Here we have a new FPS, which has boldy gone in a direction which comes as a blend of a few of its predecessors. Brink is firstly a First-person Shooter (FPS), which includes a large element of Parkour using the S.M.A.R.T (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system. This allows you to navigate rails, change of levels, sliding into cover, and vaulting over things. It can also make climbing a staircase an exceptionally intense cardio workout, with you flying up the bannister or vaulting over tiny obstacles. The extent of your athletic ability is set by the body type you select for your character as can be seen below. Light, Heavy, and Medium body types respectively. The heavy type can only do small vaults and slides, whereas the light type can fly through the air like a cat. The body type also has an impact on the type of weapons that the character can use, obviously the light body type cannot carry something like a gattling gun.
The other influence on the gameplay is something out of Team Fortress 2, where your team utilises various classes to accomplish the goals set to them. There are 4 classes to choose from; Medic, Engineer, Soldier, and Operative. The Soldier resupplies teammates and uses explosives to destroy important targets. The Engineer buffs his teammates’ weapons and builds stationary turrets. The Medic heals fallen teammates and buffs their teammates’ health. The Operative interrogates fallen opponents to get intel on enemy locations, performs acts of sabotage, and disguises himself as the enemy. The class you choose doesn’t change the appearance of the character it only determines the abilities available to him. There are skills for each class as well as a set of overall skills that apply to your character in general.
Customization… there is a boat load of it. you can pick and choose pants, shirts, jackets, tattoos, facial hear, hats, masks for your character to don in battle. These items are unlocked as you progress in the game gaining experience points, and also for completing challenges. This is the same for the weapons available in the game. As you can see there is a wide variety of weapons to choose from and on top of that, you can customise each of your weapons. This varies slightly between the pistols, sub machine guns (SMG) and Light Machine guns (LMG), grenade launchers, etc.
In-game basics:The top left of your screen will display which class you are playing, in this case medic, and your health bar. The bottom right hand corner of the screen shows you your primary and secondary weapon, as well as a small minimap. The bottom left of your screen shows you your supply meter and skills available to you. Your supply meter dictates all the actions available to you, once the meter has run out you will not be able to give people health/ammo/buffs. The supply meter regenerates slowly.In game objectives: This is brought up at a command station or by pressing the middle mouse button. You can select any of the objectives and will be rewarded with experience upon completion. The primary objectives are in yellow, the secondary are in blue. Ocassionally you might be expected to change class to be able to attempt an objective.
Another source of inspiration from FPS’s like Battlefield is the ‘downed character screen’. Once you have been shot down, you can choose to either wait for a medic to come and give you a revive syringe or you can select to respawn in your base. You can also be totally destroyed by taking damage while being downed, this will send you straight back to respawning at your base. Single Player:The missions that can be done in the single player campaign are also available as co-op are multiplayer missions. The major downside to brink rears its ugly head in the single player. The AI system at times is horrendous, resulting in situations where 3 bots can be standing right alongside each other not reacting to outside stimuli at all. This is pretty funny as you run in and gloriously gun them down, and horribly painful when it happens to be the bots on your side. This basically results in you having to do the brunt of all the work in the single player. Teamwork doesn’t exist there. Multiplayer:Online play is where the fun is at. While there are only a handful of dedicated servers available locally your choices are somewhat limited. We can only hope that this will change soon. I believe that IS, SGS, and Mweb will be hosting servers.
More good news is that the DLC to be released will be FREE as can be seen in the article on Bethesdas official blog here.
If you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to play some more brink. I’ve only experienced a small portion of the game so far, but what I have seen (minus the few shortfalls) is fun to play.
Do Gaming BC2 Online Championships: +AdHoc+ vs [grrr]
4th game in a row that our team has managed to get Arica Harbour through the map elimination process. Arica Harbour has been a mixed bag for us. We have now played 4 games there: with 2 wins and 2 losses. (W, L, L, W)
Team lineup was as follows:
|Hunt3r|
Vitblitz
DJ1NN
zapdez
vip3rx
Viper24034
Delta
TheVovo
Hellbilly (sub)
Only given three days within to complete the match, organisation got underway. In the two day period leading up to the match there was quite a bit of smack talk. Grrr squad are quite well known, and loved for their animated banter. If you’ve ever read any of their match write-ups you would know exactly what I’m talking about.
On to the match. After their last performance on Arica Harbour, which was against =DAC= could have been described as hapless or bumbling, there was an air of trepidation in the AdHoc team. We had previously practised against grrr and had beaten them convincingly enough for that early stage together as a team. There was hope. We could beat them, if we only stuck to our task and didn’t chase kills. One, if not the biggest, challenge of having a mix team is to get everybody working out of the same playbook.
After a quick rundown of the plans, we got the game going. It was all out action from the start. The battle for the middle flag, B, was key. We did struggle a bit in the first round, capturing flags and then allowing grrr to bully us off them again. It went like that much for the first half. It was give and take right to the end. The 61-0 score probably doesn’t indicate how tough a fight the first round was.
Everything that we learnt from the first half was fully utilised in the secound round. We weren’t going to be bullied off flags. For much of the second round we held the majority of the flags, forcing the grrr team to using the flanks of the map. While they were effectively doing that, it did mean that they were applying less pressure to the flags. Which left us in the driving seat. It was a fight to the end of course, grrr aren’t a team to give up. The AdHoc team took the round convincingly with a score of 182-0
At the end of the game we tried to get some pictures of the group, which was interupted by a mortar strike and contuing machete madness ensued. Thanks for the game guys.
Do Gaming BC2 Online Championships: +AdHoc+ vs =DAC=
Team lineup was as follows:
Turk1shZAR
Vitblitz
DJ1NN
Hellbilly
vip3rx
Viper24034
Delta
TheVovo
Things not going the way of the +AdHoc+ team this week. Having a midweek practise session cancelled at the last moment by the opposition team was one of the worst things that could happen. Leaving us without our much needed time together to work on teamwork and squadplay. This meant that it was a relatively quiet week. Not much happened at all.
Come Sunday evening and game time, the race starts. 6 people are in the mumble channel. Eventually able to find to available reserves. Right… Great… we have the required 8. With little time to work with the squads are worked out and the kits assigned. “you go here”, “you go there”, all the tasks are assigned.
Lets just say that things didn’t go according to plan. People running around where they shouldn’t be, squads splitting up. It was total chaos. The =DAC= guys were clearly working to a plan. They all knew exactly what had to be done.
Totally outgunned and outplayed.
We now look forward to our next game. Since this stage of the tournament is double elimination we have a chance to carry on fighting.
Team lineup was as follows:
|Hunt3r|
Vitblitz
DJ1NN
zapdez
vip3rx
Viper24034
Delta
TheVovo
Hellbilly (sub)
Game was played on Arica harbour, the same lineup was used as the match against [Epic-SA] and it was played on the same map too. This match however was totally different in terms of a contest between the two sides. The map choice probably played into the hands of sG, although playing a well organised team that has played together for a long time is always difficult. And what makes it even more difficult is the fact that we, +AdHoc+, are only starting now to form a team. The mish-mash of influences was this time caught short.
The round scores, I guess, give you a proper indication of how things went. A plucky first round performance gave some hope to the +AdHoc+ team, which was quickly quashed in the second round by a well drilled sG team. Round 1: 220 – 0
Round 2: 301 – 0
We came out all guns blazing at the start of the game, and on several occassions held the majority of the flags in the first half. It was always a case of being slightly outgunned though. We would get into good positions and would not be able to defend properly or would be attacking a point only to have our assault quashed.
The second round was pretty much one sided. Our first round performance convinced them to step things up a notch and they really delivered. Our frustration and somewhat deflated spirits were not going to help us here. Good effort by the +AdHoc+ guys! We’ll get them next time…
Although on the bright side, its a good time to get this slap in the face. Get us re-focused and ready for the elimination phase of the competition. Follow our progress here
Do Gaming BC2 Online Championships: +AdHoc+ vs [Epic-SA]
Game was played on Arica harbour, the same map that we will be playing on sunday against Synergy.
Team lineup was as follows:
|Hunt3r|
Vitblitz
DJ1NN
zapdez
vip3rx
Viper24034
Delta
TheVovo
MaverickZA (sub)
Unfortunately one of the opposition was having a problem with his computer blue screening repeatedly. After waiting for about 20 minutes, hopeful that he would be able to resolve the problem, we were told that they would have to play without him.
Due to the fact that we are a new group there was a deal of time spent before the game trying to organise the squads and also the strategy that would be implemented in the game. The squad layout seems more or less stable as we become more familiar with the roles that we need to fulfill within the squad, and also within the team. As we grow as a team we improve our performances.
There were some slight problems experienced during the game, but by the end of the 2 rounds I think we know what is expected of us. We look ahead to our next game. Its gonna be a tough one.
Do Gaming BC2 Online Championships: +AdHoc+ vs Sadistic
Just a quick update. We played our first game last night. The map we played was Laguna Presa.
The team lineup was as follows:
|Hunt3r|
Vitblitz
DJ1NN
MaverickZA
vip3rx
Viper24034
Delta
TheVovo
First round score was 139-0, second round was 92-0. We did a lot of chasing around and a lot of switching between flags, which didn’t help our structure at all.
Given the preparation that we have had this isn’t a bad result at all. Well played guys. Good result.
We hope that the result will be improved upon for our game on Thursday(27-01-2011) vs [Epic-SA]. To give us more of a foundation for our game on Sunday(30-01-2011) vs Synergy. Thanks to all involved.
Now that we’ve got over the doldrum of competitive gaming that is the christmas holidays, we’re back in full swing with do gaming. They are hosting two online championships:
1) Starcraft 2
I don’t ordinarily have much to say about Starcraft2, since I don’t play it myself. I will however be keeping an eye on fellow +SSG+ clanmate, zapdez, who is taking part. He is in Group 18.
Good luck to you zap.
2) Battlefield: Bad Company 2
The number of entries started off very slowly, but ganied momentum in early January. There are now 18 entries into the competition. These entries have been divided into 4 groups, to start off the competition. With the elimination rounds happening after that.
There are 2 +SSG+ clan members taking part in the competition. Myself, TheVovo, and zapdez. We are both representing a mixed team called +AdHoc+ We are in Group A with [Epic-SA], Sadistic, Synergy Gaming.
So I got my key for the beta and have given it a go. Like in BC2 you have 4 classes to choose from; Recon, Medic, Assault, and Engineer. I chose engineer as usual. The only map in the beta is Karkand. Similar to the map from BF2. There are some minor changes as can be seen from the images. The above screenie is a new flag on the map. Its the area behind square on the way up to suburb on the bf2 map. Since I’ve only played the one class its quite hard to give an overall view on the game. OH YES… you create a soldier, and assign a class to that soldier. Which means you cant change classes in-game. So basically short of disconnecting to change soldiers and then reconnect, you just have to make do with what you have. As you level you get points which can be spent on various talents for your troop. Like unlocking a machine gun for your tank, climbing ladders faster, healing faster from health packs, etc. I can see how it would be pretty fun to play. Just that with the high pings to the international servers close quarters fighting is a no no. I’ve also experienced a problem that after firing both rpgs that I can’t change weapons. and am then stuck like that until I die, rearming also doesn’t help. This game is still in beta, so chances are that things like that will get sorted out. One of the big problems that I’ve experienced with the game surrounds the armour. The tank and apc go virtually unchallenged on these maps. They also don’t get onto the flag radius to cap, just sitting out of range and punishing everything in site with the cannons. Another downside was that each time you spawn, you load customizations for the players on the server. So at times there is quite a bit of loading to get through before you can get back into the action. The com rose is something similar to bf2, but quite a bit more awkward, making it a bit clumsy. And, as usual, nobody spots anything anyway. So basically it could work out if it were hosted locally. That wont happen due to services required for micro transactions ingame…. I leave you with a 3rd person (this is now viewable ingame by pressing ‘f’) screenie of me being out of action not being able to reload rockets are shoot anything.
The SPECACT kit upgrades have arrived on PC! PC players can now change how their soldiers look on the battlefield with this additional downloadable content. With the 4 kit-specific unique uniforms and the camouflaged SPECACT personal M16A2, UMP-45, MG3 and a gun metal black M95 SNIPER, you have a visual edge on the Battlefield, showing that you’re a force to be reckoned with.
Recruited strictly from other high-level Special Operations units such as Delta Force and Spetsnaz, the Special Activities groups – SPECACT – are the elite of the elite, used mainly for covert operations and other high-risk missions in areas where conventional troops cannot be used.
Set in the modern theatre of war Battlefield Play4Free is a first person shooter with realistic graphics. Battlefield Play4Free combines the very best of the Battlefield series – updates of the classic maps and vehicles of Battlefield 2, the definitive classes and powerful weapons of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the addictive RPG-like leveling and customization system of Battlefield Heroes.
As the game’s title suggests, all of this available to players for free online, using the groundbreaking Play4Free model pioneered by Battlefield Heroes. Most impressively, despite the high production values, DICE is aiming to keep the game download size as close to 500MB as possible.
Like Battlefield: Heroes, Play4Free will make money from micro-transactions, although Salt is well aware that the majority of gamers “won’t want to spend a cent.” “As with Battlefield Heroes, the stuff we’re selling are weapons and clothing customisation items for the most part,” said Salt. “With clothes, it’s only if you want to look really, really badass. With weapons, it’s much more about balancing: this gun is really fast, but it’s got no grip; this one just looks really cool. It’s always a personal choice and it’s never going to unbalance the match.”
Here we have a new FPS, which has boldy gone in a direction which comes as a blend of a few of its predecessors. Brink is firstly a First-person Shooter (FPS), which includes a large element of Parkour using the S.M.A.R.T (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system. This allows you to navigate rails, change of levels, sliding into cover, and vaulting over things. It can also make climbing a staircase an exceptionally intense cardio workout, with you flying up the bannister or vaulting over tiny obstacles. The extent of your athletic ability is set by the body type you select for your character as can be seen below. 
Light, Heavy, and Medium body types respectively. The heavy type can only do small vaults and slides, whereas the light type can fly through the air like a cat. The body type also has an impact on the type of weapons that the character can use, obviously the light body type cannot carry something like a gattling gun.
There are skills for each class as well as a set of overall skills that apply to your character in general.
As you can see there is a wide variety of weapons to choose from and on top of that, you can customise each of your weapons. 
This varies slightly between the pistols, sub machine guns (SMG) and Light Machine guns (LMG), grenade launchers, etc.
The top left of your screen will display which class you are playing, in this case medic, and your health bar.
The bottom right hand corner of the screen shows you your primary and secondary weapon, as well as a small minimap. 
The bottom left of your screen shows you your supply meter and skills available to you. Your supply meter dictates all the actions available to you, once the meter has run out you will not be able to give people health/ammo/buffs. The supply meter regenerates slowly.In game objectives:
This is brought up at a command station or by pressing the middle mouse button. You can select any of the objectives and will be rewarded with experience upon completion. The primary objectives are in yellow, the secondary are in blue. Ocassionally you might be expected to change class to be able to attempt an objective.
You can also be totally destroyed by taking damage while being downed, this will send you straight back to respawning at your base.
220 – 0
301 – 0
2. 
