Renegade X, the C&C: Renegade "spiritual successor," enters Beta 3

The developers of the free, fan-made Commander & Conquer: Renegade spiritual successor Renegade X have just released the game's third beta, which includes various bug fixes and optimizations, a new launcher, and two brand-new maps.

I actually quite liked Commander & Conquer: Renegade, but I hold nothing against people who have no idea what it is. For the record, it's an FPS based on the long-running Command & Conquer franchise, released in 2002. It wasn't what you'd call a big hit with either shooter fans or the C&C crowd. But the underlying idea was pretty cool, and Renegade X sought to rejuvenate it for modern audiences, first as a straight-up remake and then as a modernized, multiplayer-focused spiritual successor.

Development began in 2007 but the game didn't enter open beta until February of this year. Despite being a "non-monetized game," it's a beefy thing: Players can choose from more than 30 weapons and 15 vehicles, and call in air support, Ion Cannon bombardments, and nuclear strikes. The latest beta, released yesterday, adds two new maps— C&C Volcanoand X-Mountain—plus a new game launcher, anti-tank mines and EMP grenades, the Black Hand character model, improved stealth code, updates to the interface, changes to the audio, various visual optimizations, and a bunch of other stuff. And bug fixes, naturally.

Work on Renegade X continues, and the developers say they'd ultimately like to get the game on Steam, although that will require permission from Electronic Arts, which has thus far proven elusive. For now, you can pick it up at renegade-x.com.