hard reset
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Your Apple Watch can be reset pretty easily (update)
Apple's Activation Lock made the iPhone less desirable to thieves, since they'd also need your Apple password to use it. The Watch is supposed to be similarly unhackable, but the built-in security apparently doesn't work very well, according to a site called iDownloadBlog. It demonstrated that the passcode protection that's supposed to kick in when you take the watch off can easily be bypassed by "force touching" the power-off option, as shown in the video below. That will erase everything sans passcode, letting thieves pair your Watch with another iPhone and make it their own. Since the Watch is currently desirable and hard to get, Apple had better jump on the problem, stat. Update: The bypass is documented as a feature on Apple's support site, as a way in if you've forgotten the passcode, and don't have the paired iPhone around. While some sort of activation lock seems like a good idea in case of theft, Apple clearly knows this workaround exists, and has opted on the edge of convenience over additional theft protection for now. [Thanks, Glenn Fleishman!]
FPS Warriors 2 bundle has eight Steam shooters for four bucks
Bundle Stars' latest cheap game pack is the FPS Warriors 2 bundle, which features eight games for $3.98. The game bundle site says the FPS Warriors 2 collection saves players a whopping $80 on total standard price of the games, each available for PC via Steam. The following eight shooters are included in the bundle: Nuclear Dawn, Hard Reset Extended Edition, Painkiller Overdose, Painkiller: Black Edition, AirBuccaneers, Zeno Clash 2, Zeno Clash, and Chaser. If the four-dollar price tag isn't convincing enough, players have plenty of time to buy in, as the bundle is good for the next 28 days. Bundle Stars is also currently selling the Brutal and Kingdoms bundles for the next few weeks.
Chosen Bundle chooses Hard Reset, DLC Quest
The latest Indie Royale bundle went live earlier this week, and includes five games at the dynamic "pay the minimum" price, currently just under $5. The Chosen Bundle features DLC Quest and Lair of the Evildoer by Going Loud Studios, Hard Reset by Flying Wild Hog, Brog's Vertex Dispenser and Jolly Rover by Brawsome. All games in the bundle are for PC and Mac via Steam and Desura.By paying at least $8 for the pack of games, players will receive Daniel Capo's chiptune album O.S.T: Original Soundtrack. The Chosen Bundle is available for purchase through Wednesday, February 27.
Hard Reset expansion will be free for pre-release Steam owners
Once upon a time we wrote a story about Hard Reset: Extended Edition, a retail version of Flying Wild Hog's downloadable title Hard Reset that includes five new levels, two new maps and a fresh backstory. Then the dragon killed the princess and the handsome prince married the ugly gold-digger. The End.OK, not "the end" -- Flying Wild Hog has announced that Extended Edition is coming to Steam for free for those who already own Hard Reset, and will be available for download in the final week of April or first week of May. Hard Reset is available in the Indie Royale St. Patrick's Day bundle for a few more hours, for those who want Hard Reset: Extended Edition and three other indie titles for less than $5.The End.
Hard Reset: Extended Edition adds some things that look like this
Hard Reset: Extended Edition is a retail-exclusive version of Flying Wild Hog's downloadable shooter. It adds five new levels to the single-player campaign, two new maps to survival mode and a new backstory -- some of which takes place in the following screens.
Hard Reset: Extended Edition comes to retail in March 2012
Kalypso Media and developer Flying Wild Hog have come to an agreement to offer Hard Reset in a new, retail-exclusive edition bolstered by new content next year. Hard Reset: Extended Edition will be available in March and add five new levels to the single-player campaign, including four new enemies and one new boss fight. You can also expect a "new back story," two new maps for the survival mode and an updated graphics engine. If you want something to look at now, we direct you to our gallery below. %Gallery-141710%
Hard Reset's launch trailer doesn't have time for this
For how awesome the future has to be, we're not looking forward to the annoying parts of future-life: taking forever to download a weapon module; friendly AI terminal units "aiding" us; and, most importantly, all of the techno-spider things we'll have to shoot just to get to the bus stop.
PSA: Hard Reset demo out now
As if this week's deluge of major releases wasn't enough to keep your attention, a demo for next week's PC-exclusive sci-fi shooter Hard Reset is now available via Steam. And hey, if you're not defending those digitized human personalities, then who will? Try ruminating on that while you're watching Project Runway, sitting idly by while future robots murder virtual people. You monster!
Hard Reset launching on September 13
If you'd like to shoot many robots, but in a game that's not actually called that, we've got good news. Your simultaneous dislike of blasé titles and society's robotic oppressors will find an outlet on September 13, when Hard Reset launches for $30. Pre-ordering it on Steam (as of today) will net you a ten percent discount on the price. The PC-exclusive first-person shooter has gone from announcement to impending release in a matter of months. If that's too fast for you, go through our preview to learn more about Hard Reset's evolving weaponry and big, metallic crotches. We've stuck the minimum and recommended PC requirements after the break.%Gallery-131932%
Hard Reset story trailer is a recipe for success
Take two-thirds of a cup of Sin City, whisk vigorously with 14 ounces of powdered Ghost In The Shell, and then slowly add a generous tablespoon of gravelly voice acting. After an hour at 375, you'll have a piping-fresh tray of this Hard Reset story trailer. Mmmmmmm. [Thanks, Chris!]
Hard Reset preview: Baudville
In the future, robots will excel at cooking breakfast, mowing the terraformed lawn and driving cabs on Mars. Today, they're designed to be destroyed without consequence or guilt. If you have to shoot something in a lineup of video game villains, the robot is less messy than the nazi and just a tad more relatable than the extraterrestrial insect. It's in a shooter's best interests, then, that you prevent the artificial near-citizens of the future, as envisioned by Hard Reset, from overthrowing authority and hastening their own evolution. You enter the city of Bezoar (eww), a neon-lit pastiche of flying billboards, talking storefronts and Blade Runner's Los Angeles grit, with a straightforward mission in mind. Cover the streets in smoldering servos and protect a database of digitized human personalities. Let's file this preservation and attempted theft of what is easily humanity's least useful component under "suspension of disbelief," okay?%Gallery-130467%
Hard Reset trailer gives us our first glimpse at gameplay
Considering Flying Wild Hog is made up of ex-Bulletstorm, Sniper and Witcher 2 staff, it's not a surprise to see its first effort so packed with big guns. The nifty thing about Hard Reset, though, is that the big guns are hardly typical.
Flying Wild Hog's first game, Hard Reset, shooting to PC in September
Polish developer Flying Wild Hog -- comprised of former Bulletstorm, Sniper and The Witcher 2 staff -- has revealed that its previously announced shooter will be titled Hard Reset, and it will debut in just two months. A cyberpunk FPS set in a "haunting, dystopian future, with humanity on the brink of extinction," Hard Reset tells the story of Major Fletcher, a veteran who must defend humanity's last remaining city, Bezoar, from "the robotic hordes that aim to annihilate mankind." The first trailer for the game has been released, which you can see embedded above. PC Gamer is set to have a hands-on preview in its next issue. In the meantime, you can check out the first screens at the PC Gamer website.
WoW Rookie: The inner workings of instances
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.Maraudon or Blackrock Depths, anybody? Instances are your opportunity to meet and work as a team with other players in the World of Warcraft. You'll combat pack after pack of minions and defeat unique, memorable bosses on your way to some of the most enjoyable play in the game. Instances, also often known as dungeons, offer your group (and later, your raid) your own personal copy of a dungeon. No players other than your own group members are able to enter an instance with you. Instances provide some of the most rewarding and well designed content, challenges and loot possible for your character. The teamwork and cooperative effort required to down the elite mobs and tricky bosses within an instance require a new level of teamwork from your rookie character. We've touched on the basics of finding your niche within a group. Today, let's cover the mechanics of managing instances – becoming "saved" to an instance, resetting them, understanding respawn and more. (One note: this week, we'll discuss five-man instances designed for single groups along the path to level 80, not raid instances requiring 10 or more players to complete. We'll introduce raid instance concepts for fresh level 80 players next week.)
