Wez and Larry Bitch About Brink
Sometimes, the word “Angry” doesn’t quite justify the emotion. Wez and Larry take a look at the colossal F*** Up that is Brink. With their chat recorded without their knowledge.
Brink
Players: 1 Player Offline, 8 Online Players
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genres: First-person Shooter
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genres: First-person Shooter
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Developer: Splash Damage
MSRP: $59.99
Developer: Splash Damage
MSRP: $59.99
In Brink, two factions, "Resistance" and "Security", fight in the previously utopian city known as The Ark, a floating city surrounded by the waters of a flooded Earth.[1] The Ark was designed as a prototype of a perfect city, with renewable resources and no pollution, large enough to support 5,000 residents. However, due to many refugees entering the city from other parts of the world, its population has grown to over 50,000, meaning there are not enough resources to go around - resulting in the city being on the brink (hence the name of the game) of a civil war.
BRINK Angry Review
Posted By AngryJoe about 1 year ago
Brinks half-baked launch has it slam head first into a concrete wall.
Can Brink’s Parkour Gameplay rise above the game’s noticeable faults? Angry Joe has the final say on the high stylized online team-based shooter.
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Brink Review - ZGR
Despite the overwhelming amount of negative reviews, Daniel decides to give Brink a shot. But is it worth your money in its current state?
BRINK in 5 seconds
Finally a FPS that feels fresh & brings something new to the table ! Brink will surely keep me away from all those Killzone, Halo Reach & Call of Duty games !
Wez and Larry Bitch About Brink
Sometimes, the word "Angry" doesn't quite justify the emotion. Wez and Larry take a look at the colossal F*** Up that is Brink. With their chat recorded without their knowledge.
BRINK in 5 seconds
Finally a FPS that feels fresh & brings something new to the table ! Brink will surely keep me away from all those Killzone, Halo Reach & Call of Duty games !
BRINK Angry Review
Can Brink’s Parkour Gameplay rise above the game’s noticeable faults? Angry Joe has the final
Brink Review - ZGR
Despite the overwhelming amount of negative reviews, Daniel decides to give Brink a shot. But is it worth your money in its current state?
Brink Stats Explosion
With only a while left to go until release, Splash Damage release some interesting figures.
Brink Trailer Shows off Molotovs, Sticky Bombs, and Hacking
In case you were wondering, you can set dudes on fire in Brink.
Wez and Larry Bitch About Brink
Sometimes, the word “Angry” doesn’t quite justify the emotion. Wez and Larry take a look at the colossal F*** Up that is Brink. With their chat recorded without their knowledge.
BRINK in 5 seconds
Finally a FPS that feels fresh & brings something new to the table ! Brink will surely keep me away from all those Killzone, Halo Reach & Call of Duty games !
BRINK Angry Review
Can Brink’s Parkour Gameplay rise above the game’s noticeable faults? Angry Joe has the final
Brink Review - ZGR
Despite the overwhelming amount of negative reviews, Daniel decides to give Brink a shot. But is it worth your money in its current state?
Brink Stats Explosion
With only a while left to go until release, Splash Damage release some interesting figures.
Brink Trailer Shows off Molotovs, Sticky Bombs, and Hacking
In case you were wondering, you can set dudes on fire in Brink.
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Wez and Larry Bitch About Brink
Sometimes, the word “Angry” doesn’t quite justify the emotion. Wez and Larry take a look at the colossal F*** Up that is Brink. With their chat recorded without their knowledge.
BRINK in 5 seconds
Finally a FPS that feels fresh & brings something new to the table ! Brink will surely keep me away from all those Killzone, Halo Reach & Call of Duty games !
BRINK Angry Review
Can Brink’s Parkour Gameplay rise above the game’s noticeable faults? Angry Joe has the final
Brink Review - ZGR
Despite the overwhelming amount of negative reviews, Daniel decides to give Brink a shot. But is it worth your money in its current state?
Okay so after watching his reviews and his cons and pros and seeing other “good” reviews like Angry Joe, I bought a USED copy for 8 bucks. That is cheap. So I tried it out. Actually the patch (I think is pretty old)…..it has the bots reviving me, assisting me, and they do objectives. I think they finally fixed it. Its really fun now. I mean its havoc but its fun. I recommend it now to people. They fixed it up. Joe. Enjoy the game better now. Those -Ai Bots NOW WORK.
yo! Joe that opening was actually freaky as hell dude.
It cant be that overly shitty. Theres got to be something to attract the player, atleast longer then the 10 minutes that it seems to keep you focused at. The guns look and sound good, but what can you expect from the masters of compressing a hole continent of weapon sounds on one disc, DICE.
Don’t worry Joe, the AI DOES go after the objectives…when it’s way too FUCKING LATE AND THE MISSION ENDSIN4SECNDIBGFUDGFUIBSLSBGBEGKBG
*ahem* Yes, the AI does go for the objectives, though it only happens once in a blue moon. I don’t get why you liked the “dynamic” class changing garbage. The ONLY class worth a damn is Engineer, turrets, mines and damage buff make the game much, much easier. Assault, or whatever it’s called, gets upgrades to the already worthless grenades, Medic gets a ton of buffs that they themselves can’t use and Operatives get shit. Stupid as hell. The guns are also either shitty or god. Try this one out: Carb 9 SMG with Front Grip and Ducttaped Mags. You can just hip fire EVERYTHING.
*sigh* Atleast the AI is better than randoms in CoD: Black Ops…
You lost me at: “Medic gets a ton of buffs that they themselves can’t use”
Why wuld you wanna buff teammates derp…
Sup COD boy, don’t you like the game?
Key word class CHANGING, meaning, you don’t have to die to change classes, or go into some confusing ass menu leaving you totally vulnerable for the 4 hours it takes to navigate to the class selection screen ie: CoD
Me and my buddy’s have found that if you just make your mission to go defend the objective and keep it clear, the AI will come do their jobs. Everyone seems to be judging this game based on working solo instead of with a team. Sucks if you don’t have enough friends to play with I know so, time to get social!
This game definitely looks like it should have been a fun FPS. Not just with the gameplay but with the story, the world, and even characters. I mean when you’re given both the Security and Resistance to play as, wouldn’t it be interesting to know who some of these guys are and maybe try to make some cool character development? Like what if there’s this Security person or ex-Security looking to join the Resistance? Or a Resistance member thinking about Security morales of fighting or whatever. Gameplay is only part of the experience as when you’re given a story and a world to interact in, you might as well flesh it out.
Now to me, if you can breeze through the game without any kind of Command Post buffs then it might seem like a personal opinion that they’re useless. I can’t say it’s the same for everyone since if I was playing then maybe I could use them since I would obviously get blown away. Still I would need to really experience the game to know if they are a hinderence or not, but I will say this much…those guys…definitely don’t know how to shut up about them.
And I guess I’m just not much into statistics since they’re more like a personal achievement that no one will really see (unless it’s your real-life friends then okay). Nothing to really brag about but I wouldn’t say they’re that important. It would be nice to know how well you did, but to make them out as an absolute necessity…probably not. But that’s just me.
Overall I say from your experience it might not be a game for everyone. Some will find it enjoyable, while others will not. You did a good job trying to interpret your problems with the game so it’s all good. Also the intro is freaky, nice job on that.
I’m having fun playing Brink on pc with a full team of friends vs. A.I. It’s definitely a game best played with friends. For the record though, Supply command posts give your whole team an extra bar of supply and health command posts give your team an extra piece of health. The engineer class has an unlockable skill whereby after capturing a command post, they can upgrade it to give double the supply/health.
I just wish they would have released a demo so i could try for myself. Its fine to read peoples opinions, is very helpful, but it like to get hands-on experience.
Angry joe, I respect your reviews and your show, and I usually find myself in agreement. This was not the case for this game.
Disagree:
-Command posts ARE important. They give your team that extra backbone to complete the primary task. Yes it is a weird desicion considering that you have a main objective that deserves full attention, but it’s nice to have this unique mechanic that involves a risk and trust with teammates. Also I find getting ammo from command posts to be extremely important if you’re not a soldier.
-Lights aren’t useless. I’m glad to have someone share my preference of not choosing/enjoying them, but they have their share of perks. All weights do. The heavies can serve as a human tank and are the best thing ever for the many defense objectives. Mediums are well balanced in movement, health, and get most weapons. The light super speed and flexability in sacrifice of health and weapon variety. It’s a good choice of trades. They’re all very fun, and it’s a matter of finding the style that fits you. I feel like you’re trying to say that because you’re not a light speed type, you say in a review that the class is pointless. Really? I’m sorry, but that’s kind of low. I personally do not find my preference in the lights either (middle for me), but there’s no way I can call them useless.
-AI is stupid, but not THAT stupid. I get them to do the objectives more than I do them believe it or not, and trust me I’ve had plenty of time with the AI due to PSN being offline when I bought it. They do dumb stuff, but they are somewhat capable on certain situations. Either I’m just lucky, or you aren’t giving them enough credit. Plus they go after all the posts for me, while I’m defending or racing another bot to the main objective. I also find the enemy AI’s stupidity to be amusing sometimes, like when I throw a grenade into a cluster of them.
- Story characters have no development, but the conversations still are somewhat interesting, and they had to be that way because it would be annoying to go through them every online match. Imagine seeing a 5 minute movie every beginning and ending of a mission that you’ve seen over, and over, and over again. I would have loved for a bigger and longer story, but it just wouldn’t work with online right and I think that’s why splash damage did this. Like I said, I also give the conversations some credit for some how capturing my interest for those 20 seconds. I don’t think many people could pull off a decent 20 second arguement/chatter or pre-mission scene. Most people would just make them more confusing.
-Parkour is completely useful and used a lot in the game. I seriously do not see where you’re thinking otherwise. Once again maybe it’s just your play preference that you’re cramming into a review like a fact. Maybe you just use the heavy all the time which has almost 0 parkous capability? I don’t know, but my results for parkour are completely different.
-K/D ratio isn’t needed to be competetive. I’ll admit I wish it told me a bit more in stats, but what matters is team work. Competetive play is about the moment, and finding that place that you can call “your zone”, not camping for a 2.00 KDR, or sweating over every last death. I’m happy to see that this dev cares about working with the whole game rather than just a gun and kills. It shows you who is just sitting at some chokepoint, and who actually worked for those objectives.
-The escort missions were fun and intense IMO. If the dudes moved faster it wouldn’t have that balanced feel, or the timer would need more work.
Agreed:
-Game feels lacking with 8 maps, and a few challenges for $60
-2 modes discuised as though there were more, and no warning of the lack of modes. I do enjoy the many missions within one map though.
-Lagging sucks, and the servers crash almost as much as COD’s servers.
-Lots of missed potential.
-Characters look awesome. Most have issues with the character style, but I’m glad we can both agree they look cool.
-Once again, why was this game $60? I feel ripped off despite the fact that this game can really be fun.
Other:
I’m overall disapointed in some of the fun things that I feel you didn’t go over. The story is short in the scenes, but you will not believe some of the stuff covered in the audio logs. Lagging and servers are a pain, but some of the flawless servers or play throughs will be so amazingly intense and lots of competetive fun moments will likely be had. I’m surprised you didn’t mention anything about the guns, health, or any of that. The guns range from bland, stupid, to awesome and interesting. The attachment system is also great! The health system is refreshing, and helps the game feel so much more fun. A great break from half-assed health, and those games that feel like they rely more on reflex and who pulled the gun first rather than skill and evasion. I also wished you talked about how this was not a game for snipers, as I can’t imagine anyone actually working well with the two sniper rifles you have. I also wish you went into a more detailed thing about classes, and abilities.
Your review wasn’t bad. I just have a lot of disagreements, and I feel as though one or two things had to be corrected. I still enjoy your show and hope that you continue to make reviews on new games both bad and good.
For Once, I do not agree with you Joe.
And that is that I think you missunderstood the “meaning” of the game. If you ever played Wolfenstein: Enemy Territories, then you will see that this is the way it is meant to be.
First of, 2 game mods? Well this game is not suppose to have Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag. It is supposed to have “one” game mode, and that is the main mode, which contains theese “mission” type of objectives. This is a teambased game and therefor it is very good that you have these mission to do, and not just kill the enemy, if you like to just run around and shot then I would recommend CoD, because this game is based around teamplay and not just run around and shot.
And if command posts are worth nothing, then I suppose more health and “energy” is worth nothing too. And I agree with PotatisFarFar on this point by 100%.
And once again, I agree with Potatis, Light class is a very usefull class if you know how to play them, Last time I played I played with a medic that was “Light” and I don’t think anyone of us die when he was alive, because he could run over the intire map in a very short time.
And, yes I miss K/D but I think it is good that they do not have it in the game because then everyone would focus on getting high K/D like in CoD, and not focus on the objective.
And as some people had already said, buy the PC version, the NPC do stuff here (of course they are frustrating, but they do atleast help you) and I have had no lag at all.
I can see that this is not your type of game, I feel like you are more of a CoD/BF BC2 guy, and that is fine, but don’t come a say that a game that does not suit you is a Bad game.
I would actually say that these 60$ are the most well spent 60$ in many years. It is not perfect, but I think it really shines at what it is supposed to do.
Do you watch his reviews? Joe’s all about strategy games. But Brink has a lot of problems, there’s no denying that.
Well spoken m8.
I never played wolfenstein, but i did play the quake game they made, and i really enjoyed that one.
I am glad i am not alone with this opinion of the game
Didn’t you read any of the comments Joe posted? He stated that he won matches and games without the need for command posts; that is why he felt that they were useless. It doesn’t matter if they provide extra ammo or health if he was winning without the need for such advantages. Also where does it say that he doesn’t like strategic games. Keep in mind that one-third of all of his game reviews cover strategy or strategic-minded games.
Of course you can win without them, but if the teams are balanced then they can be very helpful, and yes I saw what Joe wrote.
Second, I never said he did not like strategic games, I just said that this does not seem to be his type of game, and he should not call a game that is good, a bad game just because he did not like the type of gameplay, it’s like if I would hate playing Hack n’ Slash, and then I said God of War/Dantes Inferno/Devil May Cry would suck just because I did not like the style of play.
Joe!
This bit gets very angry but firstly I want to say that I respect your opinions and your work, I mean no personal offence with this below. I am just speaking my mind of what is bad with your show in my opinion.
STOP CENSURING THE SWEARWORDS!
What is the fucking point? If you do not want to have swearwords in your reviews then do not say them. But you clearly want to say them in the reviews so say them without hiding in shame behind that annoying “peep” sound.
Your show is the only one that constantly pisses me off every time I watch it, because of that sound. To me you really comes off being rather annoying and pretentious when you censor yourself without being forced to.
Now this may be a strange or/and controversial but censoring is annoying bullshit in American TV if it is not kids shows, and in an internet based review it does not do anything for your credibility or the entertainment value of the show.
My point with this harangue is shortly: We are not children! stop protecting us from the “bad” words if that is what you are doing, we do not need it. If you are not, I must conclude that you are ashamed over the fact that you use these words which is so completely stupid that I can not believe that is the case. Maybe you are trying to compromise between saying swearwords to convey anger and frustration, if so then stop.
I think everyone here knows that you have the balls to speak your opinions without any regard to convention or such crap. But still in this context I would say this:
Grow a pair of balls and decide if you want to swear in your reviews or not!
Agree with you.
I find it funny how american censur work, it is totaly ok to show gore and violance and stuff, but if you show a boob or swear, then it gets real…
What amuses me is that he only SOMETIMES censors his swear words.
I laughed so fucking hard at the beginning of this video I woke up my parents who thought I broke my leg or something. And I usually don’t laugh at TGWTG or Blistered Thumbs.
I feel the same way, Joe. I usually don’t like FPS, but that’s mostly because I have zero interest in army stuff and multiplayer in those games tends to be getting picked off in 5 seconds by mutant glitcher kids who play the game 15 hours a day.
Brink though, is TRAGIC. It’s something I would have actually played. I enjoyed it while I was playing it (after I got the hang of it of course, since it just throws you in without explaining much) liked the music, LOVED the character designs and customization. The tragic part is it squanders its potential. The AI is rock stupid, the objective-based gameplay while a good idea goes from being a boring waiting game to utter clusterfuck on a dime, and the story cutscenes are just… well a bunch of heavily accented men barking at each other about stuff you could not give less of a damn about. I only played Rebellion though, cause I wasn’t interested in being Security, so maybe it’s different on the other side but I doubt it.
Best AI moment for me: I was halfway through hacking, one guy actually showed up to guard me. I was squatting behind a desk just in case though. So an enemy comes into the room, the AI guy turns his back to the enemy, shoots some bullets at the floor, and then turns to me and tosses me some ammo, as if he’s saying “Well I tried, here you do it.”
Also dude, Joe, those parkour-fail videos were hard to watch D:
(Once again sorry for my english)
Well if you look at this game as i do, it is less of an TRAGIC game and more of a, i enjoy this game.
First of i never play with AI, secound of i enjoy these boring missions, i don’t see them as clusterfucks, i see them as a team of soldiers working towards an objektive, and that is exactly what i want out of an fps! Dunno why but i really enjoy slowly pushing forward with my team, it gives me a feeling of teamwork.
And the story cutscene is there to give meaning to the missions, i have never played another FPS that gives the maps meaning! And it greatly increases the fun of this game. And i think the voice actors are great.
I think this game will be bad if you want another COD game with some Parkour, but if you like me want a breath of fresh air from all the l33t snipers and lonewolves in COD and actually work as a team, brink is great!
Sorry for thumbs down m8, but calling a game TRAGIC becouse of broken AI, when the game is around playing with other players deserves it, no hard feelings
I think you misunderstand. Standing around guarding a box for an arbitrary length of time is the boring part. The clusterfuck comes when something happens offscreen and the objectives all switch suddenly. One part of a level literally was like “Guard the train tracks!” “We have the data pad! Go guard the data pad!” “They got the data pad! Go guard the train!” “We have the datapad-” There was literally a 15 minute stretch where I was just running back and forth across the level and the objective would change before I even got there.
The reason I was mostly playing with the AI was I was renting and I couldn’t secure a time with any of my friends where more than two could play and I don’t tend to like playing with strangers on Live. Still, that’s no excuse. Saying you can play without the AI is no excuse for bad AI. And bad mission structures.
I say it’s tragic because it COULD have been so much better. It has the potential to be a really great game but sadly falls flat. I dunno where you’re getting that I want it to be like COD from when I said in the first sentence that I don’t normally go for FPS, especially army stuff.
First off: I never said you like COD, i said that if you were looking for COD with parkour you will be dissapointed with this game.
Well the thing i think is great with the game is that you are not just don’t defend a data pad, you are tryeing to stop the security from takeing important flight information to get off the arc, you and your team puts upp defensive positions and try to hold off the never ending wave of security forces.
I can clearly see that you have not have the change to enjoy this game to the fullest becouse of bots and bad net codeing. But it is a REALLY GREAT GAME, when every thing works like it shuld, but when shit doesn’t work it is just meh. Me playing on pc and ussaly with 1 or 2 friends don’t have these problems, thats why i think Joe shuld point out that THIS is the xbox version
Good Points Joe.
I bought the game and actually did have fun with it. I suggest at the state it’s in now to play campaign with just friends on your team against bots. That’s the best way to play it right now.
I had no lag issues this way and the teamwork was still there and worked great.
However I do agree that sadly it was rushed out when it could have been so much more.
Hopefully it does well enough so that we can see a sequel which improves upon the base we have here. Such as a deeper Story tied to this “Campaign” mode they’re trying to do.
Also i’d recommend it around 40 bucks which amazon seems to already be selling it at last I checked. Like I said if you can get a group of friends together it’s worth checking out.
Lol, very funny review Joe! XD By the way, your parkour moves are pretty badass! XD
Sad to hear that this game was a disappointment.
I was very interested in playing this game, but I think I’ll either wait till the price drops or rent it at the rental store.
I defiantly want to give Brink a try, but I will not go and buy it at full price with all of those issues in the game.
Your fault for buying the Xbox version, lol.
On PC, the bots DO THE OBJECTIVES, at least when I’ve played. They PROTECT YOU WHILE YOU HACK (again, at least when I’ve played it).
2 modes? Who gives a fuck? It’s an FPS, what the hell do you expect? Variety?
Lol. 7-8 hour campaing? Again, who gives a fuck? It’s an FPS with multiplayer in mind.
Graphics? I do not give a flying fuck about the graphics.
I saw no lag on PC other than mine (my ISP sucks).
Parkour works in the game just fine and I use it a lot, that is all.
Yeah, I’d give it 7/10 as well (like PotatisFarFar), it is flawed but it is fun to play.
So just because its an FPS means its gets a free ride on faults that other games would be crucified on? You can’t dismiss major flaws in a game just because you want it to succeed.
People really expect too much out of FPS games these days.
All I expect from an FPS is that you get to shoot people (check), you get a couple of different maps (check) and that you don’t lag because of the game (also, check).
Meh, I think I should just stop listening to Joe’s reviews for advice and just listen to them to kill time.
Ps. Major flaws? The major flaw here is that Joe played the game on an Xbox.
Pps. @Sai, the bots have been working properly when I’ve been playing, I don’t see why other people don’t have them work this way.
Ppps. Everyone on the Blistered Thumbs is a damn sheep it would seem. Thinking in any other way than the way of the reviewer is heavily shunned upon.
Well i don’t agree with Joe, still i got alot of thumbs upp, it is all in how you present your arguments, he did not play on the wrong system, it is not acceptable to have the game realesed in that state, still he didn’t point out that other systems maybe was better.
Remember to point out that YOU think FPS shuld not need all that shit you describe, not that it is not needed in general.
I don’t think there are alot of mindless sheep on this site, maybe some, but i think i am a good example of that you can go against the critic, and still get support
That doesn’t make any sense, why would the AI be magically better on the PC version?
OH MT GOD WHATS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!!!
I really liked Mirror’s Edge… oh, those times…
Not having kill/death ratio is a good thing in a way. That way you aren’t worried about killing most guys, but instead focusing on actualy winning the game.
Your faux-kour video was hilarious.
should i return it? i mean i liked the game but i didnt see the flaws until you pointed it out.
wtf? You bought the game and you like the game and you didn’t even SEE the flaws, then Joe points some out and now you think you should return it?!
If you bought the game and are enjoying it why would you return it!?!
This is the kind of thing I mean when I say people on this site don’t have minds of their own! WTF!
well this review showed me some of the flaws i didnt see and havent experienced yet because i havent played online yet. i have been thinking of returning it for a different game ever since i calmed down and looked at how limited the game play is.
i trust Joe’s reviews because hes right most of the time. i may not agree with all of his points but hey at least he doesent INSULT me like Game Informer has.
Play the game if you enjoy it. Don’t let anyone decide for you, man.
“the secondary command posts are useless”
If by useless you mean the most important thing in the game.. then sure?
Stuff like this really frustrates me with your reviews joe, you can be spot on, 100% right with real key complaints and then you choose to focus on points that you are completely innacurate about, while everybody makes mistakes it really makes me question how long you actually played this game, if you didn’t play the challenges/tutorials and were completely unaware of the health, supply, etc buffs that those command posts give you.
Aswell as the parkour thing – implying it is useless is incredible innacurate, there’s so many great positions and areas you can get to and the speed of which you can get behind cover, again makes me question how long you played this game. THis game has faults, and is still a let down for me – but the poitns you argued were the wrong ones, and the actual problems with the game (balance etc) seemed to be something you downplayed.
Edit: I typed “If you didn’t play the challenges” When what I meant was “If you didn’t pay attention to them”. Since they tell you about the command posts/what they do, etc.
Again I’m not trying to give you shit just to give you shit – I’ve been watching you for a long time and *do* like your reviews – It’s just that stuff like this keeps popping up and it’s really making me discouraged from watching your videos.
At what point does it cease to be Parkour and start becoming attempted suicide?
If I wanted to watch commercials, I would watch TV, you putz.
That’s the beauty of ad block.
Of course I once heard some crazy guy tell someone that ad blocked, “If you block a website’s means to reasonably support its own costs and staff, you are pirating it. It really is as simple as that.” Can you believe that moron?
I have to say I agree. The best things about this game: The character designs, customization options and the world. Such a let down otherwise..
OMG JOE PLAYED THE GAME!!!! HE WILL DIE IN 7 DAYS!!!!!!!
Did anyone else notice that the cat is better at parkour then most of the human clips?
(Cat is at 9:22)
To start off: I play this on the PC and i have reached the max rank. I mostly play operative (Dunno how people can call that class useless? They can give maphack!) And i am sorry for any bad english, i am from sweden…
Loveing your rewievs, but just some points:
1. As many already has pointed out: The secundary objektives are not useless, commandposts give strong team buffs in both health and suply. And i see you comment that: “Well i have won games without takeing them” and “Maybe they culd act as spawn points or change the battle field”
Well the point is that they are not the main objektive, you don’t need to take them to win. But it helps you win! If you wuld make them act as spawn points it wuld more or less be a main objektive, the team that captures the command post nearest to the other teams spawn wuld just win…
And there is alot of objektives that changes the battlefield, on container city for example engineers can repair some stairs to open upp a flank point. If you make them more important than they are they stop being secundary and instead becomeing main objectives
2. I wuld really like you to point out that it is the XBOX version that have most of these issuses, it is only fair…
3. And as many have pointed out: K/D will just ruin this game, 80% of the fun in this game is becouse of it makes you feel like you are working as a team. I don’t care about my K/D, all i care about is winning or looseing.
4. Light class useless? It is the only type i play and i always get around 3-4k xp each match. (as an opretive i must remind you). Nothing is more fun than out playing your enemy with some sweet S.M.A.R.T moment
All in all why i think this game is alot more fun that lets say: COD is becouse it gives you a really strong team feeling, in no other game i have seen players working together like they do in this one. It is just so bleeping fun to play.
And another thing i like about this game is that it gives the map a purpose, you are just not in some random place killing bad guys, you are working to defend a vacine, or getting a pilot of from jail. This game gives the maps a meaning in multiplayer and i love it. More games shuld do this.
I see were you are comeing from and all, but you shuld really point out that the PC and PS3 (atleast i think the ps3 version) is better.
I wuld give this game an 7/10. Really fun but needs polish
Very good point, I’m a fan of this game despite it’s flaws (and there are quite a few). Overall I would say that most of the reviews I’ve seen have been nit-picky, I understand that every reviewer has pet-peeves which they always mention (For ZG it’s screen tearing and for AJ I now know he hates texture pop). Overall I’m just saying that you should give the game a try, regardless of the mixed reviews.
As of right now, the PS3 version (online) is the same as the 360 version. Since the PSN just started to come back, the connection sometimes is hard to establish where to the point where I sometimes get disconnected from the match, but that happens rarely. What you said was also right, just because you play the game for one console, doesn’t mean it will suck for the others. Some games may work on other consoles, but I think that’s up to the player themselves. Since I’ve been using the PS3 for a long time, playing on the 360 is difficult since the controller seems a little too bulky for me and playing on the PC is just a nightmare, since I don’t have a computer that works well with games. Just saying, if you review a game and only play it on one system, say it’s bad for that system since you have no knowledge of how it works on the others if you haven’t tried it yet. When I say this I mean online wise, since the story and game play is the same on all consoles.
I dunno. I have played tons of maps on games like Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and Battlefield and I played with teams that coordinated and organized themselves in ways that could even put Brink to shame.
Well ofc. But the avrage player in Cs and Tf2 never really does this?
When i play tf2 it is only me and my friends that really are cooparateing. I don’t play Cs. but i guess most of the avrage players there don’t really works as a team either.
My point is that in these games you can make it work solo, becouse mostly the things that matters are kills and stuff.
Well not really tf2. But that game is way better than brink, mostly becouse it caters to 2 diffrent kind of players. The Lone wolf and the teamplayer. So don’t let me compare my Favorite Fps of all time to brink
Any way. what i am saying is that i have never been able to drop into a random game and get the teamfeeling as i get in brink. In no pub game does that team feeling ever come across!
This game looks like its filled to the brink with the things I hate in games, npc’s, npc’s talking all the time, cartoon characters and you got to unlock the good weapons, classes and game modes.
I dont like games that makes you work to get to the fun parts. A good game makes the work fun. Imagne doom or quake made you unlock the weapons based on gibbing or headshots and having an npc following you and yelling “use the keycard on the door” all the time. I hate games that are made to cater to professional reviewers and beta testers.
You unlock the heavy and the light bodyform. Very few weapons.
Most of the time you unlock costume parts and other cosmetic changes.
You get all of the weapon addons after about 10 – 20 minutes you invest into the challenges which are nothing but a vs bot tutorial to teach you the game.
The NPC cutscenes are purely optional.
Cartoonish graphic style. Ok, not optnional.
But if you hate NPCs, you can play almost NO game
Even racing games have NPCs.
“Barely any weapons”? There’s 24 weapons that you can customize in a ton of ways.. :\
Once again people bash a great game.
Brinks multiplayer kills CoD and BC2. Just because people refuse to use their mind and set themselves into how the gameplay works.
Joe… You got one thing VERY wrong. Command posts are important. notice how one is called a supply command post and others are health command posts. Health command posts once capture give all players on your team extra health, an engineer can then upgrade the command post so that the health buff is doubled. Supply command post extends the supply meter which is a great advantage, especially for medics, since it allows him to throw more revive syringes.
Operatives can firewall command posts, to extend the amount of time it takes an enemy to capture it.
The game is a pain at first, but level up, unlock abilities and the game gets a lot more value.
Most people only play medium body type soldier, which doesn’t offer a whole lot of interactive abilities. As a light body type you can outmanouvre your enemy in close combat using parkour, as medium the parkour is pretty much only used to climb a few obstacles, and the heavy is useless with parkour.
Take your time to find out what equipment suits you.
Most don’t even give this game a chance. That is downright retarded.
Brink is one of the best games of the year.
Yup, it’s deffinetly one of the best purchases I’ve done this year.
This review pretty much sums up my opinions of this game. However the price might not come down very fast; Brink got to number one in the charts in the UK on day one. That sort of thing keeps prices up in retailer’s estimations.
If a few people on your friends list have this game then you can still have fun with it but, like Joe said, forcing you to play challenge mode in solo was a dick move on their part. It took me an hour to get two stars on ‘Be more objective’ purely because the AI is a fumbling bunch of idiots.
Your review technique has really grown over the years, Joe. Lots of great, well explained critique here.
Joe, what kinda TV do you play on? Ive been looking at getting a new tv down the road here soon and am looking for a good one with minimal input lag. Too much stuff out there has a response time too high for me. Plus samsungs newer LED’s are a step back in my opinion. They had full array sets then moved to edge lit, blea
i can never see the brand or anything in your vids. Just wondering what it is and if you recomend it
Now, the saddest thing here is…. well, let me put it this way…
First I thought: “Gee, it’s kinda sad that the developers need to sell this game to cover up their expenses and now they really can’t.”
Then I thought: “Well they really should put more effort to it so that it would sell better.”
But the absolutely saddest thing is this: The publisher is going to see this as an attempt to make an innovative new game!!! …and it won’t sell. Well, I guess there are publishers who care about more than just the money.
Wow. After those videos I’m definitely never going to try parkour. *shudders* o.O
A bit ago, during your review of Homefront, I commented on how your ratings didn’t seem to have an appropriate sense of scale, separating a mediocre game and a “great” game by only 2 points.
Well, here we go again. I figured the best way to present this is to compare this review to your Homefront review, seeing as their scores are similar, and they are closely spaced in release.
Homefront
Absurd premise
Cliched story with paper-thin stereotype characters
4-hour campaign
Out-dated graphics
Frustrating enemy AI
Excellent Multiplayer
Team AI is alright
Final Verdict: 6/10, “Can’t recommend at full-price”
BRINK
Short, repetitive, “not worth playing” campaign
Crippling glitches in multiplayer
Broken AI, both Team and Enemy
Substandard texturing and rendering
Lacking standard multiplayer features
Unique concept
Character customization
Final Verdict 5/10, “Can’t recommend at full price”
I can’t help but think that there’s 5 minutes of video on the cutting room floor to justify your rating. The way you went about this reminded me of the K&L review (3/10), or the Mindhack review, for a game you gave a (1/10). It seemed clear to me that you thought this was a bad game, not a mediocre one.
Throughout this review, you talk almost exclusively about cons. The gameplay, story, graphics, net-coding, even the post-match screen, all were considered substandard; below average, or terrible. But a “unique premise” and the ability to change your character’s class and appearance is enough to merit the game a “Mediocre” score? The same as an “Average” game? Yet aside from an untapped story and gameplay POTENTIAL, and a feature that has been implemented better in other games, everything else is, by your own comments, clearly below average. So how does a game with what you have described as having an “excellent multiplayer,” as well as features that are equivalent to, if not superior to, this game, merit a score of only 1 point higher?
I’d like to pick these reviews for talking points I could compare and emphasize my point, but these videos take too long to buffer consistently. I’m sure you have transcripts for these, or at least an outline, and I hope you take a look at them, because while I find your reviews funny and informative, your scores are very inconsitent.
this game was a combination of good ideas but bad ejecution and to rushed so sad i was actually waiting for this game look so cool the customisacion the history the faction the parkour but one again the company rushed they game in order to get more money
to make a good game is need time and pasion, brink is just one more game that get to the list of game that get rushed and fail
hahaha I loved the parkour bits. They were hilarious. The parkour parody that Joe did at that play ground was the best!
I know very well the differences in quality for some games on the PC versus console (aka Risen, just off the top of my head), but my own personal opinion is there should be no difference. They’re the same game, same content, same functions and so forth. Perhaps the coding is a little different, but shouldn’t that have been taken into consideration and executed properly anyway? Especially when the game designers are from professional background, this issue comes off as irritating. Why should console gamers be punished with poorer quality when they paid full price for the same game? Again, these are all my own opinions, but with them I empathize with Angry Joe.
Joe please tell me you went heavy with the minigun :3 Also another complaint I have with the game is defense is far easier than offense. Never ever, play solo, the bots WILL drive you insane.
Hi joe,
Some issues i agree but some i don’t,i play it on PC sure there are some issues but it plays lovely since well the PC version is supported by dedicated servers. Also K/D sure these days it is important but for me i don’t give nothing about it. It is about fun and even other shooters with K/D i still don’t care. And to be honest the PC version is getting better support and there have been 2 patches all ready and still coming to fix thinges. The 3 body types is also a thing you need to adapt. I like the light body type since i go so fast it is impossible to be hit and yes when you do get hit i will die a long. They need to work on the netcode and other bugs but for me it is a fun game to play and no campers,no k/d whores,just plain team based playing. Since loads of games will not show it anyway if you play it online.
But keep up those video’s i still like to watch them!
greetings from the netherlands!
I have never played this game and probably never will, it looks fucking terrible, id rather keep playing Bad Company 2 than spend money on this trash people are calling video games these days.
You used Soil for your parkour scenes huh? Not a bad choice. But honestly, I know this is pretty much a review for the 360 version, but you should try it on the PC. Things seem to run a bit smoother and haven’t had many problems with playing online. I understand it’s lacking some features, but the intensity of some of the missions can be fun and somewhat make you feel a little fulfilled trying to get through them.
Hopefully it does get better over time and they do fix things. I know trying to play with friends on Steam is a really weird thing too. But yeah, I’d just say give it a few months and try again, it might be much better, hopefully.
And admit it, you had fun with that opening face lol.
Also, I’m really surprised they day one patch didn’t fix the texture pop-in problem. Or was that not on the day-one patch? I know it got put on the PC and really does help (it’s extremely minor now).
Definitely agree with this review. A game with a good style and ideas, that just didn’t pan out or was fully realized. I’d probably pick up the game if it had all the bugs and issues fixed at maybe like 20 bucks. There’s really only the online multiplayer with actual people and that’s not worth 60 bucks, even with them giving the first DLC pack as free, which sounds like it should’ve been in the main game to begin with.
I have two complaints with your review.
1. Command posts aren’t useless. They provide buffs to your team while you have them. The fact you never even mentioned this says to me that you didn’t even realise this. The AI being obsessed with them is a problem, I’ll give you that, but there’s more value in them than you say there is.
2. Kill/Death Ratios aren’t shown because they are not important. It’s this obsession with K/D ratios that cause people to play every game mode in other games like it’s team deathmatch.
Otherwise I thought your review was pretty good. I had a chance to play the game, friend bought it on release day and I got to play it for a few hours, he loves it but he tends to focus more on spectacle rather than substance (I’m trying to change that), I thought it was alright but the lag and constant escort missions kept me from buying at full price (never expected much from the AI, it’s pretty standard if you ask me). I’d probably get it if I saw it on sale for €25 or less and if the upcoming free DLC improves the game significantly then I might get it for more.
Up voted! These are some great responses!
However I still feel the command posts are pointless – you will win and lose games without even giving them a second thought, if they allowed your team to spawn at them and change the battlefield that would have been a solid idea.
Kill/Deaths are important to many people, If I whip ass at a game I want to know HOW much said ass was whipped. I remember gunning own countless people but I dont want to be burdened with having to remember how many, I want to be shown, its a simple fix. It should be there, regardless of the type of game.
Joe the command post aren’t pointless. You may be able to win games without capturing the command post but they do help your team by turning the tides in your favor. Health command post buff your health which is an advantage over your enemies. The supply command post gives you bonus supplies that can be used to give out more health buffs if you’re a medic or give out more ammo if you’re a soldier etc. If you won games by not capturing them then great but they can also change the tide of a battle in a competitive match
I’m going to use TF2 for example here instead of Brink since I haven’t played it. But in TF2 some classes aren’t designed for Killing all the time. For example, The Engineer has 2 jobs, on defense it is to lock an area down and prevent the opponent from getting in. On Offense the job of the Engineer is to get the rest of your team to the attacking point as fast as possible with your teleporter. The Medic’s job is not to kill the opponents, but instead keep your team-mates alive by healing them and assist them in taking them out and then once you have Ubercharge use it to get through the opponents defence. And The Spy has the job of sneaking in to the enemy base, disquise as the enemy and then sabotaging their defences and quickly getting out alive. Arguably all of these classes can kill the opponents (and obviously all must avoid deaths), these classes are not intended to kill the opponents like the Heavy or Soldier, they have different jobs to benefit the team.
Now, tell me, if we are to want Innovation in the FPS based genre, why are you suggesting we have a Kill-Death ratio to show who won the game? This just devolves it into a Death-Match situation. Now, if it IS a death match situation then that is fine. But if there is other points to game, like trying to capture bases, preventing the opposition capturing your base or Keeping your team-mates alive. We cannot base who wins simply by who killed the most and who died the least. Suppose like one match is won solely because of one Medic managing to keep the team alive all the time, but since the medic was set on keeping everyone alive and didn’t kill the opposition, then the medic get’s last place for not having a high K/D ratio. Do you think that’s fair? I assume this is what Brink’s Experience screen is, basically whoever gets the most experience in the game is considered the winner since they did the most to benefit the team. I know it varies from game to game, but if we want the FPS Genre to inovate, the first step will be to make it more than “Whoever gets the best Kill/Death Ratio is the winner of the game”.
Only Joe Can make sliding down a slide look cool
That intro was awesome.
am I really the only one comparing brink to cs:cz? same thing in my opinion just a old/lame/poorly executed multiplayer part and a slapped on singleplayer using only what is given.
I really feel like playing counter strike condition zero when I startup brink.
Shame.I was hyped for this game without even acknowledging the hype – just for myself and it destroyed all my hope.
closing point:
cs:cz=brink
I have to partially disagree with this review, Joe. Most of the things you discuss about the game (like it feeling rushed, the mediocre graphics or the netcode) are true, but others need a bit of explanation.
The day-one patch you talk about at the very end of the video was released to fix the texture popping and other small glitches, and it succeeded in doing so, I never experienced the popping after downloading it. About the AI, if I recall correctly, I tweeted you a video in which one developer explains the AI behavior and that it would be patched if needed (which it does, and they are working on it right now). The reason he gives about why the bots don’t take action until around the last 2 minutes of the match is because they want to give the player a “hero” feel and not make him rely on the computer for the main tasks of the game. I know it doesn’t make it right, but it was at least worth mentioning.
Regarding the video editing, you seem to spend way too much time speaking about all the things that are poorly done, but the part where you talk about the good things feels incredibly rushed. A bit more detail about things like the guns or the way you level up and unlock stuff (other than challenge mode) would have been nice to see.
Overall I feel disappointed about this game too after following its development since last year’s E3, and I won’t discuss the score you gave it because I think it’s well deserved, but I thought I could add a little more information about its main issues.
Saludos.
I downloaded the Day one patch when I got the game from the retail store, I did not have an early copy. It did not fix any of those issues as I clearly showed them all in my own games. You unfortunately are wrong on that point.
The AI doesnt take action in the last 2 minutes either, I have gameplay proof of this but wasnt able to include it in the review because the sound got screwed up.
A game should have to be patched to this extent, its clearly rushed and broken and for that it achieves a 5/10 which is really amazing, it shows that it can at least get up there with these problems.
Then I guess I was lucky when I picked my copy. I also forgot to talk about the K/D ratio but Xifihas mentioned it above. Thanks for responding Joe
I had great hope for this game.. too bad.
At least the review is fun
angry joe i need to stress that you played the xbox360 verson witch is the shitty verson of this game,
on the PC this games netcodeing works fine and there is no major lag issue
and textures load fast aswell (if you have the computer) only some ATi card have had an issue runing this game(drops frame rait to unplaybal)
and you not even looking up how the game works on the diffrent console and pc before you comment on the netcoding and texture poping feels a bit sloopy, joe
sens then you would have said that it is a 360 issue only sens it is
Isn’t it part of the developer’s responsibility to make sure their product has a consistent performance among platforms, though? I mean, sure, you’re not going to be able to work out every factor, but at the very least you could make sure your game runs the way it’s supposed to online on one platform rather than just simply assume it’s okay because it’s fine on another. Not everyone has the means or the capacity to build themselves a mammoth gaming rig, after all.
The game runs perfectly fine on max settings on my 3 year old 9800GTX + Dual Core Pc.
This is one of the very few examples where the developer doesn’t treat the PC community like sh** and gives them the good end of the support. I wasted 60 Euro on Black Ops only to find it a stutterfest. (Yes even on the lowest settings. MW 2 runs on highest with 60FPS….)
Now Brink comes along and many console players and reviewers are shocked how “bad” it is cause of the sh**y 360 version.
But that’s not true. The game is amazingly fun. If you play the PC version. And you don’t need a high end PC for that. Win / win scenario for me.
The PS3 version is alright btw, but not as good as PC. The netcoding on PSN is lacking, too.
I can understand that reviewers like Joe can’t buy every version of a game. But the big sites don’t even bother to buy the PC version of ANY game these days. Ergo : Brink = mediocre / bad game. I call BS on that.
Yes, the game needs some polish. No denial here. But it’s really fun to play.
that is not what i am saying what angry zoe said is ture for the xbox 360! he should have said that the issue there, sens not saying it makes ppl figures it holds true for every verson when it clearly dosen’t
Artwood, I don’t know if you know this, but for years devs have been porting buggy laggy pieces of crap from the 360 over to the ps3 and PC. They do what is easiest, not what is best. This is especially evident in Mercenaries 2, the CoD4, Dead Rising 2, the list goes on and on. Tis nothing new.
The command posts can (and should) be upgraded and they provide team-wide buffs(although I would like it if they acted as spawn points), so they’re not completely useless. Also S.M.A.R.T system is useful, but some maps seem to forget the system is even in place (Container city is one of my favorite maps because it has a nice level of verticality). Also not to sound like a PC-snob, but the console versions SUCK for multiplayer, or at least the 360 does anyway, it’s a laggy mess (My PC SUCKS and I get game that suffer almost no lag). Overall I will admit Bethesda kicked this game out the door without letting them polish everything. I will say your review is a bit on the negative side (if I get a good game going it rivals TF2 in terms of fun), yes it has issues but overall I enjoyed the game.
Erm I’ve enjoyed and agreed with at least some points in your reviews for a long time but with this one, I don’t agree with many. Like many other reviewers you don’t seem to have given it a chance, or at least a full play before jumping on LA Noir.
First of you state that the Parkour elements are just climbing over things, I am guessing you never tried to swap body types? The light body type allows you to do the parkour movement including jumping off walls etc, and is really cool for getting around.
Next you speak about the AI, which I didn’t even go near because I went straight to freeplay, but yes it’s poor and shouldn’t of even been included IMO.
Then annoyingly you speak about how unimportant command posts are and that they give no bonuses at all, they give massive team bonuses to your health and supplies, and then those bonuses can be doubled giving your team a massive boost in order to attack/defend the main objective. Saying these are unimportant just doesn’t make me seem like you actually gave this game a fair try.
You speak about there not being a K/D in the game, the developers have given specific reasons to not doing this as kills are really unimportant in the game and the XP judges everything so K/D is unnecessary. Honestly I don’t see how this is a bad feature when it promotes teamwork and actual objective activity as apposed to solo warriors running around pointlessly getting kills contributing nothing, which is represented by their score at the end.
Oh and that challenge thing, that’s annoying BS too and is a real problem with the game.
Lag problems and texture shit just seems to be a Xbox issue and I play PC but I guess judging the Xbox version on this is fair game and it has to be brought to the attention of the players.
Graphics, well PC get a better look here and the grenades make more of a thump.
Why is it always like this?
It seems every time someone doesn’t agree with a review, they say the reviewer didn’t give the game a chance, or that they just didn’t get it.
It’s Joe’s opinion, it’s how he feels, it’s not because he didn’t wanna give the game a chance, or didn’t understand how the game works.
All reviews are opinions.
There’s a difference between having a opinion on something and saying something isn’t useful in anyway when clearly it is in one way. The command post thing is exactly that. They are more important but he uses it to make a negative point out of something which isn’t really negative and says they are only useful for changing classes which isn’t true.
The buffs are a massive part of what makes your team win, especially when smart engineers double buff them.
This isnt true, i’ve won countless games without our team having any other command posts but our bases. How do you explain that? They need to be made more relevant, maybe as spawn points.
Parkour may be “cool” for light guys to get around, but how many light body types actually get used, i never see them because they die with 2 hits, parkour may be fun but in the heat of a firefight and a game setting its pointless and doesnt get used. If the devs forced you to use it to get to hard to reach places that had new spawn points, powerful secret weapons or useful secondary paths it would have been far better – it fails in this.
You admit the AI sucks and that the devs need to fix the game in multiple parts. Do you also admit the game is light on content and modes? I’m not saying the game isnt fun online (if you can get it to work) im saying its a disappointment.
It kind of reminds me of the launch of Team Fortress 2 with the amount of content available, it just needs a SDK out there.
I mean I play the PC version which may differ a fair amount to the 360 version, but I find that if people work as a team and complete all the objectives and put focus on one as a team then it feels really rewarding and the XP system really demonstrates that value in terms of who gives the most teamwork positive actions as apposed to kills which is a real step forward in the genre to me at least, as apposed to ramboesque shooters where teamwork isn’t rewarded.
LOL! What a creepy ass intro, Joe! XD
I only played this game for one day (via Redbox), and that’s mainly because of the bad lag issues. Otherwise, I may possibly pick this up when the price drops. Although, I find it disappointing to find so much lag in this game, when the heart of the game is based around multi-player.
Anyway, good review Joe!
You should have read this article before you bought the game:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/why-were-not-review-brink-and-why-you-shouldnt-buy-it-yet.ars
I have to agree with this review. Except I feel like some classes are boring and have no real perks to picking them. Like Operative.
Theyve taken a command POST! AGH! anyway nice review ill prolly pick this game up later in the year when its cheaper
haha great vid joe, you area parkour god.
what a horrifying intro… I just shit my pants…
Nice review, Angry Joe