Brink

[jyoung]

Latest Brink news from their blog:

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/0...te-on-updates/

Xbox 360

We’ve been hard at work investigating the lag issues some players of the Xbox 360 version of Brink have reported. We’ve now completed modifications to improve network performance and will be rolling these out in a title update for the game.

This update has been submitted to Microsoft, and we expect it to be available next week.

This title update is also going to fix an isolated freezing issue reported by some German players who should no longer experience that problem once the update has been installed.

PC

A game update for the PC version of Brink is in final testing and we’re planning to release it early next week. This update contains a host of fixes and improvements including the following:

We’ve identified the cause of sound dropping out on certain maps when playing networked games for a prolonged amount of time. This will no longer occur.

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.

The server browser is tweaked in this update, as well; among other things, a new filter allows you to display only servers with a certain number of players on them, and full servers will no longer be filtered out completely.

There are some smaller fixes for minor issues including your character’s voice occasionally resetting when deleting another character, and a memory leak when alt-tabbing out of the game.

Finally, the dedicated server is set to get an update at the same time as the main game, which will result in improved CPU performance. We’ve protected certain cvars that previously allowed server admins to accidentally break objectives involving NPCs.

The full changelog will be released alongside the update, so keep an eye out for that.

PlayStation 3

With PSN back online, we’re able to resume multiplayer testing on the PlayStation 3. We’re preparing to bring the changes in the upcoming Xbox 360 title update to the PlayStation 3 version of Brink quickly and we expect to have it out next week. Stay tuned!

In the Meantime…

Until these updates roll out, here’s what you can do to improve your multiplayer experience if you encounter problems:

Check your opponent’s network connection / ping:

One player with very low bandwidth connections can have a negative impact on the overall network performance of the game for the team. You are able to view other player’s connection quality easily by viewing the scoreboard and determining if this is the likely cause of lag. To view other player’s connection quality, press Start during a match and select the Scoreboard option to display all other players. Other human player bandwidth values are shown on the right hand side of their name as a traffic light value. Anyone that is showing orange or red means they have a bad connection and could potentially be causing the match to become disrupted…

Note: You can also view the opposing team scoreboard since the problem may be with a player on the opposite team. To do this press R1 for PS3 or RB for XBOX 360 while on the scoreboard

Should you see more players showing RED than GREEN on their status, you should exit this game, return to the main menu and join another game on a new connection. The matchmaking system will place you in a more suitable game.

Finally, if you have the German Xbox 360 version of Brink and are experiencing freezing issues, you can use the following workaround until the title update is released:

Turn the Dialogue Volume down completely. You can do this from the main menu or by pressing Start during a match and selecting:

Optionen > Audio > Lautstärke der Dialoge

Move the dialogue volume slider all the way to the left

That’s it for this blog update. More will be coming your way, and in the meantime, we’ll see you online!

[Diff-chan]

Nobody cares.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I do.

[Tain]

I do. This game is pretty fun.

[jyoung]

If you haven't unlocked EMP grenades for the Operative class yet, please do!

They make the hacking objectives 100000x easier by disabling all turrets and landmines for a bit.

[jyoung]

Finally made it to level 20!

I unlocked the satchel charge for the soldier and the lazerus grenade for the medic. Soldier still kind of sucks even with the satchel, but the medic is beastly once you max him out.

Then I rerolled my character to see what a maxed out covert ops would be like, and he is definitely my new favorite class! Hacking turrets, hacking dead bodies for radar, blowing your corpse up and taking enemies with you to the grave, spikes you can throw on the floor, sticky grenades that are basically proximity mines. This guy has it all!

I think I'm going to take away all the shit I put in the worthless soldier and just build a medic/covert ops guy, with the leftovers in engineer.

[jyoung]

Two overlooked abilities I've been using a lot lately:

-- Firewalling command posts as covert ops

-- Upgrading command posts as engineer

If your team can capture and hold a health command post with the two-bar upgrade, it's a huge advantage! I was on a team earlier today that had the two-bar health command post buffs and a medic in the field dealing out two-bar health boosts.

Running around with four extra health bars, our team was pretty much untouchable!

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Whoa the update looks nice and beefy.
http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/0...s-site-update/

New Maps

- Founders’ Tower – The revolution finally reaches the island’s iconic spire and takes the battle for the Ark to dizzying heights.

- Labs – Venture into the depths of the Ark’s original research and development laboratories, a submerged high-tech facility so far untouched by the civil war.

New Player Abilities

- UAV – This stealthy and lethal device allows Operatives to automatically mark nearby enemies on their radar. For more explosive fun, they can even take direct control of the UAV and detonate it near unsuspecting foes.

- Napalm Grenade – Soldiers can use this new grenade to cover an area in a sea of deadly flames.

- Pyro Mine – Engineers can plant these mines and leave enemies in the epicenter of a massive napalm explosion.

- Field Regen Unit – Medics can deploy these units to increase the health regeneration of any nearby teammates.

- Tactical Scanner – This universal ability allows players to reveal the active buffs of their opponents, allowing them to pick off enemies more strategically.

New Weapon Attachments

- Bayonets – Gain the edge in melee combat and cause extra damage with these deadly blades.

- Weapon Shields – Take cover from enemy fire and prevent headshot bonus damage behind riot-style shields.

New Character Outfits

- The Sad Punk – Add a touch of Steampunk to your Resistance character.

- The Limey – Bring order to the Ark with this outfit inspired by traditional European police.

In addition to these updates, we’re happy to let you know that the updates we described last week will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this weekend.

[jyoung]

So lag update this weekend, then the stats site goes live Tuesday, and in June we get a butt-load of free DLC and the level cap goes up to 24. Fuck yeah!

This game just gets better and better the more I play it. So many intricacies to the maps and so many different ways to approach the task at hand.

[jyoung]

Patch is out now on PS3 and PC. Maybe later today for 360 users.

Brink's worldwide sales numbers after 2 weeks:

360 - 493,231 copies
PS3 - 200,000 copies

So about 700,000 total.

Not bad for a new IP, though it still has a ways to go to catch Homefront (1,141,827 for 360 and 570,000 for PS3).