Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello there!
The fans of the awesome and old futuristic racing game "POD" (Planet of Death) by Ubisoft have made a petition for Ubisoft to make a remake of the game.
Those who don't know what it is, let me tell you.
It is a futuristic racing game that came out in 1997 and is said to be the best racing game by many people, because of the remarkable story. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HooDNS3zzgs

The story gives it real depth cause you're racing to be the only one to get out of the planet alive, and you feel it through the entire game.

This game is so cool, cause mainly (for me) you tried to push each other off the edges and jump high with your car, while you tried to get to first place. The game is so hardcore :D

I hope there are people here who have tried it and remember how good it actually was ... is ...

A remake of this game would make... well, "a dream come true" (for me atleast)

And for those who haven't tried the game, wouldn't it be nice to have a good racing with this story?
A new game that's challenging, exciting and you need to push your opponents off the edge because you don't have weaponry. Wouldn't that be nice?

If so, then please sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/podfreak/p...
Thanks :)

here you can also find more about how the new game will be if it will be remaked.

There are not many who have signed at the moment, but i will go to other forums and tell about this.

Hmmm, definitely a unique concept for a racer, but I'm puzzled as to what compels you to like it more than other racers? At first you imply it's the story, then you boil it down to the mere action of cliff edge, high jumping action, which you can get in lots of racers. What I'm not understanding either, is how they segment a game like this when it comes to saving your gameplay and/or ending a race segment? Surely it can't be just one long non stop race to the ship?

To maintain excitement, there would have to be other cars near or at your location at all times, yet if this is one long race, there's no seeming way to break it up like you would in a typical marathon race via checkpoints or random breakdowns. Checkpoints would imply it's an organized race, which it seems not to be, and breakdowns, while being realistic, wouldn't make it exciting. The only explanation seems to be playing it straight through for several hours. Not trying to slam the game, it's just that the logistics are a bit baffling, along with the appeal.

The one I'm looking forward to that is remotely related to this genre is FUEL. In FUEL though they aren't racing to avoid catastrophe, they're pretty much caught up in it. FUEL takes place after the planet has been ravaged by global warming. The game features lots of physics and special effects, mostly in the form of severe weather including tornadoes and such as hazards along the way. It's also more of an off road racing type game.

FUEL is coming out the end of this month btw. http://www.gametrailers.com/game/fuel/10128

There's another game being made that vaguely fits into this genre called Split Second. In Split Second the race environment is a city custom made for the race, which is full of man made hazards that can be triggered by the drivers. They include collapsible overpasses, falling girder beams suspended by cranes, flooding spillway valves, and exploding gas stations. There are many other hazards which are even more dynamic shown in the latest videos. The graphics for this game look awesome too, though in the latest videos the bloom looks overdone.

Split Second isn't due out until Q1 2010. http://www.gametrailers.com/game/split-second/10856

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-fuel/51627

Fuel gets raped by the reviewer - I must say it doesn't look too good either.

POD looks interesting though..

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Yeah, but that reviewer seemed to be implying much of the frustration and repetition was due to trying to use the GPS constantly and going in a straight line because of it. Lots of race games have a GPS that doesn't work well in all situations, and learning the map well BEFORE he reviewed it probably would have resulted in race situations that are more exciting visually and competitively.

I never expected the graphics to be as good as GRID due to screenshots I'd already seen, but they're a hell of a lot better than the outdated graphics of POD and the gameplay makes more sense to me. As for repetition, at least the terrain has some variety to it vs PODs on rails sci fi scenario racing bridge-like roads vs actual terrain. You can get that by playing the more modern TrackMania.

Yeah, but that reviewer seemed to be implying much of the frustration and repetition was due to trying to use the GPS constantly and going in a straight line because of it. Lots of race games have a GPS that doesn't work well in all situations, and learning the map well BEFORE he reviewed it probably would have resulted in race situations that are more exciting visually and competitively.

Having an in-game GPS that doesn't work perfectly, but the errors that were pointed out in that review were very glaring. And "learning the map"? Really? 5,000 square miles of drivable game world; I mean I know the second race is usually better than the first one because you learn the little nuances of the track, but expecting people to "learn the map" without a dependable helping hand to point in the right direction is essential.

Also the fact that the big hyped weather aspect of the game was lame too. Last time I checked you couldn't drive right up to a tornado.

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Also the fact that the big hyped weather aspect of the game was lame too. Last time I checked you couldn't drive right up to a tornado.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN2_czSBSD0

I must have missed the part of that video where he was sideswiped by the tornado. And the part where the tornado that sideswiped him was MUCH BIGGER.

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And "learning the map"? Really? 5,000 square miles of drivable game world; I mean I know the second race is usually better than the first one because you learn the little nuances of the track, but expecting people to "learn the map" without a dependable helping hand to point in the right direction is essential.

I didn't mean it in the way you're thinking. Obviously with that large an area, you can only keep basic directions of where main points of interest are in your memory. You combine that with the mini map to get yourself going in the general direction via the roads you're on, not by trusting open terrain that can lead you over cliffs as he was complaining about.

It's the same way even in Burnout Paradise. It's not as big an environment but the speeds are much higher, so it has a similar feel. There's different ways you can learn the map in that game, and it has no GPS. Once you make a mental outline of where certain points of interest are by compass direction, you can then use a combination of roads to go that direction, which is no doubt what the AI are scripted to do for the most part in FUEL.

I don't know, I can't say one way or the other if I'll like the game much, I always reserve judgment until after I play it. One thing's for sure though, I'm not going to base my decision on one guy's review that sounds a lot like the dozens of guys that can't even handle using the GPS in a NFS game. GameTrailers is good for HD trailers, but I find their reviews to have the same problem of GameSpot's, whom I used to trust above those of others. Lately though they are either too glowing or too whiny to be trustworthy IMO.

Hmmm, definitely a unique concept for a racer, but I'm puzzled as to what compels you to like it more than other racers? At first you imply it's the story, then you boil it down to the mere action of cliff edge, high jumping action, which you can get in lots of racers. What I'm not understanding either, is how they segment a game like this when it comes to saving your gameplay and/or ending a race segment? Surely it can't be just one long non stop race to the ship?

To maintain excitement, there would have to be other cars near or at your location at all times, yet if this is one long race, there's no seeming way to break it up like you would in a typical marathon race via checkpoints or random breakdowns. Checkpoints would imply it's an organized race, which it seems not to be, and breakdowns, while being realistic, wouldn't make it exciting. The only explanation seems to be playing it straight through for several hours. Not trying to slam the game, it's just that the logistics are a bit baffling, along with the appeal.

Well, I guess you must've played it back in the day to really feel the reason for a remake.
Anyhow, POD was one of those games that showcased Intel's then new MMX-technology. It didn't look too much different from the non-MMX version though.
But back to the game... The story is along the lines (iirc) that you have to win a racing series to get the final place in the ship that takes of from the dying planet.
To do so you race in futuristic cars and cities on closed circuits. A series of races. There were quite a number of them. Also noteworthy is that there was solid support by downloadable cars and tracks from the developer and community. Which was, back then, quite special. As was the online racing.

There was also a rather uninspired successor that didn'T grab my attention.

Anyhow, POD is one of my 5 favorite racing games of all time, along with Dethkarz (which definitely deserves a successor), Daytona 2, F355 Challenge and PGR2.

The story is along the lines (iirc) that you have to win a racing series to get the final place in the ship that takes of from the dying planet.

Ah, I see, well therein lies my point. It doesn't seem very realistic that everyone would calmly agree to engage in a sanctioned race of strict rules in a situation where their planet is about to die. What's to keep racers from saying, "What the heck, what do I have to lose, I'll just get there as fast as I can rather than keep within this race series mentality".

In other words something more like Death Race, but a non stop cross country version of it with no rules. They could make certain points of the map autosaves, which would save the exact spot you and everyone else is at. It just seems to defeat the whole purpose of the story about the planet dying to have everyone agreeing to a series of races.