I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that mtm2dude is quite “taken” with the stock track “Farm Road 29”. If you, too are a fan of this track, then you’ll be happy to know that thanks to this guy you can get it in four different flavors:
Golly Pop Road – textures taken from “Gollypop”, by Oops
Arctic Farm Road – textures from Malibu350’s “Arctic Wasteland 2”
Backyard Farm 03 – textures from Malibu350’s “KC’s Backyard”
Crazy Farm 98 – I think we all know the story on this one
“Farm Road 29” just so happens to be one of my favorite stock tracks. It’s short, simple, but oh so intense when paired against opponents of equal (or near equal) skill level. mtm2dude’s remakes come with no surprises with respect to layout; they’re all exact clones of the original. The differences in these 4 tracks have to do with subtle driving characteristics that stem from varying textures and their corresponding settings (default, cement, mud, snow, etc). For example, “Arctic Farm Road” offers up a somewhat slipperier driving experience than “KC’s Backyard 03”, which is smooth and very predictable. “Golly Pop Road” & “Crazy Farm 98” are very similar with respect to driving/truck handling characteristics, which of course, is to be expected given the road surfaces. As a sidenote, my feeling is that all blacktop textures should be set to cement, in which case one would use shallow tires for maximum traction as in real-life racing. “Crazy Farm 98” appears to be set to default, however I'm not positive of that since I haven't opened it up in Traxx.
There’s really not much to say about these tracks since everyone is so familiar with "Farm Road 29", and that’s not a bad thing by the way. I very much like what mtm2dude has done, and I’m quite sure other “Farm Road 29” lovers will as well. The computer trucks do an adequate job of running the tracks, just as they do on the original stock version. I did notice a few texture alignment snafus, which, as I said earlier, is the only thing he changed (from what I can tell) about the track. I suppose one could make a point about fine tuning the telephone pole models. As is, the entire model is as wide as the top portion of the pole, and as a result, a truck will collide with non-visible portions of the telephone pole model; an undesirable quality by today’s standards. Of course, the easy fix for that is to run the track with scenery set to sparse and not have to deal with the telephone poles at all.
Overall mtm2dude’s idea to reproduce “Farm Road 29” using several different road textures is pretty interesting. I also like Voodoo Island and Excavation, and it makes me wonder what those would be like with different texture sets. No, that’s not a hint – just a random statement expressing mild curiosity. Really, I promise lol. As for the Copey Rating, collectively the four tracks earn a respectable “7.50” out of “10”. At this point I would normally throw in a, “keep pressin’, bud – can’t wait to see what you come up with next”. As it turns out, mtm2dude has been quite busy, and already has a new one out, so I guess I’ll tackle that one next. As for the “Farm Road 29” medley…I kinda dig ‘em! Keep at it, mtm2dude!
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Edited by SLO_COPE (24-01-2003)</font>
