I’ve seen a few tracks since I started playing this game back in Oct of 99, but I don’t recall ever seeing one with Santa in it lol. Actually when you think about it, how can you go wrong with Santa in your track? It seems that MGD_Testament_ & OLD_FlatWheels came to the same conclusion, and thus “MTM 2 XMASS” was born.
I love it when track makers pool their talents in a joint project. In fact, from what I’ve seen, mergers of this sort usually yield a very good final product, and this one is no exception. According to my intel, MGD_Testament came up with the layout and OLD_Flatwheels, ROX_OnaN accented it with the models and special effects. OLD_LoL_Evil was brought in to edit and resample the soundtrack (Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin).
Beginning with the layout, I’m always impressed by guys/girls who seem to come up with very nice layouts, challenging ones even, but they’re not really known as racers. The question I find myself asking is, “How do they know what works and what doesn’t?” I’m not quite sure, and I’m certainly not going to go into some long, drawn out theory about it either. Besides, who would listen lol? Still, it makes me wonder. At any rate, Testament certainly did a nice job mixing up the course with jumps, turns and just a touch of speed. An average lap is about 1:30, but don’t expect it to come easy. Just because Santa and Rudolph are featured in the track don’t go thinking it’s an easy run – it isn’t lol. If you don’t believe me, watch what happens when you set the computer trucks loose on it.
As for the visual effects/scenery, I thought he could have done without the vegetation in the track itself. It doesn’t add value to the overall appearance, and it somewhat clashes with the texture color. The log cabin after cp 5 is slightly embedded in the mountain behind it. I wouldn’t say it was obvious, but I did notice it. The only other objective commentary to add has to do with the texture; there are several areas where the alignment could have been improved. On the flip side, however, I thought the blending between the snow and road texture along the outer edge of the track was fairly well done!
Given the number of trees used in “MTM 2 XMASS”, it stands to reason why they were set to no collide facing
without a tree trunk effect – lot of work there! To their credit, I didn’t find one floating tree, not a one, and that’s kind of impressive in my book.
I like this track – the layout, the concept (of course), and all the nifty little things these guys did with it to make it a visual spectacle. One thing’s for sure, there’s much more to like about “MTM 2 XMASS” than there is to dislike, which is why it pulled a Copey Rating of 9 out of 10 possible points! This is another track where I think a “
<u>Highly Recommended</u>” is in order. It has a great theme, impressive model work & special effects, and a fun, challenging layout. Very well done guys – great stuff!
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Edited by SLO_COPE (15-01-2003)</font>
