Brink Message Board

#dirtybomb Following up on last month's trailer, here's a look at some pre-alpha multiplayer gameplay from Brink and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory developer Splash Damage's brand new free-to-play title, Dirty Bomb. We get to see mostly scenes of infantry action, though a few moments of sniping and vehicular combat make it in as well. More »

Despite a rocky launch and underwhelming critical reception, Brink went on to do "all right" on the PC thanks to multitudes of patches, free DLC and a sprinkle of magical sales dust from the Steam Discount Fairy.

As it turns out, all right actually means pretty damn good: "It's estimated to have sold more than 2.5 million units worldwide, which at retail would mean that it's generated around $120-140 million in revenue," said Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood during an interview with Gamasutra. Not too shabby for a game we gave two stars last year.

"But of course, as an independent video game developer, we don't earn that kind of revenue, as we're not the publisher of the title," Wedgwood said. Splash Damage plans on changing that by opening WarCrest, its own publishing house. WarCrest will handle Splash Damage's future products, while Fireteam (another Splash Damage-founded company) handles said games' associated online services.

Good news! After a period of relative silence following Brink’s splash-that-wasn’t, Splash Damage is back with another game about men shooting other men. However, not-so-good news: iOS, greedy devourer of worlds that it is, swallowed the poor thing whole. And while the Enemy Territory developer also has a free-to-play PC exclusive in the works for later this year, Rad Soldiers – as the iOS-bound strategy is known – looks like asynchronous XCOM wearing TF2′s pants. In other words: delightful. I wants it, precious. I wants it. Fortunately, Splash Damage told us that all hope isn’t lost.

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#awards Every year the Writers Guild of America awards a special Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing award to the team responsible for the most memorable interactive entertainment script. Which of these five titles will walk away a winner on February 19? More »

#brink The game may've met with a lukewarm reception when it hit last year, but the one thing that Splash Damage's Brink had going for it was an amazing art style. Laurens Corijn, an artist at the British dev studio, brought that look into the real world by modding a standard Nerf Stampede into an amazing replica of the FPS's Gerun assault rifle. More »

Brink’s forthcoming clans and tournaments update is being celebrated by a free weekend on Steam, says Bethesda blog. The game is going to be free to play all weekend, this weekend. If you play for free this weekend you will also be able to purchase the game permanently for 75% off at any point during the weekend. That weekend apparently runs from “10 AM PST today… through Monday at 10 AM PST.” So that’s what’s happening with Brink this weekend.

#rumor A major report on British developers from IndustryGamers has thown up a surprising piece of information: the Brink developers Splash Damage are probably working on a new Marvel game. More »

Brink: a most curious beast indeed. I’m still not entirely sure what I make of it. While I wish it had done quite a few things a little differently, I’m heartened to see that it hasn’t been left to die: a forthcoming update will better turn it to the not-so-tender mercies of community-centric play. Clans and tournaments will be the focus of the patch – the kind of stuff that perhaps should have been there in the first place, but hindsight is 20/20, as my Dad so helpfully observes several hundred times a year.

You’ll be able to create a clan, recruit members, create some sort of no doubt nightmarishly ugly clan symbol, manage things via a dedicated profile page and, of course, wage war on other clans. They deserve it, the rotters.

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The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain – a rather different entity to the US Writers’ Guild – last week announced its nominees for assorted mediums’ most lauded writers. Included are the obscure likes of ‘television’, ‘theatre’, ‘books’ and ‘radio’, but fortunately Best Videogame keeps things relevant to our little corner of the internet. This is a prize given only to UK writers, so who do we think got a nod? Some clever people, that’s who.

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Neil Alphonso, lead designer at Splash Damage, readily admits that Brink could have undergone a better launch. "A lot of the game's complaints were entirely valid," he said.

"It was rough, but in the end the game's done alright," Alphonso told Joystiq, shortly after his GDC Europe presentation on the ambitious shooter's development. "Key is to keep supporting the game and keep tuning it more and more."

Asked if the company was going to try a "Welcome Back" weekend after months of patching, he expressed that the recent Brink DLC, which was free for the first two weeks, along with the game's weekend discount on Steam, shot "the [sales] numbers way, way up."

Alphonso said it's too early to discuss if the game will retain a significant portion of the new players. "We still have a lot of work to do, honestly," he said, noting improvements to the overall game and its supporting tech. "We have to support those people."

It looks like Brink is having a free weekend!, so you might as well grab it and see what the fuss (or lack thereof) is about. I’ve put the RPS servers online, you can search for them in-game by searching for “Rock”. There’s a US server in Chicago and a UK one on London. I’ll post some events on the Steam group to get this rolling.

Jim: I’ll post about the Brink DLC… or did we post about it already?John: I posted screenshots earlier in the week, saying when it was out.Jim: Ok.Jim: I will post that it is out and free for two weeks.John: That’s just what your MUM would do.Jim: She would, she’s top mental for free DLC.

As Alec brought to our attention on Friday, Brink’s first DLC, Agents Of Change, is due out on the 3rd August. That’s in two days time, calendar fans. Let’s celebrate this proximity with eleven screenshots of the runny, jumpy, shooty content. Except, er, without the runny, shooty or content. These are pics of the environments. Until the very last they somewhat forgot the players. But still, they’re very pretty. And pretty things distract me from the turmoil within.

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Bethesda and Splash Damage may have promised an "early July" launch window for its Brink downloadable content pack, "Agents of Change," but it won't actually be out until August 3. Despite its late arrival, the content will still be totally free for its first two weeks of availability -- but after that, it'll run $10 (800 MS Points).

Arriving alongside the DLC is a massive list of updates to each version of the game, which we invite you to pore over at your convenience right here. Interested in taking a peek at the new digs you'll be parkouring around come August 3? Our gallery below has got you covered.

Well, we already knew full well that the first add-on content for Splash Damage’s bold team-based shooter Brink would be a freebie for a limited time, but what we didn’t know is when it would turn up. Of course, I’ve gone and ruined all the mystery by writing it in the headline, haven’t I? Man, I am an SEO expert’s worst nightmare. ‘Always ask a question if you want to soullessly farm traffic’, that’s the rule. Why don’t we do that? Why don’t we do it for every post? Why don’t you read on to find out? Or at least to find out what’s in Brink: Agents of Change? WHY DON’T YOU? WHY? DON’T YOU LOVE US? DON’T YOU WANT US TO HAVE PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS, HITS? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?(more…)

#brink The battle for The Ark spills over into the underwater Labs facility and Founders' Tower on August 3, when the free Agents of Change downloadable content is released for Bethesda's Brink. More »

Snag Brink for $20 as the Deal of the Day or sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the lightning deals to pop up in today's all video game Amazon Gold Box deals day. Thanks, Alfred! More »

Splash Damage's class-based shooter Brink has been marked down to a crisp $20 today on Amazon. There's also a handful of other offers on the Lightning Deals round-up, the hints for which are posted after the jump.

Update includes

• Fixed dedicated server crash during startup on several system setups
• Fixed disguised operatives having a red health bar

Stat tracking is now available for PC players in Brink. The mouse-and-keyboard set should head on over to the FAQ for the basics and then register in the game's stat section.

The PC version of Brink also received an update today, with highlights listed after the break. No word yet on updates for the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions, nor a release date for the Agents of Change DLC.

Update Includes:

• Balancing: Lowered Hacker terminal disarm rate to 0.6 (from 0.9)
  
• Spectator mode: Added new HUD displaying objective information
  
• Server Browser: Added dedicated/listen server type filter
  
• Added server information to map loading screens in multiplayer. Server admins can customise this via the following cvars:
  
  • si_website
    
  • si_adminName
    
  • si_email
    
  • si_irc
    
  • si_motd_1
    
  • si_motd_2
    
  • si_motd_3
    
  • si_motd_4
    
• Spectator mode: Added faction colors to player names
  
• Spectator mode: Health bars now visible when looking directly at players
  
• Stopwatch mode: Added 10 seconds to each defending team's spawn time
  
• Stopwatch mode: Added support for custom defence respawn timer adjustments via g_stopWatchDefenceRespawnTimerAdjust
  
• Stopwatch mode: Added objective timing information to Stopwatch review screen
  
• Added support for listing players steam id's via the listSteamIds cvar
  
• UI: Added automatic scrolling when typing in chat boxes
  
• UI: Stop context menus receiving focus when they are disabled and inactive
  
• UI: Game now forces a refresh of the notifications screen each time it is activated
  
• UI: Set focus to default (first) list item each time the notifications screen is activated
  
• UI: Updated two text strings for German and Italian, as "Game mode" and "Play mode" incorrectly used the same word
  
• Fixed player nametags disappearing despite not being affected by Flashbang
  
• Fixed boat shaking for clients in CCity and Shipyard opening cinematics
  
• Fixed Aquarium only ever logging one objective being completed
  
• Fixed having your weapon stuck in iron-sights for the entire refire duration when needing to perform an auto-reload
  
• Fixed issue with caltrop models not always being updated properly
  

Splash Damage’s solid team-manshoot Brink has been out for a million years by now, of course. Expect if you like in the UK and like to buy your PC games via Steam, in which case it’s only just come out. Our inquiries into why it’s been missing from Brit-Steam for so long have only ever been met with no comments, but whatever the problem was (a disagreement with Steam ToCs? Something to do with keeping retailers happy? A mountain goat chewed an important cable? We can but speculate.)

Well, now it’s back. Why? We don’t know. Too late to mean much? We don’t know. All we know is that a) it’s back and b) it’s discounted by 25% for the time being, which means the price is an eminently reasonable £22.49. Free DLC’s due soon, so maybe now’s a decent time to take its bytes and force them onto your hard drive if you haven’t already.

Splash Damage has announced on its blog that Brink's "Agents of Change" DLC pack, which includes two maps, five new player abilities, two outfits and two weapon attachments, is expected to arrive in early July. In addition to the launch window, Splash Damage also revealed the DLC will be free for its first two weeks of availability -- be sure to check out our previous post highlighting what's on offer.

Following the DLC is a new title update, which Splash Damage says will be "highlighted by online optimizations, AI enhancements, and weapon balance tweaks" based on player feedback. No other details were provided, though we did nab some screenshots of Agents of Change in action.

Brink DLC is coming soon. It is called Agents Of Change. That’s it up there in the image. The news about it is this: it will be free on Steam for the first two weeks, say Bethesda, and will appear at some point in July. As previously mentioned, the DLC will include “two all-new environments, five new player abilities, two new outfits, and two new weapon attachments.” (We asked about why it’s not on Steam in the UK, incidentally, and got a “no comment”. It seems to still be missing, so that remains an oddity.)

Anyway, Splash Damage are reportedly still at work on new balancing changes for weapons, and other patch stuff to improve the game. I might knock up an RPS game of this at the weekend, if anyone fancies it. Join the Steam group for clever notifications!

Netflix has been staunch in its belief that getting into the game rental business is something simply not worth the company's investments. After all, when you're spending $100 million on Mad Men streaming rights, I guess it's just not worth it to invest in a new infrastructure that could potentially be another huge source of revenue and likely send GameFly, with its perpetually sluggish mailing times, running screaming for the hills.

Don't tell that to Red Box, though, as they've just entered that supposedly irrelevant world of "video games" with a new rental service. Yes, that other movie rental automaton with the big red logo--this being the one with all the supermarket kiosks, mind you--plans to finally break away from its long-standing policy of just doing whatever Netflix already does--albeit years after the fact and less conveniently--and officially launch its brand-new game rental service at 21,000 Red Box locations starting tomorrow. Rentals will go for $2 a pop, and those with the Red Box iOS app can use it to reserve games ahead of time. Some of the games you'll be able to rent as of tomorrow include:

Do I want Mortal Kombat? Or Duke Nukem Forever? Mom! What does "fellatio" mean?!?

• Brink (PS3, X360)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, X360, Wii)
• Duke Nukem Forever (PS3, X360)
• Family Party: 30 Great Games (Wii)
• Infamous 2 (PS3)
• Just Dance 2 (Wii)
• LA Noire (PS3)
• Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (X360, Wii)
• Michael Jackson: The Experience (Wii)
• Red Faction: Armageddon (PS3, X360)
• Rio (Wii)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (PS3, X360, Wii)
• You Don’t Know Jack (X360)

It's interesting that the Xbox 360 version of LA Noire isn't on the list, though that might specifically have to do with that version of the game's multi-disc packaging. Might be tough for one of those kiosks to spit out four discs in one package.

At this point, I can safely say I know exactly no one with a GameFly subscription, though I know plenty of people who rely on demos to help them make purchasing decisions. Given Red Box's relative convenience, I must ask, is this something you'd find yourself using on the regular when it came to checking out new games you might be on the fence about?

Granted, this really only applies for the next couple of weeks, until a sweaty, red-faced Netflix executive angrily announces that they've spent $100 billion for the exclusive distribution rights to video games. Like, all of them. Because that'll show those kiosk-loving interlopers what's what.

We're not quite sure what the gaming industry did to earn the ire of all those Angelina Jolie types out there, but here we are, reporting on yet another attack. Bethesda was the target this past weekend, as a hacker group tried to infiltrate the studios' sites. A post on the Bethesda Blog warns that these hackers may have accessed "user names, email addresses, and/or passwords."

If you frequent any Bethesda forum or have taken advantage of Brink's stat-tracking site, Bethesda says you should change your login info and be on the lookout for suspicious emails. Of course, it goes without saying that if your Bethesda login info mirrors your account name and password on other sites, be cognizant of the danger posed and change your info there, as well.

LulzSec, who have claimed responsibility for many of the gaming hacks of late, have announced they’ve had access to Bethesda/Zenimax’s data for a couple of months, and are planning on releasing details today. They’ve been winding up BethSoft all day, threatening to release details of a number of games, including Brink. However, in their usual way, they are suggesting they’ll go easy on them because “we love Call of Cthulhu.” They rather spuriously suggest this is motivated by a lack of details on Skyrim, but even if they received some, plan “to embarrass you anyway.”

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General
• Fixed font corruption issue
• Removed look-at code when throwing items to team mates
• Fixed players getting stuck if they attempted to deploy mid-mantle
• Fixed multiple clicks being played when player jumps in multiplayer
• Mines are now visible to spectators
• Added support for minimizing the game when running in windowed mode
• net_clientMaxRate can now be set on a client to tweak its own bandwidth requirements
• Cheat-protected several potentially exploitable cvars
• Removed some old, unused cvars
• Added unsupported auto-save backup system for advanced users
- Can read backup saves by setting "save_readFile" to the desired save
- Setting save_enableBackups to 0 will disable the auto-save backups

User Interface
• Revamped the server browser
• Server browser filters are now remembered between sessions
• Server browser now auto-refreshes the currently selected server
• Ping is now displayed numerically on the scoreboard
• Map loading screen now displays server name and IP
• Tweaked UI flow when joining a match via Steam
• Fixed exploit that allowed players to use locked customization items
• Fixed issue when listening to one audio log but highlighting another
• Fixed connecting to servers with in their names

Balance
• Tweaked objective times on several maps
• Increased the time it takes Engineers to remove a Hackbox
• Increased XP given for completing Primary Objectives
• Reduced the duration of Adrenaline buff

Dedicated Servers
• Fixed several dedicated server crashes
• Improved messaging for unexpected server shutdowns
• Reduced warning spam in dedicated server console
• Increased default net_serverSnapshotDelay to 3 (from 1)
- Lowers bandwidth & CPU usage by sending fewer snapshots each seconds; can be changed by server admins

After announcing earlier this month that a free content pack would arrive for Ark dwellers at some point in June, Bethesda has detailed the "Agents of Change" DLC that's coming to Brink in the near future. Two new maps, five new abilities, and a handful of weapon attachments and character outfits comprise the pack, which has yet to be given a solid release date.

If that weren't enough to get you parkour-shooting once again, the game's statistics site will go live tomorrow for Xbox 360 and PS3 players, while the PC version will arrive "very soon." And hey, a title update went live late last week that supposedly helps with the crippling lag people have encountered when taking the game online, so there's that! Head past the break for the entire list of free stuff coming in the "Agents of Change" DLC.

I miss demos. I miss them so much. I wouldn’t be here, writing these words, if it weren’t for demos: how else could a sport-fearing, skinny young misery with only the slightest pittance for pocketmoney have found his way into playing video games? Once, my bedroom was littered with floppy discs, each and every one of which had at some point led to me standing outside a game shop, counting pennies with a quivering hand, praying I had enough.

Granted, magazines were the gateway drug back then, when there was no way to watch a trailer or scour Facebook for new screenshots, but later in life the web too seemed an infinite fount of sampled digital delights, and led to any number of purchases of those games that seemed the most absorbing – or simply because the demo ended, apparently expertly, at a point which left me urgently hungry for more. Those days are gone.(more…)