Bloody hell, and you thought Bulletstorm was a balls-out, old school kick in the arse… Hard Reset, the upcoming debut FPS from the rather excellently named Flying Wild Hog Studios – made up of staff previously from thestudios responsible for Bulletstorm and The Witcher – really does not look like it’s messing around one little bit. It’s fast, it’s brutal, the guns looks insane, and everything that explodes looks likeit explodes several times over before it gives up. And incidentally, it looks like everything explodes. And there’s yet more news to excite those of you raised on the likes of Doom and Quake, as well as a few words to warm the heart of any PC horsepower enthusiast, but I’ll get to all that after the trailer.
Right then, what we have here is a serious Cyberpunk shooter – influences cited so far include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and good old Philip K. Dick – with a seriously exciting old-school-meets-current-gen philosophy. Designed as the antithesis to the scripted, ultra-linear shooters so proliferous these days, it’s reportedly all about meaningful environmental interaction, excessive weapon upgrades, creative destruction and sprawling, Doom-like level design. It’s PC-only at the moment, becauseaccording to Flying Wild Hog (opens in new tab): “Our engine was built with one thought—to be used in a first-person shooter that uses lots of physics and destruction, with outstanding graphics and also optimized to do the job well. There are many games published on PCs that are just ports from consoles, and we all know that today the power of a current-gen console is similar to a four- to five-year-old PC”. That said, the game’s tech will apparently be scalable for older rigs.
And that’s not the only way Hard Reset is keeping it real. In order to avoid the dilution of the core single-player experience,FWH aren’t putting any multiplayer in. At all. As a more campaign-minded man, I’m more than happy with that, and if no deathmatch means a tighter, more focused, more intricately designed slice of brainy destruction pie, then I’m even happier.
More on this one as we get it. Which should be soon. Because in another blow against the modern ways of the games industry,Flying Wild Hoghave waited until right before release before showing the game off, in order to avoid a long, bloated and frustrating hype period. How right before release? The game is out in September. Yeah, next month. Still it sounds like no rush-job. Apparently the game has been quietly in development for two years. And we’ll find out whetherFlying Wild Hog’srefreshingly anti-establishment approach has paid off very soon indeed.
Aug 3, 2011
Right then, what we have here is a serious Cyberpunk shooter – influences cited so far include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and good old Philip K. Dick – with a seriously exciting old-school-meets-current-gen philosophy. Designed as the antithesis to the scripted, ultra-linear shooters so proliferous these days, it’s reportedly all about meaningful environmental interaction, excessive weapon upgrades, creative destruction and sprawling, Doom-like level design. It’s PC-only at the moment, becauseaccording to Flying Wild Hog (opens in new tab): “Our engine was built with one thought—to be used in a first-person shooter that uses lots of physics and destruction, with outstanding graphics and also optimized to do the job well. There are many games published on PCs that are just ports from consoles, and we all know that today the power of a current-gen console is similar to a four- to five-year-old PC”. That said, the game’s tech will apparently be scalable for older rigs.
And that’s not the only way Hard Reset is keeping it real. In order to avoid the dilution of the core single-player experience,FWH aren’t putting any multiplayer in. At all. As a more campaign-minded man, I’m more than happy with that, and if no deathmatch means a tighter, more focused, more intricately designed slice of brainy destruction pie, then I’m even happier.
More on this one as we get it. Which should be soon. Because in another blow against the modern ways of the games industry,Flying Wild Hoghave waited until right before release before showing the game off, in order to avoid a long, bloated and frustrating hype period. How right before release? The game is out in September. Yeah, next month. Still it sounds like no rush-job. Apparently the game has been quietly in development for two years. And we’ll find out whetherFlying Wild Hog’srefreshingly anti-establishment approach has paid off very soon indeed.
Aug 3, 2011