Brink (360/PS3/PC)

[mgoblue678]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

This looks fantastic. Day one buy for me most likely.

[Candyman5]

They will come I assume. I haven't even seen any television ads for LA Noire yet, and I'm sure the marketing campaign for that game is going to be massive.

Just seen my first LA Noir commercial.


Sent from me, duh.

[Flawless]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

EDGE: Balancing Brink

Richard Ham: We've inherited this very sophisticated system from Quake Wars that allows us to tweak individual things from day one. One term we use that's extremely important to the game is 'necvars', text files of values that we can change locally, upload to a server and then it gets automatically dispersed through the world.

Neil Alphonso: This is how we update the game very quickly. We have a very limited set of people who play the game, and it's always been a concern that we're tuning it to how we play. It's a potential failing in previous games from the studio, in that they're a bit hardcore. This allows us to track statistics when the game is out in the wild, and updates stuff really quickly and cheaply. Adjustments are accompanied by patch notes, explaining why such and such a weapon was reduced. It allows us to iterate very quickly.

NA: There are other things we have to look at because the classes are linked to the maps. We can look and see if certain classes are dominating the map, and manipulate some of the values, timers, spawn rates to correct that. I suspect the best shooter players will be the best soldiers, so just because the soldiers are killing the most people doesn't necessarily mean they're overpowered. So we have to look at the overall experience and the usage of abilities. So if we think medics are using self-revive too much, we can slightly adjust the cool-down on how long before you can use it again. Little things like that.

RH: If we find that operatives aren't getting the same love as other classes we can use those necvars. They're so powerful. Patches are a lot of trouble, with beta testers and certification, and time-restrictions on how many you can do. But with these you don't have to touch game code at all. We can fix problems reported to us in just one evening. We've hundreds of necvars we can play with. Say, how much damage you do with a certain bullet, or the spread radius of shotguns. Cool-down times. Speed of reload. For that last one we just change a value and the game automatically plays the reload animation faster. We're really pleased to have it in Brink. And it works best when used in concert with players.

RH: There are some abilities in the game that are better than others. We knew that, and there's a number of ways to address that. 1) It's hard to argue against an ability that makes your life meter 15 to 20 per cent longer. That's good in any circumstances. We made that the first ability that you could get. It's available to everyone. Anything that we identify as generally more powerful we make as widely available as fast as possible. As you get higher up the ladder of abilities, we focus on offering more options in combat rather than more power. Players can that way tune their play to particular abilities as they get more experienced. If they have, say, high-level hacking abilities, they can start hacking away at enemy turrets. Some players will say those abilities are rubbish because they don't let you kill anybody directly, and if that's your attitude then don't buy the abilities. It's about making sure every ability has its rightful place in combat. It's about tactical complexity. The abilities are less intuitive as you get higher up the ranks. More delays, and more emergent stuff that wouldn't have an obvious use for new players.

NA: Something we've had a lot of feedback on from the team is the damage of weapons. If we got in an arm's race, raising everything up, we'd turn it into more of a Call Of Duty-style game where it's about spotting the threat and firing off to neutralise it. We didn't want to do that. With our cool movement system, I've always thought it would negate that if you don't have time to react. So we've gone towards the Halo-model of damage, I suppose, but I personally compare it more to Quake, to hitting jump pads and being in the air. I look at it as bringing more things down to baseline rather than boosting things up.

RH: You want players to feel powerful, but not to the detriment of other players. For us, it's a really fine balance between giving a game that feels powerful enough to put the bad guys down, but gives the other guy a chance to respond and make evasive manoeuvres. It's about trying to find the fine line between classic Counter-Strike-style one-hit-kills and having players be balloons of health that never die.

[Vast]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Team Fortress 2 but better.

Cannot wait!

This! Plus what Flawless posted pretty much guarantees Online awesomeness.

Tell your friends people.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

This is the best FPS I have ever seen on paper. Takes the best things from all FPS's, and adds some new things to the mix as well. (Movement System, Non-Verbal Communication, Gorgeous Color Scheme, etc.)

Only thing that would it hold it back would be bad servers. Kind of worries me that there was no Beta.

[J-Clutch1]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

I believe they paid for beta testers, so it was a non-public one.

The one available to play for 30 mins at PAX might count as one though.

[sportsdude]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

This is the best FPS I have ever seen on paper. Takes the best things from all FPS's, and adds some new things to the mix as well. (Movement System, Non-Verbal Communication, Gorgeous Color Scheme, etc.)

Only thing that would it hold it back would be bad servers. Kind of worries me that there was no Beta.

Considering the abomination that was Quake Wars, which was made by the same company, I think there's legitimate reason to be concerned about the multiplayer connection. Quake Wars was literally a slide show in video game form.

[Cyros]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Considering the abomination that was Quake Wars, which was made by the same company, I think there's legitimate reason to be concerned about the multiplayer connection. Quake Wars was literally a slide show in video game form.

PC or Console version?

[sportsdude]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

PC or Console version?

console version. My computer is only capable of playing Diablo II lol.

[Cyros]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

console version. My computer is only capable of playing Diablo II lol.

I was wondering since it seems the console ports of Quake Wars were handled by two separate developers.

[Pete1210]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Joystiq preview

The player can play solo or take the fight online with private or public multiplayer. If the preferences are set to public, simply start playing and real players will drop in sporadically to replace NPCs. Simply "dropping into" a match is something Splash Damage is committed to. "We're challenging those assumptions, like, 'Why do I need to be in a lobby before I start a match'" Wedgwood told us. "And, 'Why do I need this party thing if they're on my friends list anyway?'" As flexible as that is, at the same time the game is very customizable. You can decide how many AI players you want, or whether or not you want to reserve a few spots in the match for your buddies.

Every multiplayer level is also a level in the single-player campaign. In the campaign, just like in the multiplayer, you can choose either faction, Resistance or Security and play out their story. In doing so, Brink has blurred the line so completely between multiplayer and single-player that it will be impossible to walk into a room and tell which one is being played. Your character will be persistent across both modes, continuing to build towards the game's Level 20 cap. This allows players to spend time in either single-player or multiplayer without worrying about their character not leveling....

During my time with the game, I found the AI to be brilliant, and often preferable to playing with human characters. "There are days when I can't beat our AI on normal," said Wedgwood with disdain. The AI follows the same mission system as the character, which makes having a team full of AI no worse than a team full of humans. Even the most skilled play-testers at Splash Damage have trouble with level 20 AI on hard; they use flanking maneuvers and pincers moves, and will adjust to certain hot zones that may emerge on a map.

I was going to wait on this since it comes out within a week of LA Noire. But after reading that preview, this looks like a day one buy now.

[Sandman42]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

I'm still interested, but after picking up MK and Portal, and then buying LA Noire, I might wait on this one. Hopefully the online base stays strong in it after the first two weeks.

[Flawless]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Everything about Brink has sounded awesome. I'm hoping it delivers, because not having a 360 anymore to play Reach sucks and Bad Company 2 is the only shooter that has held my interest for a long a time, but it can be tough at times to get full games going these days on PS3.

[Eton Rifles]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

I am certainly looking at this. I like the concept of doing different jobs to get points. not just about a kill/death ratio.

[ps3veron]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

This is beginning to look so good!
Especially with the inclusion of bots.