POD Gold

This game came bundled with the PC my Dad bought in 1997. Showcasing the power of the new MMX Pentium processor, this game helped to push graphical fidelity to new heights. While the game is pretty lacking compared to modern games, it has an atmosphere all its own. It actually creeped me out so much that I didn't play it much (I was about 8 years old at the time). Now that it's back to life on GOG, everyone can enjoy it on modern hardware. As an added bonus, there are more cars and tracks included in this version than what shipped with the original. Pick it up and give it a try.

Here I am. All those 5-star reviews made me give it a go. Oh, boy were those misleading... Let's put it this way, the car behaviour is rather erratic and sluggish at best. It either turns around the corner nicely if you keep tapping the key, but if you hold down the turn key for tenth of a second too long, you end up hitting a wall or falling off track due to a power-slide that you cannot correct or control, no matter what you do. Somewhat off-putting, as a racing game either lives or dies by its controls. And I found out the controls on this one are fairly weak, to put it nicely. If you liked P.O.D. "back in the day" and wish to relive that experience, this is for you. Others, you may want to consider carefully between this and other options.

Okay, i try to keep it short. You can read the overview above. Good: - Fast paced arcade racer. - Tons of vehicle each with unique stats and feel. - Extremely aggressive and unpredictable, random AI. - Tons of tracks which is very differ from one another. - Good graphic, although it look a bit dated. But who care about graphic on GoG. - One of the best ambient background music in video game history. - Damage system, not just cosmetic but your vehicle can get heavier and slower. Not too good: - You got to have great sense of direction since there are no direction indicator or mini-map. - Some track can be frustratingly difficult, especially at jumping section. - Multiplayer is kinda dead. - Limted amount of save during championship, you can only save after 4 races. My verdict is this game is must play for arcade racer fan. All the negative points that i pointed above by no mean are game-breaker. You also can download additional track and vehicle from PodPhreak sites, refer to the discussion on POD section here for installation of additional track and vehicle. But for additional vehicle i suggest you only download the 8 motorcycles pack since others can be pretty buggy.

Pod is has such a great forbodding atmosphere. The abandon factory, landscape and mysterious machinery together with the simple story are just great. It runs in very high resolution with nglide, so it looks quite descent, due to the excellent art design. The racing is fun and challenging, only the pinball collisions are kind of sad. There also cheat around. The best one is to simply type "map" during a race, for a map of the course, which is great to discover shortcuts. I wish there was a success to this game. Most scifi racers have lazy floating tracks in the landscape, but here, you actually race in very diverse courses.

This was one of the first PC games I ever got as a kid, so seeing it here, I wanted to give it a shot. Even back in the past, the game was not great. Basically, huge tracks with nothing interesting on them. No comments from the AI drivers, e.g., if you crash into them, no items, etc. Most tracks have interesting designs with multiple routs, but without any kind of map, it is easy to take a wrong turn. The car designs are cool, but that's it. That said, I played it as a kid and kind of felt nostalgic, so I wanted to play it again. Sadly, the first 3 launches crashed immediately. On the 4th, it finally started. Everything seemed fine until I started the first race. Then the sound began to stutter horribly. After the race, I tried to adjust some settings, but then it crashed again. It also got unresponsive after trying to quit it through the main menu. So in the end I asked for a refund, it was apparently not meant to be. Rated 3 Stars for nostalgic reasons and because one can actually refund it. I hope you get a better experience reliving this trashy "classic".