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The grim post-nuclear future of off-road racing.

Powerslide, the postapocalyptic free-form racing game with impressive visuals and brilliant track design, is now available on GOG.com for only $5.99.

How much a fresh orange is worth, nowadays? $0.5? A banana? Just about as much. Not really worth endangering yourself over, right? Now imagine a world where the price of fresh fruit skyrocketed after a global nuclear holocaust. A world, where only the richest of the rich can afford proper nutrition. In such world--a barely habitable nuclear wasteland--the less fortunate majority of irradiated freaks finds its only pleasure and retreat in mad auto races called "powerslides". Only the lucky few make it to the finish line, but among them only one will receive the ultimate prize: a healthy meal.

Powerslide not only manages to capture a perfect image of the hypothetical grim post-nuclear future, but also delivers solid and original racing gameplay. Even though the game dates back to 1998, its detailed graphics remain impressive and create a captivating representation of an apocalyptic landscape. All of the tracks present you with many options of detours and shortcuts, so it makes a lot of sense to do a little exploration while racing. This will not only make your victory easier--many special bonuses can be found in the most secluded places.

Unlock all the vehicles and drivers, learn every turn of every track, practice your driving skills and maybe you'll earn your way out of postapocalyptic slum. Race for thrills, respect, money, and your right to proper nutrition in Powerslide, for only $5.99.
Nice and hot game.
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G-Doc: In the context of a game released in 1998? No, not even remotely.
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timppu: I also remember being impressed by the slick and smooth graphics, back then. Also the sliding driving model was little over the top IIRC, in a good way.

So many people mention having problems getting the original running on modern systems, I guess I'll have to test it with my retail version, as I last played it probably in Win98SE... If it is not easy to get it to run with the latest patches, I could easily see myself buying the GOG version at some point.

But as said, arcade racing games don't always age gracefully, hence I've e.g. skipped POD (I originally got it with my 3Dfx graphics card back in the day). Last week I also tried the Midnight Club 2 which was a Steam freebie months ago... oh mi god what a POS driving game (2003) that one is! No wonder they gave it out free.
Considering POD is much older that both Midnight Club 2 and Powersile, I think the graphics still hold just fine. The 3dfx support came years after release to support the card, the game wasn't made then. POD was originally released to coincide and show the optimizations possible with the then first appearance of MMX instructions on the brand new Intel Pentium MMX CPUs, while also possible to run on systems without it.
I am not attacking you or anything, just saying a few things for a game I Love.
GOG is constitutionally incapable of admitting that a game's graphics have aged poorly. Even Ultima 1 doesn't have bad graphics; they're "retro."

Anyway, I've never played a lot of racing games, and it is cheap. Maybe I'll give it a try.
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trusteft: Considering POD is much older that both Midnight Club 2 and Powersile, I think the graphics still hold just fine. The 3dfx support came years after release to support the card, the game wasn't made then.
I think you remember a bit wrong. POD was released in 1997 (Powerslide in 1998), and as far as I recall (and MobyGames confirms), it was one of the first PC games to support 3D acceleration out of the box.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/pod

I think that is the main reason I bought it too, in order to get games that support my beloved Orchid 3Dfx Voodoo card I had gotten a few months earlier. I said wrong earlier that POD came with my 3Dfx card, I remembered wrong. I bought it separately. I got some other games with the card, like Fatal Racing (aka Whiplash, how I'd love to be able to play this again 3Dfx-accelerated) and Mechwarrior 2.

I just felt POD gameplay wasn't that interesting, quite mediocre overall. Compared to e.g. the aforementioned Fatal Racing and Powerslide.
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trusteft: Considering POD is much older that both Midnight Club 2 and Powersile, I think the graphics still hold just fine. The 3dfx support came years after release to support the card, the game wasn't made then.
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timppu: I think you remember a bit wrong. POD was released in 1997 (Powerslide in 1998), and as far as I recall (and MobyGames confirms), it was one of the first PC games to support 3D acceleration out of the box.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/pod

I think that is the main reason I bought it too, in order to get games that support my beloved Orchid 3Dfx Voodoo card I had gotten a few months earlier. I said wrong earlier that POD came with my 3Dfx card, I remembered wrong. I bought it separately. I got some other games with the card, like Fatal Racing (aka Whiplash, how I'd love to be able to play this again 3Dfx-accelerated) and Mechwarrior 2.

I just felt POD gameplay wasn't that interesting, quite mediocre overall. Compared to e.g. the aforementioned Fatal Racing and Powerslide.
I strongly remember POD being the first or among the first games using the MMX set, which was released with the Pentium MMX CPUs in 1996. I bought my first Pentium MMX and about 2-3 weeks later I got POD. I did just check mobygames and wiki just in case and they indeed both say the game was released a year later, in 1997. Which I find very weird, but it's not like I can prove otherwise now. I no longer have the original game, I have just the GOG version and the POD Gold disc I bought from an American friend of mine in 99.

I am also pretty sure that the game on release did not support 3DFX out of the "box". Again I can't prove it so...yeah.

Anyway, all these are not important, what is important is that the game is awesome, I do love it and I will not stand idle while anyone says anything bad or even neutral about it :p
Post edited October 02, 2012 by trusteft
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timppu: I think you remember a bit wrong. POD was released in 1997 (Powerslide in 1998), and as far as I recall (and MobyGames confirms), it was one of the first PC games to support 3D acceleration out of the box.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/pod

[..]

I just felt POD gameplay wasn't that interesting, quite mediocre overall. Compared to e.g. the aforementioned Fatal Racing and Powerslide.
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trusteft: I strongly remember POD being the first or among the first games using the MMX set, which was released with the Pentium MMX CPUs in 1996. I bought my first Pentium MMX and about 2-3 weeks later I got POD. I did just check mobygames and wiki just in case and they indeed both say the game was released a year later, in 1997. Which I find very weird, but it's not like I can prove otherwise now. I no longer have the original game, I have just the GOG version and the POD Gold disc I bought from an American friend of mine in 99.

I am also pretty sure that the game on release did not support 3DFX out of the "box". Again I can't prove it so...yeah.

[..]
You are both (somewhat) right ;D

QUOTE from the Wikipedia article:
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POD was published in 1997. It was one of the first games to support the MMX instruction set and came bundled as an OEM version [..]. The OEM 1.0 version did not support 3dfx cards or network mode. A retail version of POD (called POD 2.0 by Ubisoft) was later released and featured more circuits and cars, plus support for 3dfx video cards and network play.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Death

ANd I definitely concur on the MMX-only release, as the PC of my girlfriend at that time was bundled with it.
Post edited October 02, 2012 by PaulDenton
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trusteft: I strongly remember POD being the first or among the first games using the MMX set, which was released with the Pentium MMX CPUs in 1996. I bought my first Pentium MMX and about 2-3 weeks later I got POD. I did just check mobygames and wiki just in case and they indeed both say the game was released a year later, in 1997. Which I find very weird, but it's not like I can prove otherwise now. I no longer have the original game, I have just the GOG version and the POD Gold disc I bought from an American friend of mine in 99.

I am also pretty sure that the game on release did not support 3DFX out of the "box". Again I can't prove it so...yeah.

[..]
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PaulDenton: You are both (somewhat) right ;D

QUOTE from the Wikipedia article:
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POD was published in 1997. It was one of the first games to support the MMX instruction set and came bundled as an OEM version [..]. The OEM 1.0 version did not support 3dfx cards or network mode. A retail version of POD (called POD 2.0 by Ubisoft) was later released and featured more circuits and cars, plus support for 3dfx video cards and network play.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Death

ANd I definitely concur on the MMX-only release, as the PC of my girlfriend at that time was bundled with it.
HA! I knew I wasn't completely crazy :p
Thanks.