. That means the contest is still open for entries. Now that the blog doesn’t have any income from Track Reviews, a few donations are always welcome.
• Traveling TM Journal - Sign up for the Traveling Journal project! The idea is for TM Players to fill a few pages in a blank book, then pass the journal on to the next TM player in line. We need participants!

You’ve got enough to keep you busy, so see you next week

Traveling TM Journal

Tired of all the racing contests, building events, movie making and all the other TM stuff that seems to exist as countless projects? Want to get to know your fellow TM players, while also doing something different with the TM community? Then this is for you!

I started a project a few days ago, partly based on a culture class I’m taking at school. In short, I’m to release three journals - books with empty pages - to be filled in by other people. A journal can travel the world, as it’s passed on from hand to hand.

One of these journals I’d like to base on the TM community. Simply, TM players should write a few pages each in the journal (personal stuff, draw something, stick pictures in it, etc.), and in the end, we might just end up with a book in which at least a few TM players have written something down about themselves.

Think this sounds interesting? There’s a more thorough thread explaining how it works in practice at TMX. Read it here!

I hope to see at least a few people signing up for this, as I think it could be really cool Comments are welcome.

Happy New Year!

A year has come, a year has gone. Tonight’s the night when 07 becomes 08.

2007 was a great TM year, although as the year ends many things are left uncertain. The future is the only thing that can reveal the truth about these uncertainties (personally I’m dying for a new TM environment), so let’s all hope for an even better 2008!

Happy New Year, TM Community, and have a very pleasant evening