''POD 2: Multiplayer Online'' (released under the title ''POD: Speedzone'' in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

) was the sequel to the 1997 racing game POD, made by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

and available for

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

in 2000.

Gameplay

In ''POD 2'' the player had the option of connecting to the

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to play against other people. The game takes place on a

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version of

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's largest moon Titan where a planet-wide viral outbreak has taken place. The premise of the game is that the only person who knows how to contain the virus will only assist the player if they race against him. There are a variety of courses that include

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es and

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

Development and release

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and a

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version were also planned for release in 2001, both developed by

UK, but were scrapped. In October 2017 the online portions of the game were brought back online thanks to fans.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Blake Fisher of '' NextGen'' said that the game was "As mediocre a racing experience as you can possibly buy."

References

External links

* 2000 video games Cancelled PlayStation 2 games Cancelled Windows games Dreamcast games Dreamcast-only games Science fiction racing games Racing video games Ubisoft games Video game sequels Video games developed in Romania Video games set on Titan (moon) Video games about viral outbreaks Multiplayer and single-player video games {{ubisoft-stub