MX vs ATV Reflex on Steam for $4.00 This Week

MX vs ATV Reflex, the closest thing we have to the FNG favorite "Motocross Madness" series, is on sale this week on Steam for $4.00!  While not quite as fun, it is a working alternate to MCM.

Things to note:

• You must have an Xbox Controller if you want to play with a gamepad
• Getting into games by joining via Steam friends list is klunky sometimes.
• It's an awful lot of fun to go into practice mode and just go tear up the environment with your bike.  The graphics are pretty and the dirt physics are kinda fun.

It's definitely worth the $4.00 if you have it to spare... and will add one more game in your arsenal for potential FNG games.  Check it out if you don't already own it!

Classic Racing Restored! Re-Volt Released on GOG.com

The classic game Re-Volt from 1999 was released on GOG.com recently, and so far, it looks to be a fantastic implementation!  I'm not sure if it is a sale price or regular, but it's a nice one right now.  You can pick up Re-Volt for just $5.99 today!

I fired it up twice today and played for a few minutes each.  I had no problems, no crashes, just good R/C racing fun.

The game is letting me run it at 1920x1200, with 16x Anti-aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering and VSync -- and enjoying 60fps while doing so.

I'm excited to see how well it will work with networking online, so I hope some of you Friday Night Gamers will pick it up and play with me sometime.

Will a Games for Windows Live shut down take its toll?

I'm a little behind on this news, but Microsoft announced in August that, in process of them switching everything to Xbox branding, they will be closing the Games for Windows Marketplace. At the time of that announcement, they said Games for Windows Live would continue to function. However, also in August, they briefly displayed a support message on the Age of Empires Online page:

Games for Windows Live will be discontinued on July 1, 2014. Although it is available through Steam, Age of Empires Online requires features of the Games for Windows Live service. You can continue to enjoy all the features of Age of Empires Online as the service will remain 100% operational until July 1, 2014 when the server will shut down.

Now, I hadn't heard anything about GFWL shutting down until today, when a friend pointed me to this Kotaku article about Bioshock 2 being updated by Digital Extremes (who originally handled the multiplayer aspect of the game) which, in addition to other changes, removed GFWL from the game. A player's Bioshock 2 GFWL key can also now be activated in Steam, and all players now own the DLC, including the single player expansion, Minerva's Den.

So, it's great to see a developer taking the time to update a slightly older game to remove the dying GFWL, while also adding better support for controllers, and giving all players more content. However, that brought to mind other games which also use Games for Windows Live. What will happen to those games if/when GFWL does shut down?

As noted on ghacks.net, developers who do not update their games may be locking users out of minor features (leaderboards, achievements, matchmaking, etc.) or, in the case of games that use GFWL to manage save games, the players will be locked out of their saved games. Other games, like Fallout 3, would lock players out of any paid DLC, as it uses GFWL for authentification. With Fallout 3, modders have taken steps to bypass GFWL because of the issues players were having with it.

I hope that more developers will take the effort to update games when the authentification servers/services are going offline. I hope they will update games to not use GFWL, especially in the case that Microsoft does terminate its service July 1, 2014. Fortunately, if the data from PCGamingWiki is accurate, some developers are listening.

One last note (personal wish), I REALLY hope that if Steam ever does shut down, they find some way to make our games accessible. I've heard many claim that Valve has promised that would happen, but I've never seen an official source.

Ubisoft Brings ManiaPlanet to Salt Lake ComicCon / GEEX

Ubisoft will be at the Salt Lake ComicCon / GEEX with a booth of several game stations showing off TrackMania 2: Valley and ShootMania: Storm from the ManiaPlanet universe!

They will be holding some casual competitions with some fun TrackMania swag to give away!

Make sure to stop by their booth and see why the Friday Night Gamers have been long-time TrackManiacs and ShootManiacs!  You may even catch some of us at the booth.  DirtyD, ThatOneGuy, dGamefather, MinecraftManiac, KimPossible, Firecracker and PewDrew will be at the expo at various times on the various days, so make sure to say hi to us if you see us at the ComicCon!

If enough gamers stop by the booth, it might help us get a bigger and better Ubisoft booth at future GEEX/ComicCon expos, including the return of TrackMania tournaments with prizes like the TrackMania 2: Canyon tournament at GEEX 2011; the first official USA LAN tournament for Canyon!

Please make sure to show your support at the Ubisoft ManiaPlanet booth while you're at the event!

TrackMania 2: Canyon, Stadium; ShootMania: Storm 50% off this week!

Nadeo made a wonderful announcement yesterday that all but one of their ManiaPlanet titles are 50% off at Ubisoft's uPlay store and their own GamesPlanet store this week!

That means you can get the following:

• TrackMania 2: Canyon for $9.99 (normally $19.99)
• TrackMania 2: Stadium for $4.99 (normally $4.99)
• ShootMania: Storm for $9.99 (normally ($19.99)

If you're missing any titles, snag them now!  

Please note that the discount isn't being applied to the multi-packs on the GamesPlanet site as of this writing, but hopefully will be before the week is up.  If not, purchase each license individually so you can get TrackMania 2: Canyon/ShootMania: Storm at 3 for $30 or 5 for $50 instead of the normal 3 for $50 and 5 for $80; and TrackMania 2: Stadium at 3 for $15 or 5 for $25 instead of the normal 3 for $30 or 5 for $50.)

I will update this post if anything changes!

TrackMania² Valley: Ninja Jumps

Download the original AVI

The video above is a fun reminder of one of the major reasons I fell in love with TrackMania... transition jumps that the Friday Night Gamers endearingly refer to as "Ninja Jumps".

TrackMania.
Best.  Game.  Ever.

TrackMania 2 Canyon Video - [PF] ///ADRENALINE (Trailer)

The car skin used in FunZack11's video trailer of his upcoming track "[PF] ///ADRENALINE" for TrackMania 2 Canyon bears an uncanny resemblance to the Island car from TrackMania Sunrise and United.

After seeing this fun video I say, "Nadeo, bring on TrackMania 2: Island!"  :)

Enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: Nadeo has not made any announcements about Island or a similar environment being brought to the ManiaPlanet family, but it would sure be cool.

TrackMania 2 Valley Release Date Announced

At long last, Nadeo made an epic announcement today about a release date for TrackMania 2: Valley; and it is soon!

04 July 2013

TrackMania 2 Valley

Apparently foregoing a closed beta like many TrackManiacs signed up for, Nadeo feels Valley is ready to unleash... and here's what we'll get:

• A new 65 track solo campaign
• A new set of blocks for map authoring
• All the power of ManiaPlanet already available in Canyon and Stadium, as well as ShootMania: Storm
• The same endless replay value all of Valley's predecessors, including TrackMania United/Nations Forever.

I don't know if any players have already had their hands on it in a closed alpha or beta, but if they have, we can also expect to have some custom player maps already available on Mania Exchange!

I'm still trying to track down what the price will be, but for now I will anticipate $19.99, like Canyon.  I'm also trying to find out if we can purchase before 04 July, so stay tuned.

Enjoy the original official announcement trailer below!  Then have fun BBQing and taking a nice drive through the Valley on the 4th of July!

TrackMania 2: Valley will be available on Steam and TrackMania.com and is published by Ubisoft.

TrackMania 2 United Next Month?!

Spotted in ManiaPlanet today...

Whatever it is, it doesn't look like it's coming straight from Nadeo.

The following are seen at the bottom of the ManiaLink:

I'm excited to see what July brings!

TrackMania 2 Stadium Launches Today!

Nadeo and Ubisoft are officially releasing 

TrackMania² Stadium

today at 9:00am Pacific Time!

Join us on the Team FNG - Stadium: Time Attack server!

The game is available to purchase via digital download at:

TrackMania.com

Steam

Enjoy the TrackMania 2 Stadium launch trailer!

The insane fun Stadium TrackMania environment that has entertained over 12 million PC gamers since 2006 in TrackMania Nations ESWC and Nations/United Forever has been given new life as the newest title in the ManiaPlanet universe, and second title in the TrackMania 2 franchise. Nadeo has done an incredible job making Stadium as close to the original as possible in the newer, shinier graphics engine. The game even lets us port our old classic favorites from the original Nations/United Forever, so there are already hundreds of thousands of tracks available for everyone to enjoy.

Coming down from a loop

The game has been in Open Beta for a few months and has been really fun to play.  New blocks have been added to the environment since its original days, so we can expect a new level of fun maps to play.  Speaking of which, the game comes with a brand new single player campaign of 65 new maps.

... and at the nice price point of $9.99 it will provide you with countless hours of entertainment without breaking the budget.  The price drops to as low as $7.20 per license if you buy multi-license packs from either of the above locations.

The Friday Night Gamers discovered TrackMania Nations ESWC, the original Stadium environment, back in 2006 when it was released to help promote the Electronic Sports World Cup.  We had just purchased MX vs ATV Unleashed and Age of Empires III just weeks before, but they both took the shelf as we experienced the epic awesome that is TrackMania.

End race podium

For those new to the TrackMania scene, let me explain.

Nadeo took a unique and amazing approach to racing games.  They eliminated player collisions which causes some really neat side effects:

• It's just you against the track; the competition comes as you vie for the fastest time against the other competitors.
• The servers can hold a LOT more people at a lot less bandwidth because there is less data to worry about to account for collisions.

Who needs player collisions when you can do this?!

And who doesn't love the idea of driving a car on a wall, through a corkscrew, taking some sik air off a huge jump, barrel rolling off short launch ramps and more?

TrackMania map editor

Nadeo has developed some wonderful creative tools for those that like to build tracks, including a 3D-object importer so you can add your own scenery, etc.  All ManiaPlanet games include a full blown map editor, as well as a full-blown replay editor for those times when you have a really great run and want to show it off to the rest of your friends.

+1 for Formula 1 car on dirt

Don't delay... if you haven't experienced the world of TrackMania, there is no better time than the present.  Pick up your copy today; and feel free to snag a multi-pack for cheaper and get your friends in the game too!  Grab them all and head over to the "Team FNG - Stadium: Time Attack" server to play with us in the World | North America | United States of America | Utah zone.

And get hyped!  Now that Stadium is out, I hope it means that TrackMania 2 Valley will be going into Open Beta soon!  The more TrackMania the better!  See you at the races!