Anyone try "BRINK" yet?

[Rollsumi]

Kapol, i wouldn't want to see the characters as females *shudders*

[Rollsumi]

Nononononononnononononononono do not want.

[Icanseestuffandstuff]

Originally Posted by kapol

*cough*exceptforgender*cough*

To be fair, it's a gritty shoot-first-ask-later game in which violence is the first clause. Although customization is nice to add to your cool-dicity or intimidation, adding females to most games results in the all-too-obvious sex drive girls with large mammaries that don't fit in at all. And if they DID add women that could do most of these stunts, lets face it... the amount of exercise and muscle tone they'd have it probably wouldn't be all as grand.

Besides, they can't add them now. With males alone the customization available to you is 102 Quadrillion different variations... literally.

[Rollsumi]

with 102 Quadrillion variations your measly money pays for itself!

[TF-Viewer]

The lack of female character options really turned me off on this title.

The mixed reviews it's gotten so far don't seem encouraging either. It's like the reviewers are too confused about it, or too worried to say they don't like it after all the attention it's gotten that they just say it confuses them and call it "weird". To me though it just sounds like Team Fortress 2 with a different graphic engine. I don't see what's weird or confusing about that. It's got single player, something that TF2 doesn't have and then it's a class based team shooter, that's not a new genre or anything. It's got crazy amounts of customization (though no females... which is lame) but once you get passed that.. you don't seem like you have anything special. Which I think people get about it, which is I think why I don't see people singing praises about it.

[Icanseestuffandstuff]

Originally Posted by TF-Viewer

The lack of female character options really turned me off on this title.

The mixed reviews it's gotten so far don't seem encouraging either. It's like the reviewers are too confused about it, or too worried to say they don't like it after all the attention it's gotten that they just say it confuses them and call it "weird". To me though it just sounds like Team Fortress 2 with a different graphic engine. I don't see what's weird or confusing about that. It's got single player, something that TF2 doesn't have and then it's a class based team shooter, that's not a new genre or anything. It's got crazy amounts of customization (though no females... which is lame) but once you get passed that.. you don't seem like you have anything special. Which I think people get about it, which is I think why I don't see people singing praises about it.

SMART is the first time, aside from Mirror's Edge, that parkour has been put in a FP game, let alone a multiplayer FPS.

When your in TF2, to climb over a box quickly may require a crouch jump that slows you down briefly over the box... or to go around it. In BRINK a single button press at a certain angle makes you vault the box in a single fluid motion, or you mantle off the side, or you just climb over it, or you climb on it then the next box over, and so on and so forth. For once, a Run-and-gun game focuses on the run as much as the gun.

And as I said, in-game females would either be realistic or be unrealistic. Unrealistic takes the grit of the game and spits on it with unrealistic bombshell girls that don't look like they could keep their balance running much less jumping up and down walls. Realistic women would disappoint the audience it's made for (Face it, gamer chicks by this point are more interested in the game. The audience a female option would appeal to is very lonely men.) by making them fit their surroundings... making them slightly musclebound with a feeling of tomboy and etc. etc. Plus as I said, yet again, they won't make women because the men alone take up 102 quadrillion different looks.

[Lat]

Played the first few missions and the main thing I have to say that this game needs multiplayer to be played without piles of frustration. The AI on both teams are frightingly idiotic, charging off on their own and recieving the same success a newbie that charges off on their own in TF2. Horribly raped.

The medics in this game can revive someone incapacitated but they use their supply on health boosts to already living characters they don't have any to spare when one goes down. The most frustrating level was a mission where you needed to secure a missile and have one of the operatives hack it. However while I tried securing it the one of the AI controlled operatives runs into the middle of the gunfight and starts hacking it and immediately gets gunned down. This is mostly because how AIs can get hooked on the mission wheel and focus intently on one mission while others on another. In the same mission I decided to instead hold down one of the command posts (an area which gives your team and universal power/health boost) and kept it down for a long time because the same AI rushed into my bullets every damn time.

So in short the bots are about as clever as the TF2 bots except instead of mindlessly running towards one control point they split up and mindlessly run towards four control points when they should be pushing the cart.

[TF-Viewer]

Originally Posted by Icanseestuffandstuff

SMART is the first time, aside from Mirror's Edge, that parkour has been put in a FP game, let alone a multiplayer FPS.

Yet it's been in many third person games, a different camera perspective doesn't make running and jumping an innovation. So again I say it's not new. The ability to jump on things or climb doesn't magically make the game superior to everything else in the genre. So far it's only served to make people confused. Not all surfaces and obstacles in the game can be traversed in this way and they give you no indication as to which you can do this with and which you can't, a fact that was pointed out by reviewers who've disliked the game. I have yet to read a glowing review of this game, so far all I have seen are "confusing and weird" and negative reviews by people who were turned off by the confusing weirdness.

Also.. the customization is probably massively overstated. I'm sure they're counting slight differences like color and minor adjustments to sliders as if it were a unique look.

[Hardcase]

Ah, yes, Brink on the PC...

One of the things I enjoy about Brink is the emphasis on teamwork. Objectives must be taken, and they are class-based. Luckily, the game allows you to switch classes at command posts, as well as inform you of how many of that class is in play. You can also switch weapons at command posts.

There is no K/D ratio, something I believe is refreshing in a team-based game. At the end of the match, the game will mention who got the most kills, but doesn't show the number of kills. The scoreboard reflects who got the most XP, I.E. who played their class role. Pretty much everything grants XP, from landing a hit on an enemy to healing a teammate.

While the above mentioned are pluses, Brink suffers in a lot of manners. It's an old-school shooter, meaning it will take a good amount of bullets to put someone down. I recalled the original Quake as I was playing. For those looking for a Call of Duty-style shooter, Brink isn't it. As long as you are aware of this fact, you should be okay with Brink's shooting mechanics. My biggest gripe is not the amount of bullets you fire, it is every weapon feels the same.

The parkour element is awesome when it works. You gain three body types during the course of the game and each one changes the amount of movement you are allowed. Lights can wall-run and have the most freedom of movement at the cost of less health. Mediums are the default, basic speed and functions. Heavies can take more damage, but are slow and not allowed certain moves. This would be great if you could switch during a match. Alas, you pick one and can't change it on the fly.

Also, the depth-perception is off. A move you think you can manage falls short and the "Hail Mary" jump you initially make turns out to work. Certain objects work smoothly with the SMART system and others don't. For a game about the freedom of movement, several locations in the environments which you should be able to climb on or reach are restricted. The environments themselves are very linear.

BRINK is a game with good ideas which doesn't quite live up to its potential. I'm echoing several game reviews I've read, but I've also spent 15+ hours in-game. I've had some fun moments, but I don't foresee BRINK taking over the 200+ hours in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (team-based) or 250+ hours in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Black Ops (lone wolf) I've put into those games.

As always, your mileage may vary.

[Icanseestuffandstuff]

Penny Arcade has put in their two cents. As well as a comic depicting the greed that is a minigun obsessed medic.

[TF-Viewer]

Also I just noticed it's metascore of 71. Between the lackluster reviews and the average score, it seems the general consensus is that the game isn't all it that great. I'd considered trying it out, but there's no demo and the impression I get is that it's not a wise investment at full price.

[Bareon]

Hunh? male and female models taking 2x the time and energy?

I'm not sure what programming school you heard that from, but streamlining clothing has been around for a LOOOOOONG time. Every Play.. uhm.. I don't know... World of Warcraft?

All their clothing is malleable. They don't have different clothing for different genders, All clothing works on all genders. Why? Because of stretch mapping. (not its technical term but eh..) The equipment then scales up and down depending on the size of your character. A Gnome can wear the exact same equipment as a Tauren thanks to this.

All they have to do is put a bit of effort to make it work with higher definition models, then they just have to start making clothing after the original designs are through.

As games have progressed, they invent new applications and programs that do most of the dirty-work for the programmers.