Brink - the final idtech 4 game

[7upMan]

Since there doesn't seem to be a Brink thread in this forum, I'm hereby opening one. I'll start with two links to a German gaming news site that has some very nice screenshots. Looking at them makes me wonder how much original Doom 3 code is still in that game.

[Baddcog]

I didn't bring it up because i didn't think anyone would be interested.

 

I was really excited about it, bought it pre-order...

 

I'm sure there will be patches but here's my opinion so far. Patches will make it better but I don't think they'll change my opinion much unless they really fix stuff (no small patches will do)

 

:system requirements.

I'm towards the low end, so figured I'd have to sacrifice some but... Seeing as how I'm pretty high as far as systems go around here I don't think many people on this forum will be able to run the game smoothly.

 

Q6600 quad, OC 2.7

4 gigs ddr 2

5850, 1 gig ddr5

Win7 64

 

I can't run 1920x1200, had to drop to 1600x 1000 (whatever, it's that range)

No AA

No SSAO

No motion Blur

No nuthin

Med (aka low) tex detail

Med (aka low) shadow detail

 

Chug a lug. Not terrible, but not great FPS either. (Don't know command to see it, it's not twitchy most of the time, but some outside areas do lag some)

 

I can play TF2 and L4D2, Bioshock 2.... TDM... Maxed out on about everything (usually around 4x AA) smoothly. (of course TDM does depend on map to map/optimizing) and all these games are beautifully done imo.

------------------

 

Character art, guns art, customization. Menus.

All very well done, pretty cool. Best part of game.

 

--------------------

 

Gameplay.

 

movement:

Parkour actions. Works pretty good, fairly smooth. Like mantling in TDM. But as a medium class you can't jump and grab a ledge you think you should be able to. You can hop crates and whatnot with easy, but things right above your head are 'too high' which seems silly.

 

sprinting is horrible. You hear feet that sound like running, but it feels like nothing more than a fast walk. I don't think the devs have ever run before. I can walk faster than that, really annoying aspect imo.

Or maybe they do run, but their legs are half as long as mine.

 

guns:

Pretty well done, quite a few and customizable.

 

but like sprinting, the pistols are completely STUPID! Again, devs need to research stuff a bit.

When the gun kicks like a powerful pistol should, the players arm should bend and kick up.

But instead the entire view kicks up.

So aim at opponent, shoot, look at ceiling, readjust, aim, shoot, ceiling.

Grandma did that hunting possums on the porch from her rocker. A soldier should be able to handle the kick better than that.

 

grenades bounce one and stop. Kind of weak looking. Explosions are half ass little poofs. Out fire arrows have better explosions (while fitting the weapon type better too).

 

single player:

 

Bots are dumb, don't cover you very well. Makes easy chores difficult.

 

multi player:

 

Bots are dumb.

 

First round is players vrs players (if 16 people join) so usually good.

 

But losers start over against bots, so gameplay starts to suck, predictable, push bots back to spawn and camp. YAWN.

 

After that who knows if it's bots or players, hope it's players.

Objectives:

 

Mostly 'guard point' which gets boring quick. Stand in one room, guard staircase. 10 minutes, move to another room. Meh.

 

You're either attacking or defending, but neither feels very different.

 

Maps:

 

only 8 of them. Not really large. Hard to tell if you are going into enemy spawn at which point a massive sentry blows you away.

 

On the other hand the sentries the engies can build are weak, barely even shoot at anyone and one grenade takes them out.

 

Oh yeah, bots are dumb.

 

Cutscenes:

 

Done pretty well, but end up a let down. You win, fire a rocket at the tower, it hits. A little explosion, a little fire, tower still standing. (Did we even damage it?) Every cut scene ends like that, an epic scene with nothing short of a laughable, weak, poor ending.

 

-----------

Closing:

 

I think the cut scenes describe the whole game pretty well.

 

So much hype, so much potential, but in the in pretty much just a let down game play wise.

 

The artwork is beautiful for the most part. Wish I could run settings on high so I could enjoy that aspect.

 

It does have SSAO and it's ID tech 4, but I don't know if that would benefit us at all, they probably won't open source that. And i guess we already have the option once id open sources so...

 

Overall I give it a Meh out of Ten. Other than the artwork I'm not really all that impressed. We'll see if it changes, maybe if they can get some massive improvements in player movement and performance it will be worth it, but right now it's disappoint.

[Baddcog]

edit double post

[Shadowhide]

damn,brink won't run on my pc

PS

I reccomend to play wolfenstein 2009,this is the best game using updated and well optimized id Tech 4 engine (exept TDM of course)

[7upMan]

Baddcog, can you delete your double-post? Also, it's funny that you mentioned the stupid bots. The site I linked to quotes two reviews, one saying that the bots are uber crap, the other stating that the bots are excellent and the best of their class. Also, Splash Damage has already released a patch and is supposed to release another patch soon, according to the site.

 

Baddcog, have you already installed the latest Catalyst 11.5 hotfix? It's supposed to fix issues with Brink. Don't know any specifics, though.

 

 

[Baddcog]

Yeah, I updated drives, so no difference really.

 

One issue I just found out about. Mutli core is NOT enabled by default, you have to edit a cfg file to turn it on.

 

So I'll try that tomorrow night and report back. Good chance that will improve performance even if I can't up graphics any.

 

----------

As for bots. I've seen worse I guess, but have also seen better (L4D2). It just annoying when doing a challenge, and the opposing bots are aim botting, running towards you even when they can't see you. And yet your bots hang back, don't follow, etc...

[MoroseTroll]

AFAIK, Prey 2 in 2012 will be the final game based on id Tech 4.

[stumpy]

from all the open area in what of the game I've seen there's probably very little in the way of visportals, its probably all objects like the bits in quake 4.

[Baddcog]

OK, so I was at 1280x800, lowest possible res.

 

After todays patch (which I don't think did much) though they say it did.

 

I was getting 30-60 FPS inside. 60 in small rooms and corridors, 30 in large open rooms. (not outside, just large rooms with players)

 

So I used

 

seta r_useThreadedRenderer 2

 

which is supposed to allow it to use more than one core.

 

The fps was then 45-60, a little better but it still felt laggy. Then CTD.

 

restarted and played a bit, went to an outside map and upped my res to 1920x1200 at the same time. 22-25, maybe 30 fps.

 

And this is with ALL settings on low.

[SiyahParsomen]

Meh out of Ten

 

agreed. It could be a great game but it has some serious weak points. I won't be suprised when its price falls soon.

[nbohr1more]

I think it was cool that Splash Damage went ahead and expanded Megatexture for it's version of Id Tech 4 but I think this has been an ongoing coordination with Id. Kinda a cross-promotion between the two.

 

That said, returning to baked lighting for megatexture games which both this game and RAGE seem to have done is definitely a bit of a disappointment. If the megatextures were only used for texture capacity problems and the light model were left dynamic I would be a little more excited.

 

The game seems to have it's appeals to fans of Splash Damage's match system from ETQW but it doesn't hit my "Big dumb shoot-fest" sweet spot, nor is it a subtle RPG-esque experience. Instead we have something that appears to be a niche evolution for Q3 DM > Wolfenstein ET > ETQW in terms of squad and multiplayer coordination. It doesn't appeal to the Modern Warfare \ COD crowd nor the Unreal Tournament or Quake MP crowds per se. I'm sure fans of this niche are overjoyed but for the audiences it was marketed to it's probably as much a let-down as Brutal Legend was for 3rd person hack and slash fans.

 

I am hopeful to see what Human Head does with Id Tech 4 in it's last iteration as their changes seem to be more natural and use the engine for more of it's inherent strengths. Though some of the characteristic black shading on the characters in the early screens looks like they too may be retreating from dynamic lighting and baking things in

 

The game-play as described in Prey 2 at least seems more compelling to me verses what we are offered in BRINK. But, as I said, BRINK's niche is not for me and if they were more forthcoming about this then it would've saved them some blow-back from folks expecting something else.

[STiFU]

I was actually thinking about getting Brink eventually, because every once in a while, I can do with some multiplayer and I simply love parcour / free running. Can you perform skillful tricks like scaling up a whole by successive walljumping for instance? Another reason for buying this game is that stupid Eidos made the responsible dev team quit on Mirror's Edge 2 in order to join work on Battlefield 3, so I won't get my parcour dosis anytime soon, if I don't check out Brink.

[Baddcog]

Everything I read it was pretty clear what they intended the gameplay to be. Team based squads that REALLY need to work together, and they might've got that done pretty well. But the communication in game and the voice op didn't seen to work well. I haven't played much lately, but it just seemed like there was no communica going on at all. Even with players it kind of felt like playing with bots.

 

@STiFU. Probably the biggest dissapointment of the game to me was the parkour, they really talked it up, really bragged about how awesome it was going to be. That's why I bought the game, I thought running around, bouncing off of shit, high fast action madness.

And I haven't tried the light class yet, who is the most agile, but from what I was seeing in game as a medium class is that they can just jump/mantle higher. That's it, worth the bragging?

 

Basically if you are medium class and something is 7 feet high (a 6 foot dude should be able to jump up grab it right?) you can't reach it. That would be a light class area. As medium class you can grab something maybe 5-6 feet and clamber over, or large crates, railings, etc...

And if you hit a crate at an angle (jump onto crate, jump up wall behind it) you shoot off of it at an angle, instead of climbing up. So to jump crate/wall, you have to line up and hit it straight. Pretty weak imo.

 

Mantleing in TDM is MUCH better than a parkour game that the Devs boasted and boasted about being the best thing since sliced bread.

I never played Mirrors edge, but maybe need to. I really enjoyed the parkourish aspects of Prince of Persia (On PS2), running along walls to clear gaps, etc...

That was done much better than Brink.

The parkour is over rated and pretty weak, sorry to beat a dead horse but all their bragging was what made me decide to buy the game. And it just wasn't done well at all.

[STiFU]

Ok, so much for Brink then.

 

Prince of Persia was sure nice, too. I played all of the games since Ubisoft handles the merchandise and none of them was a disappointment to me, although they were pretty easy and "Warrior within" was a little too much action and too little jumping. But the Parcour in PoP will never reach the immersion of Mirror's Edge. It just feels right in that game and I absolutely cannot understand, why that game didn't sell. I still put all my hopes in a new ME game, but I am rather sceptical about it...

[stumpy]

Mirror's Edge was badly marketed well the adverts in the uk made the game look and feel crap, so I never brought it. the main selling point was you play a girl and you run around the sky.

[Baal]

I'm thinking about getting Mirrors Edge. Can anybody here tell me wether the german version can be completely switched to english and isn't cut in some way?

I could import it but it would be nice to just go the next store and just buy it there.

[STiFU]

I just wanted to post this real quick, since we were talking about the prince of persia games in this thread. All 5 games are in a bundle on steam today for only 16,25€. Just a couple of hours left I think, so you must be quick. What an awesome deal!

[jdude]

Wow it's great to see ID still profiting from their decade old work, it's too bad this wont be the case for ID Tech 5