Great racing game - Simple, and free too!

[Inkblot]

OK, it's not the height of sophistication but I've been having great fun playing trackmania recently (www.trackmania.com), it's a casual game with most races lasting less than 1m and even the endurance ones only lasting 2/3 minutes!

There are 2 versions - Trackmania Nations (Free to play, limited tracks/cars. great fun) and Trackmania United (£20 from their website or less than £15 online elsewhere) which gives access to far more content and is even better fun.

One of the things I like about it (As an MMO player trying to remember dozens of keyboard shortcuts) is that you have only 6 keys but even then only use 4 of them most of the time - {up}, {Down}, {Left}, {Right} being accelerate/brake/steer with {Backspace} being restart race and {Enter} being respawn.

For me, it's the perfect getaway from over-sophisticated, ultra-complicated, mind-scrambling gameplay - I was looking for a simple driving game and remembered having played this a few years back and was pleased to see that it's still around!

[vitriol]

I went to a LAN party once with the main aim to play loads of Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament and Counterstrike.  Ended up playing Trackmania more than anything else.  Bucket loads of fun to be had.

[D-Dan]

I've been playing Trackmania for so long that I eventually got the paid for version because I'd enjoyed it for so long for free, out of guilt

The downside is, I'm in the top 90k players and can't seem to score any more ladder points no matter how hard I try

Steve

[RA-1972]

It is a addictive game . good graphics aswell .

[D-Dan]

It really is - good old honest to goodness no pressure fun

Look me up on the server I usually play at (OFC Full Speed) and say "hello" - Find me as "Roken"

Steve

[Inkblot]

The downside is, I'm in the top 90k players and can't seem to score any more ladder points no matter how hard I try

No such worries for me, Blotink (Inkblot was taken) is yet to crack the top million mark

[pctech]

Yes very very addictive game.

[mrapoc]

played it when we did a competition over at oc3d

good simple fun but i get bored of driving games quick although race driver grid is fun as is burnout