Hello,

I received Brink through the post yesterday and have played for about 3 hours.

What are my impressions?

Well, I think the game has potential but a few weaknesses.

Potential

1. The co-operative nature of this game is great.
2. I like the idea of mini-campaigns and targets within the story itself.
3. The game seems to have some depth to it which I think will take me time to understand. (The game reminds me of Team Fortress 2 but in a more complex form).
4. Individual characters which is unique I think. Also the character graphics are stunning. Hats off to the artist responsible for this!!
5. I like the clean cut and very modern looking user interface.


Weaknesses

1. On-line play can be slow and very jittery. (This reminds me of the problem which TF2 had about a year ago). Bethesda, you need to sort this out!!!
2. Character movement through 3D space seems to me to be a little dated, jittery, slow (even in offline mode). When I compare to Crysis 2 for instance, Brink is not in the same league (although Crysis 2 is a masterpiece in itself). If in future patches the player movement around 3d space can be improved then this will make Brink a great game. Bethesda, can you do this please??? Brink uses the 'id Tech 4' engine. This engine has been around since DOOM 3 (when it was first used) which was released in April 3rd 2005. That's how old the engine technology is in Brink. ie very old!!

Does this game have me hooked. I have to say - yes it does but I think the game could be made a lot better if points 1 and 2 could be addressed above.

Nevica

You're voting questions are extremely skewed to produce a "failure" result.
Question 2 should be
"Slow, Jittered, Outdated OR Suffiecient OR Could be improved in future patch OR Great / perfect"

option 1 basically means "Bad", option 2 basically means "neutral" option 3 basically means "nuetral but i expect better" (and option 3 could probably be dropped but does provide some extra info). What you're missing is option 4 which basically means "Good".

By supplying more "bad" options than "good" options only the people who think it is bad will vote and the people who think it's perfect will not see the option they want (sufficient is not enough) and won't vote. This will result in an extremely skewed dataset.

Personally i think the movement is good. I didn't vote.
EDIT: And i have no multiplayer jitter (but I'm on a PC).

option 1 basically means "Bad", option 2 basically means "neutral" option 3 basically means "nuetral but i expect better" (and option 3 could probably be dropped but does provide some extra info). What you're missing is option 4 which basically means "Good".

No, the options are 'yes' or 'no' to Does the game jitter. It either jitters or it doesn't.

Nevica

Now i see you've added "Good" to question 2. That is what I was talking about in my post.
I will now vote

Ok, Great. Thanks. Please leave comments on the game. I am particularly interested to find out what people think about character movement and movement mechanics. I really think the the movement engine is a little dated!!

I'm assuming any jittery movement you're getting is lag. I haven't had any sort of jittery movement at all.
As for the general movement of the game: I like what SD have done. The slides and clambering over things is fun and well handled (I normally play a medium bidy type. Still have to play with the light to see the full efect) and if you get your routes down you can navigate maps pretty quickly and come up in places that people don't expect.

I don't think the player needs to move faster. The maps are pretty tight and there are normally multiple routes to get to the objective from the spawn (unless you're a heavy).

Overall: I am pleased.

All of these things are fine. It is good to be able to clamber over things and slide and jump etc.

But what I am referring to is the actual smoothness of the movement and the physics and engine (software) behind the movement. I don't know if you have played Crysis or Crysis 2 but both of these games are in a different ballpark when it comes to the graphics engine. I think there is room for improvement if SD are willing to put in the time and effort to do this. The overall impression have when I play Brink is that I have played better. Given that this game has only been out for two weeks then I was expecting something more. The engine is the thing which gives the feel of a game and not what you can actually do with the engine (ie slide, jump, clamber etc).



Yes, I am referring to lag in online games. Again, this is a software problem.

Which Windows DX version does Brink use?

For your information:

Brink uses the 'id Tech 4' engine. This engine has been around since DOOM 3 (when it was first used) which was released in April 3rd 2005. That's how old the engine technology is in Brink. ie very old!!

I didn't realise you meant the actual game's engine...

Yeah. I was always aware that it used id's Tech4 engine. SD have always worked closely with id. And the last game that they did (to my knowledge) was Quake Wars which also used an updated Tech4 engine so I wasn't surprised when I heard Brink would use the same.

I'm happy with the engine. Graphics look good to me. Movement is smooth, models are detailed, there are dust clouds and light sources etc. It's a pretty resource friendly engine that is quite robust and well tested.
/shrug as long as the gameplay is enjoyable I don't mind what it's running on.

The choppy online thing might be something on your end... I haven't had any sort of choppy or laggy movement at all. Maybe you could capture a video of it so we know what you're talking about?

I don't think the movement is smooth at all. Perhaps I am used to playing Crysis 2. But I feel there is a noticeable difference.

Yes, you are right. It might well be a problem with my on-line connection and I will report back on this when I have tested a bit more.

Do not misunderstand me. I think Brink is a brilliant game and I have been in expectation of it. I think it meets most of my expectations apart from the ones mentioned already!

I've never really played crysis more than just a few minutes on a friend's machine so I can't really compare but compared to the other FPSs I have played recently (APB, Borderlands, Monday Night Combat being the most recent that come to mind) the engine seems pretty good.

If you're getting online make sure you're hitting the low ping games. On PC there are over 1000 servers when I search and a lot of them are < 50 ping (In the UK here).

Good luck ^_^ maybe I'll see you on the battlefield.

Thanks for the info Zenstar. Yes, I'll look out for you on the battlefield. Are there any clans yet forming. I'm in the UK as you mentioned in your post!!

Nevica

There's a clan recruitment subforum:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/143-brink-clan-recruitment/
I'm generally a pretty casual player so I don't normally join clans though but my best guess would be to start by looking there?