Here’s a tale to warm the cockles of your dark, bitter heart. Lest you’ve not been following the remarkable fallout to Jim’s quickie post concerning the recent demo of Derek Smart’s latest indie opus, its sprawling comments thread has become something of a biblical epic of hate, love, redemption and disagreements about where people’s arms appear when they swim. Initially, the thread was as miserably expected: a few of our local Grumpymen took an immediate pop at Derek and his games, labouring under the delusion that his… ah, spotty reputation as a gentleman of the internet gave them free reign to insult him here. He responded in kind, as he is known to do. We sighed, and deleted most of the shouting, because we like to keep a happy house here. We also stocked our desks with caffeinated beverages and salted snacks, in preparation for a long night of troll castration. And then, a remarkable thing happened….
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3000AD’s new simulatory shooter has a demo, and you can get it here. It’s a mere 290mb. The demo includes a bunch of instant action scenarios and a taste of the various careers in the game. More info can be found over on the blog. We understand from the most recent postings that the game itself is imminent.

Update – enough names have come forward now. Don’t send any more. Keys will be sent out to those who made it early next week. Thanks, sweethearts!

Following on from our All Aspect Warfare interview, Derek Smart offered a mass of keys for the ongoing All Aspect Warfare Beta for RPS readers. Now, after the subscribers got first dibs, we take it to you, the general RPS-readership. Just drop me a line and say you’d like one. First come, first served, until we run out. Don’t alter the subject line of the mail, or you’ll disqualify yourself by annoying me. Oh – and expect the keys to be mailed to you on Sunday/Monday as I’m currently off in Poland and set this to automatically post while I’m away. For a taste, here’s a couple of older videos of the game in action, focused in on the flight segment of this multi-approach game.

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You suspect 3000AD’s Derek Smart is the man the phrase “outspoken developer” was coined for. He’s… oh, you have an opinion, don’t you? Whether or not you’ve played – or could even name – one of his games, everyone’s got a take on Smart. He’s also a perennial PC gaming figure which we haven’t talked to yet. With All Aspect Warfare approaching release, we thought it time to change all that. Talk about where he’s coming from, going to and – whisper it – whether he was actually right all along. Along the way, we take in the death of Space Sims, Steam’s power being over-estimated, his take on the Space MMOs, some cheery demonization of EA and… well, whether he ever regrets comment threads.

Join us.
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I noticed 3000AD had released seventeen (count ’em!) minutes of footage from the flying section of their now-Beta forthcoming sci-fi multi-terrain elite-force-on-hostile-world-’em-up All Aspect Warfare electrovideogame. They’ve planning to release two more videos, one showing vehicular shenanigans and the other showing tactical fistifights. So well done them. I link to it, primarily as I’m aware that 3000AD are about as PC gaming as PC gaming gets and we’ve never said anything at all about them – and I wonder what everyone’s take on the critically divisive company actually is. Do feel free to speak. I was also considering doing one of my second-by-second running commentary of it, but… seventeen minutes, man! I have angry twitters to write in block caps.
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