Arcesius Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Alright if you arlready unlocked the Black Tracks in a couple of days, you will be fine ? In my case, the hardest track for me was #178, I spent 6 hours on that one. Followed by #180, #169, #170 and some Lagoon tracks that I don't recall right now. My biggest "mistake" was finishing Black Valley thinking "Hell yeah, this is over now!" since I had heard so much about Valley being the hardest part of the game... But Lagoon was very tough as well and having already changed my mindset to the "it's easy sailing from here" made it really frustrating. But you are making really great progress! I am not expecting you to hit a wall having come this far without any issues ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 (edited) Just watched the black series on YouTube so that I can answer your question properly: 164, 175, 178, 180... and 140 in red. Brutal. Valley tracks in general in this game can eat one. The other three are great. 169 and 176 also took me too long but didn't make the "top 5." But there are some really fun ones in black though such as 161, 165, 181, 186, 193 and 195. Look forward to those. They have long sweeping turns that really enhance the flow of being in the zone. You're killing it. I have complete faith in you. Edited January 30, 2022 by GonzoWARgasm 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Shrooba Posted February 2, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ????????I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... This is hands down my hardest platinum, and one of the hardest games I have ever played. I actually saw this game around a year ago and saw the conversations on Track 180 and thought to myself "there's no way I'm touching that one, don't wanna risk that 100%"... But @KindaSabbath, you inspired me to give both Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo a go, and it's because of your words that I found the motivation to tackle these 2 games, and it's done at last. Thank you as well @Angus1343, @VoidVictorious, @Destructor-8 and Sabbath for hearing me rage at the game! ? This is one that I'll forever be proud of, I can't believe it. On 30/01/2022 at 2:49 AM, Arcesius said: But you are making really great progress! I am not expecting you to hit a wall having come this far without any issues ? On 30/01/2022 at 2:16 PM, GonzoWARgasm said: You're killing it. I have complete faith in you. Guys, thank you for the motivation, seriously. Black Valley was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in any video game, but hearing from others that I could do it gave me the inspiration to go on. I also nearly gave up on 170 but just remembering that I made it that far, stopping there would mean all my frustration up to that point would be for nothing. This is my hardest completion ever, and your words mean a lot fellas!... and also you too @Baker, but for some reason I can't include your quote since it's on the previous page! ? Later on I'll do a proper in-depth review and discuss each environment, the physics of each car, and those cursed half-pipe jumps, but I'll take a short break! And of course, there's some other checklists I'll need to catch up on! I'll also go into which Black tracks I hated the most if you're interested in that! ? In any case, have a good day everyone! Edited February 2, 2022 by Shrooba 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 37 minutes ago, Shrooba said: I also nearly gave up on 170 but just remembering that I made it that far, stopping there would mean all my frustraton up to that point would be for nothing. This is my hardest completion ever, and your words mean a lot fellas! Knew you could do it. How does it feel to have ascended? Btw... 12 days is disgusting. That's craaazy!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destructor-8 Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 47 minutes ago, Shrooba said: LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... This is hands down my hardest platinum, and one of the hardest games I have ever played. I actually saw this game around a year ago and saw the conversations on Track 180 and thought to myself "there's no way I'm touching that one, don't wanna risk that 100%"... But @KindaSabbath, you inspired me to give both Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo a go, and it's because of your words that I found the motivation to tackle these 2 games, and it's done at last. Thank you as well @Destructor-8 and Sabbath for hearing me rage at the game! Congrats dude! It is done! I'm glad you gave it a go as you were always going to do it & you did it very quick as well. It was good to watch you get through a lot of the hard parts over the last few days & you really did amazing man! I know the review will be really good & can't wait to see what you do next! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted February 2, 2022 Author Share Posted February 2, 2022 @Destructor-8 @GonzoWARgasm Thanks for the messages fellas! I used up 25 rep points within the past 24 hours so I can't rep your posts at the moment, but I'll remember to do it tomorrow! ? 1 hour ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Knew you could do it. How does it feel to have ascended? Btw... 12 days is disgusting. That's craaazy!! It feels... like a relief! Exhausting! ? Black Valley really drained me; if it weren't for that and Black Canyon's last 2 tracks this would honestly be a lot more fun overall. Glad it's finally over with! Also, love the SSJ2 Gohan image, I love Dragon Ball! 58 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Btw... 12 days is disgusting. That's craaazy!! Yeah, I got it done pretty quick somehow! My initial goal was to get the Red tracks done by the end of February... guess I went a bit overboard on that one! ? I guess playing CTR before going into this helped somewhat, although their playstyles contrast quite a lot; CTR's controls are always consistent no matter the environment, but it differs a ton with TT's cars and also considering that environments are added to the equation. In any case, it was quite a ride! 43 minutes ago, Destructor-8 said: Congrats dude! It is done! I'm glad you gave it a go as you were always going to do it & you did it very quick as well. It was good to watch you get through a lot of the hard parts over the last few days & you really did amazing man! I know the review will be really good & can't wait to see what you do next! Thanks man, it was definitely quite a grind and I'm glad you were there to see me do 180! Having another person watch made the process a bit more endurable, and it already frustrated me as is! ? I'm torn between considering 178 or 180 harder, but they're both definitely up there! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
det_gittes Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 1 hour ago, Shrooba said: LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... Congratulations! Also, it feels strange to learn that you found this game so difficult given that you needed less than two weeks to complete it I also started playing TT on a whim a couple of weeks ago and one thing I know is that while I may never complete it, it's so addictive and enjoyable (in a twisted, rage-inducing way) that I would be missing out on a lot of fun if I skipped it. For me it's definitely a long-term project and I will consider it a success if I even get to the Black series this year ? If I may have a question - do you play on a tv or a monitor? One thing I've noticed playing Trials Fusion is that there are tracks which are literally impossible for me on a tv (I mean custom tracks, not from the main game) - but I can pass them easily playing Fusion on the PC - since input lag would probably make a big difference in this game too, I wonder if I should consider hooking up my PS5 to a monitor at some point (I don't even have one currently, as we only have laptops in the house but I've been thinking of getting a monitor at some point anyway). Once again congrats on your great achievement!!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 Bro congrats!! Fuckin straight beast, all there is to say. Those are the kind of games that really make that overall hundo shine, you should be proud as hell. Good job!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted February 2, 2022 Author Share Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, det_gittes said: Congratulations! Also, it feels strange to learn that you found this game so difficult given that you needed less than two weeks to complete it I also started playing TT on a whim a couple of weeks ago and one thing I know is that while I may never complete it, it's so addictive and enjoyable (in a twisted, rage-inducing way) that I would be missing out on a lot of fun if I skipped it. For me it's definitely a long-term project and I will consider it a success if I even get to the Black series this year If I may have a question - do you play on a tv or a monitor? One thing I've noticed playing Trials Fusion is that there are tracks which are literally impossible for me on a tv (I mean custom tracks, not from the main game) - but I can pass them easily playing Fusion on the PC - since input lag would probably make a big difference in this game too, I wonder if I should consider hooking up my PS5 to a monitor at some point (I don't even have one currently, as we only have laptops in the house but I've been thinking of getting a monitor at some point anyway). Once again congrats on your great achievement!!! Thank you so much man! Yeah, I'm honestly surprised I got it done so quick! My first game I ever played was I believe Colin McRae Rally on the PS1, but I was never very good at it.. I did play a bit of Trackmania in high school but I was pretty mediocre when I played it then as well! ? In any case, I recently did the CTR dev times since I do like arcade racers, and I guess being patient with that let me adjust to Trackmania Turbo a bit more. I got it done quick, but holy moly those Black Valley tracks were somethin' else! ? Never doubt yourself man, the only platinum blocker for this game is giving up. Considering you've done Trials Fusion, you have a ton of patience, so you've got a good shot at this. The game's difficulty ramps up quite fairly from White through Red tracks, although a few Reds stick out quite a bit. Black is where the real frustration begins; it's mainly 169 and 170 that ramp it up a ton, and all of Black Valley is where it really steps up. However, while Black Lagoon had some tricky ones it was a ton more fun than Valley. And in retrospect, Black Stadium wasn't too hard but it's incredibly annoying since it's the last 10 and you just want it over with when you reach that point! ? I'd say once 180 is done, you've finished the hardest parts of the game. I used my good ol' TV by the way! If you prefer a monitor though, go ahead! ? For me, I have a TV in my room that I've been using for quite a long time now. 7 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: Bro congrats!! Fuckin straight beast, all there is to say. Those are the kind of games that really make that overall hundo shine, you should be proud as hell. Good job!! Thanks man! This game was so fricking difficult! ? I mean I got through it relatively quick but oh man did those final tracks really get to me! It's always definitely a thing to look back on harder games, and I believe it's in part due to the fact that they spend more time to finish; the more time you spend with a game, the more you remember it. Thanks again, I appreciate the kind words! Edited February 2, 2022 by Shrooba 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidVictorious Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 8 hours ago, Shrooba said: LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... This is hands down my hardest platinum, and one of the hardest games I have ever played. I actually saw this game around a year ago and saw the conversations on Track 180 and thought to myself "there's no way I'm touching that one, don't wanna risk that 100%"... But @KindaSabbath, you inspired me to give both Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo a go, and it's because of your words that I found the motivation to tackle these 2 games, and it's done at last. Thank you as well @Angus1343, @VoidVictorious, @Destructor-8 and Sabbath for hearing me rage at the game! This is one that I'll forever be proud of, I can't believe it. Guys, thank you for the motivation, seriously. Black Valley was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in any video game, but hearing from others that I could do it gave me the inspiration to go on. I also nearly gave up on 170 but just remembering that I made it that far, stopping there would mean all my frustration up to that point would be for nothing. This is my hardest completion ever, and your words mean a lot fellas!... and also you too @Baker, but for some reason I can't include your quote since it's on the previous page! Later on I'll do a proper in-depth review and discuss each environment, the physics of each car, and those cursed half-pipe jumps, but I'll take a short break! And of course, there's some other checklists I'll need to catch up on! I'll also go into which Black tracks I hated the most if you're interested in that! In any case, have a good day everyone! Your positivity and skill got you through that game! Keep up the good work! You are a true gamer! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 (edited) 21 hours ago, Shrooba said: LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... Ha, I when I saw that you got Valley done, I knew that you would soon have the game at 100%... Huge congrats! That's a fast completion time, holy hell! Quote Guys, thank you for the motivation, seriously. Black Valley was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in any video game, but hearing from others that I could do it gave me the inspiration to go on. I also nearly gave up on 170 but just remembering that I made it that far, stopping there would mean all my frustration up to that point would be for nothing. This is my hardest completion ever, and your words mean a lot fellas!... and also you too @Baker, but for some reason I can't include your quote since it's on the previous page! Yeah I think for most people, Black Valley is where the game goes from being addictive and fun, to turning into a rather frustrating experience. Luckily it's only 2-3 tracks that really drain your energy, but those tracks are brutal compared to anything else in the game ? Well, and the two narrow loops of death at the very end of #170 ruining your run ? 19 hours ago, Shrooba said: It feels... like a relief! Exhausting! Black Valley really drained me; if it weren't for that and Black Canyon's last 2 tracks this would honestly be a lot more fun overall. Glad it's finally over with! It's funny, because this is precisely how I felt when I was done with the game... With other challenging experiences, I feel mostly extatic when I finally conquer the challenge. It's a feeling of elation and pride, a happy moment that gives me back all the energy the challenge took from me. With Trackmania... I remember earning my last Trackmaster Medal and with it the plat, and instead of having an energetic reaction to having finished, I just laid down on my couch and stayed there for a couple of minutes before closing the game ? I cannot even begin to imagine how draining the game must be when played only over the span of two weeks! Again, congrats on getting this one to 100%... Nicely done!! 19 hours ago, det_gittes said: If I may have a question - do you play on a tv or a monitor? One thing I've noticed playing Trials Fusion is that there are tracks which are literally impossible for me on a tv (I mean custom tracks, not from the main game) - but I can pass them easily playing Fusion on the PC - since input lag would probably make a big difference in this game too, I wonder if I should consider hooking up my PS5 to a monitor at some point (I don't even have one currently, as we only have laptops in the house but I've been thinking of getting a monitor at some point anyway). I am about to start gaming on a UHD gaming monitor when I move to my new place in march ? However, just also to state that I played Trackmania on a 65" TV that does not have the best reaction time ? Not sure if it made things more difficult, but it worked fine. Edited February 3, 2022 by Arcesius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadly_Ha_Ha Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Hey congrats on Okami! I'm eager to hear your thoughts now that you finished it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 (edited) Figured since I've been dead here for a couple weeks that I'd refresh things with a good ol' update! Bit of a short one, but I reckon it'd be a good sign that, well, I'm not dead. ? Since I got back I've been catching up with some checklists. Responded to a couple so far but I've got some more to catch up on after I post this. After doing Trackmania I wanted to take a break and just chill with some games that don't make me want to crush my console to atoms, hence the absence. ? For starters, I've finished Okami HD and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint respectively. I started those two around the start of my University holiday at the start of December, but after a quick detour through the agony of the CTR dev times, Crash 4 and Trackmania alike, those 2 games were on the backseat for a hot minute. ? But nonetheless, they're done! ... And this just reminds me again that I still need to finish that Trackmania review. If I delay it any more it'll meet the same fate as a game starring a particular orange marsupial friend, and we can't have that! ? I've actually put 1000 words into it so far, but it's got some work to do. I'll start properly grinding it out and properly polish it off. I've uploaded a few videos of the tracks I'll mainly be discussing as my most agonizing out of the bunch, and I figured I'd compare it to the CTR dev times since these two are the cream of the crop when it comes to hard arcade racing challenges... not counting Need for Speed's Prestige events, I think I've filled my yearly quota of bullshit challenges in video games! ? However, I will be starting CoD: Modern Warfare Remastered, so we'll see how the Mile High Club treats me... Then after that I'm VERY eager to talk about Okami HD since holy it had some great moments. @Deadly_Ha_Ha I'll try and have a review for Okami done within the next couple weeks, man what a game it was. I can see why it's the game that started off your profile, it's a heck of a high note to start it on. The game's soundtrack is very beautiful, I hope they make a sequel... I can only imagine how it feels for people waiting since 2006! On 03/02/2022 at 6:55 PM, Arcesius said: Ha, I when I saw that you got Valley done, I knew that you would soon have the game at 100%... Huge congrats! That's a fast completion time, holy hell! Yeah I think for most people, Black Valley is where the game goes from being addictive and fun, to turning into a rather frustrating experience. Luckily it's only 2-3 tracks that really drain your energy, but those tracks are brutal compared to anything else in the game Well, and the two narrow loops of death at the very end of #170 ruining your run I cannot even begin to imagine how draining the game must be when played only over the span of two weeks! Again, congrats on getting this one to 100%... Nicely done!! Sorry for my comically late response on this one! Thanks, Valley for me was always the big hurdle at the back of my mind when I started the game... Heck, even before I started it. But ironically enough, it made me quite demotivated on 170 and 178. I hear people always talking about how 180 is the hardest, so when I saw myself struggling on those 2 tracks I'd just say in utter disbelief "180 is HARDER than this?!!" I'm still pondering on which one is the absolute hardest, but I'd say it's a close tie between 170 and 178... and maybe 180, not sure. The good thing with 180 is that the hard part is just the start, from there it's just controlling your nerves. I feel 178 is a bit too far on the bullshit factor with those dreaded half-pipe jumps, and 170... And I see you saw my 170 run! Yeah... that fricking loop nearly got the best of me! If the ghost overtook me there I'd be furious! I also recently posted my 180 run... let's just say it was a fucking close one. ? I got cosmically lucky at the end on a lot of these black tracks. So much so that I'm worried I'm gonna be unlucky with any other game I play the rest of the year! On 03/02/2022 at 6:55 PM, Arcesius said: With Trackmania... I remember earning my last Trackmaster Medal and with it the plat, and instead of having an energetic reaction to having finished, I just laid down on my couch and stayed there for a couple of minutes before closing the game I felt the same when I finished my 200th Gold for the plat. Black Stadium isn't too hard, but because I was just so eager to have it done, it ironically made the last 10 tracks so bloody frustrating. Even Track 200 which isn't demanding at all had me stumped for an hour because I was just too ready to have it be over. I'd say the most excited I felt was when I finished 180, I was more elated finishing that than actually obtaining the platinum! ? Edited February 23, 2022 by Shrooba 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadly_Ha_Ha Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 I'm glad you enjoyed it, it really is one of the greatest carry-overs from the PS2 and even on that console which had some of the best games ever made, it was really special. I'll anticipate your full review for sure 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Shrooba Posted March 2, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 2, 2022 (edited) Completion #69 (Yes, that number) Trackmania Turbo - 2nd February 2022 Completion time: 1 week, 5 days It’s about time I stopped delaying this bad boy and got to finishing it! ? Sorry I’ve been kinda dead on PSNProfiles for the past month; after finishing Trackmania Turbo I decided to just chill with some more relaxing games like Breakpoint and Okami as I mentioned earlier, so I may have slacked on my PSNProfiles stuff! Finished COD 4: MW Remastered too which was a fun game… except for Veteran mode, but that’s another story for another review that I (hopefully) won’t procrastinate on! But anyway, here’s the review! Funnily enough, this will be my first review without a Story section since TT doesn’t have a story, so let’s get into the juicy stuff. Developed by Nadeo and published by Ubisoft, the Trackmania series has spanned since 2003, and has seen quite an active community in the speedrunning community. I believe one of the most famous examples of this is Trackmania: United/Nations Forever, released for free on PC around 2006-2008 (due to different versions of the game), where people would rush to execute bizarre shortcuts and push the game to it’s absolute limit. Back in my high school days I actually played Nations Forever with some other friends… but I was never quite good at it! It’s such a distant memory that I only vaguely remember playing some of the Blue tracks and struggling to achieve Gold medals. So trust me, I’m no Trackmania veteran! But in any case, Trackmania Turbo was quite a big step for the series since it was the first one to be on Playstation and Xbox—yup, this technically isn’t the first console release for the Trackmania series. That ol’ medal of honour goes to Trackmania Build to Race for the Wii of all consoles… But I digress! I should probably start talking about the actual game this review is meant to revolve around. The basis of Trackmania Turbo’s gameplay are 3 factors: the cars you drive, the environments of which you traverse with said cars, and lastly, the overall campaign that it revolves around, as divided between 5 varying levels which describe its difficulty; White, Green, Blue, Red and finally the Black series. The four environments are split between Canyon Grand Drift, Down & Dirty Valley, Rollercoaster Lagoon, and International Stadium (or simply Canyon, Valley, Lagoon and Stadium). Given that this is a racing game, the control-scheme is incredibly simple… but hard to master. R2 to accelerate, left stick to move left and right, and X to brake. There’s also Square to accelerate but only wrong people choose that option. ? And restarts are instant! You can either restart to a checkpoint with Triangle or reset to the beginning of a track with a 3 second countdown via the Circle button. You achieve a certain medal depending on your time. These range from Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Trackmaster (which is essentially the dev’s time). You’ll need all 200 Golds and 50 Trackmasters from any track as part of achieving the platinum trophy. However, the tracks don’t simply get harder and harder; within each 10 tracks you’ll see a slight variance of difficulty. Red Canyon for instance has people most often remember 125 and 130 as quite brutal tracks, but this isn’t to say that ALL of Red Canyon is as hard as those two. Now granted, I suppose in a general sense they do get harder. Any Red Canyon track is objectively harder than White and Green Canyon, but it’s more so reflective of the "peak", such as a few Black Valley tracks ultimately making it known as a hard part of the journey. So really, you could have even some Black tracks that aren't totally hard in comparison with what else it has; I do think some Blue Canyon tracks are harder than some Red Canyon tracks for instance… Anyway, I’ll stop this paragraph here otherwise you’ll hear me saying the word “Canyon” another 57 times. Canyon: And now it’s time to hear me say “Canyon” another 57 times as we talk about Canyon. ? As you can tell by their titles, each environment has a main motif behind it; Canyon emphasizes drifting around corners and blazing at the highest speeds you’ll reach in the entire game (one of the Black Canyon tracks has you reach 800km for instance). The Canyon car is a very agile car; even though you go bloody fast on the Stadium tracks, you reach the overall highest speeds in Black Canyon; over 800 kilometres per hour… or Miles per hour, but that’s another system. I guess in that regard, Trackmania is quite the inclusive game since it only displays the numerical value of your speed with no specific system mentioned! (Aside from one of the trophies, but shhh!) I’ll actually take a moment to talk about the first track in the game, Track 1 on Canyon. I believe even this simplistic level teaches some crucial fundamentals of the game from the get go. ... I actually forgot to record my run of Track 1, so enjoy this really fast time by this guy instead! ? When you start Track 1, the state of beginning the track (in this case, a helicopter drop which propels you with momentum from the get go) teaches you that the way each track begins can automatically dictate the pace; some tracks for instance start on a regular stop and go and feature more leisurely paces, but Track 1 is essentially telling you from the beginning “Alright, we’re giving you a bunch of speed here. It’s your task to carry it as well as you can!” And this very principle is supported by the barriers in the upcoming straight; You’ll instantly be introduced to a barrage of shipping containers and arrows, but one key note is that these arrows are very closely connected to each other, so rather than fully turn around them, you can discover that the amount of time you hold either left or right on the d-pad (or analog stick which I used) actually determines the rate of which you turn. In doing so, you learn: 1. In some cases, it’s better to simply weave through obstacles to maintain your velocity, rather than turn sharp and lose speed. Other times in the future, I may need to take sharper turns at the cost of my speed. It’s up to me as the driver to decide how much I can afford to turn as little as possible to maintain as much speed as I can without colliding with obstacles. This seems like a simple concept, but this very idea is utilised in Track 180, where the second jump is determined by how much speed you maintained based on how sharp you turned. I never really noticed this until I started writing the review, but it’s funny how motifs through even the first track are still highly prevalent in the later Black tracks. It goes to show why you perform so much better when you go back to the White tracks after having done them; the mechanics through the game are always the same, and while tracks may be designed differently, they all share the same unique hazards and obstacles. Next, you enter a small patch of dirt for a brief period, the first of two off-road sections on this track. For now, it seems quite insignificant, and you carry on through with a right turn, followed by a large jump. This section is also crucial for learning the game’s mechanics as you’ll notice that you cannot move your vehicle mid-air, teaching you: 2. I need to correct my car to ensure I land precisely where I want to; all preparations must be executed before the jump itself. Next, after executing the jump and landing, you’ll find yourself on another patch of dirt when you start turning right, and you’ll notice that suddenly… you’ve entered a drift state. This teaches you that the way a car behaves off-road is drastically different, or more “loose” to be precise, as opposed to on road racing. Again, another prevalent lesson as each of the 4 racing styles in this game feature off and on-road sections, and in all cases, off-road racing is quite delicate. So right off the bat: 3. Different surfaces can change the control of the vehicle. On road surfaces are very stable environments that allow me to turn more sharply without losing control, but off-road sections will require me to aim for more precision when it comes to throttle control the rate of which I turn. But also, as you finish these next turns, it takes a brief period driving in a straight line for your drift to end. So: 4. The drifting state can be controlled; going absolutely straight can end it sooner, so you can have control over how your car operates in this state to your advantage. And it’s these four things that emphasise the entire game. You’ll be subconsciously adapting better and better to these four aspects as you play the game, and it’ll push you to your limit. Valley: Valley shares some similarities with Canyon, but also a major difference; Valley’s car, the buggy, follows a more loose driving style, but most drifting is a natural result of sharp turns. Generally with Canyon’s vehicle, you’d brake for a split second to loosen your grip and thus execute a turn, but it is one of the most common aspects of the buggy. As a result, it has more off-road driving than the other three racing styles. Generally, on-road driving takes a back seat here (car pun, you may now laugh). However, unlike the blazing speeds and fast turns you’ll be executing in Canyon, Valley separates itself with a much higher emphasis on throttle control and steering control. The buggy’s controls are the highest test of skill in the entire game. Going full throttle everywhere and yanking the left stick fully left or right will see you inevitably spinning out. With pretty much every off-road turn in the buggy, you want to gently move the left stick; it’s an extremely precise demand of movement that’ll push you to your absolute limits when it comes to getting a feel for the car. The buggy you drive is operated mostly on rough nature, I’m talking dirt, grass mounds, lakes… I’d essentially chalk this up to a more rally-esque driving experience. However, you’ll find that on the very few on-road sections you drive on, the buggy does return to a more stable pace with more freedom to turn sharper like Canyon’s controls. I think the best way to describe it is that there are general controls for the vehicle itself, but also controls that change relative to the surface you’re on, and this makes Valley’s buggy my personal hardest vehicle in the game, and hence the reason why I believe that anyone who has finished Black Valley is well capable of obtaining that sweet, sweet platinum. Like Canyon, and the two other environments which I’ll discuss after this, Valley contains various “motifs”, themes that are slowly learned through each track and expanded upon and challenge you to your absolute limit. First, the lakes. These lakes puzzled me a lot at first, I thought they were some sort of barrier that intentionally limited your speed, but it turns out that driving across lakes on either the left or right side allows you to preserve some of your momentum. This is featured on the White tracks as a sort of obstacle and you may chalk it up to just that at first, but it becomes more prevalent later on. Next are the little mounds you jump over. At first they’re there for fun, but again, they’re more pressuring in the Black tracks. I’ll get into more detail on these for my discussion on Track 180, the final Black Valley track (and therefore the last Valley track) in the whole game. Lagoon: Lagoon has about an even mix of on and off-road driving along the grassy coasts and sandy beaches, defined by it’s high-speed rollercoaster sections that defy gravity and allow you to race upside down and all around. On-road driving is super tight, allowing you to essentially push your left stick fully left or right and you’ll make extremely smooth turns, with not a drift in sight. That changes when you’re on the sand and grass, as you’ll find yourself sliding a lot more, challenging you to take throttle and steering control into consideration. I think the big distinguishment between Lagoon off-road and Valley off-road is that Lagoon feels a lot more slippery. It’s for this reason that going from off-road to on-road is in and of itself a challenge since you’ll need to subconsciously adapt to an entirely different approach to turning. As for the rollercoaster sections, you’ll reach extremely fast speeds here. Ironically though, they don’t quite reach the fastest speeds you reach in Canyon, but it’s overall quite demanding. When inside a rollercoaster the camera pans to a more first-person perspective as you need to time your turns just before the turns themselves to make it through. You can gain speed quite easily here, but even doing so little as nudging a wall can have drastic time losses in the long-term, so the pressure here stems from taking turns at full speed while making sure you stay clean. And lastly are the wooden-platforms. These platforms are the bane of my existence, as they are EXTREMELY slippery, more so than driving off-road I’d argue. The Black tracks in Lagoon take these platforms and through in half-pipe jumps, more commonly placed boost pads, and since turning on these platforms is quite hard, you’re tested with small jumps where you need to turn left or right before hand to adjust yourself for the next sections. Overall, Lagoon is quite varied and is in some sort a mixture of both Canyon and Valley; you reach high speeds with the rollercoaster, but you’re also tested with many off-road challenges where steering and traction control are vital. As you progress through the Black tracks, these obstacles really push you to the limit; you’ll be swerving through toll booths, making precise jumps through palm trees and electric poles, and trying to maintain as much speed as you can across the sandy turns and bends. … Oh, and I nearly forgot. Black Lagoon’s palm tree placements are pure, pure evil. They’re placed in quite devilish spots. ? Stadium: Stadium is quite interesting out of the bunch since it leans more towards the traditional Trackmania gameplay. Trackmania games of the past (such as Nations Forever) focus ENTIRELY on the stadium gameplay, and it makes a return as a classic setting. Stadium sees you pulling stunts across smooth roads designed for high-speed turns and slick movement, juxtaposed by rough dirt sections that see you executing u-turns by hanging by late apexes to get the best exit speed. So, in a nutshell, Stadium is more of the well-known arcade racing that sticks to the roots of Trackmania. That isn’t to say Stadium doesn’t have its own action though, it’s jam-packed with it’s own half-pipe jumps, wall-riding, and LOTS of pipes and annoying barriers on those Black tracks. Also prominent are loops and corkscrews that you’ll be blazing through, and in many cases you’ll have to angle your car downwards after wall rides to land on all four wheels. The orientation of your car is constantly checked and tested as you make it through every jump of every obstacle, and the off-road dirt sections supplement that theme. When it comes to the controls of Stadium’s car, I’d personally say it's the easiest of the bunch since a majority of your time is on-road, which is already smooth across the other three cars as is. The tracks in Black can be tricky, but once you’ve beaten Track 190, Stadium is more like a last hurrah towards the platinum trophy. Ironically though, Black Stadium being so close to the plat trophy makes it one of the most annoying; whenever I made mistakes on Black Stadium, I was just ready to have things done! Heck, out of the 5 hours it took me to do Black Stadium, I spent 1 hour on the 200th track because I just wanted to get it right! My Top 5 Hardest Tracks (AKA The Big Boys): With an overall look on each of the four environments in the game, I figured I’d go over my top 5 hardest tracks. The Big Boys, as I like to call them… well, I don’t ACTUALLY call them that but for the sake of personification, Big Boys it is. I guess because these tracks are obviously non-human, so a personification makes sense… But in a literal sense, these tracks really are not human. They’re mental. They’re evil. I’ll go from least to most hardest, starting with… Number 5: Track 176 See, I don’t have much to say about this track. I’m not kidding when I say most of it is fine. But because of one single execution you need to pull off, this track took me the LONGEST in the entire game, at around pretty much 4 hours. At the start of the clip, you can see me being well acquainted with that electric pole jump. You really have to take my word for it, it is single-handedly THE MOST precise jump in the game. One of the big jumps at the beginning of 180 comes close, but this one is simply the worst. At least 180 has the courtesy to throw its bullshit at you at the beginning of the track, but with Mr. 176? Nope, you’ve got to sit and do 1 minute of the entire track to merely attempt it. You will master the first minute of the track ten times over before you even start getting through this barrier. If Heaven needs a guardian, you may as well make it this jump. There’s not much I can say about it, it’s not like there’s some skilled technique you need to pull off, it really just comes down to aligning yourself in the exact middle and not touching any edges. Number 4: Track 130 130, the only Red track on this list. Funnily enough, I actually consider BLUE Canyon to be harder than Red Canyon… up until this track. This track is tricky for a number of reasons. For one, Canyon’s vehicle is the fastest in the game. I suppose on a whole, Stadium sees you at an overall faster average speed, but Canyon has the most capability by far. And coupled with some pretty precise drifts around bends where a canyonside and fences are watching you more closely than security at the US Pentagon, there’s quite a lot at stake. One crash and what was once a smooth lead ahead of the ghost will see you eating dust. To play the devil’s advocate, this is already the case with EVERY track in the game, if you crash then that’s not good. But considering this is the hardest Red track (in my opinion), keeping calm is your best strategy. Also, there’s minor things like sticking to the right of the jump at 2:49 of the video clip otherwise the rocks will greet you with a lovely crash. And also another part of the track which is also important, the Engine Off section at the end of the track. I haven’t yet mentioned these things in my review yet, but they’re essentially a form of speed check; your throttle is completely nullified in these sections, so your priority is maintaining as much speed as you could prior to the Engine Off pads on the ground as you reach the next checkpoint, in which your throttle is re-engaged. Now ideally, you’d want to take the left turn as fast as you can, therein being careful with your braking to ensure you don’t lose too much speed. Since it’s at an uphill slope and this game heavily revolves around physics, losing speed right before this slope will kill many seconds. My strategy was to do lap 1 as fast as I could and get as much of a lead as possible, and then take lap 2 and 3 a bit more cautiously; I’d refrain from going full throttle on every turn; my goal from here on was survival over pure speed. As you can see from my failed attempt at the beginning, I was initially 3 seconds ahead of the ghost on the checkpoint before the Engine Off, but I drifted for too long; in any ordinary turn this would be fine since I could quickly gain back speed, but it costed me a lot of entry speed into the Engine Off section. The best way I like to pinpoint it is that I made it to the final checkpoint (the start of the next lap) at a speed of around 97km and lost 2 seconds on my lead, but on my successful attempt, I made it at 153km going into lap 2 for instance, with a 5 second lead over the ghost. Usually when it comes to racing, maximising your speed after a turn is dependant on how you take the turn in question; this can range from taking an apex or a late apex (these are varying points along the innermost section of a turn), and therefore allowing yourself to get the best exit acceleration, yielding long-term speed. With Engine Off sections though, it’s somewhat an inverse of that; it’s no longer about building up speed, it’s hanging on to what speed you had into the section in question. As you can see from my clip, losing even the slightest amount of speed before an Engine Off can be the difference between getting to the next lap on 97km… or 153km. That’s a big difference. Number 3: Track 175 This track. Hoo boy this one was frustrating. ? I made it to lap 3 a total of SEVEN times on this forbidden track. This track has some extremely tight jumps, 2 of which need to be executed per lap. (There’s arguably a third hard one but I don’t personally find it too bad since the gap is shorter) Alongside this, you’ve got a bunch of bunched logs placed in devious spots that you’ll need to zip around. On top of that, the buggy’s controls are hands down the hardest in the game. I found myself failing quite a few specific sections. At first, most mistakes simply came from learning the track; how much I can get away with going full throttle around turns, how to best approach the big jumps, how to avoid certain logs… But I’ll quickly go over the two big jumps and believe me they are huuuuge! The first one is near the beginning; you’ll take a right turn and see logs placed in the middle. As for me, I like to take the left side since it blends smoothy with the turn; due to this jump lasting nearly 500m, even a slight misdirection can send you flying way off into the trees. To make this jump, you need to be dead straight on to make it; many other turns have a bit of leniency, but these 2 are some of the biggest in the entire game, and therefore some of the most punishing. If you approach it ever so slightly left or right, you’ll be heading right into the shadow realm. An important technique I’ll introduce here is air-braking. Basically, your car continues to rotate whilst in the air when you make a jump, and this can make it so that you only land on 2 wheels in certain jumps, leading to an imbalanced landing which can either be a detriment to your speed, or make you crash. By quickly tapping the X/brake button mid-air, your car will stop it’s rotation depending on how you timed it, allowing for a smooth landing on all 4 wheels, which is very helpful for these 2 big jumps. The next section is tricky. As soon as I land I turn to the right, automatically entering a drift state, and then go full throttle over the boost, going straight along some turns and braking as soon as I enter the jump. You don’t lose speed when you brake midair, and doing this allows me to just make the jump ahead, otherwise I’d land sooner and go up a ramp which I avoid to avoid. I then continue braking so I don’t crash into the trees ahead. But another reason I approached the jump before with as much speed as I could was to enter the Engine Off section with as much speed as I could. Even with braking on the turn before it, it ends up faster than not making the previous jump, allowing some precious time to be saved. From here, I dash past the wooden logs and approach another boost pad. Here comes another big jump, but rather than go full throttle here, I actually stop accelerating over the boost pad until I pass the logs to the right to have a bit more control over my vehicle. Next, I have a few sections where I go uphill—and another thing I hadn’t mentioned yet with the buggy on the Valley tracks; the buggy’s speed is dependant on how much grip it has with the surface. If you veer too much to the grassy left and right sides of an uphill mound, you’ll lose a bit of speed; approaching it from the middle allows you to maintain the most momentum which is essential for Valley’s tracks. And this is all followed with some more log dodging and keeping in the middle of the roads where possible to maintain grip. The last “big” jump comes at 1:05 of the video clip, but it’s only 170m or so which isn’t nearly as big. Nonetheless, I take the approach slowly before the boost pad to go as straight as possible… And that’s the track! The number of times I made it to lap 3 is gruesome. This track is I’d argue the hardest multilap in the game, but there’s another Valley track that tests you more, which takes the next spot on the list… Number 2: Track 170/Track 180 We’ve got a tie! 170 and 180 are so vivid in my memory of frustration with this game that I had to bunch them together. First up is 170… This is the first track where I considered giving up. Every 5 tracks from White to Red sees you do a “multilap” stage like the aforementioned Track 130 and Track 175. But with the Black series? Well, that’s a different story. Sure, you get a multilap on the 5th track… But the 10th one in the Black series is a single lap. Now at first glance you’d probably think that’s a blessing, but it’s actually a curse in disguise; Yes, it may be one lap, but now they’re much longer—gauntlets, even, and they test everything you’ve learned. Every 10th Black track is essentially the FINAL track for that environment in the official Trackmania Turbo campaign, and therefore throw nearly, if not all obstacles you’ve seen in any other track for that specific environment. Track 170 has it all; wall rides, tight turns along the canyonside, drifting along the paved roads at incredible speeds, two half-pipe jumps… and two death loops at the end. These end loops are quite a special motif since they were only introduced in Black Canyon. Most other obstacles are slowly introduced to you through the course of the game, but this is only the third track that has these… and it’s the only one where you need to do it twice in a row. What’s quite lovely with 170 is that if you make a mistake and restart, you’re greeted with an 8 second helicopter drop. That may not seem like much, but when the restarts are instant at the press of a button, it feels like sitting through an entire documentary. And there’s some lovely moments that’ll get you real good, starting with: At the point at 25 seconds into the video clip, you’ve got to drift around the canyonside at 400km… Imagine those turns on Track 130, but times x10000000. If you do so little as dent your car, you no longer control the car, fate does. And fate in this instance will decide upon you that you deserve failure, with the punishment of sitting through that 8 second helicopter drop. Upon clearing that, you’ll be going around 500-600km as you drift around tight turns on the road, followed by two giant half-pipe jumps at 1:22 of the video clip. You’ve got to factor in three things for these jumps; where exactly you approach them and the precise moment to initiate your turn on the wall, spinning midair (it helps the physics for the most part), and how much you let go of the throttle. If you do one of these things wrong, you will NOT make the jump… followed by doing it again perfectly a second time. And in the scenario where you’ve overcome all the challenges this track has thrown at you, it hands you the grand daddy of luck; two loops of pure death. It’s hard to explain, but it is EXTREMELY tough to turn in these loops and touching a side even slightly will cause you to fall off. I even made this mistake on the second loop, but somehow I got godly lucky and managed to make it JUST in time to the finish… And next is… ONE HUUUUUUUUUUUNDRED AND EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIGHTY!!!!! Ah, my good friend 180. And by that, I mean “convicted war criminal 180”. The final gauntlet for Valley. @Destructor-8 says that this is the final platinum blocker in the game, and I can see why. Personally I think 178 takes the cake but this track definitely has it’s share of bullshit. ? One of the motifs of Valley are what I like to call “speed checks”, as in, if you don’t approach a ramp at a particular speed, you will be sent to the shadow realm… as seen with the first jump… or technically the second, but you don’t need to do anything for the first… Actually, scrap that, it’s probably confusing; essentially, it’s the jump after the first right turn. See, this jump is quite finnicky, and picky, and bossy (think of any term for ‘wrong’ and that’s an accurate description of this jump). It demands nothing short of perfection. If you drifted too much? Not enough speed. Fail. If you turned too little into the turn? Not enough speed. Fail. If you let go of the throttle ever so slightly? Not enough speed. Fail. I don’t think it’s AS demanding as 176’s jump, but it’s damn close, and you’ve got to get through it every attempt. Next up, you’ve got to tilt just a bit left to make a huge jump, and we’ve got a HALF-PIPE JUMP. I think my explanation on 170 is enough to explain my contempt for these, but I’ll go into more detail on my number 1 pick as to why I despise the specific ones on Valley. After that, you’ve got the dreaded “Lake Jump”. You need to make a jump through a small ravine in the river making sure not to go too far or left as it’s an instant shadow realm, and then while in the confined space where it’s bad to not be in the middle, you’ll have to turn slightly right to make the next jump. As a heads up, I recommend resetting to the checkpoint after when you make the jump, because more often than not your car WILL topple, but pressing Triangle will allow you to quickly readjust. From there on, there’s nothing too complex, it’s actually fairly standard. The hard part from here on is just calming your nerves and staying calm. But there’s one final obstacle… At 1:42 of the video clip, you’ve got an uphill section followed by a jump to the right. There’s a boost pad before the jump itself which is well and good… but you’ve got another prior to it, so you need to go over the initial boost pad, turn right with your added speed, and then get even more speed from the second pad and make the jump to the road ahead. I failed this section I believe twice as @Destructor-8 watched, and hoo boy it sucks losing here! I think one of the blessings and curse of this track is that it throws all the hard stuff at the beginning, but it means you have to trudge through it every attempt, meaning more often than not you won’t have much practice with what’s to come. And now finally, we have the biggest bad boy of them all… Number 1: Track 178 Urrrrrgh 178 I… I…. I haaaaate 178. I hate it. Oh God oh God I hate 178. What shit this track is. ? Usually when I see conversations of the hardest Valley tracks, people usually say that the killers are Track 175 and 180. So, when I had 175 done, I thought I was almost in the clear… Spoiler alert: I was not in the clear, because 178 decided to hide behind the corner and hit me in the face with a whipped cream pie. Filled with needles. And Lego bricks… Lego bricks filled with more needles, and then tiny fragments of even more Lego bricks. Times that by eleven. Track 178 is not here to be your friend. Track 178 is here to kick your ass and ensure that it stays sore. The reason why I’m placing this at number 1 and not 180 is because at the very least with 180, the hardest part is at the beginning. With 178, you’ve got to play Russian Roulette against Lady Luck with these damn half-pipe jumps. Honestly, I’d say the hardest part of 180 is keeping your nerves under control; keeping it cool when you get the beginning done. But with 178? You’re nervous the entire bloody time because you don’t know when the next half-pipe jump will decide to slam the door on you to the fabled Room of Success. The physics with these SPECIFIC half-pipe jumps is evil. I don’t know if it’s because they’re shipping containers or what, but your car is in the hands of fate whenever you jump. Like, half-pipe jumps can be cruel as is, but I don’t for the life of me know what is up with the ones here. This is the only obstacle in the game that feels luck-based to me. Yes I know, “everything in Trackmania is up to the player’s skill” and I get that, but this track has forever ignited a flame in me that makes me shudder in fear when I see a shipping container… Like a horrid flashback, those half-pipe jumps will forever haunt me… 178 is my worst track coming in at about 3 and a bit hours of grinding, my second longest track which I believe is right behind 176 at roughly 4 hours. Those half-pipe jumps can be ripped a new one. ? Those jumps and also Black Canyon’s loops of death are the ONLY obstacles in this game that feel like a gamble. And with 178 having bloody three of them to cross your fingers on, I’m glad it’s over. If anyone reading this is going for the plat at this very moment and is on Black Valley, then trust me; you’re not alone if you find those half-pipe jumps to be the worst thing known to man. In any other instance where I made a mistake in this game, I’d always figure “Alright, that was my fault, time to improve upon that.” But with these half-pipe jumps? It’s nothing but pure frustration. It got me so frustrated that I just felt null to each failure, I legitimately didn’t find the effort in myself to feel annoyed. Going through this track makes you feel so frustrated that you just become devoid of it. ? Comparison to CTR Dev Times: But we can’t end the review on a note like that! I figured this'd be a good topic to discuss in this review; how does the Trackmania Turbo platinum trophy compare to the CTR dev times? It's hard to compare because objectively speaking CTR’s devs require absolute perfection to get the Master Wheels; taking even a single turn too wide on certain tracks will spell a dead run. But with Trackmania, as @Destructor-8 perfectly described to me, the Black track Gold medals are more about survival if anything. On track 175 alone, you’re dealing with having to delicately move the analog stick along the dirt, but your turning is immediately sharper on turbo pads, so you practically have to align your jumps before hitting the pad. In CTR? Your turning on boost pads is essentially the same as driving on a regular surface, for instance. The only time where your turning is affected is on certain surfaces like grass or mud. With CTR’s turning, you can fully hold left or right on the D-Pad and do what you need to do, but with Trackmania Turbo you need to think about every inch you move of that analog stick. If you move the analog stick too little or too much, you’ll understeer or oversteer, and this is different on tracks like Stadium compared to Lagoon or Valley, and also depending on the car. I suppose this could be compared to CTR's different engine choices, but more often than not you'll be using either Speed or Drift to get the job done. So in that regard, Trackmania Turbo's controls demand more precision, but the times you need to achieve for the CTR devs demand more precision (u-turning in CTR is also really tricky too). They’re about equally hard for their own reasons. But then again, no track in Trackmania Turbo took me as long as most of my Top 5 hardest CTR dev times… It’s ultimately really hard to say, but they’re both tough as nails. I will also note however that CTR’s dev times did physically hurt my hands more; my thumbs hurt for a good week after Thunder Struck and Hot Air Skyway so I suppose on a physical premise it demands more, but Trackmania Turbo is still a daunting experience, with 200 tracks. If we’re not putting White through Blue tracks into the equation, you’re still looking at 30 tough as nails Red/Black tracks, and then you’ve got the 50 Trackmasters to deal with as well, which are essentially dev times. Now, in terms of difficulty I’ll have to give this a 10/10. My honest truth is that this is a tie for the hardest challenge I have ever played in a game with CTR’s content, so I believe that makes the 10/10 fitting. Not my most stressful challenge (that goes to GT Sport), but definitely up there as a tied hardest challenge with CTR. For those more accustomed with sim racers like Assetto Corsa, this would be a 9/10 I reckon, but as for me it’s a personal 10/10. However, the rating of both the difficulty and enjoyment varies primarily by Tracks 169 through 180; the obtuse HALF-PIPE JUMP RIDDEN Black Valley tracks and the cursed LOOPS OF DEATH of Black Canyon. ? And that’s it for the review! 6500+ words all up, perhaps it’s a blessing this game has no story otherwise this would’ve been a thesis! I hope you enjoyed my look on Trackmania Turbo! Enjoyment (White through Red): 8.5/10 Enjoyment (Track 170 and Black Valley): 6.5/10 Difficulty: 10/10 Edited March 2, 2022 by Shrooba 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_carlito94 Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Nice review of the game and tracks - congrats on obtaining the platinum .. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who struggled with 170, thought I was the only one (those loops in 169 and 170 were my personal kryptonites) ? .. I haven't played CTR but my gut tells me that beating the dev times might be a harder task than golding the 200 tracks in TMT for most people - like you mentioned, TMT's gold times don't require absolute perfection as opposed to the Dev times in CTR. Hats off for getting both done ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted March 3, 2022 Author Share Posted March 3, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, Don_carlito94 said: Nice review of the game and tracks - congrats on obtaining the platinum .. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who struggled with 170, thought I was the only one (those loops in 169 and 170 were my personal kryptonites) .. I haven't played CTR but my gut tells me that beating the dev times might be a harder task than golding the 200 tracks in TMT for most people - like you mentioned, TMT's gold times don't require absolute perfection as opposed to the Dev times in CTR. Hats off for getting both done Thanks! ? Yep, you’re not alone on 170! That track was absolutely brutal… You should definitely give CTR a go, it’s a fantastic game! It’s tricky at first—I actually gave up on the platinum at first but a friend encouraged me to keep going—And now I look back on Oxide’s time trials and they’re no problem after beating the devs, and that’s why CTR is great; when you’re racing, you’re pushing forward and going past what you thought wasn’t doable. You make the impossible possible… You’re bringing your time down by seconds, then to tenths… and pushing it as far as you can make it. But I suppose that’s the very essence of racing itself! Edited March 3, 2022 by Shrooba 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted March 15, 2022 Author Share Posted March 15, 2022 (edited) So I've stumbled across a bit of a dilemma... ? Figured I'd just ramble about it here since I don't want to bother anyone by making a thread for it on the game's forum. Now, Black Ops 3 is a game I've been eyeing for a while. It's a 100% that I'd love to go for, and I've got some IRL friends who play the game and they get into the Zombies DLC packs quite often too. Given that this comes for free alongside the Zombie Chronicles DLC on PS5, I figured it wouldn't hurt to dive in. However, upon trying to start the multiplayer grind to LVL 55, me and one of my friends stumbled across a "Game session no longer available" error around 7 times in a row. It turns out this bug has been happening for around a month or so and has been increasingly been happening for people. Now, I'm not concerned with a sever closure or anything, because if BO2 is still active on the 360 and PS3, then I'm certain BO3's playerbase is fine (TDM is the only active game mode nonetheless, but that's fine enough for the 4 multiplayer trophies), but I just get the feeling that it'll be getting worse and worse. Funnily enough, getting into Zombies is perfectly fine from what my friends say, it's just the multiplayer itself that's been having this issue since February. It really just comes down to the stress of not being in control of the situation. Now, single-player challenges are all fine because I'm in control of the challenge, and it's up to me to tackle it, but this server bug is out of my hands, and grinding to LVL 55 for a week or more with this going on just feels iffy to me... There ARE times where loading in is fine, but I'm not sure. So in a nutshell, I'm not sure it'd be worth the risk, BUUUUT this is a completion I'd really like to go for, and I've got friends who play the game... ? I'm certain the servers won't close, but if this bug gets worse then it'd be impossible to find matches... At this point I haven't earned any trophies so it's no harm no foul at this point, but I just wanted to write about it a bit I suppose! @Baker I hope you don't mind if I ask; I know you've been playing plenty of COD games, has something like this ever been a problem in Ghosts/BO4/BO3? Edited March 15, 2022 by Shrooba 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baker Posted March 15, 2022 Share Posted March 15, 2022 Call of Duty is not known for it’s stability in online gaming. I had many disconnects in every single one of them. ‘Game session no longer available’, I’ve seen this too, but not as frequently as disconnects. I’m sure it will be fine to start BO3 though. Good luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted March 15, 2022 Author Share Posted March 15, 2022 3 hours ago, Baker said: I’m sure it will be fine to start BO3 though. Good luck! Thanks for the motivation man! ? I noticed that when I get into a proper match, it doesn't boot everyone out when it ends so I was able to do many matches over and over and get the 5 specialist medal trophy. With that popped and on my account, I guess it's time for me to commit to the game now! ? The triple-kill specialist one will be a bit tricky, not sure why it's less rare than the 5 medal one, and by a significant margin of around 20% as well! Hopefully I'll get that on the long road to LVL 55. And then there's Realistic on the campaign! ? I reckon I'll tackle multiplayer first, alongside Zombies, and then do the single-player stuff last. It's a fun game so far, reminds me a bit of Titanfall 2 whatnot with the wall running and double jumps! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destructor-8 Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 02/02/2022 at 1:04 PM, Shrooba said: @Destructor-8 @GonzoWARgasm Thanks for the messages fellas! I used up 25 rep points within the past 24 hours so I can't rep your posts at the moment, but I'll remember to do it tomorrow! Thanks man, it was definitely quite a grind and I'm glad you were there to see me do 180! Having another person watch made the process a bit more endurable, and it already frustrated me as is! I'm torn between considering 178 or 180 harder, but they're both definitely up there! I'm gonna try to catch up with a few of the checklists here & I was still yet to get back to yours even after our chat the other day haha. It was great to watch you get through it as always plus I don't mind chilling in the party at the same time. On 02/03/2022 at 0:03 PM, Shrooba said: Completion #69 (Yes, that number) Trackmania Turbo - 2nd February 2022 Completion time: 1 week, 5 days ONE HUUUUUUUUUUUNDRED AND EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIGHTY!!!!! Ah, my good friend 180. And by that, I mean “convicted war criminal 180”. The final gauntlet for Valley. @Destructor-8 says that this is the final platinum blocker in the game, and I can see why. Personally I think 178 takes the cake but this track definitely has it’s share of bullshit. Yeah even when the hard part is over there's still always going to be other tracks here or there which could cause more trouble for some people than others. The impressive thing as always was your ability to consistently get through the tracks that you came up against. On 02/03/2022 at 0:03 PM, Shrooba said: But there’s one final obstacle… At 1:42 of the video clip, you’ve got an uphill section followed by a jump to the right. There’s a boost pad before the jump itself which is well and good… but you’ve got another prior to it, so you need to go over the initial boost pad, turn right with your added speed, and then get even more speed from the second pad and make the jump to the road ahead. I failed this section I believe twice as @Destructor-8 watched, and hoo boy it sucks losing here! Yeah I remember watching this & it's never fun to have an opportunity come & go especially at this part in the game. I think I should of had this one done many times before I finally did it. I'm just glad you did it as quick as you did. On 02/03/2022 at 0:03 PM, Shrooba said: It's hard to compare because objectively speaking CTR’s devs require absolute perfection to get the Master Wheels; taking even a single turn too wide on certain tracks will spell a dead run. But with Trackmania, as @Destructor-8 perfectly described to me, the Black track Gold medals are more about survival if anything. Now, in terms of difficulty I’ll have to give this a 10/10. My honest truth is that this is a tie for the hardest challenge I have ever played in a game with CTR’s content, so I believe that makes the 10/10 fitting. Not my most stressful challenge (that goes to GT Sport), but definitely up there as a tied hardest challenge with CTR. For those more accustomed with sim racers like Assetto Corsa, this would be a 9/10 I reckon, but as for me it’s a personal 10/10. However, the rating of both the difficulty and enjoyment varies primarily by Tracks 169 through 180; the obtuse HALF-PIPE JUMP RIDDEN Black Valley tracks and the cursed LOOPS OF DEATH of Black Canyon. And that’s it for the review! 6500+ words all up, perhaps it’s a blessing this game has no story otherwise this would’ve been a thesis! I hope you enjoyed my look on Trackmania Turbo! Enjoyment (White through Red): 8.5/10 Enjoyment (Track 170 and Black Valley): 6.5/10 Difficulty: 10/10 It's true that it can be hard to compare certain racing games since preferences & experiences can be completely different for everyone. There are always a few games that are pretty much agreed upon when it comes to skill required & where abouts on the scale these games appear. This game was tough regardless of how anyone finds it as there's always a point when things don't go the way you expect it whilst there are other times where you just get through something. I think the transition that you had from the games you finished before definitely helped you adapt to the game so quickly & you are still one of the fastest people I know when it comes to finishing this game. It's always a pleasure to have a chat! I appreciate the shoutouts too! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Shrooba Posted June 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 13, 2022 Heya everyone. I realize it's been months since I've last posted here, so I wanted to give an apology. This semester of University has kept me occupied with tons of stuff to finish, especially with this last week. Another part for my apology is that I've had time to play games, so I could've posted here, but if I'm being honest, when I spend hours writing so much on assignments, it gets me a bit demotivated to write more on other things if that makes sense. ? I guess I can chalk that up to my ol' patented procrastination! But in terms of good news, my semester is all done and I'm finally on holiday! I aim to get back into the swing of things soon, BUT I have a lot of other checklists to catch up on! Usually I like catching up with what other people are doing before writing reviews here, so I'll need to get back to that! Adios for now, I'll have to get to writing my Okami HD review! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted July 5, 2022 Share Posted July 5, 2022 On 2/2/2022 at 11:19 AM, Shrooba said: LADS, IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I BLOODY DID IT! TRACKMANIA TURBO IS DONE! After the longest 1 week, 5 days I've endured, it is over at last... Firstly, and this is super late so sorry for that but bloody hell, well done for getting that platinum! That game is super tough, very quickly I knew I was nowhere near good enough getting that so just got whatever trophies I was willing to get from it and it got deleted lol On 6/13/2022 at 11:10 AM, Shrooba said: Heya everyone. I realize it's been months since I've last posted here, so I wanted to give an apology. Secondly, boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! We want our money back!!!! Not good enough!!!! Booooooooooooooooooooooooo! lol Thirdly, I'll assume you'll be writing about Sonic Origins soon? Want to hear your thoughts on it! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted July 5, 2022 Author Share Posted July 5, 2022 7 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Firstly, and this is super late so sorry for that but bloody hell, well done for getting that platinum! That game is super tough, very quickly I knew I was nowhere near good enough getting that so just got whatever trophies I was willing to get from it and it got deleted lol No need to apologize! If anyone's late... it's me! ? I still have flashbacks to Track 178 and those cursed pipe jumps of agony... Oh dear mercy... Trackmania Turbo is definitely a wild ride, I'd definitely say Black Valley is the hardest of the bunch. Not sure if I've said it here yet, but it's practically a rally game with how much you're driving on dirt and drifting around corners! ? 7 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Secondly, boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! We want our money back!!!! Not good enough!!!! Booooooooooooooooooooooooo! lol Thirdly, I'll assume you'll be writing about Sonic Origins soon? Want to hear your thoughts on it! Yep, I'm caught red-handed here! ? I'd like to apologize for my uh, lemme check, nearly full month hiatus on top of the already established hiatus beforehand... ? My magician's hat of excuses is all out! I really wanted to get into the swing of things, but I found myself getting a taaaad complacent in the midst of my University mid-year break. I'd still like to catch up with a lot of the other checklists before making a formal review here, being Okami HD of course... I'd like to thank everyone for your legendary patience as I battle my DBZ-length duel with my mightiest foe ever: The All-Powerful 'Procrastination'! After Okami's written up, I reckon I could definitely talk about Sonic Origins next! Consider the reservation formally accepted! I love Sonic, so I may find myself really motivated to do a write up for that one after... But I'll need to make sure Okami doesn't meet the fate of the third game in a series about a orange marsupial platformer game that I've skipped on! As I make a proper return this time, I'll probably make another post a bit later since I've been doing the UR Cleanup challenge. Thus far I'm working on COD BO3, but I'm still not sure what I should tackle afterwards out of my list. I'll probably set up a poll before I post the next review once I catch up with everyone's write ups! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted July 6, 2022 Share Posted July 6, 2022 13 hours ago, Shrooba said: No need to apologize! If anyone's late... it's me! I still have flashbacks to Track 178 and those cursed pipe jumps of agony... Oh dear mercy... Trackmania Turbo is definitely a wild ride, I'd definitely say Black Valley is the hardest of the bunch. Not sure if I've said it here yet, but it's practically a rally game with how much you're driving on dirt and drifting around corners! Yeah I can imagine! I'm sure you have to spend way longer than you want to doing the same track over and over just to eventually complete it. Full respect to you! 13 hours ago, Shrooba said: Yep, I'm caught red-handed here! I'd like to apologize for my uh, lemme check, nearly full month hiatus on top of the already established hiatus beforehand... My magician's hat of excuses is all out! I really wanted to get into the swing of things, but I found myself getting a taaaad complacent in the midst of my University mid-year break. I'd still like to catch up with a lot of the other checklists before making a formal review here, being Okami HD of course... I'd like to thank everyone for your legendary patience as I battle my DBZ-length duel with my mightiest foe ever: The All-Powerful 'Procrastination'! After Okami's written up, I reckon I could definitely talk about Sonic Origins next! Consider the reservation formally accepted! I love Sonic, so I may find myself really motivated to do a write up for that one after... But I'll need to make sure Okami doesn't meet the fate of the third game in a series about a orange marsupial platformer game that I've skipped on! As I make a proper return this time, I'll probably make another post a bit later since I've been doing the UR Cleanup challenge. Thus far I'm working on COD BO3, but I'm still not sure what I should tackle afterwards out of my list. I'll probably set up a poll before I post the next review once I catch up with everyone's write ups! Booooooooooooooooooooooo not good enough. We demand recompense! Play something you'd never play and like it hahahah jokes lol In all seriousness, uni is a hard thing to get through so having a break is well deserved! Procrastination is a tough beast to fell, but we all have faith that you will achieve your goal! Yeah I know you do, so really interested to hear your thoughts on the whole collection and experience with it, especially with the things from reviews I've been hearing. Never played Okami, but always looked like a really interesting game with a unique art style. I'll assume you're talking abou Crash Bandicoot? COD BO3, tried to play that co-op with my wife. Yeah that didn't go very well. Got like a few trophies, neither of us enjoyed it. Got deleted lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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