I just happen to like Trials...



This is the best intro of the four that I’m aware of and just about sums up my feelings on the franchise. Last Saturday I had some unexpected and happy news. PlayXBLA is an XBLA blog site that I visit every now and again. They run a caption competition on a near-daily basis. They post either a screenshot, a piece of concept art or a photograph and the community is tasked with writing a witty caption. Last Thursday, this was the picture (taken from Bloodforge) with my caption attempt underneath.



”Instead of attracting a handsome suitor, her red dress had only managed to attract the weirdest bull she had ever seen.”

On Saturday morning I found out that I was one of the two winners. My prize? Well, I had a choice but there was only one target I had in mind. With only 780 MSP in the pot, I hadn’t been able to purchase Trials Evolution yet. I received my code on Monday evening and left the game downloading overnight. I work on Tuesday, so Tuesday evening was my first opportunity to sit down with the game.

I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the game. I’m finding this one much easier than Trials HD, but that’s most likely to be because of the amount of experience I’ve had with Trials HD. After all, the physics haven’t changed in the slightest (this is good – they didn’t need fixing). I’ve only got about 50% through the medium difficulty, but I’m getting gold medals on about 95% of the tracks on my first attempt. Despite numerous attempts, I still can’t get gold medals on some of the DLC tracks of equivalent difficulty on Trials HD.

The one thing that I’m definitely not keen on is the fact that the tracks bend now. If this was implemented correctly then it wouldn’t be too bad. If a real motocross rider overshoots a jump just before a corner then he goes flying off the track and hits the crash barrier. In Trials Evolution, this doesn’t happen. The rider is glued to the driving line, meaning that he will turn the corner in mid-air if that is where the track should take him.

I haven’t tried multiplayer yet because I’m yet to be able to connect to a match. This is probably a good idea seeing as I haven’t actually unlocked the last and most powerful bike of the game. I’ll try again once I actually remember to reset my modem and set it back to an open NAT setting.

The one thing that I didn’t wait to try out was Track Central. This is the hub where all of the player-created tracks are stored. There are already some amazing tracks in this hub, but it’s the sheer range of things that are on offer that knocks me back the most. In the five days in which I’ve had the game, I’ve played tracks based on disused mines, Terminator 2, a landfill site, Super Mario and Heaven. I’ve also played table football, the Trials version of Angry Birds (WP), a first person shooter, a high jump competition and even a basic point and click. I tried to find videos of all of these tracks, but I’ve only been able to find decent videos of five of them.

RedLynx are actually releasing extra tracks through Track Central. They are the creators behind the first three of my videos, as well as the table football game. Redlynxlive is the gamertag for which you need to look. “Spelunked” is a track that takes players through a disused and dangerous mine.



“Angry Bikers” is the Trials equivalent of Angry Birds, although the title should have given it away.



“FPS Target Range” is their first person shooter. The aiming is horrendous in this game, which is why the player misses so many shots. I’m just impressed that you can create something like this in a track editor.



“Terminator 2” is a recreation of the infamous motorcycle chase sequence in the film of the same name. The track creator is suttonleo2. As a Trials track, the unclear driving line makes this a poor track on its own. The incredible surroundings more than make up for that though.



I don’t really need to explain that “Super Mario Trials” is a recreation of the Super Mario games. The track contains a few nasty surprises. The pipes at 1:04 are just evil, and the bits at 1:57 and 2:25 still get me every time.



I guess that I’ll post my full views on this game in many blog posts to come. Oh yes, there’s a new riddle too. When I find out what it means, I’ll let you know.