Aramation Games

TrackMania Nations Forever (quite a mouthful) is a completely free racing game featuring gravity and physics defying tracks and completely unrealistic vehicle handling. If you’re looking for the next racing simulation, or urban racing like Need for Speed, this is not. TrackMania Nations Forever completely eschews storyline and plunks you directly onto a list of tracks. There is no vehicle performance tweaking and no vehicle class to worry about.

What you need to worry about is getting the best time possible as you’re constantly ranked in your geographical region (such as Ontario) and country (Canada). When you see your score, and believe me it will be pretty bad, you’ll want to keep playing the same track over and over to increase your rating and be better than these anonymous fellow citizens.

The game features 65 tracks for both single player and multi player. Multi player is a bit of a misnomer as all it does is racing on the same track at the same time and try to get the best run time possible. There is no collision between the players, and first time you play multi player, it is a bit jarring since it is unlike any other racing game you’ve played. Once you get bored of the included tracks, you can create your own virtually ensuring longetivity.

So why is this game available for free? Nadeo, the creators of TrackMania series, would like you to upgrade to TrackMania United Forever which has updated graphics, new assets for track editor and more levels such as desert, snow and rally. At $40 USD, it isn’t a bad upgrade (as it also comes with a gimmicky 3D glasses for the 3D mode) but I recommend you give a go at TrackMania Nations Forever and find out if this different style of racing is your cup of tea. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to you…

Rating: 80%

[Download TrackMania Nations Forever for free from Nadeo]

WipEout series has always given PlayStation owners a nice futuristic racer, and the formula doesn’t change with the latest entry for the PSP. WipEout pulse refines the formula in the arguably the best entry in the franchise so far.

You pilot a fairly fragile hovercraft as you race to the finish line. Most races feature opponents and plenty of weapons to shoot them down with, as well as defensive shield and speed boost. You can also choose to absorb those power ups to keep your craft from exploding into million little pieces. Tracks are challenging even without opponents as you must navigate tight corners and gravity defying loops.

Apart from regular race, there are time trials without opponents, elimination mode where you must destroy everybody else, Zone where your craft keeps accelerating and you must keep it from exploding as long as possible. The modes are plenty, and there is an incredibly amount of races for you to complete. Of course you can also go online and fight against brutal human opponents.

The visuals are superb as this racer looks better than almost any other game on the PSP. Framerates are smooth even with a lot of action on screen, explosions look gorgeous and ship models are as detailed as ever. The only downside is this game doesn’t introduce any new mechanics to the WipEout formula. Not that it is such a bad thing, as this game is the best so far.

Rating: 85%

Fatal Inertia, one of the first games to be announced for PS3 is now looking more and more like an Xbox 360 exclusive… This futuristic racer from Koei doesn’t involve neither dynasty nor samurai warriors, and it is being made in Toronto, Canada! The Xbox 360 version will be released on September 11 2007, and the PS3 version is technically “indefinitely delayed”.

[Read press release from Koei]