Geometry Whores

Well, Mikey said that with the potential release of Geometry Wars on Steam, it might "pique" my interest! Well yes and no. So in honour of this I thought I'd post a bit of blog about the history of the game and where it is up to now! (weird I know, but there is a point closer to the bottom).

Geometry Wars was originally a free mini game for the original Xbox game Project Gotham Racing 2, back in 2003. It's a simple yet somewhat addictive shooter with a strong feeling of that classic game Asteroids, except there's a little bit more to it. To play the game you use two directional sticks (preferably analogue) one for moving and one for firing, "how the hell does that work?" I hear you cry! Well if you can't work it out you're a bit of an idiot. While you can move freely with one stick (the left) you can aim and fire freely with the other (the right), making it so you can move and fire in completely different directions. So you move, you shoot, you avoid and hope to get a better score than last time.

Cool.

Kinda like Crimsonland for those who remember it, and if you're talking even older it was kinda like Abuse (again for those who remember it) just overhead instead of on the side (I loved that game).

Anyway... Geometry Wars had very simple graphics to match the simple game, but provided many hours of fun, which Microsoft obviously realised since when it came time for the Xbox 360 to be released they announced a special HD version of it. Initially it was to be free, but there was money to be made and it became a paid for Xbox Live Arcade game (costing about 800 points with is something less than £5).

Ok so I get a Xbox 360, I sign up to Live and I download and pay for this Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (yeah, I know I can just get the trial for free, but what the hell, why not?! I want to encourage digital distribution), then start playing it. First off the graphics are fantastic, they are still pretty simple, but the little effects in all their glorious HD are very cool, lots of different colours, swirling things and explosions all over the shop, the kind that would make someone on drugs have a complete fit.

You start getting a little confident getting closer to a swarm of enemies when dodging them and blowing up some others, then all of a sudden you get a new random enemy that flies up to you quicker than you would expect and you're dead. Anyway, when you die you've got to have another go, "just one more go", "I can still beat that high score", etc.... then after a while you realise everybody else has gone to bed, it's 2am in the morning and you should be getting up in 4 hours for work.

Damn.

Ok, it's got that addictive thing on the go, but it does get boring, you can never get a good as score as you once did, and who are you trying to impress anyway?

And then onto my point, Mikey said Geometry Wars on the PC would "piques" my interest?

No.

Been there, done that, and got the bags under my eyes to prove it, but it's not that it's not a good game, it's not that I haven't played it so many times before, it's because there are so many different clones of the game out there that the original creator sent out a plea to stop people creating them!

So there is no real reason as to why I'd want to play it through Steam, even if it is only a couple of dollars to buy, even if I didn't own it on the Xbox360, not only could I investigate similar games in the genre, but I could try some of the equally good free knock offs.

Rant over, now excuse me while I fire up the 360 for a quick go on Geometry Wars :)