Nadeo recently released plans for 3 new additions to Maniaplanet. The first isn't really new, merely a new Beta build on the Shootmania Storm game. But the other two are more in line with RaceDepartment.
For all those traditional Trackmania racers out there, the legend is back: Stadium. The environment that has single handedly seen 12 million people play it will again lead the Free-to-Play section of the game. It will stay true to its roots, the cars are the same, speed is the same, the insane tracks are still going to be mind boggling, but the game will see a graphics improvement and extra tools that the racers will be able to use.
Along with the announcement of Stadium, Nadeo also announced an entirely new environment: Valley. And when you have a new environment, you need a new car. The Valley car is undoubtedly a rally car, 3 high powered lights on the front make sure that it isn't left to your imagination. Because of this, we can see this as a successor to the Rally environment, the cars are similar, but while the old Rally car is quite a boxy little thing, the new Valley car is easy on the eyes, it looks like it has just come off a long ago stage. But enough about the car, the racing side of it is what we're interested in. From the look of the video on release, it looks like just about every other Trackmania game. Crazy tracks and jumps that a normal car would never survive. But behind the video, first impressions are that it is not like every other TM game. Nadeo founder Florent Castelnerac had this to say of the new environment: "Some people say we are making a car racing game for the first time with Valley. Before it's been crazy crazy - now it's just driving crazy."
Time will tell as to whether us racers will feel quite the same to Valley as Castelnerac would have us believe, but without a doubt, Trackmania is back, and won't be leaving us for a while.
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