Brink

I saw a live game play demo at quakecon this year; looked really fun. The game play was like a cross between Enemy Territory and Mirror's Edge. Visually, the game looks really good; the detail of the environments, the atmosphere, a very small hint of cartoonish style. It all mixed together very well. It doesn't even look like id tech 4. My only complaint was that there seemed to be no massive difference between the characters. They all pretty much looked the same, sans body size and clothing/tattoos/etc. And I'm not a big fan of the "Every character looks like Kratos from God of War" theme they seemed to have going. They were also talking about a L4D style coop system for the campaign, where your buddies can join in on your campaign at any time and take control of the other NPCs in your squad.

It looks very promising, and given Splash Damage's track record I'll definitely be picking it up when it comes out.

EDIT: Kotaku article about the demo: http://kotaku.com/5337759/brink-impress ... -sense-now

The screens look amazing. But the E3 trailer really sucks. I hate those kinda trailer where they just dont show something.

I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for this when I found doing acrobatics is limited by a sprint bar and you can't shoot while doing it, it's only for dodging and finding shortcuts essentially. If there are modded servers with higher player counts and shooting while doing crazy shit enabled, and the basic game is good, then I'll get enthused again.

Well that trailer sucked and has made me care even less now.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for this when I found doing acrobatics is limited by a sprint bar and you can't shoot while doing it, it's only for dodging and finding shortcuts essentially. If there are modded servers with higher player counts and shooting while doing crazy shit enabled, and the basic game is good, then I'll get enthused again.

To me that's a weird expectation to have; the sprint bar is a reasonable concern but at what point are you going to even be able to aim (let alone shoot) while vaulting over and around things, and how is this different than any other game that allows such moves?

I'm really eager to see this thing in motion; comments out of Quakecon (semi-echoed by Section_Ei8ht) made it sound like this was the game to see, even with Rage's pretty stellar showing.

Quote from KungFuSquirrel

To me that's a weird expectation to have; the sprint bar is a reasonable concern but at what point are you going to even be able to aim (let alone shoot) while vaulting over and around things, and how is this different than any other game that allows such moves?

I was basically expecting Brink to be a commercial version of Action Half-life.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

I was basically expecting Brink to be a commercial version of Action Half-life.

Oh, I didn't realize you were picturing the AHL/Max Payne style acrobatics, I was seeing more mantling/free-runner-y environment-linked movement, hence my confusion when you mentioned shooting. Does sound like it's more the latter, but I see where you're coming from now.

Depending what Max Payne 3 does, Stranglehold might be the closest thing currently available, and that was kinda meh.

From what I've heard some of it is mantling and climbing things, but some of it is also for example running and sliding on the floor under an obstacle or past danger, or close quarters things with enemies. I think one of the main reasons they're not letting you shoot is they're using where you look to control the automatic acrobatic thing- run towards a table and look down and you'll slide underneath it, look up and you'll jump on top and keep running, etc. There's no reason that on a mouse where you can quickly switch between pointing where you want to go and pointing at an enemy's head you can't have the control do both though, which is why I'm hopping for modded versions once it's released that let you shoot while using action stuff, or at least the action stuff that leaves your hands free.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

From what I've heard some of it is mantling and climbing things, but some of it is also for example running and sliding on the floor under an obstacle or past danger, or close quarters things with enemies. I think one of the main reasons they're not letting you shoot is they're using where you look to control the automatic acrobatic thing- run towards a table and look down and you'll slide underneath it, look up and you'll jump on top and keep running, etc. There's no reason that on a mouse where you can quickly switch between pointing where you want to go and pointing at an enemy's head you can't have the control do both though, which is why I'm hopping for modded versions once it's released that let you shoot while using action stuff, or at least the action stuff that leaves your hands free.

I think the characters heads are too small to allow for them to both shoot and do acrobatics at the same time...

Quote from Jetsetlemming

From what I've heard some of it is mantling and climbing things, but some of it is also for example running and sliding on the floor under an obstacle or past danger, or close quarters things with enemies. I think one of the main reasons they're not letting you shoot is they're using where you look to control the automatic acrobatic thing- run towards a table and look down and you'll slide underneath it, look up and you'll jump on top and keep running, etc. There's no reason that on a mouse where you can quickly switch between pointing where you want to go and pointing at an enemy's head you can't have the control do both though, which is why I'm hopping for modded versions once it's released that let you shoot while using action stuff, or at least the action stuff that leaves your hands free.

Nail on the head. In the demo in one segment, he used the sprint (what they call SMART) thingy to get through a metal detector/laser grid without setting it off. First time he ran straight toward it while looking slightly up and the character vaulted over it. Second time, he rain the same path straight to it only this time looking slightly down and the character slid underneath the laser grid. So unless you're shooting directly ahead of you or wherever your looking, I don't think the SMART system (based on what I saw) can compensate for it to allow shooting and free running at the same time.

Quote

":cqw1663o]http://g4tv.com/videos/43026/E…t-1/?quality=hdhttp://g4tv.com/videos/43027/Exclusive- ... quality=hd

This one entered my radar after I saw this video:

http://g4tv.com/videos/43012/Exclusive- ... quality=hd

However the two that you posted were just demoed really badly :G. Looked like it was from a usability test, the way he's running around like a fucking lunatic. Isn't the stuff that you usually see from these official game videos that are supposed to pimp the game.

Anyway, I like the art style and I'm very interested in seeing how that movement system actually works when you're trying to play for real. Just seems weird that they'd release that to showcase their game and not do a second take

Also, that's some insane weapon bobbing

Quote from Mazy

Also, that's some insane weapon bobbing

haha yeah that's the first thing I noticed, he was barely walking and his pistol was bouncin like crazy.

i like the narrative of the first trailer, but the gameplay (and arguably also the arcady xp signs showing on top of dying bodies) drowned any hype i might have had for the game. unless it's going to have stunning environments like unchartered 1 and 2 had, this doesn't seem worth it.

Love the setting, visually/conceptually but I'm not sure about the movement ideas, seems to be dumbing down what looks like a pretty simple game. That being said I should try before I come to a conclusion but it seems like a gimick to me, rather than an innovation.

I just hope the project isnt caught in the horrible situation of trying to make Mirrors Edge a great shooter, certainly looks like it might work on paper but I'm not sure at all ;P

Not interested. Don't like the cartoony art style and obviously its a rip-off of some other games.

Yeah that weapon bobbing is horrible. The movement control looks nice though.

Quote from Steppenwolf

Not interested. Don't like the cartoony art style and obviously its a rip-off of some other games.

but..but...

If a cartoony art style is rip-off.... Where did it begin?