Geometry Wars Launches For PC Vista, Download Demo

For many Xbox 360 gamers out there, Geometry Wars is still the first thing that comes to mind when they think about the Xbox Live Arcade. And for quite a while now, their PC brethren have also longed for a Windows version of Bizzare Creations' old-school shooter. That version is, as of today, up for the taking from Microsoft's MSN Games website, for the meagre price of $7.95. According to the devs at Bizzare, this is a "pixel-perfect conversion of the Xbox 360 fan favourite", but at the same time Microsoft claims that Geometry Wars features "enhanced graphics for Windows Vista" (perhaps they regard the option of playing in full-screen / windowed mode as a "graphical enhancement"...).

If you'd rather try it before you buy it, we also have a Geometry Wars demo version mirrored locally for download. Although don't throttle up your modem just yet, not before you see this lovely error message I received on my rusty XP system when attempting to install this demo:

"Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved requires Windows Vista or later to install."

"Or later", huh? Yeah, real funny... But not as funny as observing that the PC demo weighs over 60 MB, whereas the original XBLA full game fitted just fine in the 50 MB limit when it launched on the Xbox 360, in November 2005. Must be all the "enhanced graphics" and stuff.

Oh well, if there's anybody out there with Vista installed, rest assured that all of the original enemy and weapon types are present in the PC version, complete with local leaderboards to track your high scores. And the game has support for keyboard only, keyboard & mouse, and remappable joypad (dual or single stick), as well as the Xbox 360 controller on Windows. Enjoy, if you can.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)