[darthmob]

I was at gamescom in Cologne today and the highlight was Brink of course. After waiting about 1.5 hours I finally was let in with about 30 other people and Paul Wedgwood held the the presentation (most likely for the dozenth time that day but he did a great job nevertheless). There are already a lot of reviews on the net but I think not everything has been mentioned and I want to comment on it from a ET & ETQW players point of view. To sum it up:

Character customization

• you customize your character separately for Resistance and Security
• you unlock additional stuff when progressing with your character
• you can customize most of the things you know from RPGs: ethnicity, face, bodytype, tattoos and scars, headgear, color and type of clothes
• Resistance wields makeshift armor (for example made of numberplates or tyres) and offers a wide variety of styles (have a look at the screenshots to get a impression)
• the Security was not explicitly shown but they do look like security guys with proper military gear.
• you can create weapon loadouts for each class
• the shown weapons were:
  shotgun, pistol, small mp, assault rifle and a grenadelauncher (singleshot; carried by the heavy class)

Gameplay (the presentation was run on the xbox360 version and featured a mission on the Security side)

• you select your class and loadout and fetch ammo at commandposts on the map
• the shown mission was in Container City where a Defuse Robot (Screenshots showing it: #1 #2) had to be escorted to the supposed location of a dirty bomb
• before the mission were about 20-30 seconds of ingame voiceacting were the Security guys talked about their objective and got attacked by Resistance fighters. The game then immediately jumped to the players point of view.
  - at the end of the mission there was another ingame cutscene
• people with experience in ET / ETQW will be immediately comfortable with the mission objectives:
  - main object is to escort the Defuse Robot
  - on the way an engineer has to repair a crane which lifts the robot over terrain it can't cross for itself
  - a side object for the soldier class is to blow up a grate to open a shortcut
  - the Resistance has to stop the Security from escorting the Robot
• one class can gather information by interrogating a special downed enemy with a nasty looking probe which looks like it tases the victim
• you can lean and shoot from the hip or with iron sites
• the movement seems to be about as fast as in ETQW but it feels faster as the maps are way smaller
• the SMART movement allows some nice manoeuvres to flank the enemy and to quickly cross line of fires or get out of delicate situations
• the 2 shown maps did not seem like to allow strafejumps but there were plenty of opportunities to utilise the smart movement for climbing
• I did not see any real difference between the heavy class and the faster one in movement. The heavy class definitely can climb and jump and does not seem to be as slow as in TF2 compared to the other classes
• the engineer can deploy a turret which burst fires and seems to be able to do quite a lot of damage if the enemy does not look out ; it did not seem like you had to construct it - it was selected and spawned immediately
• you gain XP by killing enemies and fulfilling mission objectives (it seems like there are multiple missions available for each class all the time like escorting the engineer or guarding some place)

Graphics

• you see blood puffs when enemies are hit
• I did not see any arrows over enemies or team indicators
• there seems to be no gore but enemies do fly through the air when killed and gibbed by a grenade; it looks a bit awkward though when the grenade does not gib them
• there are nice effects displayed when you are being hit and there is motion blur as well

Sound

• there is not much to say about it except it's awesome
• there is a lot of mayhem going on in some situations and the explosions and weapons sound great
• the voiceacting seems ok but a bit quiet in some situations. You find the typical types of guys talking eg. someone with a russian accent and a bad ass squad commander

Altogether I have to say that after that presentation I want to see even more of the game. There seem to be some smaller issues but it already looks great. The gameplay definitely looks promising! Not really sprint strafe firefights like in ET but still fast-paced with more vertical elements and similar hp / damage values. To me it seemed like a mix of Enemy Territory, Mirror's Edge and Killzone 2 in the best sense (and it did not remind me at all of CoD or any other generic shooter).

Enough talking, I'm a happy panda that I had the chance to see the game in action and I have to say that you have every right to look forward to the game.

[SockDog]

Wow thank you for taking to time to write all that up. Really good to see a preview from a gamer's perspective and in a format that address a lot of the questions people are asking.

[Rahdo]

That's the best writeup of the demo I've read anywhere. Well done Darth! Nice attention to detail. I'll mention a few things in response to some of your observations:

--Good eye! You're right about the body types and speed. In fact, when we locked the demo down, we didn't have different speeds and movement rules implemented for the various body types, so they were all basically the same. What you saw in the demo was everyone moving around with the 'fast acrobatic guy' settings regardless of what size they actually were. This is fixed now, and it's definitely an interesting choice to make, which body type to go for.

--Another things that we didn't quite get done in time for the demo deadline: volume levels for dialog. They're all way too quiet and can get easily lost in the chaos of combat. I know, in fact, that sometimes Paul has to actually say "You might not have heard that, but the squad commander just gave me an order" during demos. Don't worry though, this will be fixed in time for the game's shipping. Sweetman will make sure of that! :-)

--Our ragdolls are still a bit early on, but I know the coders have more in mind to ensure they react appropriately to explosions and whatnot.

Thanks for the report though. I'm really glad you liked it, and that at least one member of the boards here got to see it! Hopefully more of you will be able to in the not too distant future (tease tease)

[Shiv]

Wow. awesome write up dude
it sounds like its gonna be a corker :P

[MOB712]

Originally Posted by Rahdo

That's the best writeup of the demo I've read anywhere. Well done Darth! Nice attention to detail. I'll mention a few things in response to some of your observations:

--Good eye! You're right about the body types and speed. In fact, when we locked the demo down, we didn't have different speeds and movement rules implemented for the various body types, so they were all basically the same. What you saw in the demo was everyone moving around with the 'fast acrobatic guy' settings regardless of what size they actually were. This is fixed now, and it's definitely an interesting choice to make, which body type to go for.

--Another things that we didn't quite get done in time for the demo deadline: volume levels for dialog. They're all way too quiet and can get easily lost in the chaos of combat. I know, in fact, that sometimes Paul has to actually say "You might not have heard that, but the squad commander just gave me an order" during demos. Don't worry though, this will be fixed in time for the game's shipping. Sweetman will make sure of that! :-)

--Our ragdolls are still a bit early on, but I know the coders have more in mind to ensure they react appropriately to explosions and whatnot.

Thanks for the report though. I'm really glad you liked it, and that at least one member of the boards here got to see it! Hopefully more of you will be able to in the not too distant future (tease tease)

Why must you torment me

Anyway nice write-up. Its nice that the 360 version didn't have any problems and the gameplay was smooth since that's the version I'm getting.

I know SD have the PC version down since that's the background they come from.

Good to see the console version is coming along fine.

[deadlights]

Wow. I wanna play! Thanks Darth!

[acidrain]

Awesome. Thanks for the write-up. Great to hear something from a fellow gamer/forum member.

Also.. yay ragdolls!

[Exedore]

Originally Posted by Rahdo

This is fixed now, and it's definitely an interesting choice to make, which body type to go for.

Much more interesting now, and especially with that terror-inducing ******** sound the ******* gun makes...

[PapaBearFSM]

Hi, I was at the GamesCom too... my first walk was to SD because I MUST SEE BRINK and I was impressed about the demo. I am from the ETQW Scene and I hope that BRINK will drop like a BOMB in the Multiplayer scene !

I agree to darthmob this demo looks wonderfull.... THX SD for this gift of the day !

[TAPETRVE]

Hiya there. Also saw BRINK on the GamesCom and i was entirely blown away. PVRE FVKKIN' AWESOMEGEDDON! While I never got myself into the Enemy Territory games or competitive gameplay in general (I am more of a coop player and hence especially a Left 4 Dead fanatic, mind you), I was immediately sold by the BRINK presentation. Will keep the game on top of my radar.

[darthmob]

Originally Posted by Rahdo

That's the best writeup of the demo I've read anywhere. Well done Darth! Nice attention to detail.

After waiting for what felt like ages you make pretty damn sure to see everything there is to see! :-)

Originally Posted by Rahdo

What you saw in the demo was everyone moving around with the 'fast acrobatic guy' settings regardless of what size they actually were. This is fixed now, and it's definitely an interesting choice to make, which body type to go for.

It seemed like the heavy class was able to carry two main weapons like the assault rifle and the grenadelauncher. I can't imagine what differences there will be between the medium and light type but I guess that will be revealed sometime in the future.

Originally Posted by Rahdo

--Another things that we didn't quite get done in time for the demo deadline: volume levels for dialog. They're all way too quiet and can get easily lost in the chaos of combat. I know, in fact, that sometimes Paul has to actually say "You might not have heard that, but the squad commander just gave me an order" during demos. Don't worry though, this will be fixed in time for the game's shipping. Sweetman will make sure of that! :-)

Good to know. Btw, I really liked how all sounds were muffled while missions were selected!

Originally Posted by Rahdo

--Our ragdolls are still a bit early on, but I know the coders have more in mind to ensure they react appropriately to explosions and whatnot.

They are definitely a great addition! In one scene Paul threw a grenade behind a wall without actually seeing anyone and it was a good laugh when enemy bodies were hurled through the air.

Originally Posted by Exedore

Much more interesting now, and especially with that terror-inducing ******** sound the ******* gun makes...

You know what? That's a really mean thing to say! I hope that once more footage will be available I will remember to ask what weapon you were hinting at.

[TAPETRVE]

Maybe he's talking about the deployable turret. Damn, that was one loud mofo, you could almost feel the impact of every single shell on your very own body.

[Nail]

I think it's just a tease and doesn't refer to anything in particular at the moment (possible undeveloped/unfinished idea)

[Exedore]

Originally Posted by darthmob

You know what? That's a really mean thing to say! I hope that once more footage will be available I will remember to ask what weapon you were hinting at.

Very sorry, I just may have said too much originally. Guess somebody is hoping for s sexier reveal...

[EnderWiggin.DA.]

Darth,
Did the gameplay look smooth or choppy? Yes, I'm aware the build is no better than alpha but I want to know if the animations looked smooth.

[darthmob]

Originally Posted by Exedore

Very sorry, I just may have said too much originally. Guess somebody is hoping for s sexier reveal...

I wasn't that serious and I may have forgotten a :p in my post.

Originally Posted by EnderWiggin.DA.

Darth,
Did the gameplay look smooth or choppy? Yes, I'm aware the build is no better than alpha but I want to know if the animations looked smooth.

The only technical issues I saw were:
- fps drops in some scenes
- shadows on characters were "blurry"
- volume levels of some sounds

The animations seemed quite nice altogether! The SMART movements are well done and as posted earlier the ragdolls bring a uniqueness to many kills. It's the kills without gib which did not look that nice. There seemed to be no ragdoll applied and you had that "all enemies fall down the same way no matter how they died" animation as in ETQW.

But given the fact that there are still some months of development ahead and Rahdo said they were working on the ragdolls I'm pretty confident it will turn out great.

[Rahdo]

Yeah, incapacitating someone with ragdoll is tricky; since it's a ragdoll, they could end up anywhere in any pose. But we're working on the standard "being able to blend from ragdoll craziness back to proper animation" stuff now :-)

[tokamak]

Unreal Tournament 3 did this quite well. Headshotting someone leaves the model standing for a second without a head after which the ragdoll physics kick in and it slowly falls on it's knees on the ground (provided no projectiles hit the body and let it fall into other directions).

[darthmob]

Originally Posted by Rahdo

Yeah, incapacitating someone with ragdoll is tricky; since it's a ragdoll, they could end up anywhere in any pose. But we're working on the standard "being able to blend from ragdoll craziness back to proper animation" stuff now :-)

Are you trying to avoid bodys ending up in unreachable places or is it something that's allowed to happen? How do the revives work anyway?

Originally Posted by tokamak

Unreal Tournament 3 did this quite well. Headshotting someone leaves the model standing for a second without a head after which the ragdoll physics kick in and it slowly falls on it's knees on the ground (provided no projectiles hit the body and let it fall into other directions).

It definitely had some nice effects. I really liked the burning bodies flying through the air when the head or limbs were shot off (that sounds so weird but it was really nice to look at!).

[TAPETRVE]

Originally Posted by tokamak

Unreal Tournament 3 did this quite well. Headshotting someone leaves the model standing for a second without a head after which the ragdoll physics kick in and it slowly falls on it's knees on the ground (provided no projectiles hit the body and let it fall into other directions).

The best death animations I've ever seen could be found in Rainbow Six 2: Rogue Spear and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. After cranial puncture, enemies would often stumble a few steps, then cramp and finally topple over. Smaller calibre would even have them fumbling their face for the entry wound. Quite disturbing to look at, when you see it the first time.