*Goes on sale frequently for $15, so pick it up then if you want a great deal.*

You get three campaigns in the base game. Nations is the free one that everyone is familiar with, but it's only 65 tracks on the Stadium environment and has a more erratic difficulty curve. In comparison, United has 231 tracks and allows you to tour all of the various environments in both easy, medium and hard setups. Finally, Star Track has an additional 147 tracks built by the TM community. Altogether, that's 443 courses to master, and if you know anything about Trackmania it's that getting a gold medal is only the beginning. Look for the cheat to unlock every course automatically, since the requirements are admittedly a bit absurd even for a pro. If you want *even more* tracks, look for the "Classic Complete" add-on which compiles and ports over every single Trackmania course from the game's original release up to today.

Each of the seven environments requires a different skillset to perform well. Stadium has the most elaborate editing suite, allowing for some death-defying stunts. Island's blistering speeds link into satisfying drifts and extreme jumps. Desert demands precision due to awkward controls and many obstacles. Coast has simple controls and wide roads, but quickly devolves into chaos. Bay might have the slowest vehicle, but it lacks traction, meaning every turn must be anticipated far in advance. Those who are familiar with TM2020's dirt and ice materials will enjoy seeing their prototypes in the Rally and Snow environments, respectively. My personal favorite is Snow, with lots of verticality and compact, yet complex layouts.

I prefer TUF over Turbo and TM2020, but not because it is necessarily a better game. In the newest game in particular, while you have better graphics, cooler layouts and arguably more bang for your buck with the subscription, there's still something missing. Both TUF and TrackMania² are less reliant on gimmicks and are instead more focused on the raw time trials, where every track is its own beast to challenge and each turn matters. It's a case of "less is more," and while I'm by no means a pro at these games yet, I feel like the progress I've made climbing the ranks in TUF was more fulfilling than the new ones. Maybe it's just the big silly globe spinning in the main menu, or maybe it's how the medals crash onto your screen, or maybe it's each environment using a different sound when a race starts. In any case, I think there's something valuable in TUF that you won't get with modern Trackmania, and it's the best place for a beginner to actually appreciate how far both these games and Nadeo as a company have come.

*Goes on sale frequently for $15, so pick it up then if you want a great deal.* You get three campaigns in the base game. Nations is the free one that everyone is familiar with, but it's only 65 tracks on the Stadium environment and has a more erratic difficulty curve. In comparison, United has 231 tracks and allows you to tour all of the various environments in both easy, medium and hard setups. Finally, Star Track has an additional 147 tracks built by the TM community. Altogether, that's 443 courses to master, and if you know anything about Trackmania it's that getting a gold medal is only the beginning. Look for the cheat to unlock every course automatically, since the requirements are admittedly a bit absurd even for a pro. If you want *even more* tracks, look for the "Classic Complete" add-on which compiles and ports over every single Trackmania course from the game's original release up to today. Each of the seven environments requires a different skillset to perform well. Stadium has the most elaborate editing suite, allowing for some death-defying stunts. Island's blistering speeds link into satisfying drifts and extreme jumps. Desert demands precision due to awkward controls and many obstacles. Coast has simple controls and wide roads, but quickly devolves into chaos. Bay might have the slowest vehicle, but it lacks traction, meaning every turn must be anticipated far in advance. Those who are familiar with TM2020's dirt and ice materials will enjoy seeing their prototypes in the Rally and Snow environments, respectively. My personal favorite is Snow, with lots of verticality and compact, yet complex layouts. I prefer TUF over Turbo and TM2020, but not because it is necessarily a better game. In the newest game in particular, while you have better graphics, cooler layouts and arguably more bang for your buck with the subscription, there's still something missing. Both TUF and TrackMania² are less reliant on gimmicks and are instead more focused on the raw time trials, where every track is its own beast to challenge and each turn matters. It's a case of "less is more," and while I'm by no means a pro at these games yet, I feel like the progress I've made climbing the ranks in TUF was more fulfilling than the new ones. Maybe it's just the big silly globe spinning in the main menu, or maybe it's how the medals crash onto your screen, or maybe it's each environment using a different sound when a race starts. In any case, I think there's something valuable in TUF that you won't get with modern Trackmania, and it's the best place for a beginner to actually appreciate how far both these games and Nadeo as a company have come.