Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives and PC miscellany. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
There was a little resurgence of six-axis shooters a while back, seemingly all Kickstarter-funded, and no one seemed much to care. Which is a shame, because the process produced the very lovely Retrovirus [official site].
]]>Steam's free weekend deals used to stretch a good way into Monday for us Brits. Now they seem to stop at 1pm on Sunday for the West coast Americans, which seems very peculiar - surely Sunday afternoon would be the prime free playing time? Still, in the Mother Country that means it stretches until 9pm. And this weekend there's quite the choice. The absolutely superb XCOM: Enemy Unknown, at 75% off (that's just £7.50 - cripes), and free to play for the next three days. And there's Retrovirus, the great six-axis shooter that I bet you never played. Now you can pick it up with 60% off at £6, and also play it for free until Sunday.
]]>Cadenza's six-axis FPS hasn't taken the easy path. But via its circuitous route Retrovirus is now out on Steam for about £14, and I've pew-pewed my way to the very end. With massive improvements since the last time we saw it, just wot will I think?
]]>After the disappointment of a failed Kickstarter in July this year, Retrovirus developers Cadenza fought on regardless. Instead they found funding through Gamestop, in exchange for their launch being via the US store's digital download service. They got a pretty sweet deal, the sort that usually only goes to AAA games, with in-store promotion and a lot of exposure. Other release platforms will come later, with the full game due early next year, and it's all DRM-free from the off. Right now buying it for $18 gets you into the game's alpha. Meanwhile, I've had my hands on the about-to-be-launched beta version, written about below, along with the latest trailer.
]]>You may remember Cadenza Interactive from Sol Survivor, the tower defense game that captured Jim's attention last year. They've recently announced their second game, Retrovirus. It is, they say, "a modern take on the classic six degrees of freedom shooter", made only on PC. Ooh, like Descent? we asked when Jim spotted it last week. The moving pictures below help to explain.
]]>The chaps at Cadenza Interactive - they of tower defence fancypants, Sol Survivor - have announced they are working on a "six-degrees of freedom" shooter (aka a Descent-alike) called Retrovirus. Apparently it's all going a bit Tron, because you are sent "into the depths a computer on a search and destroy mission against an invasive virus". You'll have a customisable shootercraft, "focusing on strength, speed or cunning, with weapons and utilities to suit a variety of play styles," and "two-layers of story". I guess like the two layers of a cake, only narrativer. Sounds intriguing! The game is an early stage of development at the moment, however, so there's no word on release just yet.
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