Battlestar Geriatrica: Homeworld Is 10

Well, 10-and-a-bit. We're a couple of days late with this, but that's only so we can look fashionably nonchalant. Landmark strategy game is a decade old, you say? Yeah, whatever. We're too busy listening to Dizzee Rascal records and calling LaRoux the new Dido.

No, of course we're just tardy - Homeworld is a game to be celebrated if ever there was one. Ten bloody years! Yet it still seems so fresh and modern in many ways. And, thanks to its creators, it looks as though it's not going away just yet. (That isn't a tease for Homeworld 3, I'm afraid - but the news is still good, honest guv).

Though developers Relic are now owned by THQ and spend their days alternately making Dawn of War and Company of Heroes games, they've spared a little retrospective love for the space-RTS that made them.

In two ways- number one, to rereleased the generous HW: Raider Retreat demo, which contained five singleplayer missions (one of whic wasn't in the full game) and a whacking great slice of skirmish and multiplayer action.

Number two, to find a way around the now-expired WON.net multiplayer stuff. They've done so with the help of the venerable virtual LAN/multiplayer social networking service GameRanger - which now supports Raider Retreat as well as the full game. There's a short guide to setting it up here, and a 'quick-start kit' here.

Which, in short, means you can get a shedload of multiplayer Homeworldery for free, or alternatively relive the glory days of HW all over again.