Hard Reset - PC Exclusive FPS

Just bought this game, I enjoyed the demo. I just wish this supported DX11, why DX9 especially if its a PC exclusive? But I guess the $27 price tag is nice on Steam.
 
Again the DX number has nothing to do with how well the game will look. Does Deus EX or Dragon Age look impressive to you? This game is DX9 because PC centric developers knows their stuff enough to decide that they don't need the minor DX11 features to obtain the results that they want.

Here is what the developer of Witcher 2 Tomaz Gop says when asked about DX11:

Tomasz Gop: No, at least in our case, it was possible to do DirectX 11, it wasn't that we're against it, but when we laid down the cards and schedules, we looked and said, ‘okay, these are crucial features, we'd like to have them'... these didn't require DirectX 11. It was like, ‘If we can focus on other things and the lack of DirectX 11 won't make this game crap, let's think about it later on.' It's still possible in the future, but not right now anyway.
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http://pcformat.techradar.com/blog-entry/witcher-2s-senior-producer-talks-pc-format-17-05-11

Needless to say Witcher 2 is a PC developed game that looked fantastic.
Here is what John Carmack of id software had to say about Dx11 in an interview about Rage:

MPC: Are you using DirectX 9 equivalent? For Doom 4 as well?
JC: Yes to both. It’s one of those things I get asked a lot. What’s big and exciting for DirectX 10 or DirectX 11? There’s not a whole lot of… really not a whole lot. The big touted geometry shaders were in many ways, a mistaken belief that people desperately wanted to create stencil shadow volume. There’s a tough thing with that. You get a bunch of people who make APIs, and they think “it’s my job to make APIs. I make new APIs every year.” There’s a reality of approaching a functionality curve, and the DX9 level gives us a whole lot of stuff where it’s not like before, even at the DX7 functionality level. Graphics programmers have tried every possible configuration, and they’ve tried every state and know what happens when. But, as soon as you get programmability in there (as happened with DX9) you’re writing code now. The code is limited, but we’re so far from exhausting the possibilities.
Sure, when DX10 hardware is ubiquitous and that’s our baseline platform, we’ll find something useful to do with all that extra hardware. It’s not like we’re saying “no, we won’t use this”.
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http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...ge_id_tech_6_doom_4_details_and_more?page=0,1

And he is right. Once we hit the DX9 level where things are fully programmable, there is not much more you can add short of a major overhaul. DX10 and DX11 are very minor updates.
 
IAMEVIL said:
And he is right. Once we hit the DX9 level where things are fully programmable, there is not much more you can add short of a major overhaul. DX10 and DX11 are very minor updates.
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Awesome post, thanks I had not heard that said before. All I heard was the people who saw Crysis 2 had DX9, put their blinders on, and then said OMG THIS GAME looks like crap! :rolleyes:
 
IAMEVIL said:
Again the DX number has nothing to do with how well the game will look. Does Deus EX or Dragon Age look impressive to you? This game is DX9 because PC centric developers knows their stuff enough to decide that they don't need the minor DX11 features to obtain the results that they want.

Here is what the developer of Witcher 2 Tomaz Gop says when asked about DX11:



http://pcformat.techradar.com/blog-entry/witcher-2s-senior-producer-talks-pc-format-17-05-11

Needless to say Witcher 2 is a PC developed game that looked fantastic.
Here is what John Carmack of id software had to say about Dx11 in an interview about Rage:



http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...ge_id_tech_6_doom_4_details_and_more?page=0,1

And he is right. Once we hit the DX9 level where things are fully programmable, there is not much more you can add short of a major overhaul. DX10 and DX11 are very minor updates.
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To be fair, when tesselation is done right it looks really good.
 
Tessellation is simply adding geometry detail to round or complex shaped object. Without tessellation you can still have as much detail as you want by designing your base mesh as such. The big touted advantage with tessellation is performance. But we have yet to see that being demonstrated.

This is DCS A-10 flight sim rendered in DX9. Notice that smoothly contoured shapes does not require DX11 tessellation.
air_456a_003.jpg


DudeWheresMaykop.jpg


Model.jpg
 
You certainly don't need DX11 to look good, there is a lot that can be done with DX9, what is important is what you do with it, some of the effects look really good, the electric bolts that fly out of damaged equipment look really impressive to me.
 
Installing the full game now. Between that and Dead Island, I'm going to be busy.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
You certainly don't need DX11 to look good, there is a lot that can be done with DX9, what is important is what you do with it, some of the effects look really good, the electric bolts that fly out of damaged equipment look really impressive to me.
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After seeing this game in DX9, I'm now convinced the DX number really doesn't matter from a general design perspective. There are some lighting/shadow effects DX11 have over DX9, which can be seen in BF3 Guillotine gameplay.
If the textures are high quality, DX9 will still look awesome. The issue is that many devs choose to use low res textures, due to mutliplatform games. PC gamers ask for DX11 thinking that will solve the issues, when it's more of a design decision by the dev.

Edit: Playing the full version now. The best way to play it is on "Insane with Game Hints OFF". It turns into a total gang rape after that. It's real old skool Doom like shooter when that's done.
Swarms of enemies attack you at the worst possible moment i.e. looking for health, but survivable if you have some slick WASD moves, combo the weapon modes well and use the environmental destruction.

Enjoying it wayyy more than any other FPS Singleplayer that was released this year, and I mean any other.
 
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I'm very excited to play the full game! Unfortunately, I forgot to set it to download while I was at work and now it's going at 200kb a sec when usually I get 2mb/sec!!

Atleast it's not very big....
 
TwistedAegis said:
Awesome post, thanks I had not heard that said before. All I heard was the people who saw Crysis 2 had DX9, put their blinders on, and then said OMG THIS GAME looks like crap! :rolleyes:
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Relatively, it looked like crap, just not because of DX9.
 
Just finished this game....um....I'm not sure what the fuck that was all about.

I thought this bit looked nice.

hardreset.jpg


The lighting in this game is just extraordinary.

It took 3 hours to finish, by the way.
 
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Volkum said:
Kinda how many old school FPSes were!
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On top of expending truly ludicrous amounts of ordinance, wading through hip-deep piles of smoking, bullet-ridden scrap metal that used to be your enemy is an amusing experience.
 
I'm playing through this on insane and holy crap is it difficult. I got past the first level and am trying to fight my way through the second and I've played for about an hour. So rewarding when you finally do make it past an area and you actually have to spot stuff that will help you take out enemies or you will be dead extremely quickly.
 
sculelos said:
I'm playing through this on insane and holy crap is it difficult. I got past the first level and am trying to fight my way through the second and I've played for about an hour. So rewarding when you finally do make it past an area and you actually have to spot stuff that will help you take out enemies or you will be dead extremely quickly.
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I'm on the third level and it's a nightmare. Just tried this parking lot section and it's insta death.
Just when I thought the swarm was over, more of them show up on limited ammo. Slash slash, dead. :eek:
There are about four absolutely killer swarms in that area.

@Mark Warner, play it on Insane with game hints off, and lets see how fast you finish. ;)
 
WorldExclusive said:
I'm on the third level and it's a nightmare. Just tried this parking lot section and it's insta death.
Just when I thought the swarm was over, more of them show up on limited ammo. Slash slash, dead. :eek:
There are about four absolutely killer swarms in that area.

@Mark Warner, play it on Insane with game hints off, and lets see how fast you finish. ;)
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I'm finding that in this game you have to be super aggressive to survive, otherwise you will be a sitting duck for all the robots. I think I'm almost to the 3rd level as I've gone quite a ways in the second level so I'll have fun dying more and more as I progress through this game, lol.
 
6 hours is way too short for $27...the game looks decent and the fact that it's a PC exclusive alone is worth it...but I still think $19.99 or less is the ideal price...Steam holiday sale should be good to go
 
polonyc2 said:
6 hours is way too short for $27...the game looks decent and the fact that it's a PC exclusive alone is worth it...but I still think $19.99 or less is the ideal price...Steam holiday sale should be good to go
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This may not appeal to everyone, but why not view the extra $7 as love for a PC-only developer, so more companies might get in on the practice?
 
Downloading the game on Steam, can't wait to play. When I played the demo I noticed there was no manual save option, just an autosave option which is very disappointing. Why are all FPS developers copying each other these days? Well, at least it has a health bar because most FPS don't even have one anymore, which is fucking stupid.
 
sculelos said:
I'm finding that in this game you have to be super aggressive to survive, otherwise you will be a sitting duck for all the robots. I think I'm almost to the 3rd level as I've gone quite a ways in the second level so I'll have fun dying more and more as I progress through this game, lol.
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The horrible part is that the Sprint runs out too fast and recharges too slow. Then some weapon functions have to reload before you can switch to a different weapon.
In Easy-Normal mode it's not a problem, but on Insane the enemies are right my face. Not being able to switch to the nade launcher for an extra second, could mean life or death.
In some areas on LvL3, they drop down right next to you. All you can do is run, if not, insta death. If I could Sprint longer, I could get through it a bit easier.

Edit: Got through LvL3, got aggressive like you said. Certain weapon combos are more effective on certain enemies.
Hordes of enemies, about five different types at one time. Haven't been challenged this much in a while.
 
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WorldExclusive said:
I'm on the third level and it's a nightmare. Just tried this parking lot section and it's insta death.
Just when I thought the swarm was over, more of them show up on limited ammo. Slash slash, dead. :eek:
There are about four absolutely killer swarms in that area.

@Mark Warner, play it on Insane with game hints off, and lets see how fast you finish. ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. I'm doing a little article on this thing, so I had to get through it fast, so I can begin testing today.
 
Mark_Warner said:
Yeah, I know. I'm doing a little article on this thing, so I had to get through it fast, so I can begin testing today.
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Ok that's understandable. But wow, the game is good in a Doom type of way.
The story, like you said, it hard to follow because of the slideshow cutscenes, probably done that way for budget reasons.
But blowing up cars, fuel tanks and enemies simultaneously is pretty satisfying.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Ok that's understandable. But wow, the game is good in a Doom type of way.
The story, like you said, it hard to follow because of the slideshow cutscenes, probably done that way for budget reasons.
But blowing up cars, fuel tanks and enemies simultaneously is pretty satisfying.
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Yeah, I really liked the game...The story was pretty easy to follow for a while, but then it goes off the deep end...
 
A game like this isn't really about story anyways if we get down to it. ;)
 
I'll be honest, I don't think this game is getting the credit it deserves. Sure, it's a linear shooter, but linearity does not equate bad. Also, the environment is absolutely gorgeous and level design is highly creative, which makes it almost not feel so linear.

It's also a bit of a challenge, and that's actually great to have again, for once. Most of all, it's fun, which keeps it from feeling repetitive, at least for me. The environments are so beautiful and incredibly rendered, designed and detailed, that it's enjoyable just to be in the game world. It's rather engrossing, for a game that's "just" about shooting shit.

I think it's a testament to a games design when, even in the face of totally lacking a story, there's just something about the game's world that draws you in, which I found to be the case.

Gameplay is intense and enemies are aggressive. I think the whole idea of using only two guns and several modes for each one is an extremely creative idea. It's that type of creativity that went into designing the environments as well. Some of the combos are great, when you know when and how to use them.

I don't know, but for "just a shooter", it's one hell of a fine game. I've invested 7 hours thus far, on normal, and still am not finished, so I don't know what people are talking about with a "four hour game". I'm very adept at shooters, but I take my time and search around for shit, I don't rush, only died a handful of times on a few levels, and I'm still at the 7 hour mark. Probably on last level, I think.

These guys deserve serious props, and maybe there's more to appreciate about the game than many are really looking at.

I think these guys should take on a Deus Ex type project with the engine their using and their obvious creativity and flair for design.

Oh, and hands-down, the best electricity I've ever seen.
 
polonyc2 said:
6 hours is way too short for $27...the game looks decent and the fact that it's a PC exclusive alone is worth it...but I still think $19.99 or less is the ideal price...Steam holiday sale should be good to go
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I would say in terms of content that is about fair these days compared to the average for a straight shooter. Of course whether that is enough value is up to each individual.

Metro2033 for instance had slower pacing, and was more expensive, while not being all that long either.

PrincessFrosty said:
Yeah but you don't get it though.

That's a nice idea in THEORY, but the moment you consider doing both platforms the whole idea of building one game to suit both platforms creeps in and suddenly we have a whole bunch of stuff we don't want on the PC version.

The simple fact is that pretty much no developer in the last 6+ years has managed to actually pull this off, with a tiny number of possible exceptions.
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I can (or at least I think) understand the perspective you are coming from, but it isn't one I agree with. I prefer to judge a game based on the game itself, and not based on essentially what amount of "check list" features that somehow make it more PC or not.

Here is a my view, a good game with low FOV is a good game with annoyances. An average game with FOV adjustments is still an average game.

Here is the thing with Hard Reset, in theory I still believe you can actually port this game to the consoles essentially intact. Should that change your opinion of the game if they do this? I don't feel it should. Either you find you liked the game or not.
 
another review which I think makes a good point...

"Graphical appeal and an old-school badge can only take you so far before they start to wear thin, however and, with no multiplayer and a higher-than-expected price, Hard Reset hits that point a few hours in"

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/09/14/hard-reset-review/1

Jaerb4 said:
This may not appeal to everyone, but why not view the extra $7 as love for a PC-only developer, so more companies might get in on the practice?
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I do plan on supporting this PC exclusive game/developer...just not on Day 1
 
polonyc2 said:
another review which I think makes a good point...

"Graphical appeal and an old-school badge can only take you so far before they start to wear thin, however and, with no multiplayer and a higher-than-expected price, Hard Reset hits that point a few hours in"

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/09/14/hard-reset-review/1
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PC games and reviews are like oil and water. The BS floats on the surface i.e. review sites.
User reviews drive my decision on a PC game more than some site.

I haven't seen a PC review praise an exclusive title in a while outside of [H].
Multi-platform games get 8-9s all day.
 
WorldExclusive said:
PC games and reviews are like oil and water. The BS floats on the surface i.e. review sites.
User reviews drive my decision on a PC game more than some site.

I haven't seen a PC review praise an exclusive title in a while outside of [H].
Multi-platform games get 8-9s all day.
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Probably for their wide range of appeal.
 
Xathlien said:
I'll be honest, I don't think this game is getting the credit it deserves. Sure, it's a linear shooter, but linearity does not equate bad. Also, the environment is absolutely gorgeous and level design is highly creative, which makes it almost not feel so linear.

It's also a bit of a challenge, and that's actually great to have again, for once. Most of all, it's fun, which keeps it from feeling repetitive, at least for me. The environments are so beautiful and incredibly rendered, designed and detailed, that it's enjoyable just to be in the game world. It's rather engrossing, for a game that's "just" about shooting shit.

I think it's a testament to a games design when, even in the face of totally lacking a story, there's just something about the game's world that draws you in, which I found to be the case.

Gameplay is intense and enemies are aggressive. I think the whole idea of using only two guns and several modes for each one is an extremely creative idea. It's that type of creativity that went into designing the environments as well. Some of the combos are great, when you know when and how to use them.

I don't know, but for "just a shooter", it's one hell of a fine game. I've invested 7 hours thus far, on normal, and still am not finished, so I don't know what people are talking about with a "four hour game". I'm very adept at shooters, but I take my time and search around for shit, I don't rush, only died a handful of times on a few levels, and I'm still at the 7 hour mark. Probably on last level, I think.

These guys deserve serious props, and maybe there's more to appreciate about the game than many are really looking at.

I think these guys should take on a Deus Ex type project with the engine their using and their obvious creativity and flair for design.

Oh, and hands-down, the best electricity I've ever seen.
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I couldn't have said it better.

It's visually gorgeous, fun gameplay, runs stable and well. To Doom and Painkiller fan this game is excellent and worth its asking price.
 
svr said:
I couldn't have said it better.

It's visually gorgeous, fun gameplay, runs stable and well. To Doom and Painkiller fan this game is excellent and worth its asking price.
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Agreed.
 
Someone who buys Hard Reset for the story is the same people who buy a Ferrari for the trunk space.
 
addictedto60fps said:
For AMD crossfire users, Guru 3d has a link to the latest caps, which fixes crossfire for Hard Reset. I just tried it on the demo, and indeed, I'm now getting pretty much near 100% usage from both gpu's. Nice. :)

http://www.mediafire.com/?3yfntl6h16vb959
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Thanks!!!!!!!!!! Tried this cap and before I was at 15fps now my avg is between low 50's to high 70's with 95+ gpu usage on all cores. Im at 8064x1600 in quadfire maxed out details:D
 
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