Holy shit, they just upgraded this game to "Evolved" with a bunch of new Levels, hardcore mode and such.

However, here's the thing: There's a new Classic mode that is basically "Evolved" mode from Geometry Wars 1 (no collectible Multipliers, automatic Weapon/Bombs/Ships upgrades)

Here's the full list (ripped out of the NeoGAF OT, I'm sorry ;) )

• Geo Wars 1 in Classic mode
• 40 new levels
• Hardcore Mode
• New drone
• New super
• Revised hit boxes for Pacifism
• Longer timeout on Geoms in King Mode
• Improved lighting
• Improvements to lobby/matchmaking in multiplayer
• It won't tick through all of your friends scores at the end of a level anymore..
• For PC there'll be some specific fixes for refresh issues, audio quality, various other minor niggles that have been reported

Jesus, this game needs more love people!

It's downright insane how much new content there is. I am kindof surprised that they didn't couple it with a light sale though.

The 40 new levels are in "Ultimate mode". For comparison, the original game had a campaign of "just" 50 levels.

I'm very glad they added the Geo Wars 1 gamemode. It felt like it was the one thing missing in the classic modes.

The lobby system still seems to be pretty shitty. Once you pick a gamemode, you're stuck with it till you rehost the lobby, no support for keyboard chat, no "wait till everyone's ready" functionality... From what I've heard there is a little minigame you can play if you join the lobby when a game is going on though. Atleast they finally added a way to turn off your mike but there's no way to access it in the lobby, you need to go to options menu.

I'm so glad I bought new nubs for my ps4 controller.

EDIT: Wow, the first couple of new levels seem to be pretty inventive. They've added a snakelike one called Scorpion where you try to trap enemies with your tail. Pretty impressed thusfar.

This is pretty awesome, I can't believe how bad Sony's advertising department continues to be.

How similar is the retro evolved mode to original Geometry Wars ? (Or which ever version was deemed the definitive iteration?)

@thenine: I'd say mechanically it's pretty much the same (except for having the look and feel of GW3 of course) but they dealt with the one complaint people had about GW1: It ramps up way faster in the beginning now so you just skip the boring first minute or so of the original.

Huh, that stuff added sounds pretty awesome

I got kind of hung up on the second boss and never progressed past that. How much of a wuss am I?

This update sounds cool!

I still need to buy this, so this is more good news!

Awesome, loved GW3. Could always use more reasons to come back.

Definitely picking this up!

I finished the ultimate mode that contained 40 levels in around 4-5 hours. I liked it, there is some fun original stuff in there.

I think there are around 4 new enemies. I'm not a huge fan. They seem to be pretty err... geometrically complicated? They rehash a lot of stuff from the other enemies. The only one I like is the turret enemy which is a stationary turret that fires at you. I wouldn't even know how to begin naming the other ones.

I now started Hardcore mode which seems to be about 20 levels picked from the main campaign with the caveat that you don't have access to your drone and super.

I'm pretty surprised that they didn't add more local co op stuff. As it is now there is a mini campaign of 10 levels for co op. With such a big update I expected atleast a couple of levels added to that. There are also some people complaining that there isn't local co op for the classic modes (which apparently the second game had).

The one difference I found besides the graphical stuff (and ramping up enemy spawn) ise that you lose your upgraded weapon when you die. Playing the new version made me miss the old one to be honest. It was so visually simple and distinct, the terrain was heavily deformable and when you used a bomb the sound dropped out for a bit because of the vacuum it created. It was great. Still, I'm glad to have a classic mode in the new game that doesn't rely on collecting geoms

hey guys, anyone remember the good ol' days on PC when every game would get these kind of free updates? Seriously though, good job on Activisions part because they could have easily tried charging for this DLC.

That Hardcore mode is intense. Scrolling ahead through the upcoming squares I see they want you to fight the final boss from adventure mode in here. Oh boy...

Also, feaking NOBODY is playing the PC version appearantly. I'm ranking top ten on numerous levels/modes with what should be pretty mediocre scores...

I also love that Retro Evolved Classic mode. Wish they would've added new achievements, I would've LOVED to go for "Get 1 Million points without dying" again. Good times :)

You Jo Zorushi on Steam? I think you are undervaluing your skillset in Geometry Wars. You are certainly better than I am, at least. I chased your Retro Evolved score for an our and my best was still 100,000 shy of yours.

Oh, right! I gotta go check this out!

Does this update apply to all versions? If so, awesome. I could never get past the final boss in the original "quest", despite considering myself pretty decent at Geometry Wars. Does this stuff unlock after the original or can I just jump right into it?

This is awesome on at least three levels:

1. More Geometry Wars is never a bad thing.
2. Developers adding so much free content onto a game is almost unheard of these days.
3. I won't have to grind levels I've three-starred long ago to finally pop that one million geoms trophy.

Can someone confirm that in the original Geometry Wars 1 Retro Evolved you didn't lose your upgraded gun when you died? I asked Stephen Cakebread and he thought you lost it but he wasn't sure. It's kindof driving me crazy and I don't have access to the original version. Brad mentioned it in the UPF stream and he thought you didn't lose it aswell.

I finished the ultimate mode + hardcore mode in around 9 hours. It was pretty great. The last bossfight of hardcore mode is the same one as the end of the campaign sans powerups. Quite challenging.

My cynical business hat tells me this game didn't sell too well (this sentiment was mirrored on the last UPF stream). It probably didn't make sense to sell DLC to a small playerbase so they just added it to the base game in hope of selling that. I did some sleuthing based on certain achievements and leaderboards and found there were 5000-8000 players on the PC version. The new enemies and most of the new levels were already in the basegame but locked away. The new levels were also in a map called "LevelsDLC1".

But hey, free shit is free shit! I thought this game was great and hope a lot of people will buy it on the next Steam sale.

@kewlsnake: I can confirm you didn't loose the upgraded gun in the original. That's what makes it brutal in this variant, when you die above 5 million the amount of red guys can take all your bombs and lives because you need to make up 10k again with a reset multiplier and gun.

However they did keep black holes the same as GW2&3 which is a huge buff for you, the retro version is easily one of my favourites in GW3. I just wish that gun reset was optional.

That's funny, I didn't even think the loss of gun updgrades was a big deal, since you gain those 10k so fast .

Those blue guys with tred shields that come charging at you and bounce off walls are mean sons of bitches tho, I definitely had games where almost all of my deaths resulted from being hit by them.

Just finished Ultimate and Hardcore mode, both were really fun. Still, 3-staring some of those hardcore levels will be next to impossible. Like 300 Million in that Sequence-ish level at the end, damn.

What were the duders' thoughts on UPF? Haven't heard them talk about the game much on the podcast.

Is anyone else not able to unlock the new drone or super? I clearly have met the requirements for them having finished the original campaign, but for whatever reason I can't purchase or use either of them.

Brad mainly wanted to play the new version for the GW1 gamemode. They found it strange that the expansion was free and made them wonder if the game didn't do financially well. They didn't hate the basegame but were annoyed that they had to go back to earlier levels to get more stars (I think progression has been made easier in updated version). They still hate the 3D levels (like the peanut) but were pleasantly surprised by the scorpion gamemode.

There were a bit annoyed that there were no new achievements which I agree with. (No get 1 million points in Gw1 achievement? Really?)

You need to complete any level in the main adventure mode. You don't need to get any new stars. Just entering and exiting a level isn't enough either. That should do the trick!

@kewlsnake: Alright, cool. Thanks! I'll give that a shot later.