With TM2 rolling out in the fourth quarter this year. Benoit Vandangeon, had taken the opportunity and gave the new TrackMania 2 3D Engine a test with this outstanding short preview of the new environment to be featured in TrackMania 2. This only a snippet of what's to come later this year.

We'll after a good long run with the TMX Blog. I am announcing my retirement from the Blog. I feel I lack the skills to write and maintain such a blog without expertise. I know this is the right thing to do, it will also allow me to focus on other things at TMX and in real life.

Following my retirement, I am asking any of you in the community to write for us. If you have great skills and ideas, please forward Januy (Admin) a Private message. If there is no one out there to write for us, I must therefor close the blog and maybe move our projects to dedicated pages. But, please, do send me a message with some information and at least one article of work.

Good Bye TMX Blog Readers!

A slow start to the contest, but I'm sure it'll be a good one at the end!

We'll start off with Altonators submission!

Santa claus, santa claus why so down?
Lets turn that frown upside down,
Have a lot of fun racing,
Instead of that misserable baking.
Head on down to the track,
You big old fat mak
Hop in the car,
You're ready to race,
Lets all race with TMX.

I like this one. It really sticks to the point of a "TMX Christmas" tune, with a bit of TM Fever, but has a jolly feel to get you all racing this holiday season.

More...

What we are looking for is a good, fun, joyful Christmas message that we can have posted on the TMX front page on the 25th of this month.

It needs to be a jolly tune with a Christmas and TMX theme to it. It can or can't ryhme. It may or may not be humourous. It doesn't require a focal topic or any sort of relevance.

To summarise it, your free to do anything you want, we just need to write up a little Christmas message or poem that will be published on the TMX front page on the 25th of December. Judging will be done by MrA himself, no current mention of any prize or prizes. Deadline is the 21st of December at midnight.

We'll be also picking a handful of entries and sharing our thoughts on them over the coming days until the 21st.

You should have your poems or messages submitted within the contest topic, here at tmx.

Well after some days and hours of configuring and tinkering with the blog and theme. I now present to you, a much better looking blog!

I think I'll call this Blog 2.0. Some notable changes are the sidebar, post view, comment view and now the ability to use all 40 TMX Smiles in comments!

If you think it's nice, why not leave a comment or two. We'd love it if you could let us know what else can be improved, just add your comments to this article.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Another event that should not be forgotten about is the CCC xk CCC 2009! This year, Leader and Pauly have organised a special christmas related TrackMania Content contest for the community! This is where you guys all have a chance to take part in this contest and have a chance to win 241,000+ coppers (Virtual Cash). You'll be able to show your creativity by creating a Wallpaper, skin, mod, track, video or Manialink - anyone is aloud to participate!

You should upload your creations at the official website, you'll need to register with your tm login and community code first. The results of the contest should be posted in early January 2010. If you would also like to increase the amount of coppers, please do send them to TMUF Login: leader.

With Christmas coming around in less than a month. It's time to get into the Jolly Spirit of Christmas!

To start of the holiday season, Mikey is back with another jolly Christmas event. TM - XMAS!

If you've been around long enough, then you'd sure know that Mikey hosts an annual server event around Christmas and the New Year. This will be the 4th time Mikey will be hosting the server.

One small problem, is that he needs new tracks! If you have the time and the skills, why not make an awesome, fun track for the event and send it to him, at TMX or at TMAUS.

The tracks should be jolly! With mods, signs, ingame music and some great MT work.

For more information and event downloads, visit Mikey's garage.

With the ESWC going into liquidation in April this year, Stéphane Cosse had purchased full rights to the ESWC in early August this year.

On the 23rd of November, 2009, DIP-Organisation issued an immediate press release article. The article stated that the 2009 ESWC did not happen, but will be carried on into mid 2010. The world's top gamers will be able to compete during the 7th ESWC Cup in Paris, France from the 30th of June till the 4th of July 2010.

DIP-Organisation, a well known event handler for five years, will be organizing the event partnership with well know Video Game organisations.

The 2010 ESWC Cup, will be held in Disneyland, Paris, a well known theme park in Paris. Disneyland will host the event in the Disney Village, an area where there is plenty of stuff to do, from shopping, going to the cinemas, dancing, live entertainment for the family and is open to anybody. Besides Disneyland hosting the event, they will be accommodating the 600 Champions throughout their journey.

Below is a list of confirmed games that will be appearing in the 7th ESWC Cup, and YES TrackMania will be there!

• Counter Strike
• Counter Strike Women
• Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne
  
• TrackMania ESWC 
• Virtual Tennis
• Need for Speed SHIFT
• Fifa 2010
• Street Fighter 4

Qualification process will start in January 2010, DIP-Organisation is aiming to gather 32 countries to participate in the ESWC come back.

For any other information, please visit the ESWC Website.

TrackMania RPG Blog are here with a brand new RPG Contest, sponsored by HawkGer.

The 23rd of December will mark the 1 year anniversary. This was the day, Kryw submitted his excellent temple track.

How will the contest work?

Being an RPG competition, this contest will only accept tracks that qualify as RPG. A definition of an RPG track can be found on the RPG Blog.

The competition asks you to make at least 5 alternative routes. The routes will be on one side, hard to drive but faster, and on the other side, easy but longer. So it's up to your driving skills to decide if you go for a fast time or not. "To clear things up: no, you don't need 5 alternative routes which goes from from start to finish. You need to have at least 5 CP's or tricks where two or more ways lead to the same CP/place again."

More...

The carpark crew is back with it's well known Carmania contest. This time it's dedicated to Focus Home!

The Carpark crew have started the Carmania: Forever Ending contest in Dedication of Focus Home Interactie for all there fantastic support in the adventure of TrackMania and for there massive support for TrackMania and the Community!

A little bit about Carmania -  Carmania is a design contest based upon 3D models and 2D skins. All the best community modelers or converters and skinners can come together and share their talen in a special design contest.

Visit the Carmania website here.

The TMX Community would also love to thank you guys at Focus Home for providing your best support for this fantastic game over the years. Thanks you Focus!