We Be Rollin'

Lot's going on at the moment.  I've got a secret project in the works that *should* be making an appearance soon.  Aside from that, we're now into the busiest period for work and I'm still finding time to rock out.

That's right, last weekend was Sonisphere which was amazing.  With Diamond Head, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica on the Friday night the rest of the acts that weekend were really going to have to up their game.  Metallica put on a typically impressive show that didn't disappoint... although I've seen them play even better in the past.

Saturday was a little odd with some relatively 'lighter' acts thrown into the mix ending with... Biffy Clyro as the headliner?! This is a METAL festival right?  In all honesty I had no interest in seeing them so when the heavens opened and we were getting soaked through to the skin we ducked out and hit an all-you-can eat Chinese restaurant.  Damn we're rock 'n roll.  Fortunately there were a few acts that were still worth seeing... although I think the highlight of Saturday for me was Richard Cheese with his half-hour of lounge-singer metal covers.

Sunday was pretty awesome with the likes of Motorhead, Airbourne, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and... BILL BAILEY!  House of Pain played a reasonable set but no-one really showed an interest until they played 'Jump Around'.  Motorhead were as loud as ever although it loses some of the impact where you're not in an enclosed area.  Airbourne were as energetic and amazing as always... Joel O'Keefe (their lead singer/guitarist) ensuring the crowd went wild by climbing up on top of the Saturn Stage to play a quick solo.  The guy is crazy but we wouldn't want it any other way!  Not being a particular fan of Limp Bizkit they really surprised me and were definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.  Bill Bailey was as awesome as you'd expect him to be... although he did suffer from some sound mixing issue (as did a few acts I saw on the Saturn Stage).

All in all it was an amazing weekend... spoilt only by the fact it was gone 5am before we were back home in bed and had to be up for work at 7am.  Next time I'll remember to take the Monday off!

Artificial Intelligence?

If you are at all interested in Brink, you've probably read quite a lot of comments about it so far.  The vocal minority (as far as I can tell) appear to be rather unhappy Xbox 360 owners getting some pretty bad lag when attempting to play online. I don't think the PC version has suffered from quite so many issues but it certainly wasn't problem free.  For that reason, despite starting this post some time ago, I've held off finishing it while numerous patches have been released to give the game a fair shot.

Splash Damage have been rather good in terms of getting patches out there and communicating with the players.  Personally, I've not had any issues other than some rather shocking AI.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... 

Let's start with the simple fact that Brink is good... really good... and it's different.  Heavily reliant on objectives and team work, it feels like a cross between Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.  Run around by yourself and you're not going to last very long but stick with your team mates, especially if they are taking the time to 'buff' each other, and you can be an unstoppable machine.  Compared to Quake Wars or Enemy Territory, this feels a lot tighter both in terms of the quality of the game and the gameplay itself.

The graphics, while not cutting edge, are good and the stylised art direction works well.  There have been a few complaints about the lack of female characters but I'm not sure the elongated faces and features would lend themselves very well to the female form.

There has obviously been quite a lot of attention given to the sound as well.  After listening to it being discussed in one of the Bethesda podcast, I can't help but notice the difference in sounds when aiming down the iron sight... and I think it's this attention to detail that really sells the game and, if I'm honest, something I've almost come to expect from anything coming out of the Bethesda camp.

As for the much hyped customisation, it's mixed bag.  The character customisation is ok; Your face and colour are picked when you first start the character and then these can't be changed.  I was a little disappointed to find that you can only pick your face from a selection and, while I understand why, it would have been good to have a wider range or some control over some of the facial features.  Also, while there are quite a few pieces of clothing to be unlocked, I found that once I'd picked out an outfit I was reasonably happy with, I didn't really feel any need to go back and change it (although I did always check once I'd unlocked a new piece).  The weapon customisation felt very similar, although there are obvious benefits and penalties for fitting certain attachments.

My problems with the game are all fairly minor issues, but ones that perhaps more testing or a fresh eye might have avoided.  The weapon selection, for example, is desperately in need of some way to compare different weapons and a choice of selection screen; the current selection screen gets very cluttered once you've unlocked everything.  Maybe the ability to filter by type of weapon might help.  The friendly AI is also a little lacking; while your AI controlled medics will almost always run to your aid, they will often blindly run into firefights and get very quickly taken out.  I also found that your team mates would sometimes struggle to run in the right direction for an objective or, worse, grab a transport objective and then run into an obviously hostile environment.  At one point, one of my AI team mates managed to get themselves stuck behind a ladder and seem to become invisible to the other team... I ended up having to use grenades to knock him back into play!

But, as I've already said, a great game and definitely worth a play in a world drowning in the next "Call of Duty" wannabes.

On the... edge?

Brink is almost here!  When I first saw it, I have to be honest and say I wasn't that fussed.  The more I saw about it, however, the more I became interested... until I couldn't help but pre-order it!  I'm not sure who I was kidding really...

In a market that seems to be churning out FPS games that so desperately want to be "the next CoD" that then copy most of CoD's features hoping that it might just work, it's refreshing to see that the guys at Splash Damage are happy to be a bit different.  Although, technically speaking, I guess they always have been as they've been trying to perfect the class-based shooter for quite some time now.  With both Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tucked into their belts (as well as numerous maps and mods) you'd hope that they are experts in their field.


So we're looking at a heavy focus on multiplayer, objective-based gaming... so far so good, but what's to get excited about?

Firstly, shallow though it may be, it looks fantastic.  While comparisons are bound to be made between this and the current king of class-based gaming, Team Hat-ress 2 (AKA Team Fortress 2) because they've taken a rather cartoon-like approach to the graphics; it's more of a caricature style rather than full-on cartoon and they've done a great job.  Far from the colour overload of Bulletstorm, it seems at least a little more grounded in the colour stakes.

Then there is the objective-based nature of the gaming.  Splash Damage have said a few times that, while you'll obviously score points for killing the other team, there are far greater rewards for team play... such as healing your team mates or completing objectives.  And the objectives themselves are dynamic depending on the game and your class so no two matches are likely to be the same.

Of course there's also the heavily advertised SMART system.  Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain (AKA parkour).  Simply hold the SMART button while running through the maps and you will automatically leap, climb and slide across rooftops and up walls (depending on your body size), which should certainly keep everyone on their toes (and the map makers having nightmares).

Customisation seems to be a big part as well, and we're talking more than just hats here... there are 102,247,681,536,000,000 alleged unique characters possible (including variations in tint, body size and side).  That's an insane amount of customisation... and even if you remove the tint, body size and side, you're still looking 4,530,240 unique combinations!

And, despite being a mostly multiplayer experience, there is supposed to be a reasonable single-player campaign that can be played from either perspective, Resistance or Arc Security.

And there's plenty more, but I need to leave something for me to say once I've actually played it! Now I just have to wait for it to be released this Friday... which is possibly my only complaint at this stage.  Despite the fact that Splash Damage are, in fact, based in good ol' Blighty, the American's are already playing Brink while we have to wait three more days! Such, I'd imagine, is the downside for partnering with US-based Bethesda/Zenimax Why, in this age of digital distribution, they can't release it globally I'll never know...

In the meantime, have a look at the 'instructional' videos on the official website and get a feel for the game and how it plays. I'll be back some point soon to, no doubt, give my verdict