Brink Updates Detailed

It was quite a distressing morning for me this Tuesday, waking up to see some of the Brink reviews. After giving the game a nine, seeing it being demolished for having crippling bugs absolutely baffled me – was I completely inept for missing these? It turns out the patch I mentioned in my review may not have been available to US reviewers, which may explain some of their comments.

Here are details of the Brink patch for all three systems:

PC – “On the PC side, we’re pleased to report that we’ve put together our first game update, bringing two immediate improvements to Brink:

It greatly enhances the crash reports we’re getting through Steam, with more detailed information coming our way from now on. While this doesn’t sound very exciting for you as a player, it’s really useful for the Brink team as it’ll allow us to track down the underlying issues much more quickly and work on fixes for them – particularly stability issues relating to compatibility.

This update also fixes an issue where closing the game before getting to the character selection screen can corrupt your character data and make it unusable. Until the game update comes out, we strongly recommend not shutting Brink down during start-up to avoid this issue altogether.

Better yet, this update has just hit Steam and you can download it by simply signing into your Steam client.

In other PC news, we’ve also been working closely with the guys over at Bethesda Softworks to identify and solve any hardware compatibility issues that people have been reporting. For the AMD graphics card owners out there, make sure you’ve installed the latest AMD video drivers as that will solve a fair few of the visual and performance issues out there. Similarly, if you have an NVIDIA card and are experiencing issues with the game, make sure you’ve got the latest NVIDIA video drivers installed.
The next game update for the PC version is already in the works, and includes a fix for the FOV issue some of you have been reporting on the forums, among several other things. We’ll have more information to share on that soon.”

PS3 – “The PlayStation 3 version of Brink has also received its first game update late Monday. It incorporates the same prediction fixes as in the Xbox 360 version, resulting in a smoother online performance. In addition, host migration has seen several improvements as well, and we’ve fixed an issue where the Ability Wheel sometimes displayed the wrong class abilities. This update also fixes several potential freezes and, like the Xbox 360 version, now only plays the introductory tutorial video at the initial prompt, rather than all of them.

Even though PSN is currently offline, you’ll still be able to get this update if your console is connected to the internet. Once PSN is back online, we’ll closely monitor player feedback for this platform.”

Xbox 360 (patch I had downloaded for review) – “We’ve now put up our first game update on the Xbox 360, which went live at launch. It addresses several of the issues raised in some of the early US reviews of the game and brings with it some major improvements.

Most importantly, this update significantly reduced texture loading times thanks to improved hard-drive caching. It also improves client prediction when playing online – in other words, you’ll experience much less “rubber banding” in multiplayer. We’ve also fixed several issues that could lead to the game freezing, and resolved an issue where Brink would insist on playing all of the training videos rather than just the introductory one.

If you’ve not yet got the update, simply restart the game while your Xbox is connected to the internet.”

The issue of lag has also come up. In my review I reported the game did have some lag, and it saddens me to report that instances of this have increased since the game’s release. I’ve had matches that run smooth as silk, but then I’ve entered matches that are unplayable.

Splash Damage is aware of this and working on a fix. Hopefully one can be found soon, as it would be a shame to have this fine online shooter crippled.

Source: Official Brink website

28 Comments

  1. Are the console versions of the game P2P hosted, or dedicated server? I’ve seen indications that the PC is dedicated, but consoles are P2P… That could be a BIG part of the problem.
    Likewise, it would also make sense that the delectable Dan Lee being in the UK, and generally playing against US players could exacerbate the issues…

    Lastly, since there’s no mention of it, I think it’s safe to assume that the PS3 and PC versions didn’t have the pop-in issues that the 360 review code did.

    Still, all of this just makes me wonder why on earth Splash and Bethesda decided that they’d “finished” the game a week early, when all it’s done is lead to questionable reviews and a day one patch. Surely that extra week of production would have squished these bugs, right?

    • Also, a better subtitle gag would have been:
      ‘s Laggy

      Geddit? Geddit?! :P

      • I don’t get it… O_o
        Probably a rubbish pun anyway! ;P

    • Lots of people are speculating an early release to avoid close proximity to LA Noire. I’d rather it was finished personally. Games with the Bethesda label seem to have lots of bugs, I was worried when I heard about their involvement with Brink months ago :(

      • Is 5 days works really work it to stop it clashing with LA Noire?

      • You can tell I’m tired. That was meant to read ‘Is 5 days work really worth it to stop it clashing with LA Noire?’

      • Yeah, a good point, I guess, but as Ryan says, five days fewer polishing has created a negative buzz about the release, all the PR for the game that was scheduled has had to be shuffled and re-done etc. etc.

        Not to mention that this game went Gold a /month/ ago. Review code (as reported by Ars) was in the form of retail copies of the game, and sent out early last week to most places (Ars only got theirs on Friday, though)…

        So if you add it all together, they could still have spent an extra week before declaring the game Gold, sent out bare bones press review copies of the game, and have met their new deadline. They could equally have spent an extra fortnight and simply met their original deadline of May 17th…

        They didn’t, they chose to follow the fairly depressing trend of wrapping early and then patching on Day 1. In this case, where there was no Open Beta using Gold code, it’s feeble.

  2. Read your review and you pretty much summed up the reasons why I’m buying the game. IGNs video review is laughable, with the exception of the stuff that the patch addresses, he slagged off the game for the same sort of online issues present in every COD game, but never gets mentioned in a COD review, ie. People will learn where the bottle necks are and where to camp. Pretty sure the general mechanic of this game will render camping useless.

  3. It does however beg the question why did Betheda/SplashDamage give review codes out when clearly the game wasn’t finished? And why wasn’t the lag issues picked up in the beta?
    I can’t help but feel the game has been rushed, and maybe another week would have at least allowed for some more testing.

    • There seems to have been a whole host of issues. Clearly the review code had a seemingly significant number of bugs in it and the reviewers broadly speaking did not have access to the ‘day 1’ patches.

      That PSN is down and the PC review codes, according to the sources I’ve read, weren’t available until the day the game launched meant that the vast majority of review were for the 360 version.

      Anecdotally that seems to be the version that has suffered from the most bugs, though it was as a result the most played, so it may simply be that is why more bugs were seen in it. (Also launching first in the U.S. where 360 rulz mean more players again on the 360 version, not to mention PSN being down again so fewer PS3 issues.)

      Finally, with the PSN down and more 360 copies going out they ran short of 360 copies so some reviewers got the game relatively late in the day too. (Presumably meaning a more hurried play through and review than they’d like as they rushed to be ready for the embargo lifting.)

  4. i was shocked when i saw this got a 6 from gamespot. it seems certain reviews gave it a beating for the bugs while other could forgive them. I’m going to trust TSA on this one and pick it up when i can but with portal 2 and now LA Noir coming i’m not sure when that ca be

  5. yours wasn’t the only great review/score…

    MSNBC – 9/10″Brink is one of the smartest shooters you can play right now, and it’s also one of the most fun”
    VGRevolution – 9.4″…if you like team-based first person shooters then do not miss it.”
    GameSpy – 4 stars”Brink has the potential to become your new favorite FPS.”
    Crave Online – [Do Not Score]”…this game oozes style in a package that is brilliantly assembled.”
    Cheat Code Central – 4.3/5″Brink is a worthy buy for anyone who doesn’t absolutely hate multiplayer FPS action.”
    Digital Chumps – 84″Brink is a perfect example of how an online experience should feel”
    Co-Optimus – 4 stars”Brink is a must play if you enjoy co-op shooters.”
    Frictionless Insight – 4.5 stars”…if you have the slightest propensity for tactics or cooperation in your online, multiplayer shooter, you won’t be disappointed.”
    AusGamers – 8.2″…this is a different breed of first-person shooter: faster, sexier and made for online play.”
    Game People – [Do Not Score]”Brink represents a genuine next step and feels fresh to play”
    Gaming Nexus – B+”the most solid and well-balanced core gameplay yet from Splash Damage.”
    Zoo Magazine (Issue 373) – 8/10″Frantic and explosive fun”
    Loughborough Echo – 8.8/10″…an enjoyable FPS that really comes alive online.”
    Way of the Game – “Classic””No matter how you play, there’s going to be something for you in Brink.”
    Expert Reviews – 4 stars”An immensely fun and fast-paced action FPS that’s great to play with friends.”
    Spong – 83″…an ambitious shooter with lots of depth and plenty of meat.”

    • Very interesting, thanks for the list!

      • I’ve got your back lol, just wish i posted it tue am:)

    • Loughborough Echo only gave it 8.8/10? OMG!

  6. (att to my prev post. All above review scores displayed at splash damage website.)

    It’s been comforting to see so many positive, actually outweighing the bad. Until i visited their sight, i was gutted & going to give it a miss, but come fri I may well take the plunge, although i’m still slightly apprehensive. The a.i. will still be dodgy in campaign regardless of patches i’m guessing, but it was always meant to be played online really.

  7. I’ve read some truly awful reviews about it, but each to their own. My one concern is a review I read said you can only level your character to level 20 and that only took him 4 days after which the xp becomes pretty much worthless. Your thoughts on this Dan?

    • 4days… I had read you max, in like an hour or something. Things are looking up even pre-patch.

    • I was all about levelling up in most games, especially a fps, kept me going back. That was until I got kz3, which has a watered down lvl system(as everything seems to be lately, more accessible apparently, hcore people in the cold.) I love the game & wasn’t going to give in to my levelling addiction and trade after a few days, so for the first time, i focused on just enjoying playing, despite maxing a class in a few hours. If you can do that, i’d say go for it, but if your like I was pre my kz3 rebirth, ans would be no.

    • It depends how good you are to be honest. I’m pretty average at FPS games and I’m still only at rank 3 after nearly 100,000 xp

      • Thanks for the replies guys. I think I’d be okay with it as long as I was still unlocking new things, I can get a bit OCD collecting stuff in games.

  8. Hopefully this will be waiting for me when I go home! Exciting times!

    • you might say ‘happy days’, no? :D

  9. ET:QW began the same but patched to be a fine game indeed (on PC). I trust Splash Damage, they’re an awesome dev house.

  10. Yet another game that’s willing to be released with a very sub-standard feel to it. Gran Turismo, Bethesda games, etc., all with that unfinished feel to it.

    I was quite excited about Brink (and its wonderful art-style) but the negative press has really taken the shine off it.

    • I remember pre-internet, all i did was buy the latest mag, for the platform of my choice & tthat review was enough.

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