Splash damage has recently broken the rather extended and eerily silent lack of news regarding their Spring FPS release, Brink. With varying community driven interviews and Q&A Sessions, much more information has come to light regarding some of the particular details surrounding the highly anticipated title. The information was given by Lead Creative Director Richard Ham and Lead Game Designer Neil Alphonso
Most notably, more information has been spilled regarding the gametypes involved and how they tie into the over-arching “Narrative” themed multiplayer.
“Brink is an objective-driven game – all of the levels are built around a series of core objectives that the attacking team must complete within the timelimit in order to win the map. This type of gameplay is core to what our games are, and everything about a given level is tailored and balanced to suit this end. The different levels essentially have different gametypes contained within them, and these are all linked together into a larger overarching narrative. Brink will stick to these principles, as deviating from them would compromise both our unique gameplay and our story. Brink will also feature the competition-friendly Stopwatch mode, in which both teams get to be on the attacking side in succession and try to beat each other’s time. Lastly, players will also be able to set up custom matches with many possible configurations.”
While the Narrative themed multiplayer has been rather enticing from the get-go, the inclusion of more stereotypical FPS gametypes is good to see, while Stopwatch seems like a rather change of pace for FPS games and will allow for some fun, cooperative competition. This is something we have always loved and cherished here at SemperCog.
More notably to the PC community, Splash Damage gave more information regarding whether or not SDK and modding tools would be available for Brink. Thank God they have chosen to stay close to their roots and continue dedicated PC platform service and support.
“Both Splash Damage and Bethesda have a history of providing an SDK and support to go along with it; it’s hard for us to forget our roots. We can’t give specifics on an SDK at this stage as we’re fully focused on getting Brink finished, but it’s something we’ll be talking about more once the game’s production is close to done.”
It would appear that the floods of heaven have opened up to the PC gaming community. To think, a developer with any form of plans or support for the underdog of the gaming platforms exists! We anxiously look forward to further news and updates concerning the SDK and modding tools/support to be available.
While most notably, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had varying issues and problems for the PC platform, no one could deny that it was easily competitive with great focus towards small and medium sized teams to be able to compete and cooperate easily across the board. It would seem that Splash Damage is aiming for much the same goals with Brink, dedicating the game to being able to be played with varying amounts of teammates on each team.
“We’re planning on including options to play Brink with less than eight players on a team. We’re mindful of the fact that competitive gaming gets more difficult from an organizational standpoint with team sizes greater than six, and we’re happy to say that Brink still plays great with fewer combatants as long as there’s good teamwork.”
Along with this, Splash Damage has given even more assurance that they plan to further interact with and propel the competitive gaming community with the Brink release.
“We’ve always enjoyed supporting all manner of community events, including online and LAN tournaments (some of you might remember that we even participated in an Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars exhibition match against Team Dignitas at Multiplay’s i-series!). We can’t wait to continue that with Brink, and Bethesda will be our partner in these efforts.”
Going along with the above info, Splash Damage assures,
“The release of a Beta for Brink is something that is still being discussed, but no decision has been made one way or the other at this stage. At the very least, we’ll be doing a ‘family and friends’ closed Beta with Bethesda and id.
However, exploits and bugs are potential problems we’re very conscious of, and we approach some of our in-house testing with this specifically in mind. Anything goes in our playtests, so if anything is a candidate for abuse, it gets noticed fairly quickly. We also have a full time production testing team here at the office, paying special attention to exploits and griefing opportunities.”
While that is still generic at best, it shows an extended effort, and we can only hope they continue working in that direction to release a well tested, bug-free game.
With that said, don’t expect Brink to be your hardcore shooter type game. The playstyle and gameplay is very innovative and unique, unlike an ultra-realistic shooter where a single, well-placed shot takes down an enemy player. Brink is shaping up to be a rather unique blend of both TF2 elements, molded with more traditional elements of say Call of Duty, or Halo.
“Keeping in mind that damage is something we’re constantly tuning, in our current play-testing setup it takes around half a clip to take down an enemy if they’re not evading, with headshots doing extra damage on top of that. This is before potential weapon damage buffs and health buffs are taken into account. Brink does not use any bullet penetration for players or the environment.
The main deployables in Brink are the turrets. Any Engineer can put down one turret in a location of their choosing; deploying a second turret removes the first.
Turrets can miss fast-moving players, but smart Engineers will place them where evading is hard for opponents to manage. They have limited scanning both horizontally and vertically, and a limited range. When used tactically they are extremely powerful, and their raw lethality can be adjusted by how an Engineer chooses to spend their ability points. However, a smart player can always stay one step ahead of them if he’s paying attention to his surroundings.”
While the Hardcore fan inside me cringes at the mention of “half a clip”, the softer, more nostalgic side remembers how fun and affective Valve was, and continues to be, with the content and gameplay contained in Team Fortress 2. Obviously we would need to get some more hands on time with Brink to make a final assessment for ourselves, our instincts tell us that Splash Damage will be putting a major priority at not only casual, but more competitive and cooperative play.
Splash Damage is taking the high road, implementing a rather varied, and might we add, politically correct, attitude towards their character creation process.
“Since the Ark is a true melting pot of ethnicities and cultures, you’ll be able to choose from eight different voice packs for your character, and there will also be a few Commander-only voices.”
Ah, now there’s a great little addition. “Commander-Only Voices”. Perhaps a leader option in gameplay, allowing for more strategic and administrative options? Only time will tell. The true egocentric individuals (raises hand) look forward to the options contained here.
So there’s some more info regarding the gameplay and mechanics, but how about the art style, the look and feel of the game? We’ve all seen screens and been amazed at the graphical quality and clarity, but how does that interact with the gameplay?
“We really wanted to give a very intense feel to our firefights, with shot impacts that come across as punchy and powerful. That said, we didn’t want it to be gratuitous – excessive gore doesn’t really fit with the tone of Brink, a world where friends and brothers are reluctantly battling each other for what they see as a better future for all on the Ark.”
As we’ve already seen in released images and media, expect over the top graphics, with stylized rather than realistic, weaponry and armor. With that in mind, however, realize that the gore will more complement the gameplay rather than detract or take focus from.
It must be noted that Splash Damage has noted that some of the earliest accessible weaponry and armor is in fact the most powerful in the game. As one progresses the equipment instead becomes more specialized to particular playstyles and goals in combat.
“Unlocked weapons are not more powerful than the ones you start with – they just have different attributes that are potentially more useful for different styles of play. The abilities you can select as you level up work similarly, and you can choose to specialize in a particular style or keep your character balanced for any occasion. The more powerful abilities are available very early on, whereas the ‘endgame’ ones are far more specialized to complement your preferred playing style.”
Splash Damage also detailed some more information regarding matchmaking and servers for game launch.
“We’ll be competitive with other games in terms of matchmaking features and we’ll allow custom matches and dedicated servers on PC. We had a lot of feedback about the Ranked Servers in the PC version of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, and we’re looking to address a lot of that in Brink. Can’t share any specifics as yet, but look for more details closer to release.
As for movement speeds, the videos available online give a good idea there, although they’re slightly slower than what we have in the game currently.
Lastly, we don’t have a final set of PC minimum specs to announce at this time, but we’re optimizing Brink to run well on consoles, and those optimizations keep it running well on PC also.”
In other words, it is going to run well on console, so OF COURSE it will be running even more efficiently on powerful PC platforms. It’s common knowledge that even a mid range gaming PC is more powerful and efficient than the newest available consoles to date, with Brink being optimized to run well on all platforms.
Lastly, a small tidbit of information regarding how the narrative will be experienced was released.
“The primary vehicles for the narrative are the cinematics that encapsulate each level, and environmental storytelling within the levels themselves. Most of the cinematics are skippable as they are part of the levels in all modes, but they focus on the perspective of the chosen faction before the action starts. A quick example of environmental storytelling is how graffiti is used by the refugees to express how they feel about life on The Ark.”
en el Store de la Play en trailers de juegos tambien estan 
![[mamaaaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos/triste_ani4.gif "llorica")
![[+furioso]](/images/smilies/nuevos/furioso.gif "muy furioso")
) ![[carcajad]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani2.gif "carcajada")
![[+risas]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani3.gif "más risas")
![[maszz]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/dormido.gif "otro q duerme")
![[sonrisa]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani1.gif "sonrisa")
¿Y cómo es eso de la apariencia? Se elige de unas predeterminadas, ¿o cómo? ![[jaja]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/otrasonrisa.gif "otra sonrisa")
). Algo con el mar... (The) Seaquakes (maremotos, aunque suena mejor en inglés y, ahora que lo pienso, me recuerda un poco al "Seaquest" xD). No son una maravilla de nombres, pero es la única chorrada que se me acaba de ocurrir ![[fies]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/fiesta.gif "fiesta")
![[360º]](/images/smilies/nuevos/vueltas.gif "como la niña del exorcista")
)
![[beer]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/brindando.gif "brindis")
![[ginyo]](/images/smilies/nuevos/guinyo_ani1.gif "guiñando")
¡Gente, animaos! Que somos muy enrollados y cordiales... ![[chulito]](/images/smilies/nuevos/sonrisa_ani2.gif "risa con gafas")
Cordiales? Vale, bueno sí, hasta que empezamos a disparar a diestro y siniestro y despedazar a todo lo que se nos pone enfrente jajajaja ![[qmparto]](/images/smilies/net_quemeparto.gif "Que me parto!")
![[plas]](/images/smilies/aplauso.gif "Aplausos")
jejejejeje ya que me lo pedis....... pos pues 
Por lo demás, somos buena gente... ¿a que sí? ![[tomaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/tomaa.gif "toma")
![[fumando]](/images/smilies/nuevos/fumando.gif "fumando")
Y si mi vecino de al lado a elegido el bando equivocado es su culpa. Vale que a veces tienes que hacerte el juego con karma malo como en infamous o fallout para sacarte algunos trofeos pero esto es un "fallo" de programación de los desarrolladores ![[amor]](/images/smilies/nuevos/enamorado.gif "enamorado")
![[buenazo]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_tonta.gif "buenazo")
. Cualquier duda, consejo o ayudita que se necesita estamos para esto. Salvo que si teneís algunas apariciones espectrales es mejor llamar a Ghostbusters 
