So, what's the story behind one of the best track racing games ever? Nadeo, the maker of the game, announced some time in 2007 that they were working on updated versions of TrackMania United and TrackMania Nations. Both new versions would have Forever added to their name, and would be made network compatible. So, now you get the best game package ever: TrackMania Nations Forever includes the new Stadium blocks and physics system introduced in TMU, allowing players of TMUF and TMNF to play on the same (Stadium) servers.

TrackMania United Forever was released on April 15, 2008, while TrackMania Nations Forever was released the following day. There are currently four basic games in the series:
- TrackMania, the original, which we will now refer to as TMO
- TrackMania Original
- TrackMania Sunrise, the second game, or TMS (which you can play here)
- TrackMania Sunrise eXtreme, or TMSX
- TrackMania Nations, the freeware game of the series, called TMN
- TrackMania Nations Forever, the freeware game of the series, called TMNF
- And finally, the two last ones: TrackMania United, which is more of a compilation of all previous games, called TMU and TrackMania United Forever, which we will call TMUF.

To understand what goes on in TrackMania you have to know this: this is probably the most customizable game ever, and you will find yourself racing on tracks to unlock "Coppers", the in-game currency. You can use these Coppers to buy different building blocks, simply called "Blocks", for your track, including: regular road, checkpoints, long bends, loop-the-loops, and jumps, which all snap to a grid automatically. Regular roads can be dragged to create straight sections as well as 90 degree corners. Most other blocks are automatically connected by placing them next to each other. There are three themes, or environments, to choose from: Rally, Alpine, and Desert. Each environment has a unique car for you to race with.

Another very important point: Cars. TrackMania doesn't have many: three styles exist: Rally super minis, Alpine 4x4s, and Speed muscle cars. But, each has numerous skins, which you can use to create your own model. By using a built-in or external graphics editor you can even create your own skins, or modify the originals to suit your taste.

So, why the change in names: TrackMania United is basically all TrackMania games built into one game that includes all the environments from the earlier games. TrackMania United features a peer-to-peer system so players can more easily share custom content, and a unified ranking system. The engine has been updated to include a pre-lighting accelerated system, which is used in the most recent environment, the Stadium. That environment has double the amount of blocks featured in the free version, including for instance dirt paths, water, and indoor sections.

Finally, Trackmania United Forever is an updated version of Trackmania United. It has seven environments and an all-new mediatracker. It has a similar layout to Trackmania Nations Forever, so you shouldn't be phased out too much. Furthermore, it features four main modes: race, stunt, platform, and puzzle as well as all of the tracks from Trackmania Nations Forever! Race on my friends, race on!

And even more Details:

- 4 single-player modes (Race, Platform, Stunt and Puzzle) on 420 spectacular and progressively difficult tracks.
- 140 new tracks with the new StarTrack solo campaign!
- 7 types of vehicles offering different gameplay and driving experiences in 7 TrackMania environments of which one in common and compatible with the free game, TrackMania Nations Forever (Stadium).


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