Brink Interviews Make Weekends Better

(badman) #1

A new story entry has been added:
[drupal=723]Brink Interviews Make Weekends Better[/drupal]

We’re told weekends and Brink interviews are a winning combination, so we’ve assembled an all-new armada of developer Q&As for you.
Our friends at Rock, Paper, Shotgun managed to restrain Brink’s lead writer Ed ‘BongoBoy’ Stern for some 25 minutes to ask him all manner of questions about the game and its recent appearance at Eurogamer Expo. The resulting chatfest is very entertaining indeed and can be enjoyed in both audio and video flavors.
Elsewhere, Ed hurled words in the general direction of Zo Knows Gaming, shedding light on the game’s two factions, the reason behind Brink being pushed to Spring 2011, the worst-ever thing to happen during development, and more.
Next on the interview platter is Brink’s Lead Designer Neil ‘Exedore’ Alphonso, who recently had a long chat with Games On Net. The Q&A covers how Brink came to be, accessibility vs hardcore fans, weapon customisation, as well as contentious design decisions.
Finally, PS3 Attitude continues their series of “Brink diaries”, chatting with both Brink’s Creative Director Richard “Rahdo” Ham and Lead Writer Ed Stern about all manner of Ark-related subjects. The latest installments cover getting single player gamers online and subsequently converting them into proper online gamers.
If you’ve spotted any other recent Brink coverage, please post it up in the comments.

(tokamak) #2

The story is certainly different. We make a point of showing two different versions of events. For example, in the Container City map , the Security are told that the Resistance are developing a viral bio weapon; the Resistance are told it’s a vaccine. You have to experience both sides of the conflict to start working out what’s really going on.

Is that so? My impression earlier was that the truth (for example the bio-weapon/vaccine) would simply be impossible to know.

(Qhullu) #3

It’s pretty much universally true nowadays though. to get the absolute best the multiplayer fps genre has to offer gameplaywise, you need to play very old games. and pretty much everyone who knows better will agree. the problem (or the saving grace depending on who you ask) is that the overwhelming majority of the audience doesn’t know better.

which is why Brink is my most anticipated incoming game. while many parts of it seem designed to lower the skill ceiling so that the difference in effectiveness between a beginner and someone good at it isn’t as big as for example in Quake Live. some things do seem very nice.

the thing that bothers me is that these interesting things haven’t really been emphasized well enough (for example you really should show the true potential for movement in the smart system), so the opinion of old school people outside this and Bethesda forum is overwhelmingly that Brink will be yet another boring console port.

(H0RSE) #4

the thing that bothers me is that these interesting things haven’t really been emphasized well enough (for example you really should show the true potential for movement in the smart system), so the opinion of old school people outside this and Bethesda forum is overwhelmingly that Brink will be yet another boring console port.

Through all the ambitious goals Brink has set out to do, from the SMART system, to merging genres, to trying to make the game fun and playable for ALL players (not just oldschool, hardcore, PC gamers) to all the extra’s that appeal to players, like customization of characters and weapons and abilities, not to mention bringing the level of class-based, team objective gameplay that nobody can bring like SD, and all you have to say is - “meh. just another console port. If it doesn’t play like a circa mid 90’s, early 2000 game, it’s worthless.” Games, like people, evolve, and just because navigating, selecting tools, performing actions and overall just playing the game, doesn’t require a degree in mechanical engineering to perform and/or master, doesn’t make it “just another console port.”

You still need to know how to aim manually.
You still need to kill other players manually.
You still need to complete objectives and use class abilities manually.
You still need to navigate/move on your own.
You still need to understand how and what makes a good player.

Seeing how Brink is bringing a lot of new and different things to the table, I don’t thing the “skill ceiling” has been lowered, just changed - Players will still need to be just as skillful, just at different things. Since the fundamental aspects of a shooter are completely intact, I think the problem is that you are basing your skill ceiling on all the wrong things.

(tokamak) #5

Not biting.

(H0RSE) #6

I wasn’t expecting you to. Rational thought and compromising aren’t your strong points :slight_smile:

(tokamak) #7

Still not biting.

(Mad Hatter) #8

Splash Damage, you guys are geniuses in so many ways. Not only are you making Brink into possibly the most imaginative FPS ever, but you’ve also found a way to make every word I read about the game more anticipation-inducing than the last.

It’s uncanny, honestly.:cool:

(3Suns) #9

I haven’t read all the interviews listed yet, but those PS3 “Diaries” are fantastic!

For me, it isn’t that SD is good at “selling” the game, it is that to every thing they say, I find myself excitedly saying “YES!”. There simply is no doubt in my mind that SD loves games, plays games, and wants their game to be the best of everything anyone has ever learned about FPSes so far, and then greatly innovative beyond that.

(LyndonL) #10

I personally think the “lowering the skill” argument is rubbish aswell. It doesn’t take skill to press 5 to bring out a tool to use it before you press F or whatever you have bound. (As per your argument Horse re: evolving - I wonder how many of you on a day to day basis catch, skin, clean and then cook your meat… or who simply pulls it out of the freezer and defrosts it. What is the better system? Better in terms of higher quality, or more practical?)

Anyway, I wonder if any of the devs find anything annoying in the game that is made to make the game more accessible. As in, do the Devs think that having a multipurpose automatic use key is crap and only have to put it in the game to make it more accessible?

I doubt they’d ever admit to not liking anything they’ve put in though :wink:

(H0RSE) #11

[QUOTE=LyndonL;246135]I personally think the “lowering the skill” argument is rubbish aswell. It doesn’t take skill to press 5 to bring out a tool to use it before you press F or whatever you have bound. (As per your argument Horse re: evolving - I wonder how many of you on a day to day basis catch, skin, clean and then cook your meat… or who simply pulls it out of the freezer and defrosts it. What is the better system? Better in terms of higher quality, or more practical?)
[/QUOTE]
I demand they bring washboards back! Washing Machines are a noobfest. Washing your clothes in the creek behind your house, with handmade soap, is the equivalent to promod.

(tokamak) #12

It does take more skill, and I’m not talking here about controls here, but just the mere act of taking out the tools before you start using them AND be effective at that means that you need to judge the situation well to see if it’s worth premeditating an action like this. That’s why I’m in favour of pre-equiping the tools, it rewards players who can think ahead.

The people who use the ‘more’ button-pressing as an argument are just masochists and don’t seem to understand this point either.

(Qhullu) #13

it isn’t really about features and such though, it’s all about moving and shooting and doing things “on the fly”. when an unforeseen thing happens, how well that thing turns out for you depends on exactly how and how fast you react. that even if superman himself played it, if someone reacted faster, more calmly and smarter, they’d beat up superman every time. “modern” games put limits on what people can do, and that is annoying for people who hit those limits. it’s as if StarCraft had an “actions per minute” limit, it would make no difference to the vast majority of people, but it would be annoying for people limited by it.

(Offensive Person) #14

For all of you people that think the SMART system is such a bad thing; my advice is don’t buy Brink when it comes out and let all of us people who think it’s cool have fun playing it without being subjected to your whining.

(tokamak) #15

We’re not talking about smart.

(Cankor) #16

As a player with reduced mobility in my left hand (hitting the number keys tends to be difficult at the best of times for me) on the one hand I’m really excited to have a workable one button does all use key. On the other hand I’m worried about how it will work. Things that work great for consoles do not always work great for the PC and no amount of rationalizing (Rhaldo said just bind the nade throw to your pinky for instance) will make it otherwise.

It is what it is now and we just have to have faith (much easier considering we’re talking about SD here) that it will all work fine and actually be an improvement over the existing system.

edit: side note, there seems to be some kind of malware connected with the links from the PS3 Attitude article back to the fomer articles. I get an IE virus warning page, looks like a page telling me my computer is infected with 'click this button" link to fix. So be careful.

(DarkangelUK) #17

Serious question is serious, what console games have a 1 button for many things setup in the same way Brink does? We all know how people like to throw around Wolfenstein, but i’ve never seen another game mentioned otherwise. Given Wolf was developed for all 3 platforms as well, what game did people use as an example when it was announced Wolfenstein was doing that?

(Senethro) #18

[QUOTE=tokamak;246157]It does take more skill, and I’m not talking here about controls here, but just the mere act of taking out the tools before you start using them AND be effective at that means that you need to judge the situation well to see if it’s worth premeditating an action like this. That’s why I’m in favour of pre-equiping the tools, it rewards players who can think ahead.

The people who use the ‘more’ button-pressing as an argument are just masochists and don’t seem to understand this point either.[/QUOTE]

Except, y’know, pre-equipping isn’t going to start a canned animation faster indicating you haven’t understood the game.

(tokamak) #19

It does, it cuts out the ‘getting tools out’ animation.

(Voxie) #20

You’re making an avalanche out of a snowflake. This whole debacle reminds me of the outcry some Starcraft players expressed about the maximum group size being increased in Starcraft II. The hypothetical iota of skill depth lost simply isn’t enough of a drawback to outweigh the benefits a streamlined interface provides.

To touch the topic at hand, the Brink diaries are indeed top notch and it’s certainly nice to read something going more in-depth than the numerous cookie-cutter interviews (which of course serve their purpose, but bare little significance for us already familiar with the game).