Elevated Entropy

This game is something of a flawed diamond, there is plenty of things about it to drive you mad but also some truly addictive parts. The format is that there are 4 car / track types, Canyon, Valley, Lagoon and Stadium. The latter is what most people think of when they see trackmania, smooth tracks and a fast F1 style car. Of the 4 only Canyon and Stadium are any fun, the other cars and tracks are just not enjoyable to play, the cars handle so unpredictably that you rage quit after a few seconds. But, avoid those and do some online play of Canyon and Stadium tracks and there is years of fun to be had. The tracks in Canyon are fast, fun and spectacular with huge drifts and challenging obstacles. The format is a time attack format, you have say 5 minutes to put in the best time you can on a track, other players can't collide with you, you can restart as many times as you like in the 5 minutes. At the end the top 3 players make the podium and you improve your position on the leaderboard. The ranking is slightly bizarre because unlike other TM games, the leaderboard doesn't show lap times so you never know where your time compares. Rather you gain positions for beating other players online, completing the solo medals and doing Challenges. Over time you rank up from 0 to 9, it took me 3 or more years to reach level 7, so it's quite some grind. Unfortunately player numbers have dwindled online now, so only the hardcore champs are playing it for fun, making it tough for newcomers to compete. This game could have been stunning with a few tweaks, there are some odd bugs around too, but TM is famous for exploiting the odd physics! Overall if you can focus on the good parts and endure the bad parts there is endless fun to be had, new maps are created by talented community players all the time, still and they can be quite a challenge to learn and complete, very rewarding! Avoid Valley and Lagoon and focus on Online and Challenges and this game is worth the pain.