http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/...r-brink-hunted/ Developer: Splash Damage Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Engine: id Tech 4 Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Genre: First Person Perpetual Co-Op RPG Shooter
PLOT
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The game is set in the near future on an enormous floating city called The Ark, which hovers above an area off the coast of San Francisco. The Ark was meant to house only 5,000 people but ended up having to accommodate 50,000. With this many residents, there was a lack of food, clothing, and water, and the residents became unsatisfied and formed a faction called The Resistance and demanded more of these essentials. The Ark's leaders refused, so The Resistance armed themselves to seize power and freely distribute water and food and claimed that the Ark had plenty of resources. At the outset, The Ark had little need for a security force, but the city quickly began recruitment and went on a firearm shopping spree to defend themselves against The Resistance. Now the only place on The Ark where there is any level of peace is around the capital, where the Ark's leaders are frantically trying to contact the outside world for aid. The Security thinks The Resistance is a terrorist group, and The Resistance sees Security as oppressive soldiers hired by the Ark's "leaders" to crush the Resistance. Both factions are playable.
GAMEPLAY
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Brink is a FPS with a focus on parkour-style movement. Online multiplayer servers hold up to 16 players. You can play cooperatively or competitively or against bots.
You can customize your character and buy items with experiance points, which you earn by completing objectives. The same experience points can be earned in both single-player and multiplayer.
Splash Damage developed the SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) System. By noting a player's position and predicting what he is trying to do, it lets players navigate complex environments without equally complex input.
There are four character classes: the soldier, the medic, the engineer, and the operative. The Soldier resupplies teammates and uses explosives to destroy important targets. The Engineer buffs their teammates' weapons and builds stationary turrets. The Medic heals fallen teammates and buffs their teammates' health. The Operative interrogates fallen opponents to get intel on enemy locations, performs acts of sabotage, and disguises himself as the enemy. Bethesda also claims 102 quadrillion total unique characters when factoring in minor variations.
The Squad Commander system gives players context-sensitive missions. A variety of factors -- where the player is, how good he is, his overall mission progress, etc. -- determine what the missions will be. During play both online and off-, the player can defend one of his faction's command posts or capture an enemy's command post.
This is one of the games I have been looking forward to since last year. The cooperative play, the ingenious movement system, and the huge amount of customization makes BRINK look like the sleeper hit of the year. I know most of what there is to know about the game (havnt played yet but have been reading up on it alot) been watching livestreams of leaked 360 versions and such. Any questions feel free to ask I want to compile a FAQ.
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Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 8 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core i5 @ 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.0 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 8 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 1 GB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 2900
Recommended – nVidia GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850
Universal Abilities
Spoiler!
Battle Hardened (R1)
Permanently increases your life meter by an additional pip. Stacks with any other bonuses.
Combat Intuition (R1)
Allows you to sense an unseen enemy aiming at you. Only activates if the enemy is NOT on radar, and if their crosshairs are directly on you.
Grenade Shooting (R1)
Allows you to shoot your own Frag Grenades mid-flight (or anytime before they actually explode on their normal timer).
Sense of Perspective (R1)
Snaps your view to a third-person perspective when capturing command posts or doing stationary objectives (it says "as an engineer" so i'm not sure if this applies to soldiers planting charges or if they just forgot about that). Replaces the ability to move radially around the target with the ability to rotate your camera around your character.
Sprinting Grenade (R1)
Lets you cook and throw grenades without interrupting a sprint.
Sprinting Reload (R1)
Lets you reload without interrupting a sprint.
Supply Max Increase (R1)
Permanently increases supply meter by one pip. Stacks with other buffs that do the same.
Resupply Rate Increase (R3)
Increases the rate at which your supply meter replenishes. (it says the exact amount is a 20% increase)
Silent Running (R4)
Makes your running completely silent. Normally if you are sprinting, you appear on radar up to a certain distance. This will reduce all sound you make by 80% and make it so that you only appear on radar if you fire or are spotted.
Downed Fire (R5)
Lets you shoot while incapacitated, but only with your backup weapon, and only after a 3 second delay has passed. It will also, however, reduce the amount of damage you can take between being incapacitated and dead.
Standard Soldier Kit
Basically, this is just what you get for having the soldier as a class. Allows you to do HE Charge objectives, gives the ammo buff ability, and the ability to use...
Molotov Cocktails
These explode on contact rather than on a timer, causing knockdown and direct damage if it collides with a character (about 110 dmg), and splash damage (90). Has a longer cooldown timer than the standard grenade cooldown.
Armor Piercing Ammo (R2)
Upgrades ammo that you supply yourself with to negate the effect of the Extra Kevlar buff (which is an Engineer buff perk, not simply a perk players can take) and the Kevlar Vest perk. Does not do anything else, and this buff will not apply to ammo buffs given to teammates. It completely bypasses the armor bonus Extra Kevlar offers, though, so it's a HARD COUNTER perk.
Grenade Mastery (R2)
Speeds up the grenade recharge timer by .3 seconds. Does not apply to specialty grenades, simply speeds the frag grenade and the general grenade timers.
Flashbang Grenades (R2)
Temporarily blind players who see them detonate. Teammates will not be affected unless friendly fire is on.
Scavenge (R2)
You can choose to interact with dead enemies to refill your supply meter. (NOT AMMO)
Kevlar Vest (R3)
Increases damage resistance. Mitigates damage by 10%, and Armor Piercing rounds will negate this. The Extra Kevlar buff will overwrite this, not stack with it.
Extra Magazine (R3)
Adds an extra magazine max ammo buff to your ammo buffs. Will continue to fill ammo to the new maximum if used multiple times, not stack.
Frag Blast (R4)
Increases the blast radius of frag grenades thrown by 20%. Does not apply to grenade launchers or specialty grenades.
Grenade Damage (R4)
Increases the damage of frag grenades thrown by 20%.
Satchel Charages (R5)
Remote controlled bombs plantable on any flat surface. You can place up to three and detonate them individually OR simultaneously. They can be shot, destroyed with Frag Grenades or gunfire, or disabled by EMP landmines. They are visible to everyone unlike mines. They do 160 points of damage. A good defensive option, if you can hide them well.
Medic Abilities
Spoiler!
Standard Medic Kit
Medic stuff. You can buff players' health a pip above their maximum, revive players, and heal and revive escore NPCs.
Adrenaline Boost (R2)
Buffs a teammate to ignore all damage for the next 5 seconds. Has a 60 second cooldown. The catch is, all damage ignored at the end of the 5 seconds gets inflicted all at once. You cannot administer this to yourself.
Increase Supplies (R2)
Increases the length of your supply meter by one pip.
Metabolism (R2)
Will buff a teammate with double health regeneration as long as they stay alive. Cannot administer this buff to yourself.
Transfer Supplies (R2)
Refills a teammate's supply meter at the cost of your own meter.
Speed Boost (R3)
Increases a teammate's sprint speed by 10% for 15 seconds.
Improved Increase Supplies (R3)
Will increase your supply meter by an additional pip, as long as you also have Increase Supplies equipped.
Improved Life Buff (R4)
Increases your health buff to add two pips instead of one.
Self Resurrection (R4)
Allows you to revive yourself (with 100 health on revival). Has a 2 minute cooldown.
Lazarus Grenade (R5)
Revives all players within the grenade's radius. Has a one minute cooldown.
Engineer Abilities
Spoiler!
Standard Engineer Kit
Engineers complete construction and repair objectives, disarm enemy HE Charges and Hack Boxes (what kind of name is this ), and buff their teammates' weapon damage (by 18 percent by default). They can also plant mines and defuse enemy mines.
This seems to be the way to go if you're super into side-objectives, because look at all that junk.
Landmine
You can plant mines on flat surfaces, if you plant an additional mine, your original mine will disappear. Your mine's status will be displayed on your HUD so you will know if it is disarmed, tripped, or destroyed.
Extra Kevlar (R2)
Buffs teammates to give them 10% damage reduction. Cannot administer this to yourself.
Gear Head (R2)
Increases the speed at which you build and repair turrets, deploy mines, and build MG nests. Upgrading and repairing is 30% faster, while building and deploying is 20% faster.
Light Turret (R2)
Allows you to place a light turret, which fires at a medium fire rate and does 10 damage per shot. It detects a small area in front of it, but will continue to track enemies that run out of this range as long as they are in view.
Nerves of Steel (R2)
Increases the speed at which you disarm enemy explosives (not sure if this applies to HE charge objectives) by 30 percent.
Command Post Upgrade (R3)
Allows you to upgrade any command post to double its effects on your team. This is done by simply going into the class change/loadout change menu, and keeping it there while a progress bar fills. It will persist until the command post is taken by the enemy team.
Medium Turret (R3)
Lets you place a medium turret, which has a 33% higher fire rate than the light turret, with the same damage per shot. You must take Light Turret as a prerequisite.
Extra Landmine (R4)
Allows you to have two landmines active at once, instead of just one. If you try to place a third, the first one you placed will be removed.
Improved Weapon Buff (R4)
Allows you to further buff your teammate's attack power. Increases your attack power buff to an extra 33% damage instead of the original 18.
Gatling Turret (R5)
Allows you to place a gatling turret that has a 58 percent higher fire rate. Damage is still the same, and it requires the other two turret perks as prerequisites.
Operative Abilities
Spoiler!
Standard Operative Kit
Allows standard operative abilities including completion of hack objectives, spotting enemy landmines by ironsighting over them, and disguising as enemy players.
Comms Hack (R2)
Allows you to extract tactical information from fallen enemies. When completed, will reveal enemy positions on the map for five seconds, with a 20 second cooldown between uses. Comms Hacking a downed enemy will prevent them from using the Downed Fire Ability.
Firewall Command Post (R2)
Allows operatives to upgrade command posts to require them to spend 25% more time on a capture attempt. Activated by entering the command post menu and staying there until a meter fills.
Homing Beacon (R2)
Allows you to place a red outline on an enemy for six seconds by iron sighting them. Can be used while disguised, and will be viewable by all teammates, even through walls. Will also reveal enemy operatives in disguise. Enemy operatives can also do the same to you, so be sure to look out for this one. It doesn't specify whether or not the victim gets any sort of notification when he's spotted, or if this has a cooldown.
Sticky Bomb (R2)
Lets you throw a powerful grenade (500 points to the person it is stuck to, and 120 splash) which sticks to any enemy it touches and can only be removed by their teammates. Enemies can still destroy the grenade by shooting at it while it is still on the ground. Has a 20 second cooldown.
Caltrop Grenades (R3)
Lets you throw a grenade that scatter sharp spikes that damage enemies who cross over them, unless they are moving slowly or stationary. They will not hurt teammates (presumably even with friendly fire on), and remain in the world for the length of the ability's cooldown, which is 30 seconds. Damage is calculated at 5 points per spike, to a maximum of 25 damage per second. More damage is inflicted if the victim is moving quicker (i.e. light enemies sprinting will take a lot of damage, while a heavy who is ironsighted and walking will take much less).
Hack Turret (R3)
Lets you reprogram an enemy turret to be friendly and owned by yourself. Approach from behind the turret to increase your chances of a hack (I suppose this decreases the required hack time?).
Control Turret (R4)
Allows you to take remote control of a friendly turret. To initiate control, you place a device on the turret, and then activate the ability again. You can take control from anywhere on a map, but you are helpless while controlling it. You will view the turret from a first person perspective, and (presumably) you can turn it to any angle it is capable of.
Cortex Bomb (R4)
This is a bomb. You are the bomb. When incapacitated, you have the option to detonate a bomb implanted into your head that will explode on a 1.25 second fuse, and will do 220 points of splash damage within its radius.
EMP Grenade (R5)
Allows you to throw a grenade that effectively disables any enemy turrets, mines, and player radars within its radius. It will also slow the progress of enemy hacks and HE Charges (by 50 percent). It will even disable the team-wide bonuses an enemy-held command post is giving. It has a cooldown of 30 seconds between uses, and its duration depends on what is being EMP'd.
Sticky Grenades will be delayed by 1 second.
Turrets, Command Posts, Cortex Bombs, mines, Satchel Charges, PDAs (for any sort of hacking), Hack Boxes, and radars will all be disabled for 10 seconds
Soldier's HE Charges will be delayed by 30 seconds.
It will also slow down maintenance bots for a short time.
From the thousands of customization options, to the streamlined online and offline coop, to the balance that the ET team is known for Id say this is going to be worth 60 bucks.
05-08-2011, 02:58 AM
BRINK PS3/360/PC: Fight for the Ark tomorrow! 
Official release May 10th
READ MY SECOND POST FOR THE REST OF THE ABILITIES
Linear Mode
