Where I learnt to race - POD!

Ubisoft's 1997 release of the futuristic racing game POD was the game that, looking back, taught me the basics of how to race and helped make me realise how much I enjoyed racing and competing in the first place. Based on the idea that you are one of the last of a band of survivors on an infected planet, you have to race to compete for the last spot on a ship set to leave the planet (not that the plot matters much in a racing game). Whereas my brother's lost interest fairly fast in this fiendishly tricky game and accepted the fact that they were always going to finish eighth out of eight in every race, there was no way I was going to allow such an outcome to occur and I was addicted in my pursuit to master all the tracks and beat all the opposition.

As my first proper racing game it was difficult to master but the physics of the game were sufficiently advanced to allow you to learn the basics of racing with respect to correct turn in points, the importance of maintaining your momentum and the mental discipline to lead and win a race.

 It also highlighted the impact of various track configurations and even allowed you to adjust various settings on the car to adjust the performance of the car accordingly. All dramatic stuff! It obviously helped that I found it very enjoyable and addictive, despite being terribly frustrating at times. But this game really was that good, as the numerous attestations will confirm on any website you can find now reviewing the game (Wikipedia article here). I would put this game as the reason why I won a family karting championship event in 1999 despite the fact that I was only sitting in a kart for the second time in my life!

I literally only discovered yesterday that the POD Gold, a more complete version of the game than the one we received free with the first PC that my parent's bought my brothers and I,  can be downloaded from the website 'God Old Games' (http://www.gog.com/game/pod_gold). So go ahead, if you are a racer, download the game and put your skills to the test. I promise you, you will love every frustrating minute of it... ; )

My favourite handling car in the game!

A good YouTube video of some of the menus and gameplay can be found here.