Zero Punctuation: Brink
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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Um, Yahtzee, no disrespect but, don't "Lefty troublemakers" SUPPORT inefficient union workers that you criticized in your Minecraft review?
I'm probably the first to point out that the gun sounds In BRINK are pretty dang awesome; they sound viscous, Security weapons sound clean and clear while Resistance guns sound more rusty, and Splash damage certainly didn't take shortcuts on the silencers either like other FPSs (I'm looking at you two CoD & Combat Arms).
Yes, I like gun sounds, I like sounds in general. Deal with it.
Staying on topic here, I enjoy the game, the bots haven't really been too much of a problem for me, and all the weapon and body types seam balanced. Speaking of bots; to all those who are saying that the bots in BRINK are incredibly stupid and that they have to do everything themselves, I should point out that I HAVE COMPLETED THE ENTIRE 'CAMPAIGN' IN SINGLEPAYER (All on normal, a couple on hard) WHILST ONLY USING THE SOLDIER CLASS. You just need a bit of patience... and make sure the area is clear.
And I'd probably have to disagree with Yahtzee when it comes to the early classes;
-Soldiers never have to worry about running low on ammo, and they get to throw a few Molotovs every now and then
-Engineer get to buff team mate's weapons (a big thing with sniper rifles), and place mines on the battlefield (I swear those things are worse than Claymores...)
-Operatives get to go undercover and perform wedgies to the opposing team in the form of a shotgun blast to the back of the head.
Yes, I like gun sounds, I like sounds in general. Deal with it.
Staying on topic here, I enjoy the game, the bots haven't really been too much of a problem for me, and all the weapon and body types seam balanced. Speaking of bots; to all those who are saying that the bots in BRINK are incredibly stupid and that they have to do everything themselves, I should point out that I HAVE COMPLETED THE ENTIRE 'CAMPAIGN' IN SINGLEPAYER (All on normal, a couple on hard) WHILST ONLY USING THE SOLDIER CLASS. You just need a bit of patience... and make sure the area is clear.
And I'd probably have to disagree with Yahtzee when it comes to the early classes;
-Soldiers never have to worry about running low on ammo, and they get to throw a few Molotovs every now and then
-Engineer get to buff team mate's weapons (a big thing with sniper rifles), and place mines on the battlefield (I swear those things are worse than Claymores...)
-Operatives get to go undercover and perform wedgies to the opposing team in the form of a shotgun blast to the back of the head.
Brink isn't made by Bethesda! They just get the game from the developer to your local store. Well talk after Skyrim has been released...
Oh Yahtzee, I beg thee, you ask why people have to grind for unlocking items?
1) Raising playtime for the box cover
2) Arguably giving the player a sense of achievement and growth.[footnote]Tho the intelligent unlocking process that doesn't incorporate grind, especially not for every fucking character you create (concerning the Abilities, not weapons or clothes). Instead the reason why you're not given all the toys at once is because it's an implemented tutorial that makes sure you know how to play with the normal toys before giving you more and more complicated ones. In shooters with different classes this also means you need to learn your role and general strategy.[/footnote]
3) There are actually people that reaffirm their sense of whether they had fun with a game via their play length. Curious, isn't it?
It's really mind-boggling how much Brink tried to copy TF2 without understanding it, especially considering the stylization. The TF2's character stylization works well because it works together with the world stylization and the humor while Brink just stylizes the body a bit (most strongly the head, but those hardly count to the silhouette - hence TF2's easy-to-read-silhouettes haven't been strongly affected by hats... oh Dapper's Topper, you *****).
Brink took itself totally seriously. What's the point of cartoony proportions there?
Not to mention the frikkin color filter ruins your outfits color composition.
I consider myself really lucky since I played it at a friend's. Since TF2 is slowly going down the drain[footnote]Not just because of the artstyle. Community Contributions lead to Valve first picking a model and then thinking up (boring) stats, which are often +stat1 -stat2. Community Contributors orientate their models around already existing ones, which means variety both goes down (except in melee weapons - everything can be one) in style (harder to identify) and in concept. That means we won't get stuff like the Wrangler that's incomparable to any other item in use and looks. And those weapons are the most fun ones. Valve also doesn't have the heart to remove already added items, so QA suffers even more. They can't correct mistakes as easily as before. Tier 2 set items didn't have hats as a requirement anymore because Valve realized it had been a mistake, but Tier 1 still has hats as a requirement because some players payed dearly for the hat because of the bonus. Talk about digging your own grave.[/footnote] I had hoped for a clone with less Mannconomy-Update-induced shite. Brink had more customization, true, but at least it all fit somewhat well together, as opposed to... no, I can't take another shot. Anyway, I underestimated the power of silhouettes once more and I tip my hat to the original TF2 design team.
Because there's no way they're still working on it.
1) Raising playtime for the box cover
2) Arguably giving the player a sense of achievement and growth.[footnote]Tho the intelligent unlocking process that doesn't incorporate grind, especially not for every fucking character you create (concerning the Abilities, not weapons or clothes). Instead the reason why you're not given all the toys at once is because it's an implemented tutorial that makes sure you know how to play with the normal toys before giving you more and more complicated ones. In shooters with different classes this also means you need to learn your role and general strategy.[/footnote]
3) There are actually people that reaffirm their sense of whether they had fun with a game via their play length. Curious, isn't it?
It's really mind-boggling how much Brink tried to copy TF2 without understanding it, especially considering the stylization. The TF2's character stylization works well because it works together with the world stylization and the humor while Brink just stylizes the body a bit (most strongly the head, but those hardly count to the silhouette - hence TF2's easy-to-read-silhouettes haven't been strongly affected by hats... oh Dapper's Topper, you *****).
Brink took itself totally seriously. What's the point of cartoony proportions there?
Not to mention the frikkin color filter ruins your outfits color composition.
I consider myself really lucky since I played it at a friend's. Since TF2 is slowly going down the drain[footnote]Not just because of the artstyle. Community Contributions lead to Valve first picking a model and then thinking up (boring) stats, which are often +stat1 -stat2. Community Contributors orientate their models around already existing ones, which means variety both goes down (except in melee weapons - everything can be one) in style (harder to identify) and in concept. That means we won't get stuff like the Wrangler that's incomparable to any other item in use and looks. And those weapons are the most fun ones. Valve also doesn't have the heart to remove already added items, so QA suffers even more. They can't correct mistakes as easily as before. Tier 2 set items didn't have hats as a requirement anymore because Valve realized it had been a mistake, but Tier 1 still has hats as a requirement because some players payed dearly for the hat because of the bonus. Talk about digging your own grave.[/footnote] I had hoped for a clone with less Mannconomy-Update-induced shite. Brink had more customization, true, but at least it all fit somewhat well together, as opposed to... no, I can't take another shot. Anyway, I underestimated the power of silhouettes once more and I tip my hat to the original TF2 design team.
Because there's no way they're still working on it.
The key here really is that Bethesda, like many Game Developers, are well on their way down the slippery slope that comes with money and a few big titles in their pants. Unfortunately, just like cars, once a manufacturer puts a couple of nice titles out there and makes a few quid there are two inevitable outcomes. The first is that they get hungry for more cash, the second is that they will shorten deadlines and push more and more weak titles out onto the market to cash in on their "Badge value".
Bethesda have pretty much existed off the back of Oblivion, and Fallout 3 and pretty much continue to do so.
Bethesda have pretty much existed off the back of Oblivion, and Fallout 3 and pretty much continue to do so.
Aww man, I was hoping Brink would be kinda Timesplitters-y...
It looks kinda Timesplitters-y, I get that feeling from the trailers anyhow.
It looks kinda Timesplitters-y, I get that feeling from the trailers anyhow.
Lol. That wasn't a bad review...
But the 'staring at a blank screen to unlock the start button' bit reminded me of a couple of flash games that purposely messed with things like that.
The most relevant being:
http://armorgames.com/play/3955/upgrade-complete
And of course, on a slightly different tack:
http://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked
Heh.
It's fun when someone has implemented one of Yahtzee's throwaway comments...
Even (or perhaps because) it's intentional satire, they're actually still kind of fun.
But the 'staring at a blank screen to unlock the start button' bit reminded me of a couple of flash games that purposely messed with things like that.
The most relevant being:
http://armorgames.com/play/3955/upgrade-complete
And of course, on a slightly different tack:
http://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked
Heh.
It's fun when someone has implemented one of Yahtzee's throwaway comments...
Even (or perhaps because) it's intentional satire, they're actually still kind of fun.
.
Not entirely sure why some people hate on first-person platforming. Metroid Prime did it quite well, and Mirror's Edge wasn't bad at all (just occasionally very buggy).
It CAN be done right.
It CAN be done right.
I lulz'd.HankMan said:
This does create a paradox though. You don't usually see games like TF2 get ripped off, much less THIS badly. I mean, Mario Kart can get ripped off and no one would give a shit (but then again it's Mario). Then when shit like this happens, you really gotta start wondering what's happening to the games industry.