Brink is just over 3 weeks away, with a shipping date of 13th of May for some the game cannot come soon enough for others the 13th of May 2011 will be just like last years 13th of May...uneventful.
Splash Damages latest release is on paper all things to all RTCW & ET players, a new team & class based FPS made by the developers of one of the most successful games in that genre. However that is simply not enough, this 'niche' of PC Gamers have been burned twice before and no longer have reason to smile at the prospect of new titles.
One of those scars still hurts to touch, that is the scar of ET Quakewars. More hype than perhaps any PC FPS in recent history and a genuine attempt by large numbers of players to get involved and try to make what was a good concept work. However in building Brink, SplashDamage have changed track and are en route for a different type of launch to normal.
When SplashDamange launched ET and then Quakewars they did a very community orientated launch. The key to all of this was a very interactive and responsive, first closed and then public beta (followed by a demo). That beta in the case of ET drove players en mass to the game and into the servers, this in the face of what was a very discerning RTCW community at the time. For Quakewars, discerning incumbents aside, the beta simply drove people away from the game.
The second part was the stardom of Paul Wedgewood in the launch of both games. Wedgewood, aka Locki, the head of Splash Damage was front and center for the community to see and reach out to. For him this was a role he was very familiar with, firstly as one of the first Quake Shoutcasters and secondly as a developer that had come from Mods and tried to always to build something for the community.
With the launch of Quakewars you couldn't avoid Paul's movements, he was at every LAN, on every community site giving interviews and was supported by SplashDamages community support officer Badman. For Brink, whilst Wedgewood has certainly not gone away his focus has not been the community from which he came but more the mainstream gamer.
One of the reasons he has had to face the mainstream gaming press more this time is because Brink is no longer a PC based game. Brink is an all bells and whistles console experience and all the tradeshow demos of Brink I've seen have been played on an XBOX 360. The reasoning for this is quite obvious, shipping 1 million+ PC games now seems reserved almost exclusively for Blizzard (a feat previous achieved by RTCW), however throw in console based FPS and any old Modern Warfare player is now a potential customer.
It is to that demographic that Brink's prerelease press has focused, modifiable skins and characters, cool perks and upgrades and the usual add on's that the Splash Damage Quake Modding team of 10 plus years ago would have shied well away from! You can't argue with why they've had to do that (because it'll make them money!) but you have to pray that if you're hopes are on this game that not all of SplashDamages core values have shifted.
Brink for all intents and purposes has potential, if its not let down by the overweight ID Tech 4 engine then Splash Damage need do a few 'simple' things that have always been second nature to them since their inception. Very quick SDK's need to be made available to the avid Pro mod development community. That needs to be followed by SplashDamage doing as they did with Bani in identifying a best of breed developer who can do a lot of work for them in creating products like ETTV (this requires a further level of access and clearance that is normally contracted). Running along side it they need to get their publisher to support the community in its competitive aspirations, ET Quakewars was very successful at driving marketing spend into eSports.
For some Brink could be a welcome surprise, its hype as an eSports title kept to a minimum and its variant on an old classic somewhat refreshing. For others it could be same old same old, I feel though a large chunk of this community are waiting for those first Brink journals to appear with either positive or negative reviews before more making their decision.
Splash Damages latest release is on paper all things to all RTCW & ET players, a new team & class based FPS made by the developers of one of the most successful games in that genre. However that is simply not enough, this 'niche' of PC Gamers have been burned twice before and no longer have reason to smile at the prospect of new titles.
One of those scars still hurts to touch, that is the scar of ET Quakewars. More hype than perhaps any PC FPS in recent history and a genuine attempt by large numbers of players to get involved and try to make what was a good concept work. However in building Brink, SplashDamage have changed track and are en route for a different type of launch to normal.
When SplashDamange launched ET and then Quakewars they did a very community orientated launch. The key to all of this was a very interactive and responsive, first closed and then public beta (followed by a demo). That beta in the case of ET drove players en mass to the game and into the servers, this in the face of what was a very discerning RTCW community at the time. For Quakewars, discerning incumbents aside, the beta simply drove people away from the game.
The second part was the stardom of Paul Wedgewood in the launch of both games. Wedgewood, aka Locki, the head of Splash Damage was front and center for the community to see and reach out to. For him this was a role he was very familiar with, firstly as one of the first Quake Shoutcasters and secondly as a developer that had come from Mods and tried to always to build something for the community.
With the launch of Quakewars you couldn't avoid Paul's movements, he was at every LAN, on every community site giving interviews and was supported by SplashDamages community support officer Badman. For Brink, whilst Wedgewood has certainly not gone away his focus has not been the community from which he came but more the mainstream gamer.
One of the reasons he has had to face the mainstream gaming press more this time is because Brink is no longer a PC based game. Brink is an all bells and whistles console experience and all the tradeshow demos of Brink I've seen have been played on an XBOX 360. The reasoning for this is quite obvious, shipping 1 million+ PC games now seems reserved almost exclusively for Blizzard (a feat previous achieved by RTCW), however throw in console based FPS and any old Modern Warfare player is now a potential customer.
It is to that demographic that Brink's prerelease press has focused, modifiable skins and characters, cool perks and upgrades and the usual add on's that the Splash Damage Quake Modding team of 10 plus years ago would have shied well away from! You can't argue with why they've had to do that (because it'll make them money!) but you have to pray that if you're hopes are on this game that not all of SplashDamages core values have shifted.
Brink for all intents and purposes has potential, if its not let down by the overweight ID Tech 4 engine then Splash Damage need do a few 'simple' things that have always been second nature to them since their inception. Very quick SDK's need to be made available to the avid Pro mod development community. That needs to be followed by SplashDamage doing as they did with Bani in identifying a best of breed developer who can do a lot of work for them in creating products like ETTV (this requires a further level of access and clearance that is normally contracted). Running along side it they need to get their publisher to support the community in its competitive aspirations, ET Quakewars was very successful at driving marketing spend into eSports.
For some Brink could be a welcome surprise, its hype as an eSports title kept to a minimum and its variant on an old classic somewhat refreshing. For others it could be same old same old, I feel though a large chunk of this community are waiting for those first Brink journals to appear with either positive or negative reviews before more making their decision.
it's just - most of the people around here will never be satisfied with what they get or what they have. they have ET and don't like it, because it's boring/the community sucks balls/people hack/whine/are using lame tactics/etc. but also do not want a new game, hell they even have been offered to get new graphics for et only, nothing more, and sitll whined about it.
I for my part don't know if brink will be 'awesome', but i certainly will give it a try, and think it actually looks promising, or at least refreshing.
On the one hand, you have a (good) point here. On the other hand, whine on crossfire? Never ever! :D
I expect Brink will be a reasonable success, as the COD-ish customisations and perks are a big selling point. Where I think it may fail is that the COD community, and many others, don't do objectives, I think they may find it just too complicated for their "run 'n' shoot" and / or "lone gunman" mentality.
I'm not worried about the console angle, SD have stated often enough the PC version is not a console port, besides, COD:BO, which is a straight console port, works well enough on PC so you wouldn't notice (apart from the insane knife lunge, but that's another story).
All I really hope for this game is that the ET (or any other) community don't immediately start asking themselves "how can we change the game to make it more like <insert name of game played previously>".
Give it a chance, play it as it's supposed to be played, don't go looking for the things that are different from ET, don't dismiss it because it has a certain feature you've never tried but have always speculated (or have been told) would suck. Just give it a go and make up your own minds about it.
I really think it will do well. Can see them investing in competitive play aswell.
i lold
if an SDK can be produced and a decent pro-mod made then their could be sucess
remember ET had upgrades to start with tho
If they'd do it like in CoD, I'd love that.
shame that guy from brink dev team stopped visiting / asking opinions from us here on xfire
Developers are forced towards "non-pro" stuff by the publishers and simply the "mjaority rule" (which is being made or at leats heavily influenced by console gamers).
If however they release an SDK the simple fact that it has some resemblance to ET could make it a vivid shot at playing a competetive game again... yes stuff like the S.M.A.R.T. will make things like "2 top, 1 cave" a thing of the past (and id argue that this is a catastrophe for competetive gaming) but thngs like that could be blanaced with a good mod. ET also needs a promod to be playable in competition and that not only when it comes to things like prone delay.
The game will sell well I guess but if they manage to supply us with a competetive game(/mod) they would get the all so disappointed PC gamers back in their boat and would make a lot more money with future titles aswell.
The only thing that makes me kind of doubtful is that despite their extensive efforts to promote they did never adress us PC gamers with anything like that and also the system specs. With a game requiring that much i doubt that hit recognition will work/feel properly. BFBC2 for example is an awesome game, no doubt but because the engine is such a beast the shooting feels random at best.
Aynways they will have to do something... CoD (or mr. bobby kotick to be more precise) pissed the competetive PC gamers off more and more with every release after cod4 but the casuals and consolefags could not get enough -> money.
splashdamage however sells less and less copies every game they make. They do now try the console route, lets hope they dont forget about us.
if it is going to be a disappointment then only cause it had popential it could not cause it was bad in the first place, which killed QW off i think.
Please explain that to me, because in my eyes SMART is like trickjumping, both being movement mechanics which allow you to get into special places.
SteamWorks info and system specs
Dedicated server FAQ
They only released one commercial game until now :P
dunno why you linked the system specs tbh, same for the dedicated server FAQ.
and let me put the thing with the sales like that: if brink would be such a failure as QW was then splashdamage would have a might hard time trying to find a publisher to finance their next proect. thats why they aim for the console market.
Agree with your last statement.
think its going to be a pretty nice game for xbox360. lots of awards and stuff like that. Guess i will enjoy it alot just as i did with COD:BO :)
Im also waiting for BRINK SDK soucre:)
edit by baggiez:
You can pick up the Steelbook Edition for £22.75 at gamegears:
http://www.gamegears.co.uk/pc-c3/pc-new-games-c23/bethesda-brink-pc-gamegears-exclusive-steelbook-edition-p3068
Splash Damage that made only 1 good game (arguably, what's ET without mods?) so far, which was almost carbon copy of RTCW, that's made by other team.
Did you buy bops, homefront, and other questionable qualty shooters that come out recently?
Whats the point blindly buying game from studio which shined once, 8 years ago.
Thats a general question, to everyone pre-ordering it!!!!
Marketing - most of what we buy is blind
The reason I buy computer games is because I have a relitivly high disposable income.
Of course, my standards in "how should look true FPS shooter" are obviously not as high as Yours (and the most of ET zealots), which would explain why I did enjoy my time in ET as a lowskill, then even more in ET:QW as a lowskill. I'm pretty sure will enjoy Brink too (as a lowskill).
http://www.gamegears.co.uk/pc-c3/pc-new-games-c23/bethesda-brink-pc-gamegears-exclusive-steelbook-edition-p3068
prolly i wont buy it. things i have seen so far where all from console "to jump over this wall press the green button, slide under this pipe by using the blue button". if i see things like this i feel a bit curious or more like wtf? how this will be done on pc? tho im a bit sceptical about this point, it doesnt mean that i do not believe in them, maybe caring hard about the creation of a decent individualized pc version.
if theres a demo out, i'll surely give it a try. and as one above me already wrote... et without etpro and other mods, would never made et such popular free game over the last years.
there is just one point im a bit afraid of... will my old pc gotta blow if i play the game? or will it provide me with awesome 10 fps?
I have no idea whether your PC will be able to run BRINK, but you can find the minimum specs here.
but i fear that it will be a "teasing game" like wolfenstein before it came out...and then online it will be shit.
and dun like the graphics.
bah!
this!
also it is kinda sad there has be no public beta... my PC for example is around the minimum hardware specs, so i would really like to know if i am able to run some stable fps, or if it's senseless...
But tbh i don't feel like playing a shooter competitive anymore... getting old :(
So i prolly won't buy it, even if it's good (what would suprise me tbh ^^)
I nominate hannes for the promod ^^
I'll be doing some commentary for www.thebrink.tv and perhaps playing it if it's worth it.