April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

ModNation Racers: Fun Never Goes Out Of Style

but these have…

2012 “Jumped The Shark List”

Zombies
Cupcakes
The current bacon frenzy*
Memes
Trolling
LOL, ROFL, TTYL, YOLO, BRB and of course BFF
Saying “that would make a great name for a band”
The term “Jump The Shark”
Athletes who claim “it’s not about the money”.

… almost forgot planking! Definitely planking.

One thing though, that never gets tired is fun and the ModNation franchise of games (PS3, PSP, Vita) ooze fun! (Actually that would make a great name for a band “oozefun”. Maybe “oozephun”?. You’re welcome).

I’m sure you and my boss are both wondering the same thing… why do I bring this up?

Let me tell you… ModNation Racers Two-Year Anniversary Celebration Coming Soon!
The ModNation Racers Two-Year Anniversary (ModNationpaloozatwo) is only days away and it’s going to be a blast! We are working hard to put together a fun month of events surrounding our May 25th Anniversary. Let’s put aside our troubles and our 9-5 lives and just have a fun time! Play-Create-Share FTW!
We would love your input on some upcoming events…

Race UFG Created PS3 Tracks in ModNation Racers: Road Trip
If you have never had the pleasure of racing these great career tracks from ModNation Racers for the…

Mod Circuit Vita

Island Dash Vita

Rumble Island Vita

Miner’s Rift Vita

Alpine Drop Vita

Village Run Vita

Farm Frenzy Vita

Boardwalk Vita

Sandstorm Vita

Flaming Jumps Vita

Wild Run Vita

Market Run Vita

Craggy Hills Vita

Marina Vita

Breakwater Vita

Download them now under the creator name: ModNationSDVita

Alert – racing these epic tracks in Road Trip may lead to your purchase of the PS3 ModNation Racers game if you don’t already own it.

“Road Trip” Profile Panels Are Here!
The new Player Profile Panels are here!

Go ahead, slap that bad boy on your Vita’s PSN ID. This is the kind of spontaneous publicity – your name in print – that makes people. Things are going to start happening for you now.

Here’s how:
Go to settings > PlayStation Network > Account Information > Password > Panel

“Road Trip” Community Hot Lap Challenge
Each week we will host a Community Hot Lap Challenge to see who can post the best time on selected tracks. The top three times will be mentioned here in this ModNation Monday blog for the world to see.

Last Week’s Hot Lap Results:
Track: “Seaside Speedway” by Sumsin25

ZlheckJr 13.936s
Punishthem420 14.205s
JuJitsu97 14.997s

So far (two months in) it looks like ZlheckJr and Punishthem420 are the “Road Trip” top racers to beat. Can you beat them? I’m sure they are up for the challenge!

ModNation Racers For PS3

Top Tracks: Meepcow

Creations of the Week: Best of D_W_inc

ModNation Racers Hot Lap Track of the Week – “Archaeological Anarchy” by lop330

One of the collective best weeks of tracks I have had the pleasure to race in a long time. What amazing variety! Great work people!

Monday: Watergang Reloaded by BongSoldier
Tuesday: Futuris Aquaponia by OnePoppa
Wednesday: Dueling Organs by flathletics102
Thursday: Jimis psychedelic circus by RADMANROB
Friday: Château des Alpes by mini_schnauzer67
Saturday: Archaeological Anarchy by lop330
Sunday: Metropolis by Itachifox

Have a great week everyone,
Mark
PS3: ModNationSD
Vita: ModNationSDVita

* please note _ I am a HUGE fan of bacon both literally and figuratively. I think it was the bacon toothpaste or the bacon taco that put it over the top.

Comments are closed.

29 Comments

14 Author Replies

ChrisHighwind
April 23, 2012 at 11:03 am PDT

Nice update you got there, guys. It’d be cool to play the PS3 tracks on my Vita

Also, posting before the cries of “WHERE’S ONLINE MULTIPLAYER?!” start.
Teflon02
April 23, 2012 at 11:20 am PDT

sandstorm is my all time fav Mod track. so cool but. without online what’s the point in playing still? No one I know owns this game but me. It would have replay value if it had atleast a battle mode and Gran prix. but neither smh. Please I beg of you add those and online
villaintine
April 23, 2012 at 11:26 am PDT

Every time I come to check out the ModNation Mondays blog post I leave disappointed. Still no talk of patching in online races for Road Trip, and I swear I read somewhere that this feature was going to be included post-launch, it’s why my fiancée, my buddy, and I all bought the game. Hell, at this point, I’d just be happy to have AI racers in ad-hoc races, as it is an absolutely useless feature as it exists currently. In the future I will make sure to wait for rumored post-launch features before making a day-one purchase :(
Major_Hoare
April 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm PDT

1. Leaderboards for single player online is out of style.

2. Online multiplayer will never go out of style.

3. Modnation Mondays are out of style.

4. Purchasing LBP Kartracing on day one because MN:RT never implemented online multiplayer is the new hotness.
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 12:03 pm PDT
  
  Thanks Major,
  
  Didn’t see that coming. You got me!
atheistsw
April 23, 2012 at 12:03 pm PDT

Hey Mark,

2 things:

The “TOTW”was a joint collaboration between myself and Iop330, no mention of that in the blog. :(

Secondly, “Duelling Organs” as hotlap??? You must be Kerazy! Sure, it’s a fun ‘lol’ track but for hotlap? Dear, oh dear, the complaints will be massive! I notice lately you’re just ignoring submissions in the hotlap thread wholeheartedly, and why the hell did you NOT pick Biver_’s amazing “Himalayan Deathtrail” as at least hotlap, if not TOTW?

Very confused by your choices lately Mark…
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 12:18 pm PDT
  
  Ath.
  As I have said recently, I have to go with what is given to me and I have never ignored HL submissions. The blog is really not the place to discuss these issues as you know. The forums can be more interactive.
  
  but… Yes Biver’s “Himalayan Deathtrail” is EPIC! He doesn’t submit his tracks (I looked again in forums today) so I may only find them weeks later and I don’t feel its fair to knock off someone submitting for current week’s choices. I also am contacted through PSN and in game message (RMR as example) for submissions so this may also explain concerns of tracks being chosen out of “nowhere” The only inconsistency lately as I posted weeks ago is the factor of what is given to me. My tastes have not changed.
  
  Solution = Give me more tracks!
  
  Mark
nYcFrEeWiLL82
April 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm PDT

Id have to agree with comment #4..and also adding that this game wouldve bin a huge success f it was to have cross play like wipeout..or UMvsC3. as soon as this online update occurs i will purchase it..until then..its asphalt and soon GT racing games for me :p
JNM-CIM
April 23, 2012 at 12:27 pm PDT

Hi Mark, I’m only asking this because in the past you didn’t know that atheistsw had submitted his “Emerald Coast” track, so I was wondering whether you had seen that I submitted “Sheina Botanical Gardens” for Hot Lap as well. If you did, and you thought it wasn’t good enough, that’s fine. I’d just hate to have it overlooked because it got buried in the forums, that’s all.

BTW I can’t wait to see what you bring out for the 2nd anniversary, it’s looking to be great! We’ve all got our fingers crossed for DLC discounts!

Have a great day,

JNM-CIM
Mark Wilson
April 23, 2012 at 12:30 pm PDT

Hi JNM-CIM,

Yes I did see it and I am sorry it didn’t make the cut this week. I am always rooting for your tracks. Thank you for being such a positive influence in our favorite game. Keep it up!

Mark
Hooligantuan
April 23, 2012 at 1:29 pm PDT

Awww, this is adorable, ModNation Racers thinks it can say what isn’t in style anymore.

Whoops – this might just count as #6 and be invalidated!

(Got your back on the bacon thing, though. So sick of bacon fanatics.)
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 2:27 pm PDT
  
  :(
  :)
  :) !!!
Major_Hoare
April 23, 2012 at 1:43 pm PDT

@Mark Wilson

I know my comments are often harsh but that’s because I care. Nothing is personal but everything is business.
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm PDT
  
  I totally understand and acknowledge player’s frustrations, trust me. I know we all love this game because it has given us soooooo many good times and we want more. We all have our likes and dislikes about every game including MNR, no game is perfect but we don’t play MNR because it’s spotless, we plays because it’s fun and my job, my passion, is to share that fun with the community. Let’s all try to enjoy next month’s Two Year Anniversary Palooza and celebrate all the great things in the franchise.
  
  Thanks for contacting me back. All’s good here. I do wish that players could remember that to the team that put their all into the game for two years it’s hard not to take it personally sometimes but we understand. We are gamers too :)
  
  Thank you for listening!
  
  Mark
retro25
April 23, 2012 at 1:49 pm PDT

Any new updates and/or DLC for MNR PS3 at all?
kampf-mammut
April 23, 2012 at 2:40 pm PDT

Thanks for the PS3 tracks for Roadtrip.
But I think there should be both, MNR and Roadtrip, “Creations of the week” in every ModNation Monday Blog.

Keep up the good work :)
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm PDT
  
  Hi kampf-mammut ,
  
  Thank you for the kind words!
  
  If you keep making more great Mods / Karts we can start to put together a Road Trip COTW section! Right now most creators are getting the “make my favorite character from _________” out of their systems. I expect some great non-IP creations to start coming in faster.
  
  Remember you can always check the “SDS Faves” section of the search station. You should have a few in there by now.
  
  Mark
TubaDude49
April 23, 2012 at 2:49 pm PDT

Nobody jumps sharks anymore. They just nuke fridges.
Mark Wilson
April 23, 2012 at 3:05 pm PDT

Dude… great name for a band – Nuke Fridges!
neto2552
April 23, 2012 at 3:18 pm PDT

Why we can´t get a real answer for the modnation racers online multiplayer? just answer yes or no, and everybody will be happy even if you say no, but if you say yes everybody will be extra happy :)
mini_schnauzer67
April 23, 2012 at 3:18 pm PDT

Firstly, I’m sick of seeing atheist not getting any mention for team tracks. Ath is a nice guy, when he does team tracks he lets the other person be the final publisher. However, he still needs to be mentioned. I also mentioned this when Atlantis Rising got track of the 1.5 year and you only mentioned PH1LThy, no mention of ath, even though it was a team track. This week, for everyone who is reading, the TOTW, Archaeological Anarchy is by iop330 and atheistsw.

Also, I am shocked that you chose dueling organs, I second ath’s motion. Flathletics said: This track is not for serious racing, but I hope you can get a laugh out of it. Maybe you could have mentioned it as a separate track, as I agree it is hilarious but really, if you tested this track, I can’t believe you would deem it suitable for hot lap. Hot lap is all about fast, smooth and scenic tracks that are slightly challenging but not too hard. Of course everyone has a different opinion but Dueling Organs was not a track for racing…

To be continued…
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 4:44 pm PDT
  
  Wow? Full moon this week? Too much anger. :(
  
  As I’ve said MANY times, I can only choose from what is given to me to chose from. THEN I select the best examples of the creativity in the game. Even ath and alex went through times of being unfairly criticized for making tracks that were too pretty or “unique” and I was criticized for choosing those tracks. MNR is for ALL players old pro’s and newbies. If we received 100 tracks a week to choose from Hot Lap would be full of epic racing goodness, Even at it’s peak (check forums) twenty or so was the average. Now it’s around ten. Great tracks take a lot of time and it takes guts to put yours up for public judging. Please check the forums and noticed last week was less than seven.
  
  As far as ath getting credit he is indeed among the top creators in the game and a personal favorite. I used to be unfairly criticized for being “hypnotized” by anything he made. Against popular opinion I continued to choose the best seven and if he had one or all seven tracks then I felt I did my job. Since I started track creation events last year, collabs have gone way up! In a sanctioned track creation event I have ALWAYS included all involved even if they had a small roles.
  
  …..
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 4:45 pm PDT
  
  … I try when it is pointed out to acknowledge all those contributing to a team effort. This though has lead to MANY tracks that are remixes of remixes with three creators mentioned. Include them?, don’t include them? Was it a recent remix? Do they want to be mentioned?, etc…
  
  Previously Hot Lap tracks were never raced individually. I race EACH and EVERY track at least once to choose. I don’t read all the details of the submissions and apologize for any oversights. Sometimes though it boils down to darned if you do / darned if you don’t. Flathletics track was an amazing effort. Perfect no. Fun? yes. Best fun of the < seven submitted? yes. mathematically? yes!
  
  In conclusion I have posted MANY times the forums the criteria for choices and have not had a problem UNTIL there is a slow week or two of submissions and then players go bonkers over the choices.
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 4:46 pm PDT
  
  I will continue to choose Hot Lap tracks based on again previously stated criteria… 1. Fun 2. Great example of track creation tools and IDEAS. 3. Racing lines 4. Fun
  
  If there is still need for clarity please refer to the forums for all this info the best you can. If not I can try to explain better but I really can’t stress enough what I’ve stated above.
  
  PLEASE use the forums for any complaints. Personal complaints / arguing in the blog comments are inappropriate as they can be easily remedied or solved in the forums but a new reader / user would be turned off by a games community that bickers. We are not that community. I know you all agree.
  
  I have always offered direct contact through my PSN ID (click my link in the title) or in the forums (the best I can).
  
  Peace,
  
  Mark
mini_schnauzer67
April 23, 2012 at 3:20 pm PDT

Continued:

On a brighter note, thank you for choosing my track chateau des alpes. Friday is perfect for me because it is friday night to saturday evening in Australia, meaning I definitely get to race on it! I hope everyone likes it on hot lap! Just saying though, my track name does not have the accent over the a in ch’a’teau. Is that a problem???

Finally, congrats Meep, well deserved! Oh, and I HATE bacon with passion…
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 4:46 pm PDT
  
  You’re welcome!
  
  :)
antwain27
April 23, 2012 at 3:33 pm PDT

Will Road Trip ever have online multiplayer? Cause that’s what made the PS3 version a blast.
antwain27
April 23, 2012 at 3:36 pm PDT

Any chance that we could get some sort of underground cave/lava dlc for the PS3?
moriarty1975
April 23, 2012 at 4:17 pm PDT

Zombies rule!!

That is all.

;)
- Mark Wilson
  April 23, 2012 at 4:52 pm PDT
  
  moriarty1975,
  
  You are a super guy and to my knowledge your have NEVER been wrong but you are here. The guess at the studio on which would receive more flack was bacon.Bacon frenzy has received the most support! I have prevailed as bacon = good, frenzy = over it.
  
  You are welcome world!
  
  TJ awaits!
  
  Mark
moriarty1975
April 23, 2012 at 5:29 pm PDT

Blog reply edit coming up!

Zombies rule!*

* imo

:)

Zombies….bacon….frenzy…..

Zombie Bacon Frenzy!! Thats a great name for….something! ;)
- Mark Wilson
  April 24, 2012 at 10:48 am PDT
  
  moriarty1975,
  
  Ok smarty pants… since I trust your net etiquette, what would be on your list in lieu of Zombies?
remanutd5
April 23, 2012 at 5:49 pm PDT

i dont think my tracks will ever get mention on the this blog lol , anyways any Motorstormers playing Modnation Racers Road Trip check my tracks please they are called Monument Valley, Pacific Rift and Apocalypse , im working on my Arctic Edge track right now , i love this game i just wish it had head to head multiplayer
Avalanche
April 23, 2012 at 5:50 pm PDT

Everyone please DL and vote for my creations, its all i need to achieve PlATINUM STATUS
tyreytrdh
April 23, 2012 at 7:09 pm PDT

Any news on LBP Karting cause that’s one game on my Most anticipated list. I know suprising eh.
etur0
April 23, 2012 at 7:17 pm PDT

here is an idea tell us that you guys are working bringing online play to road trip or not if so give an ETA on when it would be release to stop or at least minimize the questions about it
JEC94
April 23, 2012 at 10:32 pm PDT

are those profile panels available for PS3 too?
- Mark Wilson
  April 24, 2012 at 10:03 am PDT
  
  Thanks for asking. No they are not but we will have something similar for PS3 players next week!
Hooligantuan
April 24, 2012 at 3:53 am PDT

Mark, a lot of us would dig another MNR Career Expansion, so before you guys stop like for seriously supporting the game with new content, plz one more Career Expansion?

I mean, then you’ll have 3 career expansions for whenever the MNR Greatest Something edition is put onto shelves.
DarkOne_PR
April 24, 2012 at 7:23 am PDT

no online = no buy
tradition…
antwain27
April 24, 2012 at 4:33 pm PDT

Agreed. Road Trip is kinda boring without online play and Modspot. The new weapons are great, though.
CBdaQB
April 24, 2012 at 4:34 pm PDT

Hey Mark first time commenter, just a quick question

One thing with the game that prevents me from playing more (it is one of my favorites as of now) is the very spotty framerate, something I believe could be fixed by possibly just turning the shadows down a bit (im no developer obviously but its a suggestion). Its really hard to get into a game with a lot of action going on at under 30 fps. Is there any updates about this from devs as this problem was mentioned in every review ive read of the game and is a serious problem, I hope development hasnt stopped :/.

Thanks,
mini_schnauzer67
April 24, 2012 at 10:42 pm PDT

Sorry Mark, I wasn’t angry, just pointing out some things that struck me as… odd. I know your job picking hot lap is very hard and your picks are your picks. I also realise that with your lack of time you often can’t tell whether something is a team track. I was too harsh.

I’m sorry.

btw are we going to get info on LBP Karting in these blogs sometime in the future?