Post by Dan @ 02:48pm 11/05/11 | 130 Comments
Fortunately, with AusGamers history deeply entwined with these kind of games, we have no shortage of folk that are very familiar with the genre. Nachos has spent the past few days with Brink on our behalf, starting off with the Xbox 360 version and finishing with some quality PC time and at 8.2 out of 10, the verdict looks pretty good.
Splash Damage has a strong history of creating solid team-based shooters—Enemy Territory of the Wolfenstein and Quake Wars varieties spring to mind—and a lot of love has been put into the multiplayer portion of Brink. The strange but cool thing is how linked single-player, co-op and competitive multiplayer are. They’re all set on the same maps with the same objectives, regardless of the play mode. That’s the strange. The cool thing is that the characters you create are likewise linked. Regardless of whether you earn experience in competitive multiplayer, co-op or playing alone through the campaign (challenges or in ‘Freeplay’), all of your hard-earned XP goes towards your character. This is a fantastic addition to first-person shooters and makes it feel less like the usual grind associated that’s with the definitive split between single and multiplayer modes in other games.Get the full story in this AusGamers review
Buy now from ozgameshop.com Only AUD$9.49!
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Posted 02:53pm 11/5/11
Posted 03:32pm 11/5/11
Posted 03:56pm 11/5/11
Posted 03:59pm 11/5/11
Posted 04:09pm 11/5/11
my thought exactly haha. pretty much single player and a couple of minor bugs in the negative. bugs can be fixed and i probly won't even get around to the SP like in BC2.
Posted 04:12pm 11/5/11
x2
Maybe I'll pick this up to get the pre-order discount. It doesn't unlock here on steam for another 48hours.
Posted 04:18pm 11/5/11
Posted 04:21pm 11/5/11
Posted 04:32pm 11/5/11
Posted 04:49pm 11/5/11
Posted 05:44pm 11/5/11
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2009/11/26/brinks-single-player-is-massive/
Posted 06:32pm 11/5/11
It seems to just be a fact of life now that you need a substantial singleplayer component if you want to build a player base. You need to attract all those players that buy a game for play on their own time, and then gravitate to online, like CoD and HALO have been so successful doing.
Unfortunately I think Brink's solo mode is going to ultimately let it down there. The only informed people buying this game will be doing so for the (awesome) multiplayer.
I reckon they've made some huge steps since ET: Quake Wars, but I just don't think the formula of combining singleplayer and multiplayer into one exeperience has worked the way they intended, the bots just don't present anywhere near the same experience that human players do.
The model they should have followed is what StarCraft 2 did, it's the same principle, a game that uses a singleplayer component to sell copies to the average joe-gamer to build a player base and a multiplayer component to keep people around for the long haul. Brink definitely has the second part, but they haven't achieved the first part.
Team Fortress 2 was admittedly reasonably successful without singleplayer, but only because of Valve and Steam's killer marketing strategies.
What SD should have done is designed a separate narrative singleplayer campaign with a linear path and only implemented some of the class and customisation options. Draw the average joe in with that, then add them to the ranks of the hardcore players with the e-sport level multiplayer that they have created. Much easier said than done though.
Posted 06:47pm 11/5/11
@ Shao - Wow, that is kinda embarrassing for Splash Damage... I wonder what happened to that approach.
@ Dan - Totally agree. Well put.
Posted 07:11pm 11/5/11
Also, as the reviewer stated, and many other people have, this games singleplayer is an afterthought. Not that a bad thing, but not a good idea in this day and age I guess. Ah well, I'm glad Splash Damage is sticking to old school styles, keeps my hopes up.
Posted 07:36pm 11/5/11
I loved ET and ETQW, and was sad to see how quickly the online community for ETQW died. Will be picking up up for PC morrow
Posted 09:29pm 11/5/11
I also hate that every time you kill someone they do a 'last stand' thing where they are incapacitated and can be revived. Why can't the enemy just DIE?
Posted 11:21pm 11/5/11
WTB RTCW2
Posted 11:41pm 11/5/11
Same, in fact two of the negatives I took as major positives, this and the headshots not always being one shot kills. It's sounding more and more like a decent return to RtCW/ET style gameplay. Fingers crossed!
Posted 11:53pm 11/5/11
Posted 12:20am 12/5/11
Google Shopping is always your friend, I'm going to miss it so much when I go back to Aus :(
Posted 12:19am 12/5/11
Posted 12:24am 12/5/11
cdkeys.com.au and directgamekeys.com haven't listed it yet, which is interesting cause they had crysis 2 available before most of the world had access. maybe this just isn't as big of a blockbuster game and hence not so popular. cdkeyhouse.com (which another user recommended) has shown out of stock for as long as i've seen it listed.
Posted 12:49am 12/5/11
Cool yeah I just googled Brink PC and got that result... was just checking if you had a super secret. 23pizzies is probably low enough to buy. Will check it out when its available.
Posted 01:41am 12/5/11
probably pick it up on ozgameshop or something in the coming days
Posted 08:15am 12/5/11
er what are you talking about? we have google shopping here in aus
Posted 08:26am 12/5/11
Ping Ping Ping!
Learn to Gimp n00b.
I miss ET... I think I'm going to have to pick up Brink. Even reading (things like I quoted) bring back fond memories. I was in Uni then though and had a lot more time to play. Still would be nice to reek some havoc on the pubs.
Posted 10:03am 12/5/11
49.99 in usa and nz...
?
Posted 10:04am 12/5/11
Oh, good, didn't when I left ;P
Posted 10:32am 12/5/11
Posted 10:53am 12/5/11
EDIT - Seems that the instore release date for this is today, and yet the steam release date for aussies is tomorrow. That means if you go and buy the game at EB (lol fail) then you need to wait until tomorrow before you can play apparanantly.
last edited by DM at 10:53:25 12/May/11
Posted 10:53am 12/5/11
I've got my dedicated server running on my Mammoth VPS, names Truecraft ->Aussie<- something or other.
Posted 10:56am 12/5/11
Posted 11:15am 12/5/11
Posted 11:18am 12/5/11
Posted 11:37am 12/5/11
Posted 11:47am 12/5/11
I've watched some streamed PC online play and it looked as though he was just holding down the trigger and spraying the whole time... Are there any recoil on these guns? And there did seem to be a lot of choke points on the maps he was playing.
Im tempted but hesitant...
Posted 01:06pm 12/5/11
As for the maps, they are usually the first thing made/tweaked by the community so hopefully we can see some good ones coming out.
Posted 01:11pm 12/5/11
Posted 02:05pm 12/5/11
Posted 02:08pm 12/5/11
I'm gunna wait I think.
Posted 02:16pm 12/5/11
I do recommend doing challenges before even campaign as campaign is basically just Multiplayer with bots and doesn't explain anything just throws you in the deep end.
First Star rating of the challenges is the tutorial pretty much. I don't recommend trying the third stars in the challenges except parkour, probably until much later levels (unless you feel like raging with ferocity).
You can't randomly spray and pray, the more you fire the more wildly inaccurate your shots get and the longer it takes to stabilise, it very much encourages controlled bursts and it often reminds you of it.
Was much more fun against people than the bots even with terrible lag overseas it was almost tolerably playable.
Posted 02:33pm 12/5/11
*Better?
Posted 02:32pm 12/5/11
Posted 02:33pm 12/5/11
Posted 03:11pm 12/5/11
Posted 03:21pm 12/5/11
Posted 03:25pm 12/5/11
well, i would play it on the 360, if i could get Live and my router to f*****g work.
nevertheless, i am keen to see how it plays for aussies, in anticipation of fixing my Live problems and being able to play.
Posted 03:50pm 12/5/11
Posted 08:05pm 12/5/11
edit -
Should be up now, look for Truecraft something or other. Check forums for anyone interested in starting a server, posted a server.cfg that is pretty much fully tweakable.
Posted 08:19pm 12/5/11
Posted 08:27pm 12/5/11
Don't listen to the reviews, especially not the negative ones or the hold off until this or that or 'I am the authorative voice of gaming blah blah blah' Hater's always gonna hate, cautious / conservative types are always gonna be wary or standoffish, or just control their readers with a little bit of a wait.and.see approach. Sucks to be those guys missing out on some quality gaming with this one.
JC's id tech sound component of the game engine is light years ahead of the competition if you happen to be a sucker for a good audiophile experience.
Posted 08:40pm 12/5/11
Where to get it from? I don't want to get raped for $'s nor have to do silly VPN stuff. Currently I'm waiting for CDkeyhouse to sell it. I'm hoping they are 'out of stock' until UK release day, 13th or some such.
Posted 08:51pm 12/5/11
Posted 09:05pm 12/5/11
Anyway, that is for 29.99 pounds = $46.00
Might wait until cdkeyhaus has it available.
Posted 10:14pm 12/5/11
Posted 10:42pm 12/5/11
Posted 11:59pm 12/5/11
Character customisation is just...mind blowing. It's so cool being able to chuck on a scarecrow mask. Feels bad ass. And the amount of customisations is just surreal. It really is a great game, and hopefully when the SDK comes out, we shall see some really player driven maps!
Posted 08:50am 13/5/11
The server browser fails harder than BC2's did, but you can just use the steam server browser to circumvent that issue.
Sound seems to drop in and out on some online games, a restart fixes it but it's kinda gay. Edit* - fixed, cheers Mephz
I seem to get some strange jumping glitch when the second map loads in an online game, and my fov has a spaz out when I jump.
Oh and the best one, last night I joined a game and couldn't see a single f*****g person, was getting owned by invisible people. ><
All in all but it's a great game, just needs a few issues ironed out.
Posted 08:31am 13/5/11
Posted 09:15am 13/5/11
Posted 09:43am 13/5/11
Posted 10:24am 13/5/11
Shouldnt it be around the other way if anything ?
Posted 12:20pm 13/5/11
Also, with such a reliance on other team members and a varied class line up, you end up raging at fail team mates much more than usual.
Had two medics a while ago that didn't even realise they could throw injectors to downed people,and a soldier that wouldn't replenish ammo. /facepalm
Posted 01:15pm 13/5/11
I'm trying to buy Brink from the US steam store.
I used anonymous vpn, selected a US server.
I made a steam account to gift it to myself, started to buy it for $49US, then as my order was being processed I got, an unexpected error has occured...
So my order didn't work.
Anyone know of another way?
Posted 01:56pm 13/5/11
Posted 03:58pm 13/5/11
EDIT - Turns out its only ever the map where you are trying to fuel the plane that makes you lose sound. I'm still annoyed with how broken the turrets are. On some levels they work great. Container yard thingy comes to mind where you have to escort that giant robot thing through the gate and such. They work like a charm. Any other level though and it's really touch and go with how dumb they are.
Anyway these are my 2 characters. Unfortunatlly I accidently picked him a full face tattoo which is ugly as f*** but I can't remove it for some reason so I cover his face at all times. Sad panda.
Resistance
Security
last edited by DM at 15:58:32 13/May/11
Posted 04:01pm 13/5/11
Posted 05:58pm 13/5/11
Posted 06:21pm 13/5/11
Posted 06:31pm 13/5/11
Thankfully, I've been reading various comments re gamesplanet and they weren't good, but they pulled through. Hooray.
Posted 07:37pm 13/5/11
Posted 08:14pm 13/5/11
what do the etplayers think of it?
Posted 08:20pm 13/5/11
Posted 08:39pm 13/5/11
Posted 10:29pm 13/5/11
Posted 10:37pm 13/5/11
Posted 10:46pm 13/5/11
Screw the regionalized pricing!
Posted 10:48pm 13/5/11
Think it was just a fail ad.
Posted 11:00pm 13/5/11
and every time i try to connect via steam it times out.... awesome
Posted 11:36pm 13/5/11
Posted 12:23am 14/5/11
I highly recommend people use light body type, being able to wall jump opens up more areas to shortcut.
Posted 12:21am 14/5/11
Posted 12:29am 14/5/11
I dropped back to level 19 after resetting abilities, you can't end up with everything in the end like I thought you'd be able to (not for all classes that is).
Easiest way to max level to unlock is medic, you get the most amount of maximum supply from the abilities and just keep on giving out your buffs/revive etc.
Can end up with 11k+ exp per round.
Engineer can pull off similar with Armour buff and Damage buff but gets far less max supply, which makes a difference when you die and automatically get full supply.
I shouldn't give away another secret but.... Sea Pistol + Rapid Fire is near broken, I don't think anyone else has caught onto how near broken it is. Does the second most damage in the game it seems (seconded by the Barnett (Sniper) Light Rifle). No Spread on the shots so bullet goes where you aim even across the map.
Posted 12:34am 14/5/11
Posted 12:43am 14/5/11
Nope, I jumped on it and got the guide + game for 59.98 usd :D
Just means they fixed it pretty quick.
Posted 12:51am 14/5/11
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1886126
Check that out.
Basically go to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\8326979\7\remote" folder and DELETE "serverbrowser_hist.vdf"
...and voila, no more laggy server menu.
Posted 07:37am 14/5/11
Posted 08:15am 14/5/11
Also lots of servers with the old version still running.
I like the game so far, took a little bit to get used to the damage/aim system they are using. I kept dieing A LOT at first, turns out some guns are just plain better then others :/ Which is a shame. They really need to make the guns a little more distinctive.
Posted 09:33am 14/5/11
I can't use the ARs for nuts but I've seen people use them very well.
Posted 11:36am 14/5/11
Also can you check the GameArena server settings to see if there's a max XP level for users, as I hit level 17 last night & now I cant join any servers because it says my level is to high, I think its defaulted to that or something. Which is dumb. Was stuck playing US servers just then :(
Posted 11:43am 14/5/11
I also find mounted MG's almost useless, they are so widely inaccurate that no-one is really scared of them and will just stand in the open and line you up and pop you off, you might hit them once, or twice if you are lucky. Basically makes them kind of useless.
Posted 12:46pm 14/5/11
ARs have a good small spread for about a total of 1 second, which means they are only useful if you tap the fire button in very small bursts. I have the AR which is semi-auto as my primary so 1 click = 1 shot and for my SMG sub weapon I have that galactic SMG or whatever it's called. Slapped in a high capacity mag with a front handle and it's a brutal SMG. I think it's the best one there is personally. 60 round clips, 150 spareish ammo and you need to go full auto with it for it to become too loose.
I've taken shining to Engineer. Even though turret takes around 3 full seconds to lock onto someone and start firing it's awesome as hell. Medic is fun too so I alternate between the 2. Soldier and Operative don't interest me much but I do like the caltrop bomb. Throw it in a high traffic choke and watch the xp rack itself up. Bots just run over it like it was nothing and it gives you like 35xp per hit or something crazy. I'm gonna respec my 7 or so points in operative and throw them in engineer and medic instead.
Another pic of my updated Resistance guy. I just realised now that with a few colour tweaks he could look like Casey Jones.
last edited by DM at 12:46:49 14/May/11
Posted 01:02pm 14/5/11
When trying to connect via steam server list, it chucks a spaz,
So i edited the file that contains the in game favourites list.. set it to game arena servers... nope, doesnt show them.
Posted 01:07pm 14/5/11
Posted 01:59pm 14/5/11
Posted 06:41pm 14/5/11
In theory yes, but really, f*** that :)
Posted 08:36am 15/5/11
ie, It seems I take a step, slow down, take a step, slow down? I played a challenge mission just before to see if offline made a difference and it did, much more fluid offline then on.
What is the go with that? Is it a server issue? Are some servers just better then others?
Posted 09:10am 15/5/11
Posted 09:12am 15/5/11
When I play today I'll reset my modem and make sure I have a clean connection.
It is really distracting, however I don't see it mentioned much so I'm sure it is a connection issue, my side or server side.
I recently fiddled with my prediction settings and stuff haven't been able to try it yet.
net_clientPrediction was the command.
Posted 10:05am 15/5/11
Also, adrenaline boosts are awesome. Think of it like medic in TF2 ubering a person. Except once the effect is over, they take all the damage they soaked. It's very smart, and if used right, can help defend/attack/push quite well.
Posted 10:43am 15/5/11
Posted 11:03am 15/5/11
Posted 11:33am 15/5/11
Posted 02:01pm 15/5/11
Posted 02:16pm 15/5/11
Posted 02:24pm 15/5/11
The problem with it is the feedback of where the game round is currently at. There is non.
TF has the opperator voice chicky that really gives all the players a good idea of what is currently happening.
The UI needs to be redone a little so that it gives a CLEAR idea of what needs to be done, what is happening and how far off it is from completion.
It needs to automatically select the main goal/mission for everyone and the player needs to manually select other goals. That way all the new players at least have a highlight to run towards without having to select stuff.
Unfortunately there are too many people that don't know what is going on yet. That will change over time, but the UI doesn't help (well it could do a better job of helping). A Mini-map or at the least a pull-up map would go A LONG WAY. With only 8 maps, I don't understand why they don't have that.
The netcode needs a little work. I still get that juttering effect happening when I move, it seems to get worse when the servers are getting close to full.
Auto balance please, and get rid of the bots full stop, don't have them in a Multiplayer game please.
The guns do actually seem different, the stat bar's don't necessarily show that difference well.
Posted 02:41pm 15/5/11
Posted 02:51pm 15/5/11
I'm going to give it time for servers to settle down and be tweaked, perhaps a patch or 2 before I make my final judgement on it. If they can sought out most of the issues then it'd be a pretty good game.
I'm very wary of paid DLC fragmenting the community. As with the current state of the game I'm not prepared to put any extra in for maps and things. Good to see the first DLC is free though, as it should be.
Posted 03:20pm 15/5/11
I see people whining about how the other team is hard to kill and whatnot. Quite often is because they have health command center and supply, and sometimes they are both upgraded.
I'm often alone when I go and capture them at the start of maps and often no-one else seems to notice or care that the enemy team has captured them. I think people see them as places to change guns and maybe get some ammo, nothing more.
Posted 04:17pm 15/5/11
Im playing more Engineer now rather than medic (maxxed out a char with Medic and can be done so quite easily).
Engineer is a lot more fun, but you do get a lot less EXP compared to medic buff spam. Once you are at max level its irrelevant anyway.
Posted 04:19pm 15/5/11
Posted 06:32pm 15/5/11
all aboard the Brink bus ladies, the party's at teq's place.
My role in the making of this game. A heated exchange of pleasantries in a phone call to a client who had screwed me over after helping him renovate his house. I had threatened the little bastard that I would go there and throw a molatov c***tail up ins his s*** after he had cut my throat with no payment for labour services and then he wiped his hands of any wrongdoing.
So they would have had that awesome conversation recorded (since he's a bit of a gay/druglord anyway and the good lads up in ASIO have had his comms tapped for a long time now) which is where they got the idea I suppose. Kudos to me. Nothing like a bit of excitement to put the fear of God into them hey? :)
The other aspects of the game are courtesy of Digital Urban blog and an Import/Export holdings company, and The Ark which is where some of the inspiration for the in-game architecture came from.
I didn't get any voice acting roles. Not even a look in at any of the creative design process. All I did was pre order the game months in advance on Steam to pay for their work, which is very nice but it could have been done a little better in a lot of niche aspects if i'd have had my way with it.
Gotta love when the system works in your favour though hey. I would have given everyone a free copy but unfortunately management didn't like the idea of free for all riot mode like the good old days of Quake DM. :<
Posted 06:42pm 15/5/11
1. Be good at killing.
2. Comms hack + Disguise every kill you get and that is about 300xp / kill. (marking before you kill is an extra 50xp)
3. Caltrop gren their main walkway for free stream of points. (50-100xp when a couple guys run through them)
*comms hacking is kind of bad because it basically disables intuition for your whole team and intuition is super overpowered*
Posted 09:33pm 15/5/11
Posted 09:56pm 15/5/11
Posted 10:26pm 15/5/11
Posted 02:41am 16/5/11
Posted 11:08am 16/5/11
As for the game, i really like it hey. I love the objective based game play with support classes etc. Reminds me of ETQW which i reallly liked.
As mentioned tho, Brink really needs the TF2 voice over to tell you whats going on... when you first start playing it can be a bit off putting when the round suddenly ends and you win... but you have no idea why...
I'm glad i spent the time doing challenges at the start tho. Without some of the unlocks you get from completing them, it's a lot harder for a noob to get anywhere.
Posted 01:53pm 16/5/11
the issue with that is the gameplay then becomes too information dense since players generally don't like to be given commands as they like to be free to do their own thing in game.
Posted 05:22pm 16/5/11
Posted 07:40am 18/5/11
The server must have been tweaked well, it ran most excellently.
Everyone knew what to do on both teams and it was a pretty close game most times. Com points where cap'd,defended, re-capped many times throughout the rounds.
Something I would like see changed would be to allow Character customisation between rounds, while staying connected. A lot of people drop out after a match only to reconnect not long into the next round. It is a little disruptive, simply because they may want to change body type.
I'm looking forward to the next patch which hopefully addresses some of the UI issues.
Posted 09:00pm 21/5/11
Posted 08:58am 23/5/11
To me, it kind of looks like Borderlands and Global Agenda thrown into a big pot of awesome online fun.
Posted 09:27am 24/5/11
General:
• Fixed sound dropping out when playing networked games
• Improved graphical performance, especially when using Ambient Occlusion
• Fixed voice packs being reset to default when you delete another character
• Removed ability to use certain cheat protected commands in challenges
• Fixed memory leak/crash when alt-tabbed out
User Interface:
• Full servers are no longer filtered out of the browser
• Added support for entering a range of numbers (i.e. 10-12) in server filters
• Reduced font size in the server browser
• Exiting Head customization returns to the correct menu
• Fixed being unable to bind KP_Enter in the UI
• Increased font size of in-game text chat
• Enter now closes text chat prompt if empty
• Fixed challenge in menu flashing even after completion
Dedicated Servers:
• Improved dedicated server CPU performance
• Fixed NPC not spawning for escort objectives online on servers using unsupported cvars
Posted 12:29pm 25/5/11
Doom guy's getup look's like fun but it's only available in the Xbox/PS3 retail steel book versions so far afaik.
Posted 07:57pm 26/5/11
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/3286-Brink
Posted 09:56pm 26/5/11
Posted 07:38am 27/5/11
tf2 is better.
Posted 07:50am 27/5/11
I really enjoy most of Yahtzee's reviews. I normally only already watch the vids for the games i have to LOL at the flaws that he criticises and like usual, he was spot on. The only thing i disagree with is that i love FPS parkour games. Mirrors edge was awesome and i wish Assassins Creed was also FPS but that is because im a massive FPS fanboy and TPS makes me cry.