Hi everybody!

I used to be a long term player of TMS and TM United, and after a break of a few years I´m just starting to get into TM2 now. Three days ago I bought Valley as my first environment. The driving was mostly fun to me so far, especially on all kinds of roads. But I don´t like the drinving on dirt / offroad too much yet, it feels too slippery for me.

Now I wonder if I should buy Canyon and Stadium as well, but I didn´t like Stadium on TMU that much.
And I heards people say about Canyon that it feels a bit like driving the Coast car.

So what is Canyon like, compared to Valley (and other envis from TMU)?
What is Stadium like compared to Stadium in TMU?

Canyon is more like a coast/island hybrid. I think it's great fun, but I don't see it as a fine-tuned environment like Valley is

It takes time to get used to the valley dirt, so don't worry

Canyon is kinda difficult to describe. The main weight of the car is put pretty high, so it can tip over at convex places if you are not careful - similarly to coast. The sliding feels very light and continuous, really the opposite of valley drifting, and in theory you could build a canyon track with an endless slide (although it would be pretty monotonous!). In high speeds, the canyon car has the same noslide property as the valley car - no matter how fast it goes, you won't start to slide unless the car loses grip or you start breaking.

My advice is to look at some videos that show canyon gameplay, to get a first impression of how it looks. If you think it's cool to drive, then go on

The stadium physics have changed slightly since TMUF, making it feel slightly heavier. Apart from that I think it feels pretty much the same. The bugs are still there FYI

good description of the Canyon physics, Voyager. I would like to add that it drifts a bit similar to the island car, but without the huge speed loss. You can drift a lot longer.

I suggest to you to just download the Titles in the Maniaplanet ingame store, Canyon and stadium are free for 60min (or was it 90 ?) in a demo mode each day and the first few days even unlimited.
Additionally you can download other Titlepacks, which grant you 60/90min again. Furthermore you can download unpopular titlepacks with less than 100 active players, which means that they have no timelimit at all. Basically you can download a new Titlepack each time you run out of time
I suggest the TM2 Mutlienvironment Titlepack.

After you're convinced, you can still buy the game

Oh yeah the demos - try them at first

Thank you for your answers!

irondragons, what do you mean by "fine-tuned environment", what would be the difference in tuning?

Voyager006, thanks for the detailed description. I will look for videos then, but I guess it will show an overview to landscape and stuff, but not for the car handling.
And I won´t buy Stadium for now, if it´s similar to the former one - though it´s the cheapest environment. Does anyone know why Stadium is available at half price?

haenry, that sounds like good advice, trying the game with a free demo. But I don´t know what a title pack is.
There are many new things that I can´t figure what they´re for. For example: What do I need the new coppers (planets??) for?

Yeah Maniaplanet needs tooltips or explanations. The old games had physical manuals in the box, which were neat.
There is a http://wiki.maniaplanet.com/en/Home and a http://doc.maniaplanet.com that explain a few things tho.

Ingame you can find a store button on the left. Then you'll see a big list of Titlepacks, which you can all download.

Planets, well.... You can host ladderservers or give them away at competitions

If you're still looking for some videos I can recommend my video playlists on Youtube with runs on the Nadeo campaign tracks. Most videos also contain (detailed) descriptions on how to drive certain parts/tricks on these tracks. (self-advertising ftw)
Canyon: Click!
Valley: Click!

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I'd be glad to help out

I cannot recommend the playlist because it makes Trackmania look too easy
Honestly, you can hardly learn a lot of things about the physics engine from seeing the perfect runs. You need crashes and fails in order to experience the limits and see what it feels like.
The best is still playing to learn it yourself

haenry says:
The best is still playing to play yourself

Isnt it still free to play until gamers assembly or something? Which cant be far away but maybe still valid?