If you haven't run "Forsaken Lands", by all means check it out. Afterwards you'll undoubtedly remember the name "Gutterboy" (on Team SLO he’s a.k.a. Gutterball, Gutless, Butterboy, and hey you). You may be wondering what the names of some of his other tracks are or where did this guy come from, well...that's understandable. It stands to reason that he’s not a household name since this marks only his sixth track, with three of the six consisting of rumbles. Not to worry, however, for as in so many other things in life, it’s not necessarily “quantity” but rather “quality” that establishes marks of distinction, and GB’s work personifies the latter.
I will say this: as I sit here writing this review, for the life of me I can think of no other human, alien, or oxygen breathing being who test the very limits of my patience and exasperates me to the point of no return. In my 41 years on this planet I can think of no one who literally erodes my will to live...who makes very tall buildings and bridges seem, well...appealing. Oh, and did I mention that he gets on my last nerve? Hehehe. Truth be told, Gutterboy, like his younger and more irritating brother (SLO_Preacher), has carved out a very nice little niche on this team. With tracks like Forsaken Lands, SLO_Down, Limitations 2, Smile's Rumble (which was a tribute to our teammate, SLO_Smiley), and now Trouble 2, you'll realize this guy is for real...no doubt about it.
Trouble 2 is a revamped, reconditioned and overhauled version of a little number he put together for MTM 1. Interestingly enough he and I discussed this project aaaaaaaaaaages ago (and the bum is just now getting around to making the dang thing!), after he showed me the MTM 1 version. I loved the layout and we both agreed it was more than worthy of a facelift for MTM 2. Admittedly, however, I had no idea the results would be this spectacular. In order to give racers the full-blown perspective of just how radically different the two versions were despite having identical layouts, he wanted to upload the original version along with Trouble 2. Well, he ran into technical difficulties trying to extract the music (not pleasant stuff) from the original, so he scrapped the idea. Nevertheless, believe me when I say the comparisons between the two begin and end with the track’s layout.
I race with my music enabled, and the soundtrack he's included in this one is right on the money. It gives you the feel of being on some sort of exotic, far-off expedition in uncharted territory...or something. Hell, I'm not quite sure if I can put it into words, but when you run it, turn the music on (and up!), then maybe you'll get a feel for what I'm struggling to convey with words. The track itself, just like it's predecessor, is a rather long circuit consisting of elementary turns, jumps and curves. But what captures you is how ultra smooth the flow is, and how incredibly fun it is to race with about four or five others, which it easily accommodates. There’s no one thing to really highlight about this track. The experience from start to finish is simply great – no ifs, ands, or buts.
But let 's face it, he takes for freakin ever to put out a track, and much like my experiences with his brother, Preacher, it's no picnic working with this guy. In fact, I'd probably have more fun running thru the depths of that place where there’s LOTS of fire sporting gasoline soaked underwear vs beta testing their tracks. Hehehe, ok maybe that's a bit much, but you get the idea...I hope. For those of you who don't already know, I kid with these guys (Preach/Gutterboy) quite a bit. The fact of the matter is they are highly respected members of our team, as well as throughout the MTM 2 community…and they're also my very good friends. So...with that said, don’t go feeling sorry for either of them because of the abuse they get from me; trust me, they’ve earned it, and then some.
As far as how this one stacks up in my “Copey Rating” system, I’m almost inclined to whack off a few points just because it took him 5 months to complete the dang thing!! Fortunately for him the guidelines in my rating system doesn’t cover that aspect of track making (not yet, anyway), hence I have no choice but to grade this one based on flimsy stuff like layout, texture, cp functionality, visual aesthetics, etc. Taking all of that into consideration, I’m forced to give this one…a “10”!!! I just don’t have anything bad to say about it…nothing whatsoever. Sure, entire wars could begin and end before GB completes a track, however, when he does (finally) upload one of his creations, it's nothing short of a masterpiece. Hat’s off to you for this one, GB – extremely well done, bud.
[This message has been edited by SLO_COPE (edited 27-02-2002).]
