Sometimes, it's good to be a spectator without a worry in the world. I'm often discombobulated by strange use of space and surface, but Trackmania makes it all seem quite soothing and proper. So crucially, yes, you can launch and play the game offline after an initial activation the very first time you load it.Īs for the trailer? Beautiful, isn’t it? And is it odd that I find it strangely wistful? Almost like it's showing me the world that could have been, a world where driving to my local Tesco would involve gliding across the edges of every building in between, performing a weaving and harmless dance with the commuters as we pass each other by. It's undeniably dismissive, but at the same time, it's not how TM has ever been intended to be played. In Local Play all those elements are removed, just letting you pick the tracks out of a list.

The times can be seen by region, nation, or the whole world, as anyone familiar with TM will recognise. The difference with Individual Play is that, as ever with the TM series, you're competing against the rest of the world with your track times, even though you're not actually racing with them.

It's clumsy, and I can't think of any reason why offline play couldn't be as neatly presented as online. All the tracks are there, but instead of the nice grid of images to select from, instead you've got what's essentially a directory tree, confined to an odd, messy line. Instead you can access Local Play, which lets you get at all the maps, but perhaps not in the most helpful way.

There's Multiplayer, rather obviously, but more strangely, Individual Play. In offline mode, two sections of the game are unavailable. What's odd is how it presents the single-player elements. It warns you at the start that you'll not be able to access the online elements of the game, and then loads. You absolutely can start Trackmania: Canyon without an internet connection. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.įirst of all, here's John on the all-important online/offline business:

Trackmania canyon download