You control the cars in Trackmania 2 Canyon with the arrow keys on your keyboard. You can hit backspace to place your car back at the beginning of each track, or the Enter key to start from the last checkpoint. I often play the game with a cup of coffee in my other hand, or while sipping a soda. This is a simple game, but that's part of its charm.

The single-player portion of the game presents you with a series of tracks that start in the realm of the possible and slowly morph into designs from a fevered imagination. There will be huge jumps, and you will drive up the side of walls over huge drops. Most of the tracks can be finished in less than a minute, but it will take hours to get the best times on the higher-difficulty levels. The cost of failure is nonexistent, as a button press allows you to start over with no additional loading times or pauses. There is nothing here that will annoy you; you are always pushed to better your times and scores.

TrackMania 2 Canyon will give players an adrenaline-filled experience, even better than the original TrackMania game played by millions. TrackMania² goes far beyond traditional driving games with a fully customisable world of tracks generated by the players themselves!

The competition is fierce, and you're always stacked up against someone. After each attempt you're told how you compare against others in your state, country, or in the world. You can race against cars that keep the pace required to get each medal, or you can download a variety of ghosts from your state or country to see how the fastest racers achieved those record-setting times. Right now I'm one of the best racers in Ohio, but I'm guessing I've been knocked down a number of pegs since the weekend.

The single player game is fun, but the real joy comes from joining a multiplayer server, where you can see dozens of other racers vying to get to the finish lines the fastest. If you fail, there is nothing to worry about; you can try as many times as you can fit into the server's time limit. It's a rush when you're playing against competitors who are seeing a user-created track for the first time, and you are all given five minutes to get the best time. You can't crash into the other cars, but seeing their paths and where they fail is a great way to learn the tricks of each track.

It's easy to learn how to use the included editors to change the looks of your car or to create new tracks, and the community is already filled with user-created content for the game. The game is pure arcade, mixed with a bit of eye-candy, but everything feels incredibly right when you're racing. When you play a game where the physics are so internally consistent, it creates a kind of alternate reality within the time you spend playing, and Canyon does a great job of teaching you what is and isn't possible on each track. By the time you scream through your first loop or shave a few seconds off your time by landing a tricky jump, you'll be hooked.

There is an unlimited flow of content, a robust community, beautiful graphics, simple but satisfying controls, and content editors included with your purchase. The game is available now on the PC for $25. If I had to dig deep to come up with a reason not to buy this, I would say that people who don't like racing games will most likely not enjoy this racing game. For everyone else, this is a wonderfully fun and insane adventure at a good price. I'll see you online, as I'm still trying to become the best racer in Ohio. After that? The world.

publisher: Ubisoft

Game mode: single / multiplayer

Multiplayer mode: local network / Internet

TrackMania 2 is a full-fledged sequel to a popular racing game released in 2003, which received a number of expansions in the meantime. The sequel too was created by French developer Nadeo.

The general character of the game is very similar to the original one. It offers arcade driving model, and you have to perform spectacular slides and tricks. You can either race alone or with other players. In the latter case you can now choose to play on split screen.

TrackMania 2 puts even greater emphasis on creating your own tracks. The number of editing tools was significantly expanded, since you can not only select from pre-designed objects, but also create them from scratch. Specially for more advanced users, developers prepared ManiaScript, i.e. a real scripting language helpful in implementing complex commends.

In the second part of the cycle the creators made a lot of refinements in the visual side of the game, so that it fit modern-day standards. As a result, you can admire detailed vehicles and elements of the environment, as well as advanced lighting effects.

Another innovation is a social network called ManiaPlanet. It allows for exchange of information, sharing player-created tracks, as well as finding technical support in case of any problems with the game.

Game score 8.605 / 10 calculated out of 346 players' votes.
Expectations before the premiere: 9.2 / 10 calculated out of 582 players' votes. Clock tower 2.

System requirements

PC / Windows

Recommended: Core 2 Duo 1.5 GHz, 1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM - Vista/7), graphic card 256 MB (GeForce 6800 or better), 1.5 GB HDD, Windows XP/Vista/7