ManiaPlanet
Latest
PSA: ShootMania Storm launches today
After being delayed in January, Ubisoft's ShootMania Storm is now available. Like its spiritual brother, TrackMania, ShootMania Storm offers a bevy of creation tools, allowing users to whip up their own maps and modes. Interested shoot maniacs can grab the game from Steam for $20.%Gallery-185203%
ManiaPlanet builds a ramp to Steam, brings Shootmania and Trackmania along
Ubisoft's ManiaPlanet services – a system for content creation and sharing developed by Nadeo for the first Trackmania game – have finally come to Steam. Ongoing open betas for Trackmania 2: Stadium and ShootMania Storm can be accessed through Steam starting today – pre-ordering either will net Steam users an extra ten percent off the asking price.Shootmania Storm is Ubisoft's eSports entry, an arena-style multiplayer shooter slated to officially launch on April 10. The beta has garnered more than 20,000 player-created maps and over 15 player-created game modes. Trackmania 2: Stadium re-introduces the stadium environment seen in Trackmania Nations to Nadeo's sequel and is slated to launch in "early 2013."%Gallery-179958%
Shootmania Storm beta sign-ups end next month, get in now
The Shootmania Storm beta is revving up to begin, with registration ending July 2 and the beta starting soon after that. Sign up with a valid email address through the Shootmania site.Shootmania Storm is a "ManiaPlanet" game, meaning it has a powerful, accessible editor, though rather than being used to create race tracks, Shootmania's emphasis is on laser-based weaponry and arcade-style-shooter environments.Every person who has so far registered for the beta will get a key to participate in the seven-day trial. The beta will introduce a new mode, Seige, which is a five-on-five competitive round. Other modes include one-on-one, three-on-three, free-for-all and free-for-all with a shrinking map.
TrackMania 2 Canyon preview: The amazing race
Even fans of Nadeo's legendary TrackMania racing series (which, even if you haven't played, you might remember from the wild 1k Project videos) might be forgiven for thinking they've been abandoned. The last game in the series was released for the Nintendo DS two years ago, and while a full sequel to the popular original game and its many addons was announced in 2009, those plans were apparently derailed a bit by a Ubisoft acquisition in 2010. Last year at E3, Ubisoft revealed that it would be turning the series into a platform called ManiaPlanet, with not much more than a name and an ambitious release plan (including not just the long-awaited racing sequel, but also highly customizable RPG and shooter titles as well). Since then, we haven't gotten much more than a screenshot, and a promise that the game's still coming. Finally, last month at a pre-E3 event, we got to see the title, now called TrackMania 2 Canyon, in action. This is indeed a brand new TrackMania game, featuring all of the kooky customizable tracks and over-the-top physics-based racing that's made the series so popular. But rather than TrackMania 2, Canyon is actually the beginning of the TrackMania platform, one that will depend as much on user creations as what the developers actually assemble.%Gallery-124809%
Ubisoft announces ManiaPlanet (which is not a video game)
But! "ManiaPlanet" is a platform that supports video games. Specifically, it's a "user-powered PC gaming zone" (according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot) for TrackMania 2 (beta coming Q4 2010) and additional "Mania" games, including the previously announced FPS ShootMania (beta Q1 2011) and RPG QuestMania (beta "soon"). Like TrackMania before them, the new Mania titles from Nadeo will emphasize player-created content. Presumably, ManiaPlanet connects the content and creation systems across all Mania games in one convenient application. Imagine that.
