Geometry Wars Withdrawal

Not having owned a Microsoft XBOX 360 in over a year, I have been suffering from what has become serious withdrawal. To much surprise, the withdrawal does not stem from the console itself, albeit all it’s wonderment and many functions are nothing to overlook, but from one title in particular that is probably more fun, challenging, and relaxing to me than it should be. You would think the title in question would be something like a Halo 3, Gears of Wars 2, or any of the recent great titles that keep the gaming world glued to their televisions with controller in hand. Nope, my withdrawal stems from a much simpler title. One in with from my first time playing, I was instantly addicted and almost immediately smacked down the Microsoft Points to own what would greatly consume my life over the next few weeks/months. So the discontinuation of this addictive ‘substance’ and the physiological and mental readjustment accompanied with it has been hard to say the least, but like most addicts, I found other things to keep my mind occupied, although none as fulfilling.

Recently my greatest video gaming foe, Carl, and I were having one of the many gaming discussions we often have and the subject of said addiction came up, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. We begin to talk of the title again and before you knew it, the old trash talking ensued. Who’s the best, that is neither here nor there, but what the conversation did do, was make me me want to get my hands on the game again.

Enter Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved PC. If I knew this game was out there, I would have had it a long time ago. When I first had to relinquish my access to a 360 and going PC gaming only, I looked for this game and all I found where the PC clones. After trying a few of the clones and being less than pleased, I had all but given up my search, but the recent discussion prompted me to search again. After a few keys and clicks, I was at the MSN Games page. Suddenly the relapse to my former state began.

Apparently available since March 7, 2007, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved PC from Bizarre Creations was published by MSN Games and could be purchased for a mere $4.95 online, with a freely available trial version. Suffice it to say, before night could fall, I had the game up and running on my PC with attached XBOX 360 controller, and was reliving the glory days!

The game includes automatic mapping of 360 controller buttons, which you would expect from a former XBOX Live title, and the usual screen resolution options, which you would expect in any PC game. One noticeable difference was the lack of the blue grid which is on the it’s 360 counterpart. I would expect that this is due to the stability and the minimum requirements to run the game. For the most part, it ran pretty great on my duel core laptop that had only Intel graphics, but there was an occasional stutter when there where a bazillion enemies on screen.

Finally, I’m not the greatest at Geometry wars, but the challenge is simply amazing. This is one addiction that I’m probably not going to cure for quite some time. I encourage everyone to at least try this game once, but I must warn you, you’ll probably get hooked. Download the PC trial HERE!

Here are my mortal enemy and my Geometry War high scores. A mere figment of the insanely top score of 500,684,945 by KiLLer6ToKer66.