After quite a wait, it's finally out on the tenth of this month. I already have the game pre-ordered for PC, and I'm looking to see if any fellow Dakkanauts will be playing Brink on the same platform as me. If anyone wants to get down on some co-op action (or perhaps start a PVP clan), you should post in this thread to let me know. My handle will most likely be the same as it is here, unless it's somehow already taken on the day of release.
If anyone is getting this game for PS3 or X-Box 360, you should still post here to have some friendly faces to game with from day one.
If you haven't heard of Brink, and you have any interest in first-person shooters whatsoever, please do yourself a favor and check it out at http://www.brinkthegame.com . The provided videos are all top-notch, and do a really great job of explaining the game and it's intentions.
Kanluwen wrote:SilverMk2 and I are getting it on the 360.
Because we're awesome like that.
I figured that ten extra dollars, plus about eight dollars a month in order to access all of the game's groundbreaking multiplayer content just wasn't worth it to me when held up to the superior control scheme, lower entry fee, access to dedicated servers, and free multiplayer access that the PC version provides. My PC isn't quite optimal for it, but hopefully I should be able to crank down the settings and still be able to enjoy the game at peak performance.
If that's your only option, I don't blame you. I'd do whatever it took to get in on this amazing game. I'm even considering upgrading my video card to be able to play it at max settings, which would render my entire argument pretty much useless.
Kanluwen wrote:SilverMk2 and I are getting it on the 360.
Because we're awesome like that.
I figured that ten extra dollars, plus about eight dollars a month in order to access all of the game's groundbreaking multiplayer content just wasn't worth it to me when held up to the superior control scheme, lower entry fee, access to dedicated servers, and free multiplayer access that the PC version provides. My PC isn't quite optimal for it, but hopefully I should be able to crank down the settings and still be able to enjoy the game at peak performance.
If that's your only option, I don't blame you. I'd do whatever it took to get in on this amazing game. I'm even considering upgrading my video card to be able to play it at max settings, which would render my entire argument pretty much useless.
Less that and more "we like console games better". It's easier, by far, to keep up with console games than it is with the curve going on in PC games. You also don't have to worry about shenanigans.
I always preorder games that I really want, money allowing.
The trick is I do it through Amazon, using credit I build up over the course of the year buying textbooks, etc. Some of their "deal days" mean you can get things for far cheaper.
Kanluwen wrote:I always preorder games that I really want, money allowing.
The trick is I do it through Amazon, using credit I build up over the course of the year buying textbooks, etc. Some of their "deal days" mean you can get things for far cheaper.
How do you get the credit? I buy textbooks through amazon and I haven't seen any points.
halonachos wrote:You may want to rethink that, sure Bethesda favors the 360 over the PS3, but Bethesda is usually very, very glitchy.
First of all, Splash Damage (responsible for numerous high-profile first person shooters) produced the game. Bethesda is publishing it.
Second of all, Bethesda games are perceived as 'glitchy', but that's only because their games generally tend to last about 1000 hours each. It's a lot easier to iron the glitches out of a scripted, 8-hour game (like the majority of games tend to be), than it is to iron out the glitches of an open-ended 1000 hour game. Considering that you can often play Bethesda's games for 10 hours straight without encountering a glitch, I'd say that's more than acceptable.
Oh, and everyone favors coding for the 360 over the PS3. That's just commonly accepted fact at this point.
halonachos wrote:You may want to rethink that, sure Bethesda favors the 360 over the PS3, but Bethesda is usually very, very glitchy.
First of all, Splash Damage (responsible for numerous high-profile first person shooters) produced the game. Bethesda is publishing it.
Second of all, Bethesda games are perceived as 'glitchy', but that's only because their games generally tend to last about 1000 hours each. It's a lot easier to iron the glitches out of a scripted, 8-hour game (like the majority of games tend to be), than it is to iron out the glitches of an open-ended 1000 hour game. Considering that you can often play Bethesda's games for 10 hours straight without encountering a glitch, I'd say that's more than acceptable.
Oh, and everyone favors coding for the 360 over the PS3. That's just commonly accepted fact at this point.
First of all, Kanluwen already pointed out that Splash Damage is the developer.
Second of all, Bethesda games are perceived as glitchy because they are glitchy. WoW is programmed for thousands of players and thousands of hours of gameplay yet is less glitchy than a Bethesda game.
The last point is due to the fact that its far easier to code for 360 and PC than the PS3, however, DLC tends to favor the 360 for Bethesda games. Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas all had DLC for the 360 before the PS3.
halonachos wrote:Bethesda games are perceived as glitchy because they are glitchy. WoW is programmed for thousands of players and thousands of hours of gameplay yet is less glitchy than a Bethesda game.
The last point is due to the fact that its far easier to code for 360 and PC than the PS3, however, DLC tends to favor the 360 for Bethesda games. Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas all had DLC for the 360 before the PS3.
I played Morrowind for 700+ hours, and never encountered a single memorable or game-breaking glitch (unless I was intentionally trying to cheat the system). The original Gamebryo engine is much more stable than it's second iteration, most likely because it didn't have to account for physics or complex AI routines whatsoever. I played Fallout 3 for at least 350 hours, and the game only crashed or froze a handful of times (most of the 'glitches' were quirks in the physics engine or AI getting hung up on the environment). I played Oblivion for at least 200 hours, and the game only crashed once (again, the glitches I encountered were all physics-based, AI routine-based, or specific exploits). Both Fallout 3 and Oblivion were played on an X-Box 360 without an internet connection (patch-free, in other words). I might just be one of the lucky few.
Fallout: New Vegas seems fairly buggy, but Bethesda didn't develop it. Again, the bugs that I have encountered are perfectly proportionate to the bugs that I encounter in an average-length game; just because it crashes more doesn't mean it crashes more often. Then again, my copy of New Vegas is patched thoroughly, so that might have something to do with it.
WoW is able to be virtually bug-free because the engine for an MMO is, by necessity, incredibly simple. The complexity of the engine that WoW runs on is laughable in comparison to the complexity of the Gamebryo II engine (even though they share a similar age). Also, Blizzard makes hundreds of millions of dollars a month, with which they can pay hundreds of testers to play their content vigorously before release. Bethesda might have money, but not that much money, and budgets tend to limit the number of testers you can hire for any given project (Blizzard simply doesn't have to worry about it). In order for a Bethesda game to be virtually bug-free, they would have to add years onto the development time of any of their games. I'd rather have a slightly buggy game than have to wait a few extra years for the same product to be presented to me bug-free.
Microsoft is able to pay companies for exclusive or early access to DLC because of the large amount of money that pours in from X-Box Live subscription fees and royalties. Bethesda isn't trying to take sides because they feel like it; they're paid to do so. Most other developers and publishers follow suit.
WoW at release was horribly buggy and well known for its horribly glitch filled release at the time. It's what, seven years old now? They've had time to lose most of the glitches people notice.
And even in it's size, WoW never has as many variables in play as a game like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. Quests and events only have a two outcomes (win/lose). Some Oblivion quests have as many as five. EDIT: To clarify. WoW is simpler (drastically so) to a game like Oblivion or Fallout to the extent that events don't have complicated outcomes.
LordofHats wrote:And even in it's size, WoW never has as many variables in play as a game like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. Quests and events only have a two outcomes (win/lose). Some Oblivion quests have as many as five. EDIT: To clarify. WoW is simpler (drastically so) to a game like Oblivion or Fallout to the extent that events don't have complicated outcomes.
Not only that, but the game world keeps track of everything you've ever done. If you kill someone or something, their corpse will stay there for eternity unless it is stripped. If you drop something, it is there until you come back around to pick it up (or an NPC might even grab it if you're not careful). NPCs have daily tasks to perform and will interact with the environment based on whether or not they need to; they don't just stand there lifelessly waiting for their opportunity to offer you a quest. Dialogue branches depending on the actions you've taken, and sometimes the world is even profoundly affected by your actions. The complexity of the engine goes much further than that, but I won't get too far into it. Suffice to say that it is way harder to program for than WoW or any similar MMO.
In an MMO, you are simply a blip on a virtual plane. Any action you take is broadcast client-side to relieve the servers from stress. There are no true physics to be found in any MMO, and any action you take is akin to pushing a button. The only stress the engine ever has to undergo is keeping track of your items and numerical statistical values, and generating random 'die rolls' for combat based on these values. The engine running WoW is hardly more complex than a MUD.
All Points Bulletin failed because it was a pay-to-play third-person shooter that wasn't even finished on release. Making someone pay per minute for access to a game that isn't even a persistent MMO is an awful idea.
Brink's character customization won't be quite as in-depth as APB (You can't design your own shirts or tattoos, for instance), but the weapon customization looks to be a lot more robust. However, this is only one aspect of Brink, and it looks to be a much better game than APB overall.
The objective wheel encourages cooperative play for XP (unlike every other shooter on the market, everyone has a reason to help their team), the SMART system allows you to reach literally any point on any map with ease, and the multiplayer and singleplayer is seamlessly integrated (not only will you be able to drop in and out of full multiplayer at will, but this will allow Brink to be more story-focused than any multiplayer shooter out there). The leveling system and character customization seems incredibly robust for a team-based shooter. The only thing I'm worried about at this point is balance.
If this doesn't get you excited for the game, I don't know what will. Reviews be damned; if Splash Damage delivers on every promise, this looks to be the best first-person shooter ever made.
@VikingScott: Unfortunately, Brink is a first-person shooter. This doesn't make much sense with all of the character customization and the beautifully animated SMART system, but I understand the merits of an FPS over a TPS somewhat.
You should still definitely buy it, though. Brink is bound to change your conception of what an FPS is capable of.
Who knows? You might even end up liking it more than Gears of War 3. In fact, that's fairly likely, seeing as how GoW is stuck with many conventions of a shooter.
Kanluwen wrote:To be 100% fair: Splash Damage is the company that produced the game. Bethesda is the distributor.
Splash Damage is fantastic at doing games. Bethesda is not.
Precisely why I pre-ordered it. I am a big Splash Damage fanboy. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are still on my frequent play list. These games have always been my favourite objective based first person shooters. The SMART system for traversing terrain and obstacles is something that I have never seen done in a FPS before. I expect Brink to take what I like about its predecessors and up it to the next level.
Majesticgoat wrote:Precisely why I pre-ordered it. I am a big Splash Damage fanboy. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are still on my frequent play list. These games have always been my favourite objective based first person shooters. The SMART system for traversing terrain and obstacles is something that I have never seen done in a FPS before. I expect Brink to take what I like about its predecessors and up it to the next level.
The objective wheel is a natural progression of the mission system found in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Quake Wars. It is much more dynamic and all-encompassing than it's predecessors, and I feel that anyone who is a fan of Splash Damage's previous efforts will love it. Hell, anyone who appreciates the 'team' aspect of a team-based shooter will love it. Even 'lone wolves' will love it and be rewarded by it, though not nearly as much as a team player. Since you now gain XP for utilizing it, everyone will use it. It generates objectives based on the state of your team (on top of giving you missions that are based on what map you're playing), which is awesome.
The SMART system kind of reminds me of Mirror's Edge (with simpler controls), but it will prove to be much more useful in a competitive shooter than a single-player first-person platformer.
LordofHats wrote:WoW at release was horribly buggy and well known for its horribly glitch filled release at the time. It's what, seven years old now? They've had time to lose most of the glitches people notice.
And even in it's size, WoW never has as many variables in play as a game like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. Quests and events only have a two outcomes (win/lose). Some Oblivion quests have as many as five. EDIT: To clarify. WoW is simpler (drastically so) to a game like Oblivion or Fallout to the extent that events don't have complicated outcomes.
Maybe it was just my personal experience from playing on the PS3 with not being able to give 2 bloodgrass for the vampire quest, or watching a robot fly into the sky in Fallout 3 which prevented me from repairing the big town robots. That and the random freezing, my god the random freezing. For every hour of gamelpay I had at least five minutes of the game being frozen.
Splash Damage made Quake Wars: Enemy Territory? That makes it iffy to me, I enjoyed playing it but for some reason I never ranked up in the game, even when I was playing online it reset my rank each time I logged off. That left a bad taste in my mouth despite the fact that building artillery in the game was fun.
For those who haven't gotten it preordered, Toys R Us looks like they may be giving a gift card when you buy the game there. Best Buy will probably do $10 on a gift card or have it bundled with something else.
The Clavicus Vile dog statue and the bloodgrass glitches were the only really problematic glitches in Oblivion, and they weren't really game breaking. Bloodgrass is only a problem if you actually let yourself become a vampire, which in Oblivion is never a good idea (why on earth anyone would want a weakness to fire in a game where you go into hell...) EDIT: You might want to check if it still annoys you idk. The bloodgrass glitch has sadly been studied by nerds and they've determined that it only occurs if things happen in a certain order.
halonachos wrote:That and the random freezing, my god the random freezing. For every hour of gamelpay I had at least five minutes of the game being frozen.
This is either an over-exaggeration, or you're running the game on completely incompatable hardware or software (which is not Bethsoft's fault). It's hard to find a hardware 'sweet spot' to run the Gamebryo II engine, but it can't possibly be optimized for everything. I remember Morrowind having this problem for me until I upgraded my video card. Once I did, it was smooth sailing from there.
halonachos wrote:Splash Damage made Quake Wars: Enemy Territory? That makes it iffy to me, I enjoyed playing it but for some reason I never ranked up in the game, even when I was playing online it reset my rank each time I logged off. That left a bad taste in my mouth despite the fact that building artillery in the game was fun.
Damn, you just seem to have awful luck with games in general. Did you try reinstalling the game, or did you just give up and never attempt to rectify the situation after that happened?
LordofHats wrote:The Clavicus Vile dog statue and the bloodgrass glitches were the only really problematic glitches in Oblivion, and they weren't really game breaking. Bloodgrass is only a problem if you actually let yourself become a vampire, which in Oblivion is never a good idea (why on earth anyone would want a weakness to fire in a game where you go into hell...) EDIT: You might want to check if it still annoys you idk. The bloodgrass glitch has sadly been studied by nerds and they've determined that it only occurs if things happen in a certain order.
Sadly it was on the PS3 which never got a patch, and never got the keep that had the cure in it. As to why I became a vampire I got incredibly distracted.
1) Did daedric god quest where you kill the vampires in the cave.
2) Contracted disease, no problem I have a Cure Disease in the chest at home.
3) Its relatively close so I'll walk.
4) Ooh, a dungeon, wouldn't hurt to go there.
5) That dungeon was fun, now back to... ooh a ruin.
6) Level up, gotta go rest.
7) You are now a vampire; wait, what?
8) Can't give bloodgrass; put game away for a couple of months, start new profile and do quest right away.
As far as quake wars, it was on PS3 as well.
Like I said, it was fun but the hassle of not leveling up kind of ruined it for me. Didn't leveling up give you bonuses though, it has been awhile since I actually played.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Actually, after looking at the wiki for Quake Wars it reminded me that there was indeed a campaign for it. I remembered that I would beat the first level of the campaign, but it would either kick me or just not load the next level. Basically I've only played two levels of the game.
The balance between light and heavy classes is insane.
A heavy can sustain damage, but cannot travel fast, nor mount more than waist high objects. I see maps designed so the heavy's take longer to get to the front while the light classes vault over buildings and engage on the rooftops, the team whos light cavalry wins would surely have a huge upperhand as the heavy's who arrive on the opposing team would arrive with no support.
Calling them "classes" isn't necessarily correct, Jaon.
It's your body type, which you decide with your customization.
Halonachos wrote:As far as quake wars, it was on PS3 as well.
Like I said, it was fun but the hassle of not leveling up kind of ruined it for me. Didn't leveling up give you bonuses though, it has been awhile since I actually played.
Actually, after looking at the wiki for Quake Wars it reminded me that there was indeed a campaign for it. I remembered that I would beat the first level of the campaign, but it would either kick me or just not load the next level. Basically I've only played two levels of the game.
Leveling up each class gave different perks, and each weapon type did the same.
For example: Covert Ops would receive steadier aiming and faster disguises.
The 'campaign' part sounds like it was a PS3 issue in them trying to add single player.
Being light, medium, or heavy body type is entirely up to you.
Even though being able to reach any point on any map and sprint incredibly fast might seem unfair, you have to keep in mind that you can take out a light character in just a few shots. I see this as completely balanced, as light characters will have to use SMART at every opportunity to stay alive, and will have to avoid direct conflict at all costs. Heavy characters can withstand the punishment that light characters can dish out from their many vantage points, and if they can manage to get them in their crosshairs, they won't last long at all (there are no one-hit kills or 'sniper' rifles, by the way, so you don't have to worry about light characters with rifles too much, so long as you're constantly vigilant).
I foresee most people going with the medium body type to give themselves a fair amount of balance between health and agility.
Personally, I plan on my first character being a light body type with most of his skill points distributed to the medic class. I simply want to be able to aid my team to the best of my ability, and though I think being a heavy medic would be cool, being able to sprint and leap across the map to reach teammates in need seems more useful in most situations. I'm not much for sniping or camping either; I'm usually a shotgun junkie in most FPS games. Though this conflicts with the light body type, at least most people will know that I'm not a cheap bastard attempting to exploit the game just to up my kill count.
Chrysaor686 wrote:Personally, I plan on my first character being a light body type with most of his skill points distributed to the medic class. I simply want to be able to aid my team to the best of my ability, and though I think being a heavy medic would be cool, being able to sprint and leap across the map to reach teammates in need seems more useful in most situations. I'm not much for sniping or camping either; I'm usually a shotgun junkie in most FPS games. Though this conflicts with the light body type, at least most people will know that I'm not a cheap bastard attempting to exploit the game just to up my kill count.
I was not even aware that body type was not class specific nor that it altered how well you could clear obstacles.. That adds a whole new twist. I might have to go with your fast/agile medic plan as well.. Although a medic may fair well by being able to sustain a bit more damage too. I guess I will find out tomorrow.
Does it use Steamworks for game setup and matchmaking or does it have its own built in matchmaking and friend system?
Was always a medic. Did that in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolf ET, and Quake Wars, and the legacy will go on! Do not worry though, I will distribute health to you guys! I am not one of those rambo medics that has the intent to run and gun and only heal themselves.
Majesticgoat wrote:Does it use Steamworks for game setup and matchmaking or does it have its own built in matchmaking and friend system?
Brink will run on Steam on the PC. I'm fairly sure you can pre-load the game if you pre-ordered it from Steam (I read this in a news article; unfortunately, I had to pre-order from Gamestop).
Matchmaking is based entirely on your level. If you are, say, level 15, the game will only attempt to set you up with other players who are also level 15. This will circumvent the awful matchmaking often present in most FPS games, wherein a rank 1 player can be set up with a max rank player. Hopefully, there will be no such thing as 'prestige' (where you rank down after hitting max level to gain bonuses).
The PC version of Brink will have a dedicated server tool, accessible through Steam, that will not require the main game to run. Dedicated servers are awesome, as they ensure that every player is running at the same ping. Unfortunately, both the X-Box 360 and the PS3 will not have access to this feature, and will be stuck with player-created servers (which often means really uneven ping, with the advantage always going to the player who started the server).
If its run through steam then the PS3 should have that as well on it. Seeing as though they started to have steam when Portal 2 came out... and the network was hacked so people couldn't use it, but they have it just in case it decides to come back up.
I may get it seeing as though I'll get my 10% employee discount and a $15 gift card when it comes out. Hopefully PSN will be back up.
Now how will the gear work out, in MAG each set of gear costs a certain amount of weight. You can have heavy armor and a sniper rifle, but no frag grenades because the armor and rifle weigh a ton for example. Is it possible to have a Heavy Operative and the likes?
Kanluwen wrote:That's not what I've heard. I've been hearing them saying that 360/PS3 will both be having dedicated servers--just not player run.
I've read through every piece of media I could find related to Brink, and they have confirmed multiple times that servers on the console versions will not be dedicated. This may just be hopeful fans; there is not a single game running on X-Box Live or PSN that I can think of that has dedicated servers (not even flagship franchises owned by Sony or Microsoft).
@halonachos: You can have up to two weapons at a time (which are gained by completing challenges), and may switch your loadout at will. You can only use a knife if you have a sidearm (pistol) equipped; otherwise you can use SMART to attack and knock down enemies in close range combat (knives do more damage but do not cause knockdown). Everyone has access to frag grenades, but the Soldier Class has access to molotovs which can hold an enemy in place. As far as I know, you can use any weapon as any class.
As far as I know, there is no 'Armor', only body type and buffs to your health from a medic. If you choose a heavy body type, you will run slow and only be able to vault over waist-high objects with SMART, but you will have more health than a medium or light body type.
Yes, it is perfectly possible to have a Heavy Operative, as you choose your body type when you create your character (as far as I know, you can change anything about your character at will, but the body type may be locked in place once you choose it).
There may be a certain time of day when the game will actually become 'active'. Usually, preloads do not work directly at midnight (though they should, in theory). It is possible that they don't want to give an unfair advantage to people who bought it directly from Steam instead of pre-ordering it at a retailer.
If Steam is letting you play it, but it crashes when you boot the game up, you may want to try reinstalling it.
Chrysaor686 wrote:plus about eight dollars a month in order to access all of the game's groundbreaking multiplayer content
I hope you are talking about the Live subscription because I ain't gettin' no game with its own subscription and I've not seen anything about such a thing on the game's site
But yes, I hope to be getting it for my birthday a week or so after the release date.
Yes, I was referring to the X-Box Live subscription.
We all saw how APB fared. Though this looks to be a much better game, I still don't think they could possibly get away with charging a subscription fee to play it.
My Gold account hasn't been active for at least half a year. After I got every achievement in Red Dead Redemption, I didn't really feel the need for it.
I play more than enough games on live to make it worthwhile (and beating Kan all the time makes it even more worthwhile ).
On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.
I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop poeple playing by making custom files for their playlists.
On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.
I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop poeple playing by making custom files for their playlists.
Custom files are run-of-the-mill for most PCFPS games (If you've played any Counter-Strike at all, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). On X-Box Live, you'll never have to worry about this at all.
However, Brink already has tons of customization and seems to be a very solid game overall. The entire year it was delayed was mostly spent tweaking, refining, and balancing the game (most games don't get half that much time dedicated to fine-tuning). The maps were designed from the ground up with SMART in mind. The weapon and character customization seems so fleshed out that I doubt people will feel the need for custom skins or modifications. I'm sure that there won't be much custom content forced on players, aside from the occasional Unreal Tournament soundbyte (if any custom content is even compatible with the game in the first place).
I really hope that this game becomes as popular as it deserves to be. In reality, it should automatically trump Call of Duty, Halo, Killzone, and anything similar by it's design alone. Though I doubt it will reach such monumental levels, Splash Damage deserves to be rewarded for creating such a groundbreaking game
Chrysaor686 wrote:Custom files are run-of-the-mill for most PCFPS games (If you've played any Counter-Strike at all, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about).
I played it back before it became CS:Source. I think I played it up until about 1.5? Don't think I ever played any game where I had to sit downloading files... May just not remember it though. Certainly never had to wait for 20 minutes only to be disconnected before I had even joined the game
On X-Box Live, you'll never have to worry about this at all.
One of the reasons I like the 360
Though it is a pain for games where you have to pay a fortune for extra maps, content and so on (especially when they should have been included in the original game -_- ), while you can download a million times more stuff for the PC version for free.
SilverMK2 wrote:I play more than enough games on live to make it worthwhile (and beating Kan all the time makes it even more worthwhile ).
I didn't know you were starting to hallucinate.
On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.
I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop people playing by making custom files for their playlists.
I'll be able to review it for you by the time you finish at work, hopefully. UPS says it's on truck for delivery.
Look on the brightside. At least you won't be cajoled into joining me for the Gears 3 Beta again?
Got my first two hours under my belt last night and my overall impressions of the game were pretty positive despite a game breaking glitch I encountered early on which wouldn't let me connect to any servers. It happened, I think, because a server I tried joining shutdown/disconnected just as I was connecting to it which somehow glitched my ability to connect to other servers. I had to re-log Steam entirely but after that my server connections were really quick and I had no issues with it. On that note though, the server and friend system is all built upon Steamworks so if you are anything like I am with a vast network of online FPS buddies then getting into games with your friends conveniently with the Steam friend system will be a very nice asset.
Teamwork is encouraged a lot. Medics and Engineers can buff health and gun damage by running up to teammates and performing an action on them. I was kept really busy with all the people getting rocked as a medic. I would say it is faster paced than W:ET or ET:QW ever was.
The maps so far have felt a bit small and at times claustrophobic to me in a few odd places. Maybe my parkouring is just not up to par yet and I am not exploring by thinking out of the box.
I think anyone who was a fan of W:ET or ET:QWs could jump on board with this and be into it instantly.
Kanluwen wrote:I didn't know you were starting to hallucinate.
You wish - I rock your odd balls!
I'll be able to review it for you by the time you finish at work, hopefully. UPS says it's on truck for delivery.
Look on the brightside. At least you won't be cajoled into joining me for the Gears 3 Beta again?
Yeah, now I remember why I never played the other ones in multiplayer. Bloody shotguns! I don't really feel the time it would take to get used to the gameplay would be rewarded by the actual multiplayer experience. Though I do like the Reach-esque "ribbons".
Kanluwen wrote:I didn't know you were starting to hallucinate.
You wish - I rock your odd balls!
And this is why inside jokes don't work in public!
I'll be able to review it for you by the time you finish at work, hopefully. UPS says it's on truck for delivery.
Look on the brightside. At least you won't be cajoled into joining me for the Gears 3 Beta again?
Yeah, now I remember why I never played the other ones in multiplayer. Bloody shotguns! I don't really feel the time it would take to get used to the gameplay would be rewarded by the actual multiplayer experience. Though I do like the Reach-esque "ribbons".
Thankfully: we'll have campaign and Hordes, am I right?
Those of you with potential interest in the game, but who haven't bought it yet, might be interested in this (and those who have bought it may be interested as well):
It is a primer that includes a list of all of the abilities for each class, all of the weapons and weapon attatchments, a rundown of each map, the quickest way to win challenges, and a list of achievements for the game.
I'll give my full review as soon as I feel that I am able to. My initial impressions are that the learning curve is fairly steep for an FPS. There are a few tutorials here and there, but most of them are fairly advanced; there's a reason they're called challenges. Learning the game in itself is rewarding, though. When I first picked it up, I never thought I'd be able to utilize the multi-faceted HUD in any effective way. After a few hours with it, I'm amazed how all of it works together in tandem and how I'm able to process all of this information with such efficiency (due to it's briliiant design).
After I got over the learning hump, I found that Brink is the most incredibly satisfying first-person shooter I've ever played. The game is balanced perfectly. You can withstand enough damage that a firefight becomes entirely tactical instead of based on twitch reaction, and is often based on your strategy and mobility more than your aim. The game still rewards good aim more than spraying and praying, but you will never suffer a single-shot kill for any reason. If you keep on the move and keep your wits about you (and your teammates close), you'll survive.
The game requires team cooperation much more than any other shooter I've played, but it does such a good job of feeding you incremental bonuses for you efforts that you actually find yourself wanting to support your team as much as possible, instead of feeling forced into it. Streaks are much more satisfying to me than in a lone-wolf twitch shooter, as they are based on your team's support as much as your reflexes. You actually feel proud of your entire team when you're able to score numerous kills in a row, every single time.
The abilities all seem to be significant enough that there aren't any that won't be used by someone in some sort of build. You have the capability of playing any way you want to, but the game still has an incredible sense of balance. Though the list of abilities may not seem very expansive, they are incredibly well-thought-out and won't give anyone a ridiculous advantage, or cause any FOTM builds (as far as I know). Most of your choices will be based on your intuition and playstyle instead of desired overall power. It's like an extended perk system that meshes together incredibly well without anything feeling so overpowered that you can't handle it. The classes all play very differently from one another, and play off of each other very well.
Though there are only 8 maps, they are incredibly well-designed for balance and to take advantage of the ridiculously fluid and intuitive SMART system without making it seem too powerful in any given situation. The maps are also two to three times bigger than your average FPS map, and they have four times as many objectives at any given time (There may be a defense mission going on in the middle of a capture the flag mission). This gives the game a sort of sandbox FPS feel (that goes well with the character customization aspect) while remaining concise and retaining the great design aspects of a small-scale FPS. It is impossible to spawn camp the opposing team's main respawn point, and the maps constantly change hands based on capturable control points that can also provide small bonuses to your team. Though you never feel overwhelmed because of these bonuses, they still serve as incentive to capture them.
Brink does a great job of rewarding you. You strive for every achievement not for some pointless score, but because you always get something awesome and tangible for achieving any goal. The XP system is constantly feeding you points for even the smallest little thing (though it is scaled well and entirely dependant on how much of an impact your actions have), which serves to always guide you to be helpful in some manner without feeling forceful. It is perfectly possible to level up without firing a bullet as a medic, for example (though you probably won't do that, just saying).
The art design is wonderful without being invasive. I've never played a shooter that has looked or felt quite like Brink, which will serve as a good thing to most people (the FPS genre is pretty artistically stagnant, drowning in 'grey and brown marines' these days). The world is surprisingly colorful without losing the feel of a world that is slowly reaching it's impending doom. The menus are all very clean, and the included music is amazing (and changes depending on your faction). The sound effects are all very well done; each weapon sounds perfectly appropriate, despite the fact that they're all fictional with basis in reality, and the game gives subtle and organic audio clues depending on the situation. The storyline is amazing without interrupting the gameplay (this is a multiplayer-centric game, after all). You get little bits and pieces at a time, but they are incredibly effective for how short each scene is. There is lots of room for more, but the way the story is told makes it possible for it to run out of order.
The only thing I'm remotely disappointed by so far is the lack of appearance options. Though there are enough, there are not as many as I thought there would be. At the very least, it is practically impossible to make a bad-looking avatar. Everything 'fits' together in a way, so no matter what you do, you're pretty much always going to look badass. There are plenty of coordinating color schemes to pick from, which is a nice touch.
These are just my initial impressions, though. Time may tell a different story, but at this point, I can only see myself loving the game more the more I play it. It seems almost impossible to have the same experience twice with Brink.
Splash Damage, I salute you.
EDIT: I forgot to add that this game is incredibly well-optimized for the PC (which is surprising, seeing as how they used id's engine to develop it). It runs better than most games do on my PC, but it looks better than most of the games that I own. I experience a bit of screen tearing here and there (and there aren't many complex options for optimization), but it runs at a solid 30 FPS and looks absolutely amazing.
Chrysaor686 wrote:There may be a certain time of day when the game will actually become 'active'. Usually, preloads do not work directly at midnight (though they should, in theory). It is possible that they don't want to give an unfair advantage to people who bought it directly from Steam instead of pre-ordering it at a retailer.
If Steam is letting you play it, but it crashes when you boot the game up, you may want to try reinstalling it.
Did that, still the same gak. I told Steam about this issue, but they haven't gotten back to me.
Aaaand...the reviewers have let the hammer fall hard, damning this game to obscurity.
What a shame. It's the most fun I've ever had with a first person shooter, and I have experienced none of the glitches or problems that are described in the majority of reviews within my 12 straight hours of playtime (the game has run flawlessly; I've only encountered a single glitch this entire time, and everything else has been delivered exactly as advertised). This must mean a shoddy console port; cut your losses and go with the PC version if you can.
The best I can hope for is cult-classic status at this point. Hopefully, positive player reviews far outweigh the ridiculously negative professional reviews that this game has received.
Chrysaor686 wrote:Aaaand...the reviewers have let the hammer fall hard, damning this game to obscurity.
What a shame. It's the most fun I've ever had with a first person shooter, and I have experienced none of the glitches or problems that are described in the majority of reviews within my 12 straight hours of playtime (the game has run flawlessly; I've only encountered a single glitch this entire time, and everything else has been delivered exactly as advertised). This must mean a shoddy console port; cut your losses and go with the PC version if you can.
The best I can hope for is cult-classic status at this point. Hopefully, positive player reviews far outweigh the ridiculously negative professional reviews that this game has received.
I didn't wanna hear that. It can't be THAT bad. I mean Mass Effect is probably the shining example of how terribly buggy a pc game can be compared to it's console counter parts. Like textures on a planet filled with lava valleys suddenly disappearing, driving the Mako across an infinite sea of non-existent textures! Or Garrus's face losing texture on the stats screen which now looks like he was a terrible burn victim.
Yea, reviews haven't been kind. This is why I wanted a demo!
I've seen just as many points brought of on strange design decisions within the game as complaints about bugs. Like the single player that's really just multiplayer matches, that's like Quake 3: Arena right there!
Chrysaor686 wrote:Aaaand...the reviewers have let the hammer fall hard, damning this game to obscurity.
What a shame. It's the most fun I've ever had with a first person shooter, and I have experienced none of the glitches or problems that are described in the majority of reviews within my 12 straight hours of playtime (the game has run flawlessly; I've only encountered a single glitch this entire time, and everything else has been delivered exactly as advertised). This must mean a shoddy console port; cut your losses and go with the PC version if you can.
The best I can hope for is cult-classic status at this point. Hopefully, positive player reviews far outweigh the ridiculously negative professional reviews that this game has received.
To be fair it seems as if the independent critics and user reviews are scoring the came significantly higher than the major game sites. For example Gamespot rates it 6/10, while both the critics and user reviews put it at 7.3/4.
(BRINK PC GAMERS)
Has anyone else run into the same problem as I have? I re-installed Brink and it still crashes as soon as the game loads up. I have downloaded new drivers for my video card and checked to see if it was doing the same for other games, but all my other games run just fine. WHAT THE HELL, STEAM?!
DickBandit wrote:(BRINK PC GAMERS)
Has anyone else run into the same problem as I have? I re-installed Brink and it still crashes as soon as the game loads up. I have downloaded new drivers for my video card and checked to see if it was doing the same for other games, but all my other games run just fine. WHAT THE HELL, STEAM?!
you probably are having a config issue and have steam cloud enabled so it is copying the settings causing the issues on startup/reinstall.
purplefood wrote:Got it today...
Seemed fine, the SMART system will take some getting used too but apart from that no problems...
Really? I found SMART to be incredibly smooth and intuitive. I still have to work on my efficiency a bit (jumping before I vault over an object, sliding when I hit the ground, etc.), but SMART does exactly what I want it to 95% of the time with hardly any effort from me whatsoever.
At any rate, it's nowhere near as difficult as Mirror's Edge's movment system (which had an entire controller dedicated to every function), but SMART is almost as effective while only using two buttons total.
You'll probably get the hang of it in a couple hours. Just wait until you hit level 7 and unlock the Light Body Type. That's when SMART really shines.
purplefood wrote:Got it today...
Seemed fine, the SMART system will take some getting used too but apart from that no problems...
Really? I found SMART to be incredibly smooth and intuitive. I still have to work on my efficiency a bit (jumping before I vault over an object, sliding when I hit the ground, etc.), but SMART does exactly what I want it to 95% of the time with hardly any effort from me whatsoever.
At any rate, it's nowhere near as difficult as Mirror's Edge's movment system (which had an entire controller dedicated to every function), but SMART is almost as effective while only using two buttons total.
You'll probably get the hang of it in a couple hours. Just wait until you hit level 7 and unlock the Light Body Type. That's when SMART really shines.
No as in getting used to using it...
It's fine when i'm using it but i keep forgetting to make use of it...
Im itching with excitement right now, going to the store tommorow to pick up a copy... I want SMART and teamwork... Screw the reviews, often times they compare games which they shouldn't, I.E. CoD to Brink, they are TWO DIFFERENT GAMES, yes, you can compare sound, but they function completly different from one another.
Picked it up today. I must admit, I am impressed, after reading some of the reviews on the net, I wasn't expecting much.
The offline, single-player campaign is pretty mediocore, the gameplay REALLY doesn't suit bot teammates, and is a little drab (no characters, poor story and unimaginative campaign mission layout. Note: same layout works great in MP and co-op) . The online is where it's at.
Played a few 'free play' games with 3 friends and myself, which was really fun. The teamwork is great, and objectives are always open to all classes and team members, the gameplay never stops and is always free-flowing.
The single player challenges are good fun, when completed they unlock better guns and attachments for all weapons. They can also be done in up to 4 player co-op but minus the weapons and attachment rewards.
The ONE thing that lets the game down is the connection in ANY online match. It is terrible, we got lag spikes every minute or so, no matter the host (hosting in other games was fine). I REALLY hope they sort this out, as it is very enjoyable in co-op online!
Definitely worth the rent!
Automatically Appended Next Post: The review that IGN gave, was it a 6.something? Single player is deserving of that, but co-op and online is far better - a solid 7/8 (sans lag).
Got it, and it is AWESOME!
Almost endlessly customizable and really fun online.
I got it for xbox as I can't play PC games for ****, no coordination at all. If you are considering getting it, stop and get it NOW!
'fanboy rant over'
I sincerely hate all of you. I'm the only one who still has problems. I haven't even been able to look at the freakin' title screen. I've verified the file cache 10,000 times. Re-re-re-re-re-re-re-redownloaded it. Updated Steam every two seconds. Install new video card drivers. Like what more can I do? I told Steam about it and they basically said "Sucks for you, THIS GAME IS GRRRRRRRRRREAT!!" So I then went straight to Bethesda and sent them a freakin message last week. STILL NO RESPONSE!! I'm gonna crucify every Bethesda staff member.
If it makes you feel better Bandit, my buddy doesn't crash on start up but it crashes as soon as he tries to connect to multiplayer. It's okay. There there.
NoBaconz4You wrote:The ONE thing that lets the game down is the connection in ANY online match. It is terrible, we got lag spikes every minute or so, no matter the host (hosting in other games was fine). I REALLY hope they sort this out, as it is very enjoyable in co-op online!
The review that IGN gave, was it a 6.something? Single player is deserving of that, but co-op and online is far better - a solid 7/8 (sans lag).
I think this is the reason I feel pretty mneh about Brink at the moment. Single player isn't all that great, but I bought it for the multiplayer. Unfortunately almost every game I've tried online has been laggy as hell, which is spoiling it at the moment.
Seamlessly blends single-player, multi-player, and co-op my fundament. Plus, it seems suspiciously like Brink's installation has somehow ganked my computer's ability to play any other online co-op game. I cannot find a reason for it, but suddenly I had problems just after the game was installed.
I don't really take Yhatzee seriously as a game critic. He is funny and i like watching his reviews but they aren't balanced and only provide an in-depth (and humorous) view of the bad points with only a little bit given to the good points.
For a more comprehensive look at Brink, I'd check out TotalBiscuit's review:
He does a great job of covering almost every point for people who haven't played the game, though the review is almost an hour long. Most importantly, he 'gets it', which a lot of reviewers didn't.
Chrysaor686 wrote:For a more comprehensive look at Brink, I'd check out TotalBiscuit's review:
He does a great job of covering almost every point for people who haven't played the game, though the review is almost an hour long. Most importantly, he likes it, which a lot of reviewers didn't.
I wouldn't go that far Corpsesarefun. There really are a lot of people who went into playing Brink thinking it would be another Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
