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[Nirolak]

New Screenshots courtesy of Agaru:

The game will be demoed at GamesCom.

Article explaining more about the game:

June 2, 2009 - Imagine a world where global warming has contributed to a massive catastrophe. On top of all of the environmental issues like drought and famine, the icecaps and glaciers have all melted, causing sea levels to rise dramatically. With a large amount of the world's population killed, the last refuge of humanity lies in an artificial floating city as sea known as the Ark. This isn't an emergency scenario trying to force countries into ratifying the Kyoto Protocol – this is the backdrop for the latest shooter from Splash Damage and Bethesda. At E3, Splash Damage showed off some of the gameplay from a pre-alpha build for this upcoming shooter, which will land on the PC, PS3 and 360 in Spring 2010.

Clearly, under such tragic situations, and a limited amount of space, it's only a matter of time before conflict breaks out. In Brink, the fighting erupts between two separate forces: the Security forces of the Ark, who are trying to re-establish a measure of control over the deteriorating conditions and the Resistance, who are battling against the organization of the Ark itself. Players will establish unique characters for both sides, tailoring their individual looks, outfits and other personal details, and will carry these unique characters across the single player, co-op and multiplayer modes of the game. Every mission that your characters take on will earn you experience points, which can be used to acquire new skills and abilities, further making your characters more specialized in combat.

The demo of Brink took two separate phases. The first was placed within the Airport, which had been long deserted thanks to the fact that there was nowhere to fly to anymore. Here, I saw some of the basics of movement. Brink utilizes traditional FPS controls, but it also has what the designers are calling a "Smart Button," allowing the game to interpret what you'd want to do with a single touch. For instance, if you see a hazard like an alarm and you don't want to trip it, you can hit the button as you approach it, leaping over or sliding under the infrared beams. You can also use the Smart Button to reach objectives faster, leaping up walls and vaulting over barricades to reach distant areas.

The other segment of the demo was a battle sequence that took place in what was being called Container City, an old dockyard that was once used to store people's belongings and had now been converted into a shanty town. The security team was tasked with trying to secure the area and stop the unrest, but as they were fired upon, survival quickly became more important. Creatively, missions within Brink are never set in stone; in fact, you're able to continually select what mission you want to take on at any point in time, seeing what kind of experience bonus you'll receive for successfully completing that mission. For instance, one mission I saw was an interrogation mission behind enemy lines. As the character blasted his way towards his target (which he was directed to by an arrow onscreen), he produced a device that looked like an iPhone and walked towards the prone man on the ground. The device morphed into a taser, and after a significant amount of electric "persuasiveness," the man talked. The experience bonus was accomplished, and it was time to select a new task and move on. Multiple people can choose to select the same mission, and these will in turn spawn other missions for other players. So a repair mission for one soldier might involve an escort mission for another player, etc.

Of course, the character I saw was trapped behind enemy lines after his successful interrogation mission. Fortunately, this isn't as much of a hassle as it could be in other games, particularly because there are different character classes, like the operative, that excel at this kind of stealthy maneuvering. In all, I managed to see at four separate classes that players will be able to choose from: the operative, soldier, medic and engineer. While you initially select your class at the start of a mission, you can easily switch between these at will by approaching one of the numerous terminals scattered around a map. These locations also allow you to manipulate you equipment loadout, letting you swap between light, medium and heavy weapons loadouts. This is particularly useful because you may find that either player or AI controlled teammates might request a specific kind of character or loadout, and you can tailor yourself to provide the right kind of support at that moment.

Brink appeared to be extremely fast paced, particularly for a shooter. In many ways, the single player experience had a heavy multiplayer feel, which isn't surprising given that Splash Damage created Quake Wars: Enemy Territory. But the action seemed to be fast paced and the inclusion of dynamically generated missions appeared to provide a large amount of flexible play, which should prevent the gameplay from getting stale as you eventually complete your objectives. The mission ended as the security team successfully managed to blast their way to a container, but were shocked by what they saw as they opened the container. Before I could see what was inside, the demo ended. It was enough of a tease to make the glimpse of Brink rather intriguing as a shooter that will be coming out sometime next year.

Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/990/990181p1.html

Video Interview: http://www.giantbomb.com/e3-2009-interview-brink/17-826/

Update: Deano Comments:

Screen shots are real. Seems to spend a fair amount of my career saying that

Engine is a heavily modified Quake Wars Engine (idTech 4), its got a totally new renderer, console improvement (job system for multi-core/PS3) + lots of other things.

Virtual Texturing (full name Sparse Virtual Texturing), is a technique to have almost unlimited textures in game. We render a mini view of the game each frame, see which textures are actually visible and then stream them off disk on demand. So the only real limits to textures is how much is visible (also we don't need to bring in the stupidly high res ones until your close enough to actually see the high res details).

I see jaggies, see the shadow on the column to the left of the light beam.

If you've got a shit hot PC with AA maxed out, thats what it will look like. For obvious reasons screenshots are taken with the best settings (at very high res as well, because of print magazines). Those shots were rendered in-game and dumped to disk as a TGA with NO further touch ups.

Less extreme platforms will have less AA, were aiming of at least 4x on both PS3 and XBOX. 720P with 4x AA is our reference resolution and AA setting.

Thats why the game has extensive character customisation, so you can pick what you look like. Their will be millions of combinations by release (already up to a few hundred thousand), he's a 'heavy' hence the slightly over the top body compared to his head, their are other body types.

But yeah, needs to learn how to shave

Were doing it all in house, not really porting instead being built for all 3 platform directly.

It turns out these are actually screenshots.

Screenshots.

Looks awesome!!

Here it is:

SD: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-brink/49785

HD: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-brink/49784?type=flv

To note, it's mostly a teaser.

Edit:

People probably want some details on what the game is actually.

It's a first person shooter made by Splash Damage, the studio responsible for Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It is also supposed to continue their tradition of making very in depth first person shooters, most likely with a large, fundamental class system.

Bethesda also went on to hype it up by claiming it would "transform the fps genre", but that's probably just marketing speech.

 

[backflip10019]

Saw it on Spike. More of a teaser than anything really. Too little to tell anything so far.

 

[phalestine]

heh more of a teaser.

Edit - DAMN YOU!!! ^^^

 

[golem]

www.brinkthegame.com

background image makes it look pretty actiony.. fps?

 

[legend166]

That dude has a massive nose.

 

[Nirolak]

www.brinkthegame.com

background image makes it look pretty actiony.. fps?

Nice find, added it to the OP.

 

[speculawyer]

Brink better be some acronym for Elder Scrolls V.

 

[Chris Remo]

Brink better be some acronym for Elder Scrolls V.

It's Splash Damage, so it's probably not going to be remotely like Elder Scrolls at all really.

 

[speculawyer]

It's Splash Damage, so it's probably not going to be remotely like Elder Scrolls at all really.

Yeah, but when I see Bethesda all I think is Elder Scrolls. Splash Damage can do the grass physics for it.

 

[phalestine]

oooo art is very very nice. I just hope to god this game isnt buggy.

 

[deadbeef]

Does anyone have any info on this game? Is this a Sci-Fi RPG?

 

[Nirolak]

Does anyone have any info on this game? Is this a Sci-Fi RPG?

It's a sci-fi first person shooter. I put some details up in the OP.

 

[Hazaro]

Please have a space elevator.

 

[pseudocaesar]

No. Elder Scrolls V or bust.

 

[deadbeef]

It's a sci-fi first person shooter. I put some details up in the OP.

mmmmm, excellent.

 

[legend166]

Also, is is now mandatory that every futuristic game have a main building that is really, really tall?


Half Life already did it folks, let it go.

 

[Kydd BlaZe]

Oh so this isn't developed by Bethesda? So I guess they're just publishing it, sort of like how Obsidian is doing Fallout: New Vegas.

Either way, im still very much interested in this. I wonder how talented Splash Damage are though. That concept image looks hot, and i'm very much interested in the premise of this game. Can't wait to see more at E3.

 

[deadbeef]

Also, is is now mandatory that every futuristic game have a main building that is really, really tall?


Half Life already did it folks, let it go.

Well, Blink had a good run. Wrap it up folks, this is just a bunch of derivative crap.

 

[industrian]

The first piece of concept art:

http://i41.tinypic.com/n4ik54.jpg

It looks Hazey.

 

[Shockgamer]

Eh, I'm ambivalent. Can't say if I want or don't want until some footage comes out.

 

[bdouble]

Gotta love the utopia gone wrong theme haha.

Yeah, but when I see Bethesda all I think is Elder Scrolls. Splash Damage can do the grass physics for it.

:/
Bethesda is just moving into the publishing realm.

 

[outunderthestars]

Also, is is now mandatory that every futuristic game have a main building that is really, really tall?


Half Life already did it folks, let it go.

Yea, but maybe this game will actually be fun!

::ducks::

 

[backflip10019]

Well, Blink had a good run. Wrap it up folks, this is just a bunch of derivative crap.

:lol :lol

 

[hauton]

Well, Blink had a good run. Wrap it up folks, this is just a bunch of derivative crap.

:lol :lol

.

 

[Red]

I was under the impression every new fps redefined the genre. It's been said so much, I just assume it by default.

 

[larvi]

Yay, shipping containers. You can never have too many games with those.

 

[ghst]

got alot of faith in splash damage, definitely one of the more progressive developers out there. just hope that the lack of interest in qw on consoles didn't sour their taste for complex, layered multiplayer games.

p.s i don't give a shit about teaser trailers for games, and i can't even remember this one 15 minutes after watching it.

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

gamebryOH NOES!!!!

 

[JonAmikar]

lol @ Valve trolls.

Splash Damage + Bethesda? This game will be ace.

 

[golem]

kinda gives a parkour vibe

 

[TheFallen]

What's with the nose in the teaser? Kinda huge, half man half lion? FURRIES!

 

[element]

gamebryOH NOES!!!!

i really doubt that splashdamage is using gamebryo.

 

[Nirolak]

got alot of faith in splash damage, definitely one of the more progressive developers out there. just hope that the lack of interest in qw on consoles didn't sour their taste for complex, layered multiplayer games.

Actually, they said in an interview about this project hat they believed there was a huge market for complex, layered multiplayer games on consoles, but that people just needed to actually try and make such games in order to reveal it. One of their main hopes with this project is to do that.

 

[sykoex]

Thank god. I was starting to worry there wouldn't be any new first person shooters to play.

 

[teepo]

such an unappreciated studio.

hopefully this project will change things for them and i hope their partnership with bethesda doesn't mean things have gone sour with i.d.

 

[Shrennin]

Hard to get excited for a teaser that showed no gameplay. Seems like it'll have an interesting story and I am a bit intrigued - will keep an eye out for this game at E3 or for future reveals.

 

[Revelations]

Was the particular console platform announced for this title as well?

 

[Nirolak]

Was the particular console platform announced for this title as well?

It's for PC, 360, and PS3. It shows up in the logos at the end of the trailer, but it goes by a little fast so it's easy to miss.

 

[Lakitu]

Nice teaser. Asthetically and music-wise reminds me of Mirror's Edge.

 

[Truant]

Brink is such an ugly word.

 

[Sciz]

such an unappreciated studio.

hopefully this project will change things for them and i hope their partnership with bethesda doesn't mean things have gone sour with i.d.

I don't believe there's any personal bad blood between them, but after the hell that was getting Quake Wars shipped, they're probably content to have parted ways.

Consider me interested at any rate. Wolf ET was amazing, and I enjoyed the time I spent with Quake Wars.

 

[flarkminator]

"Bethesda announces..."

[FURIOUSLY CLICKS THREAD]

...

Oh...

 

[GotchaForce]

I remember a while back in a podcast interview (gfw radio I think) the lead at Splash Damage said they're working on revitalizing an old IP. I guess that fell to the wayside.

 

[DeanoCalver]

i really doubt that splashdamage is using gamebryo.

No were not using gamebryo.

 

[Rad Agast]

The Helis look kinda similar to the Pelican drop ships from Halo. I approve.

 

[Mr. Durden]

No were not using gamebryo.

wat

 

[DeanoCalver]

wat

No we are not using Gamebyro

We (Splash Damage) use a different engine.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Art and details got me hyped. Can't wait for E3.

 

[wsippel]

No we are not using Gamebyro

We (Splash Damage) use a different engine.

Tech4 or Tech5 I assume?

 

[Haunted]

No we are not using Gamebyro

We (Splash Damage) use a different engine.

Lead programmer? Very nice. We're counting on you to keep us informed.