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Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun May 23 2011 08:01 GMT
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Bethblog had the details on this late last week, and it looks promising for the PC version of Brink, with fixes to the server browser, the dedicated server, and some minor bugs. The weirdo sound bug on certain maps has been fixed, and also: “Graphical performance has been improved, especially when using Ambient Occlusion. We’ve worked closely with both AMD and NVIDIA, and you should see performance and stability improvements in future driver revisions from both parties.” No exact date yet, but it should be this week. I’ll make sure I schedule games on the servers when it’s all updated so we can take a look at the improvements.


Posted by Joystiq May 21 2011 23:30 GMT
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If you're still having trouble keeping a smooth connection to Brink's class-based skirmishes, you may have better luck after an update launches for all three of the game's platforms next week. Bethesda's blog outlines the changes included in each version, including a few graphical glitches in the PC version of the game, and a bizarre freezing issue reported only by German players.

The blog post says Bethesda expects to launch all three patches sometime next week, so keep an eye out for the automatic update over the next few days. The post also has some helpful tips for avoiding lag until the patches go live. Let's see: "Sacrifice a small animal on your console of choice, as if said console were some kind of pagan altar." Whoa! That's ... no. Don't do that.

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun May 19 2011 10:37 GMT
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We’ve got a UK server in London and a US server in Chicago. And we’re going to have some evenings manshoot on there. More details below.(more…)


Posted by IGN May 18 2011 20:26 GMT
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Every editor at IGN wishes he or she had the time to personally respond to every semi-sane comment from the message boards, but we don't. However, in an effort to raise the level of discourse, we've decided to pick out some of the most interesting comments on Peter Eykemans's recent Brink review a...

Posted by Joystiq May 14 2011 17:45 GMT
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After launching Brink to mixed reviews, Splash Damage and Bethesda are refining the class-based multiplayer shooter with updates and add-ons. Writing on the Bethesda blog yesterday, a rep from the two companies revealed that the game's first downloadable add-on -- comprising additional maps and other "new content" -- will be available for free at an unspecified date in June.

Additionally, a Brink configuration update has gone live on Xbox 360 (no download required). It will cap the number of human players when matchmaking in "Campaign" and "Freeplay" modes, allowing for a maximum of eight online players. Splash Damage believes this will lead to better connections between players and reduce instances of lag. By default, this will eliminate 8v8 matches, but "for players who haven't been [experiencing] lag, we'll still support 8v8 on all maps via a new 'Big Teams' configuration in Freeplay, and through custom settings in Private matches."

Meanwhile, the PC version of Brink has gotten a full patch containing several fixes, many of which were already included on the day-one patch sent out to consoles. The matchmaking update will be available on PS3 as soon as Sony's online network is restored.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Posted by Kotaku May 14 2011 03:00 GMT
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#patch Brink closes its checkered launch week with news of free DLC and promises it's fixing the crippling lag in its multiplayer. More »

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun May 13 2011 11:26 GMT
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Brink is here, and we’ve been playing it. We’ve even got some servers up. But what do Alec, Jim, and Quintin actually thing about it? Let’s find out.

Jim: Brink then, the long-awaited multiplayer shooter from British devs Splash Damage. Everyone had a bit of a play?Quintin: I have shot so many men.(more…)


Posted by IGN May 12 2011 19:32 GMT
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Developer Splash Damage has updated all versions of Brink, addressing technical and stability issues across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms. Brink just launched this past Tuesday to mixed reviews, including a 6 out of 10 on IGN for the Xbox 360 version, and 6.5 for the PC version. The PS3 version has not been reviewed due to the PSN outage...

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun May 12 2011 19:04 GMT
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Brink is out now in the US and apparently out in the UK tomorrow. We’ve spent the last couple of days playing it, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for our full critical verdict. Nevertheless I thought I’d say a few things tonight, including venting my frustration with a critical bug, and providing you with our server details for US and UK-based Brink servers. Read on for a mixed bag of information!

(more…)


Posted by Kotaku May 12 2011 16:00 GMT
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#politics Video games let us be heroes. They let us don the cape, wave the flag, put on the badge, hoist the blue lightsaber or simply face the fires of dragons to save the princess. More »

Posted by Kotaku May 11 2011 20:20 GMT
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#pleasingeveryone Oh those silly console gamers. They couldn't possibly handle the advanced PC gaming concepts like objective-based teamplay. Why, if there was a bug in the game that say, deleted their characters completely if they exited the game too early, console gamers would be beside themselves. Wait, there is? More »

Posted by Kotaku May 11 2011 11:00 GMT
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#hyperrealism So, Brink is out. And it's divisive! Some people appreciate the new things it's trying to do, others lament the fact the game is in many ways simply broken, while others still have no idea what to think. Whatever your view on the game, though, surely we can all agree the thing looks great. More »

Posted by Giant Bomb May 10 2011 22:00 GMT
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2 out of 5

You'll be able to customize your character's look with items that unlock as you play.

Brink is a class-based multiplayer first-person shooter from the developers of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and a lot of that style of play is present and accounted for in the way the objectives are built and the classes function. The structure of the game is decent, but it's brought down by issues both large and small. The largest one is a simple lack of content. With eight maps, a lackluster arsenal, and a campaign mode that is, by default, populated with terrible AI-controlled bots, Brink just doesn't have enough going for it to justify a full-price purchase.

The game is roughly the same in both its campaign mode and its freeplay option. The difference is that the campaign mode offers up the different maps in a set order (which you can skip around, if you want) and the freeplay mode is a more open option that lets you jump into a game on any map, theoretically making it easier to get into games with real people. But both modes let you play with humans, if you like.

This is handy, because the game's bots are bad at playing Brink. Bots will run up against objects you're interacting with, as if they can't see you and are trying to complete the objective that you're already completing. The enemy team's bots will often run right past objectives completely, and they'll occasionally just sort of stare at you, like they've forgotten to shoot back. The only dependable thing a bot can do is revive you if you go down, though the medic bots tend run blindly in your direction when you drop, often getting taken out along the way. This stooge-like behavior lasts for most of the match, but when an objective is nearly expired, it seems like the bots suddenly get better, almost as if they've been designed to make the missions draw themselves out as long as they possibly can. If you don't intend to play Brink against people, do not play Brink.

That said, my recommendation for the game doesn't change much for those of you interested in playing with human teammates, largely because the game can become choppy and unplayable if you end up getting connected to a bad host. The one big positive is that the game rewards varied teams by letting each of the four different classes contribute and buff in different ways. The engineers can increase a teammate's weapon damage. Medics can raise a player's health beyond the maximum, as well as increasing a player's ability to regenerate health. Soldiers can refill ammo. And the operatives can mark targets and takeover enemy turrets. Admittedly, that's not all that different from other class-based shooters, but it's effective here and encourages players to not all rush for the one class that can complete the next objective. Also, weapon selection is detached from class selection, so you can carry whatever you like and still contribute to the team in any of the four roles.

The universe has some neat ideas in it, but you rarely get a sense of that while playing.

Beyond that, playing Brink is a bit of a mess. The weapons are incredibly underwhelming. Part of this is due to the sound design, which doesn't give anything an appropriate punch when it's fired. But the weapon damage feels weak and the bullet spray makes a lot of the non-scoped weapons feel imprecise and generally ineffective. Grenades are also lame, with pops that look and sound more like a firecracker than a hand grenade. They also don't seem to do much damage, making them better for knocking opponents over, giving you time to finish them off while they get back to their feet.

A lot of time in each map is spent running back to the battle, as the game lacks any sort of forward spawn capability. To let you worry less about obstacles in the environment, holding down the sprint button also allows you to automatically mantle up and over low objects. You can also slide under objects or, in some cases, you can leap up to grab ledges. Vaulting over these objects makes the path back to the battlefield more of a straight line, but once you're engaged, it feels like hopping around like a crazy person is just a good way to get gunned down because you weren't spending your time firing back.

Brink occasionally hints at a larger universe with its pre-mission cutscenes that attempt to set up the conflict between a rebel force and the security crew trying to hold them back, but these vignettes are incredibly half-hearted, introducing few characters and not really giving you much of a reason to care about the overall world. It's too bad, because the characters and the set of islands they inhabit have an interesting look to them. But beyond a couple of weak cutscenes you'll see when you finish campaign mode and some dull audio logs, Brink does absolutely nothing of value with its fiction.

You'll earn experience points and levels as you play, and with each level comes the chance to unlock a new ability. These vary from universal skills like extra health or the ability to reload while sprinting to class-specific perks, like building better engineer turrets or giving operatives a bomb in their head that lets them blow up on command when downed, potentially taking enemies along with them. You don't have to break these up into loadouts, as all your abilities stack.

The resistance fighters look like thugs and hooligans while the security forces look like cops.

This makes you more powerful at higher levels, something the game attempts to address by preventing higher-ranked players from getting matched with lower-ranked games. Ultimately, this just splits the people playing Brink into yet another smaller subset, which, at least in the near-term, has made it fairly hard for me to get into games with an abundance of other human players. Between breaking up the campaign mode options by map and the rank lockouts, Brink just feels like it needs a big "quick match" button to expedite the process and match you with human players and completely sidestep the game's weak AI.

Brink's stylized look is pretty cool, but the whole thing feels like a bust. The minute-to-minute action just isn't interesting enough to make the game's eight maps worth replaying for a serious length of time, which makes a lot of this come down to a basic value proposition. It feels like a downloadable game's worth of content that's been fleshed out a little by some slightly higher production values. Nothing about that sounds like a great deal to me at its current price, but its awkward structure and dull combat won't go away after a simple price cut.


Posted by Kotaku May 10 2011 20:20 GMT
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#itwillchange I knew I was going to have a hard time deciding whether Brink was any good. I still can't say it is. More »

Posted by Kotaku May 10 2011 17:40 GMT
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#frankenreview In Splash Damage's Brink, rival factions do battle over the fate of a post-apocalyptic floating city called The Ark. Judging by the critical reaction of some video game critics, The Ark may have already sunk. More »

Posted by IGN May 10 2011 17:49 GMT
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Battle for survival in BRINK from Bethesda Softworks, now available for PC on Direct2Drive.com. Set in a world broken by environmental disasters, gamers fight for control of The Ark, an enormous floating city off the coast of San Francisco where 50,000 refugees have been completely isolated from the...

Posted by Kotaku May 10 2011 16:00 GMT
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#watchthis http://www.viddler.com/explore/kotaku/videos/1439/Brink is a strange game. Is it the next must-play shooter? Is it a forgettable Team Fortress knock-off? Or is it something else? Is it really a decent single-player game? Actually, how does its multiplayer even work? More »

Posted by Joystiq May 10 2011 05:01 GMT
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In decades past, when the first-person shooter genre -- hell, when the whole of three-dimensional gaming -- was still very much in its infancy, shooters could scrape by on nothing more than their inclusion of amusing, oftentimes absurd innovations. Combat didn't have to be perfectly tight, weapons didn't have to be balanced to a T, and developers didn't need to worry about character progression to retain their audience. Some might argue that the genre's formative years produced some of the greatest shooters of all time. What they cannot argue, however, is this: Those days are over.

Brink is built on the back of some very unique ideas, the most notable of which being its fluid, parkour-inspired movement and its procedurally generated player objectives. They have promise, to be sure, and even manage to realize some of their potential -- but unfortunately, any innovation Brink brings to the table is mired in its habitually imbalanced nature, as well as its sometimes stupefyingly flawed gameplay design.

Video
Posted by GameTrailers May 10 2011 04:02 GMT
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On the Brink of buying this new take on first-person shooters? Let the GT Review help you out!

Posted by IGN May 10 2011 04:01 GMT
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Brink hits store shelves on May 10th, and we've just launched the Xbox 360 review...

Posted by IGN May 10 2011 04:01 GMT
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Set in a nearby future, Brink attempts to do something different with multiplayer gaming by focusing on free-running and parkour. With some good ideas, Brink borders on fun, but its repetition, lack of depth, and graphical problems keep it from being a real contender...

Video
Posted by Giant Bomb May 09 2011 23:22 GMT
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Jeff and Brad vault headlong into Splash Damage's shooter to see if all those delays paid off.

Posted by Kotaku May 09 2011 16:26 GMT
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Brink will still hit the Playstation 3 as planned despite the ongoing Playstation Network outage, the developer tells Eurogamer. While the game mostly lives online, it does have the ability to be played with bots and in single-player mode. [Eurogamer] More »

YouTube
Posted by Kotaku May 09 2011 16:20 GMT
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#watchthis The battle to save and/or escape The Ark kicks off tomorrow when Brink launches for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Which side of the struggle will you be on? More »

Posted by Giant Bomb May 09 2011 16:08 GMT
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Hey, remember last week, when Sony said that it planned to get the ball rolling with restoring its PlayStation Network services starting last week? Right, just a quick reminder that it's not last week anymore. It's this week now. So, to be clear, last week came and went, and now this is this week, and yes your PSN services still aren't up. I know, I was confused, too. Just trust me on this one.

 So, uh... how's that SOCOM single-player, eh? Now, on the subject of the PSN and when-ish you might actually be able to get back online, the answer currently is: "Dunno?" 

As of this morning, Sony does not have a firm timetable for getting PSN all the way back online, and is currently only stating that everything should be restored by the end of this month. This info comes from company spokesman Shigenori Yoshida, who told Bloomberg this morning that the company is currently uncertain exactly when everything will return to a live state, and that Sony has set a deadline of May 31st for all services to be restored.

Last week's plan to restore partial services fell by the wayside when Sony decided it needed to finalize testing to make sure its newly constructed system was operating correctly. So, until we get another projected time line from Sony, all we can do is sit, wait, and wonder which other version of Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter, Brink, to pick up tomorrow.

Posted by IGN May 09 2011 15:50 GMT
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This most certainly isn't Texas. Bromley, a large town towards the south eastern edges of London that was once home to H.G Wells, Aleister Crowley and Charles Darwin is touched by neither glamour or grace, and those that now parade its high street peppered with 99p stores certainly put Darwin's theo...

Video
Posted by GameTrailers May 09 2011 14:00 GMT
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The bright future of humankind becomes a pit of despair--and it's time to fight back.

Video
Posted by GameTrailers May 06 2011 23:20 GMT
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Brink faces off against a Parkour expert in this video with plenty of acrobatic gameplay from the game.

Posted by Joystiq May 06 2011 20:00 GMT
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That headline's no exaggeration -- the trailer posted after the jump compares the exploits of real-life parkour artist Daniel Ilabaca with the virtual wall-runnings of Brink. It's all shot in first person, and, as you might imagine, it's all super nauseating.