ManiaPlanet Teaser Video

I found a teaser video for ManiaPlanet. Enjoy.

TrackMania 2 - Canyon: To Be Unveiled at Gamers Assembly 2011

See the official (translated) article

Ubisoft announced today the presence of Nadeo at Gamers Assembly 2011 (translated).
This will be the stage for the unveiling of the official trailer for TrackMania 2: Canyon.

They will also unveil "ManiaPlanet" - the core community engine that TrackMania 2, and later ShootMania and QuestMania will be built upon.

Nadeo's developers will be haivng a Q&A session where fans will be able to ask questions that have been pressing on the minds of TrackMania fans worldwide for several years; and I am highly anticipating the amounts of information that will be released about this highly anticipated game very soon.

I'm hoping we won't have to wait long after Gamers Assembly 2011 to buy and play the game.  And if you're following Nadeo's A.R.G. for TrackMania 2, you'll see that nearly all puzzle pieces have been compiled by the community (4 left at the time of this writing):

TM2: Canyon - First look (4 piece left)

This picture is looking pretty hot, and if it's any indicator of what lies ahead, we certainly won't be disappointed.

More after 23 April!!!
GG...

TrackMania 2 and Portal 2: New Alternate Reality Games

Getting ready to start some serious TrackMania for FNG tonight, I launched the game and discovered they had a puzzle piece for me to download.  I knew that any day now they were going to start making news announcements about TrackMania 2, but I was under the impression that it was going to be in gaming magazines.

It looks like instead they've introduced a new Alternate Reality Game (ARG) in the form of a jigsaw puzzle... to boost excitement like unto the Portal 2 ARG that happened a while back (I learned tonight that Valve has started another Portal 2 ARG with the release of their Potato Sack indie pack!)

You'll get a random piece of the TrackMania puzzle when you launch your game.  Thundr and I got different pieces tonight.

You may view the ongoing compilation of the different TrackMania 2 puzzle pieces as they've been revealed on the ManiaPlanet forums.

As you can see it reveals the name of one of the new environments (and apparently the car that will go with it?)  Nadeo has stated that they will be releasing environments one at a time and players can buy the ones they want to have (not sure I'll like that model, but we'll see.)  I'll not spoil the reveal here, you'll have to click the link and go look at the picture for yourself.

Part of the TrackMania 2 puzzle image

Seeing this about made me wet my pants with glee... I'm stoked for both TrackMania 2 and Portal 2... both will be most excellent sequels to already incredible games.

Portal 2 - Co-op

Portal 2 will be released on steam on 19 April 2011.

I hope to have a date for TrackMania 2 VERY soon!!!

Don't waste any more time... go check out the ARGs (after you play some TrackMania with us tonight for FNG!)

FNG Still the #1 Thing to do in Utah on a Friday Night

Actually, we're not only the #1 thing to do on a Friday night in Utah, we're the top 3!!!  (At least at the time of this writing.)  :)

Good times... I'm just sayin'.

GEEX is back for October 2011

I was under the impression that GEEX wouldn't be happening again until 2012, but it's back and slated for October 2011.

Team FNG has been a part of GEEX in both of its prior years. 

The first year we competed in a TrackMania Nations tournament, put on by Protocol 42; and DirtyDan and I came home with some swanky new GeForce 9800GX2's that provided us some SLI goodness.

Last year, GEEX and Team FNG brought a TrackMania United Forever tournament to the stage (2nd row, 2nd column photo features our own Thundr, DirtyDan and Atholon); with Atholon and Thundr coming home with a GeForce GTX480 and a 27" Asus monitor (all thanks to LANDesk Software, who also provided a super-sweet Asus G73JH-X1 laptop to the reigning champion "Fallout".)

Fun was had by all, and I hope it can be even bigger and better this year.  I had an extra good time because I got to write a tournament tracker application that integrates with TrackMania United Forever's XMLRPC server and got to do my first podcast (thanks again LeGrande and Kurt!)

This year, GEEX is partnering with the Pushbutton Summit conference which will bring a host of panels and workshops for those in the digital media industry.

Big name sponsors for this year's event are already lining up, including Epic Games, EA Games and Disney Interactive Studios (which, while looking up links for them all, I discovered EA has Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on sale for $17.97 this weekend for those of you that don't have it... we're still holding out hope that Criterion and EA will work out the connectivity issues... but I digress.)

With these already on-board, I'm excited to see what other game developers/publishers will sponsor and have booths at the expo.  Maybe we'll enjoy the presence of Valve/Steam or Blizzard.

Team FNG would like to wish Media One and the Pushbutton Summit the best of success with GEEX 2011.  We look forward to tracking its progress and seeing what kind of event this will shape up to be.

Sucks to Be Us... Mirror's Edge 2 "Stalled"

GameSpot reported yesterday that DICE says production on Mirror's Edge 2 has been put on hold.

I really loved this game (aside from a bunch of unnecessary swearing...) - the gameplay is unique and refreshing and spending time trying to find new ways to traverse the City was quite enjoyable.  I have oftentimes found myself returning to play it through again.

Those of us that have been fans of the game were really hoping for a multiplayer "tag" in the 2nd one, but it seems our hopes may be dashed.

If you haven't tried the game, it's well worth the $20 (make sure to purchase it on Steam so you don't have the yucky SecuROM DRM.)

Maybe if more purchases happen, they'll continue development on the sequel.

Here's to hopin'!

MX vs ATV Reflex - $4.95 on Direct2Drive (TODAY ONLY!)

Thanks to Bomajoe for this gem... For all those FNGers that have been waiting for a sale on Reflex, it won't get much better than this.

Purchase MX vs ATV Relfex on Direct2Drive
(TODAY ONLY!!!)

Rumor has it on one of the Steam Forums that you can register the key with Steam and get that version.  I'm going to try it and see.  :)

Time to buy some licenses for the kiddies!  Go buy yourself some so we can play it during FNG!

GG...

Portal 2 - Valve's Doing it Right for All Gamers

Gamespot and others revealed most excellent news this morning (thanks DirtyDan and BomaJoe for notifying me) about the highly anticipated Portal 2, slated for release in April.

The most important in my mind, is the fact that PC gamers will be able to play against PS3 and Mac players, with online chat included.  In a sea of game developers who seem to be taking away all the features that have made PC Gaming great for all these years, it's so nice to see Valve keeping it real and going what seems to be the extra mile nowadays in keeping those features in for us.

As an added bonus, Valve will allow PS3 owners that link their PSN accounts with their Steam accounts to download a digital copy of Portal 2 on their PC.

PS3 players will also enjoy cloud support like their PC Gamer comrades for syncing their saved-game data online.

Thanks, Valve, for doing it right and keeping not only PC gaming real, but gaming just about everywhere (I say just about everywhere because it seems like Xbox is mysteriously left out for now.)  If you know more, please let us know!

The cake is still a lie... until April?!

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Limited Edition - $24.97 on Stardock

Stardock - Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: Limited Edition

For those of you who haven't bought into the craze yet, Bomajoe found Hot Pursuit for $24.97 today through Stardock.

Go get it, then come race with us!

Hot Pursuit - Thursday Night Gaming Edition

"Santa" dropped a special gift in Atholon's Steam account this morning and helped him join the other FNGers playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

We "gave it a spin" tonight with Thundr, who got his settings worked out so he can play with us too.

The first several runs found myself trying to bust both Thundr and Atholon, and while I came close a few times, was never successful.

Then we switched to me running from them as a lone racer... and you guessed it, couldn't get away.  It was fun though, so we all started taking turns being the lone racer, on a quest to be the first one to evade the cops and win the race.

I was finally victorious on one run where I missed what we thought was a shortcut... Atholon attempted the shortcut only to find it was a dead-end.  Thundr ended up with a fatal crash that took him out of the race as they tried to catch up with me.  A few miles later, the finish line was finally in sight.  I checked my radar and saw Atholon quickly approaching; but it was too late.

Victory ahead!

First lone racer victory of the night.

Our final race had Thundr and myself chasing Atholon.  Thundr unfortunately wrecked out of the race, and it left me tailing Atholon for the next 5 miles.  Those 5 miles had us careening through the streets, myself ramming Atholon's car as often as possible, and Atholon hitting the brakes and letting me fly on by as often as possible.

It came down to the wire, and we thought there would be a 2nd lone racer victory for the night; but I finally got that last bash in... cops win.

Here is a shot Thundr took just before the bust, and one I took of the wreck when the bust occured:

Take that punk racer!!!

So close... yet so crashed... BUSTED!

It goes without saying that we had a good time... did I mention this game FREAKING ROCKS?!

I'm also happy to report that we had no connectivity issues as far as getting gamers into the lobby was concerned.  Jarin had one drop out of the game, but it was due to alt-tabbing out to capture the screenshot you see above... now we just need to get eight of us together at once instead of little 2's and 3's here-and-there.

Hopefully that'll happen soon...
GG!