Brink News

According to the steam blog Brink today received a major update. Which includes the following features and bugfixes.

General:
• Fixed sound dropping out when playing networked games
• Improved graphical performance, especially when using Ambient Occlusion
• Fixed voice packs being reset to default when you delete another character
• Removed ability to use certain cheat protected commands in challenges
• Fixed memory leak/crash when alt-tabbed out

User Interface:
• Full servers are no longer filtered out of the browser
• Added support for entering a range of numbers (i.e. 10-12) in server filters
• Reduced font size in the server browser
• Exiting Head customization returns to the correct menu
• Fixed being unable to bind KP_Enter in the UI
• Increased font size of in-game text chat
• ‘Enter’ now closes text chat prompt if empty
• Fixed challenge in menu flashing even after completion

Dedicated Servers:
• Improved dedicated server CPU performance
• Fixed NPC not spawning for escort objectives online on servers using unsupported cvars

Intro

Over at Gamasutra there is an interview with Edward Stern (Senior Game Designer) from Splash Damage. He is asked a series of questions by Chris Remo and Kris Graft.

Content of the Interview and Questions

The interview mostly covers content that was mentioned and explained already in the E3 interview, yet this time Edward Stern goes more into detail. So, if you don’t know the E3 interview check this one out, else you should only look at it, if you like details.

Here are some of the most interesting quotes from the questions and answers:

It looks like the main hook of Brink is that you’re attempting to do away with the traditional concept of separate modes for single-player, multiplayer, and co-op.

Edward Stern wants to merge the single-player and multiplayer experiences so far that the player doesn’t even recognizes if (s)he plays online or not:

You could boot up Brink and see that one of your buddies is online. As far as he’s concerned, he’s playing solo, but you can join him and we’ll swap out one of the AI players.

In order to make the game more fun and accessible to “non-gamers” as well Edward Ham was hired:

He was one of the co-creators of Syphon Filter. He put The Sims on the consoles, which as far as I’m concerned is a superpower. That is a certifiable achievement. And he just finished Fable 2.

Edward Stern explains the idea and implications of the SMART movement system and why it makes sense:

I think some people looked at it and say, “It’s playing the game for you.” No, no. In real life, you wouldn’t walk into a room and then climb onto the table in the middle of it. You decide to jump up on the table or over it or shelter behind it or go to the side. Your avatar has got to have that ability as well.

Resources

Gamasutra – Thinking Brink: Splash Damage’s Console Evolution