It's no secret that Brink had a rough go of it early on. It was panned by many a critic and review, for it's lack of polish and horrendous online performance out of the gate, and rightly so. In our review, I said there was still a chance for Brink to right its ills through DLC and patches, will this first content pack be step in the right direction?
As a thank you for dealing with the lag, Splash Damage announced Brink's first DLC would be a freebie for everyone, naturally leading us to believe that the offering would be a steaming pile of MG nest wreckage. Imagine my surprise then to learn that this DLC will not only be free, but a hulking batch of awesome as well. Here's what you get:
Maps: Founder's Tower, Labs
Outfits: The Sad Punk, The Limey
Abilities: UAV for Operatives, Napalm Grenade for Soldiers, Pyro Mine for Engineers, Field Regen Unit for Medics, Tactical Scanner for any class
Weapon Attachments: Bayonets, Weapon Shields
Level Cap: Players will now max out at Level 24
How's that for a deal? There is no denying that Brink is truly making an attempt to win our hearts with this DLC, so why deny the love? Look for the extra content to hit sometime in June.
Brinkis a game that I've been waiting to spend some extended time with. I'm talking about having the itch; sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth, mumbling incoherently, and scratching my neck. Something about a fast-paced arcade shooter that puts heavy emphasis on parkour does it for me. The game impressed in short preview sessions, and was heavily marketed to give itself a nice pre-release buzz, though it seems as if some quality assurance blues put a damper on Brink's attempt at revolutionizing the genre.
Tomorrow is the release of Brink, one of my most coveted gets of Summer 2011, and maybe even the whole year itself. I've really been looking forward to this title for a while now, for multiple reasons. If you haven't, here's a launch trailer to change your mind. Protip: when a dude with a Jason mask is pressing a gun against your eyeball, you change your mind.
Brink is bright, colorful, fast-moving, stylish-looking, and challenging. It benefits players who stick together and operates as a team, and it allows you to react after being assaulted or engage in games of cat-and-mouse, due in part to the mobility of the SMART system, and the comparatively large amount of bullets it takes to drop someone (think Halo).
If you haven't preordered yet, there's still time. Amazon is selling Brink for $55, with a $10 credit and the Psycho Pack, which comes with some pretty slick customization options. What are you waiting for?
Don't you hate when a game you're dying to get into your console is delayed? You were looking forward to spending a few weeks with said game, leaving your couch only to urinate and change underwear every few days. A delay means all the time you set aside for some good ol' game time becomes free, allowing you to do awkward things like take a walk, conversate with friends, or have a drink with beautiful ladies. Honestly, who wants to do that kind of thing anyway?
From the title image and the tone of the first paragraph, you must be thinking the worst about Brink, one of the games that I'm most looking forward to spending a few months with, as a hermit. No need to be a pessimist, buck up kiddo! The news is that Brink will be pushed forward a week, now releasing on May 10 as opposed to May 17. That doesn't happen often, but when it does it's kind of amazing, ain't it?
"Production wrapped on Brinkearlier than we planned" said Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks. "It's apparent from the tremendous reaction so far that people are eager to jump online and play, and if we can make that happen earlier - we're going to."
Production wrapped early. Or, they didn't want to compete for sales on May 17 with L.A. Noire. Either way, I've been sold on Brink sinceit was announced. Bethesda Softworks could choose to release it one day after Armageddon, my corpse would be eagerly awaiting the release date preorder delivery from Amazon.
If you've been with me for a while, you know how much I'm looking forward to Brink. It's almost here; just a little more than a month until I can start talking friends out of wasting their time with CoD: BlOps and start playing something a little more fun, to say the least. Maybe it's unfair to compare the two, but I'm stoked that Brink encourages and rewards the mobile player, whereas most other modern shooters encourage camping. Boring!
The latest trailer details some of the customization you'll be able to play with on the abilities front. Things like turrets, hacks, extra life, sticky bombs and molotovs; you know, tools of the trade. Of course, your ability loadout all depends on the class you choose, allowing you to finetune your wall-running machine-gunning experience. Sure they're just perks, but when you combine them with all the other customization options, it seems like each individual player will be able to craft their own personal experience. That's going to go a hell of a long way.
On the first day of PAX East 2011, iam8bit said "Let there be a not-so-secret Brink secret event!" And there was Brink. And it was good. Convention goers may have been greeted sometime during their Friday romp around the Boston waterfront with a poster similar to the one shown above. Those lucky enough to find the location were greeted by over 40 stations running the sweet looking team-based shooter, as well as free pizza and drinks.
This was actually my first hands-on time with the game that might be tops on my list of can't-wait-to-play 2011 titles, and I was not disappointed. We were seated in groups and allotted around 30 minutes to go absolutely wild against our opposing team, which consisted of both human players and bots. Customization -- a huge part of Brink's allure -- was in full effect, however in my impatient eagerness to get on the battlefield, I completely missed customizing my avatar at all. I blame this on the fact that the group which played before mine didn't quit out to the menu after their game ended, the bastards. This may have been for the best though, as the options are so plentiful, I could have spent the entirety of my time allowed tweaking my characters appearance.
Thankfully, it was only my appearance that was a residual of the player before me. Once the match started up, I was able to freely switch between any of the game's four classes -- medic, operative, engineer, and soldier -- as well as change my two-weapon loadout. I'm sure what was available to us wasn't even all of Brink's unique weapons, yet the options were still staggering. I'd say close to 30 choices of primary and secondary firearms. At the outset, my modus operandi was to frag, efficiently and viciously. This worked well, I racked up the highest kill total of anyone in my game, however taking this route caused me to miss out on what Brink is really about; teamwork.
A quick selection wheel with a layout of all objectives is available at all times during play, allowing you to keep track of tasks, as well as marking one of them for a waypoint. Classes come into play for teamwork as well, with each providing a unique set of skills necessary for a squad to emerge victorious. The medic can heal and revive teammates, operatives can interrogate downed enemies to reveal the opposition on radar, engineers can buff weapons and create turrets, and soldiers can dispense ammo. Of the above, I spent the most time with the soldier because ammo seems to go fast unless you have a steady and controlled trigger finger, which I did not. Spray and pray, baby! The ability to replenish my own ammo, as well as my teammates' was invaluable. For any action which benefitted my group, be it a frag, a class-specific assist, or helping to complete a map objective, the team was awarded points, and I was awarded experience, used to further pimp out my avatar's clothing and weapons.
Look, you can listen to me talk about Brink all day and not be swayed, but let me share a story with you. My producer (responsible for the fine video you will find at the end of this post) hasn't been about a first person shooter since Halo 2. That's a long time ago, and it was the last time I saw him emotionally invested in the genre. He sat down alongside me to play some Brink, because why not, right? Well ten minutes later, he was screaming enemy locations into his headset and ranting about protecting our VIP escort from an accosting squad of opposing players. Brink awoke a beast I thought I'd never see again. How's that for results?
Have a look at some of what we saw at the secret event below. When you're done, you may want to preorderBrink before it's too late. May 17 is right around the corner, and when you're navigating with S.M.A.R.T., that corner comes quickly.
After watching that video, can you honestly tell me you're not excited to get some Brink in your life? Look at how deep that weapon customization gets. Magazine attachment, top attachment, back attachment, bottom attachment; what are you going to use? What shape, size, and color? O, the decisions we face when blowing holes in each other over a network connection.
The unique art style (why the long face?), bevy of customization options, and a first person parkour engine that hopefully won't suck means Brink is one to keep your eyes on, if they haven't already been shot out by the hail of bullets.
I'm just going to come out and say what we're all thinking. Dev Diaries are torture. Sure they're full of interesting and eye-opening info, but they're also heavy on the filler, padding the gaps between golden gameplay footage with talking heads. Why can't we have the devs talking over the footage? Because then no one gets screen time, and we can't have that, can we? Though we see devs as mythical beasts who work 80 hour weeks in one of the hardest and most fulfilling professions in the world, they are vain humans just like you and me.
So anyway, Brink looks awesome. This dev diary explains Brink's S.M.A.R.T. system, Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain. The parkour looks good, as does the combat aspect, if a little bland thus far. Though in a 16 player match, running on walls and vaulting over railings while nailing a headshot with a semi-automatic pistol sounds like it could create beautiful bloodshed not seen since The Opera.
I hope developers Splash Damage can figure out a way to add some sort of third-person view, either through a chase cam or replay system. While Mirror's Edge pulled off the first person parkour well, and Brink looks to do the same, as stylish as some multiplayer kill runs are going to be, it'll be a shame to not be able to see them in the third person.
Side note: I love the devs. Most of them anyway. Keep doing what you do! Also, what came first, the acronym or the definition?
Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 2:19PM 
