Trackmania (Nations Forever, FREE game, Download or Be Banned)

[epmode]

Restart Steam and it'll automatically download any pending updates. I'm not sure if updates are automatically applied to Australian users or if the patch needs to be released to that market first.

Even if Steam doesn't do it automatically, you can probably use the trick I listed here.

[Frogacuda]

Seems the Nadeo site is down from all the traffic. Here's a direct link to filefront's mirror

http://files.filefront.com/TrackMani.../fileinfo.html

[Tain]

Group's still up, hosers.

Username tnl
Password dracula

[NeoZeedeater]

I think this actually runs a smidge smoother for me than the previous Nations which surprises me given that it looks better. It's pure awesomeness as expected. I don't have much interest in playing online, though.

[Cheebs]

So... Wow. This is most likely the best free anything of any kind, ever. I can't believe they don't want money for this.

Controls great with just a keyboard too.

[Frogacuda]

Controls great with just a keyboard too.

No it doesn't. Hook up a 360 pad or something.

[Cheebs]

No it doesn't. Hook up a 360 pad or something.

Analog break/gas/steer support?

And yes, it does.

[bVork]

Yep, full analogue support. I can't imagine playing with the keyboard.

[Cowdisease]

Yeah. It's not the full game (United), but it's way beyond what you'd normally call a demo. Closer to like how shareware games used to give away an episode. Plus it has the level editor and you can download any user-made level with the Stadium environment, which there is a bottomless supply of.

So what's the advantage of buying United over getting the free Nations? And what did United gain after the release of Nations?

[epmode]

Analog break/gas/steer support?

And yes, it does.

Analog steering, yes. No analog gas or brake (in spite of what it says in the config screens).

So what's the advantage of buying United over getting the free Nations? And what did United gain after the release of Nations?

Nations is just the Stadium environment. United gives you access to 6 more environments from previous Trackmania games: Snow, Rally, Desert, Island, Bay and Coast. Each environment features a different car type. The cars aren't just reskins or anything, they each have a very distinct driving style which really differentiates the environments. Then there's the United single player campaign. It's totally worth the money.

TMUF didn't add that much to vanilla TMU aside from a new Stunt campaign (do as many tricks as you can within a time limit making sure you get to the finish line), but Nadeo did update the graphics of the original three environments. Looks much better than before.