Speaking to IncGamers in an exclusive interview, CEO of Splash Damage, Paul Wedgwood, said that the developer had "set out from the very beginning wanting to design the game that worked well for all three platforms."
The E3 2010 runs from 15th to 17th June this year and will feature some of the most anticipated games. Call of Duty 7, Rage, Brink, Mass Effect 3 and many more. See all the PC-highlights through the link.
Brink is an upcoming first-person shooter (FPS) being developed by Splash Damage and published by the good folks at Bethesda, and it looks like it could take the FPS world by storm. Brink seeks to merge a FPS, a plot-based storyline, and cooperative online gameplay, with up to eight players in co-op. Other games have attempted this, with Borderlands arguably being the most successful in recent memory. Even so, no one can really say that Borderlands had a storyline as much as it had a backdrop that facilitated the looting of everything in sight.
Brink’s premise may make for an interesting story. The setting is a floating city called The Ark. The Ark was designed to be a fully self-sustainable city that could inhabit 5,000 residents. As the story opens, there are currently 50,000 residents on The Ark, and tensions are rising between Ark security and a resistance group. They are literally on the “brink” of a civil war.
Another innovation that Brink brings to the table is the implementation of a fluid-motion system. Traditionally in a FPS if a character faces an obstacle the only real options is the jump over it or walk around. Sometimes there is a climbing element, but it usually removes one from the fluidity of gameplay. Brink incorporates a system called SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain), which allows the player to face obstacles in various, fluid manners. In one video, the character is in an airport and needs to get around laser-grid security checkpoint without setting it off. In the first run, the player points the reticule at the top of the booth and runs toward it while holding down the SMART button on the controller. As the character approaches, he hurdles the booth and is immediately on the other side back in action. The second run through has the player aiming the reticule at the floor in front of the booth. This time the character slides underneath the lasers and is on the other side, again, ready for action.
Brink is currently set to be released on September 7, 2010. If the game works as expected, it could redefine the FPS genre, which, with the exclusion of a few mega hits, has begun to grow stagnant as of late.
Sharing: It’s Win/Win
PSUni: Brink, an incredibly impressive looking first-person shooter from the British developer who brought Enemy Territory to id Software, recently unveiled its first gameplay footage.
We’d seen the screenshots, and we’d heard the banter from the developers, but the gameplay footage solidified the fact that Brink would be one of the most impressive games of 2010.
With some of the best PS3 talent from Ninja Theory, PlayStation gamers needn’t worry about their version of the game. However, we were always going to doubt the developer’s ability to pull off a game that rivals Killzone 2 and Rage across multiple platforms.
TVGB: "After being available at industry events since E3 earlier in the year – where it impressed the hell out of some Dennis guy – some actual footage from Splash Damage’s Brink has finally been released for the internet crowds."
Brink is looking to revolutionize the way players look at multiplayer. Splash Damage’s latest shooter features a seamless integration between both modes, with an emphasis on accessibility for gamers of all experience levels. As if living up to the innovative premise they’ve established isn’t daunting enough, Splash Damage is also faced with another challenge – transitioning from a PC-only studio to a multiplatform developer.
Game: Rabbids Go Home
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Price: $49.99
Genre: Comedy/Action/Collection-type-game
Pro: Insane, lots of fun, surprisingly long
Con: A bit repetitive, Music can become annoying after long sessions, should be played in short bursts, Rabbids’ in thongs
Have you ever felt like you were witness to some sort of strange fever dream? Would you like to? Cause man, if you are looking to have a lot of fun that teeters on the brink of insanity, I have got the game for you.
Yup… That's their pile of stuff, middle of town. no one noticed that?
Lemme just quickly get the plot of the game out of the way, because it will take about a sentence or two… tops. The Rabbids (from Rayman fame) are bored. They just sit around all day and pretty much sleep. One of the restless Rabbids hatches a plan to get them up and doing something. They plan to go around, collecting random crap. This crap will then be stackes it as high as it can go, in order to get to the moon. That’s pretty much it… Sounds pretty thin, I know, but it opens quite the Pandora’s Box of things that they can do to accomplish this monumental task.
You start off in the junkyard, where apparently all the Rabbids live. The first “level” is given as a sort of tutorial (aren’t they all) on how the controls work and the basic functions of the game. You control a team of two Rabbids in a shopping cart, rolling around the level and running over random items, in order to put them in your cart and take them back to the main pile to the moon. These items consist of anything from a traffic cone, to a fire hydrant, to later more crazy things like a satellite dishes, even (seriously) a guy in an oxygen tent. The main goal of each level is to take all of your items and either give them to one of the other tuba totting Rabbids around the map, or make it to the end of the stage and then flush it down the conveniently place toilets. I am not making any of this up. You will seriously be flushing people, cows, and even nuclear reactor cores down a toilet. By now you are probably getting a feel for why this game is so completely insane and at the same time a hell of a lot of fun.
The controls are laid out pretty simply and are easy to understand. You use the analog stick on the nunchuck to steer your Rabbid cart around, while holding down the “A” button on the Wiimote to make your cart go faster. Players can point the Wiimote at the screen to get an orange reticle which you can use to aim with, that upon pressing the “Z” button on the nunchuck will fire a “Rabbid Cannonball.” This allows you to stun enemies, as well as open some doors and passageways. Shaking the Wiimote also does the same thing but at a much closer range. Later on you learn the ability to skid. Once you know how to do this, you can put your cart into a skid (shown by blue fire trails) and you can hit the “B” button to get a short boost of speed. This allows you to make jumps across larger gaps, and again, stun your enemies.
Silly Humans
Speaking of enemies, this game really only has one true adversary: Humans. You are never trying to hurt the humans, let alone kill them. No, you are simply out for their clothes. Yes, their clothes… Stunning a human somehow makes them shed all their clothes, and they will begin to run around in fear… in their underwear. Again, the insanity continues with humans that do wish to do you harm. They appear as humans in masks and Hazmat suits. These enemies are a little harder and slightly more intelligent. Never the less, you just need to stun them several times, get their clothes and they will be harmless again. If the events of this game were in fact true, we would all would be standing around in our underwear… unless of course you’re Chuck Norris.
The game looks great, by Wii standards. Everything has a very cartoony look to it, including the humans. Amusingly, the humans resemble something similar to Terrance and Phillip (or Canadians) from South Park. Each of the levels start off with a small bit of animation were the Rabbids somehow show the basic goal you need to achieve. In one stage you are charged with collecting a dairy cow. The animation shows your Rabbids doing just that, with the title for the level being “High Stakes Steak.” It’s the simple things like that, that will keep you laughing or at the very least smiling through the majority of the game. There are a wide variety of maps including anything from shopping malls, to road races, to mountain sides on a inner tube.
The sound design is the source of the biggest gripe I have with the game. While the ambient conversations and dialog from the humans is clever and at times hilarious, the constant high speed big band music at the onset and outset of each level tends to get old, quick. The Rabbids are also very vocal, though you have no clue what they are saying. Even though the Rabbids are unintelligible, they seem to always make me smile, unless the TV is left on in the other room while you are are attempting to concentrate on something else.
Terror at 20,000 feet… Rabbid style.
There is plenty to do in this game aside from just collecting your mountain of crap to the moon. If you do well enough as you play through the game, you unlock gifts for your Rabbids, including things like tools, tattoos, accessories, and clothing. Tools are used to change the physical appearance of the Rabbids. Some of the changes include stretching their ears, or their head, even going as far as moving where their eyes and ears are placed. You can even spray paint your Rabbid random colors, or hammer several nails in their head. They don’t care. They just smile the entire time and can’t wait for more.
Finally, there is the Rabbids Go Home channel that you can place on your Wii startup menu permanently. In this location, Ubisoft has contests for more in game stuff. Think of it as a “Check Mii Out” channel for your Rabbids. Everything has the same basic feel, just on a slightly more insane scale.
As you might have guessed by now, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. My wife and I have enjoyed playing most of the Rayman games that had the Rabbids in them, but it is nice to see them break out and do their own thing. Sure the game is a little juvenile and lacks all but the tiniest shred of a story, but that’s not why anyone plays these type of game anyway. If you are just looking for (literally) mindless fun, this game is probably a good place to look. Just try not to play to much of it at one time. Pace yourself. It is best if handled in small doses. Now if you will excuse me I have to go try to get a few feet closer to the moon.
When their world begins to run out of Eco, Jak and Keira travel to the edge of the world in search of the ancient Precursor machinery that could reverse the planet’s decline. They’re not the only interested factions out on the Brink, however; Jak must contend with Sky Pirates while struggling to control his own Eco powers.
GamersDigest have uploaded several new screenshots from Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.
UK-based Splash Damage got its start as a modding house founded by hardcore PC gamers who made games for hardcore PC gamers.
The studio is responsible for the popular 2001 mod Quake 3 Fortress, and has since developed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and the 2008 online shooter, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, among other releases.
But while Splash Damage has its roots in hardcore PC gaming, the studio has had to adapt to a market that is highly-focused on console gaming. "About two or three years ago we realized that we really wouldn’t survive if we only made PC games, since purely making PC games was incompatible with our goal of making triple-A games, said Splash Damage head Paul Wedgwood.
When their world begins to run out of Eco, Jak and Keira travel to the edge of the world in search of the ancient Precursor machinery that could reverse the planet’s decline. They’re not the only interested factions out on the Brink, however; Jak must contend with Sky Pirates while struggling to control his own Eco powers.
GamersDigest have uploaded several new screenshots from Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.
