Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Update: LulzSec have released what they claim to be everything they took from Bethesda, including source code and admin passwords, except for the 200,000 user details which they say they’re leaving out because, “We actually like this company.” (They also claim to have broken into senate.gov, and paste this as proof. That should bring them some dark-glassed attention.)

LulzSec, who have claimed responsibility for many of the gaming hacks of late, have announced they’ve had access to Bethesda/Zenimax’s data for a couple of months, and are planning on releasing details today. They’ve been winding up BethSoft all day, threatening to release details of a number of games, including Brink. However, in their usual way, they are suggesting they’ll go easy on them because “we love Call of Cthulhu.” They rather spuriously suggest this is motivated by a lack of details on Skyrim, but even if they received some, plan “to embarrass you anyway.”

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UPDATE: This is out some time “this month” rather than “this week”. Sorry about that.

Ah, while we’re over at Besthesda blog, there are also some details on Brink’s forthcoming DLC which raises the level cap, adds new maps, and a bunch of other stuff including a “Sad Punk” outfit. I’ve posted the rest of the details below, just in case you are scared of going to other, lesser websites. You’re right to be scared. We’re not like the others.

Anyway, the DLC should be out this week. Relatedly: Brink is still not available on Steam in the UK, for some reason. Why is that? We just don’t know. I’ve asked Bethesda for an answer, and I’ll update this if/when we get one.
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I miss demos. I miss them so much. I wouldn’t be here, writing these words, if it weren’t for demos: how else could a sport-fearing, skinny young misery with only the slightest pittance for pocketmoney have found his way into playing video games? Once, my bedroom was littered with floppy discs, each and every one of which had at some point led to me standing outside a game shop, counting pennies with a quivering hand, praying I had enough.

Granted, magazines were the gateway drug back then, when there was no way to watch a trailer or scour Facebook for new screenshots, but later in life the web too seemed an infinite fount of sampled digital delights, and led to any number of purchases of those games that seemed the most absorbing – or simply because the demo ended, apparently expertly, at a point which left me urgently hungry for more. Those days are gone.
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Bethblog had the details on this late last week, and it looks promising for the PC version of Brink, with fixes to the server browser, the dedicated server, and some minor bugs. The weirdo sound bug on certain maps has been fixed, and also: “Graphical performance has been improved, especially when using Ambient Occlusion. We’ve worked closely with both AMD and NVIDIA, and you should see performance and stability improvements in future driver revisions from both parties.” No exact date yet, but it should be this week. I’ll make sure I schedule games on the servers when it’s all updated so we can take a look at the improvements.

We’ve got a UK server in London and a US server in Chicago. And we’re going to have some evenings manshoot on there. More details below.
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Playing Brink this weekend made me worry. But not about the usual things. I was worried that there would never be another way to experience the details of its world – no possibility for further exploration of the Ark and its precarious situation. This isn’t something I normally think about when faced with a multiplayer shooter. I certainly had no interest in finding out more about the world of Quake III, or Battlefield 2, because nothing in them really inferred anything outside those isolated battlegrounds. Their conflicts were their world entire. Not so with Brink, and, now that I come to think of it, a few other worlds, too. I begin to wonder whether game fictions might be too readily disposable.
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Brink is here, and we’ve been playing it. We’ve even got some servers up. But what do Alec, Jim, and Quintin actually think about it? Let’s find out.

Jim: Brink then, the long-awaited multiplayer shooter from British devs Splash Damage. Everyone had a bit of a play?

Quintin: I have shot so many men.
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Brink is out now in the US and apparently out in the UK tomorrow. We’ve spent the last couple of days playing it, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for our full critical verdict. Nevertheless I thought I’d say a few things tonight, including venting my frustration with a critical bug, and providing you with our server details for US and UK-based Brink servers. Read on for a mixed bag of information!

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Bethesda’s sent VG247 some stats relating to Brink prior to the game’s release one week from now. There’s no actual story here, but these numbers are too mad to not post. I guess you could argue that they’re a statement of precisely how much work goes into the modern videogame, but instead I’m going to simply raise both my arms into the air, start spacking them every which way like a bugged ragdoll animation and scream the following:

Brink has 102,247,681,536,000,000 possible characters variations. And that’s just the start.
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Two more Brink videos have arisen from the crackling fronds of the interweb, detailing the classes and the HUD of this objective-based future-combat extravaganza. I’ve posted them below. Of the two, I would say the Classes one is worth watching, because it shows the most important mechanics, like how you can change classes in game (without dying) and how many of the objectives depends on the abilities of specific classes to be completed.

Anyway, that’s enough videos for now. Let’s get to the game, please. Thanks, Slow March Of Time!
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Just two weeks to go. And that means a last gasp newsburst. We’ve got two more feature-elucidating videos below, which talk more about objectives and general gamefoolery. We’ve also got some clarification about dedicated servers. Anyone will be able to run a dedicated server, in the tradition of multiplayer FPS games since year dot: “The Brink Standalone Dedicated Server will be available for download via Steam prior to release. Once the server is available, you can simply browse to the Tools tab in your Steam client and grab it from there.”
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