As the new gaming year is just starting, we have been shown many hot new titles that are coming out.  Some of them are old franchises and some are brand new.  This game may not be on your radar yet, but it is definitely one to keep your eyes on this year.

Developed by Bethesda Softworks who has also done Oblivion, Elder Scrolls and probably my favorite game they’ve done, Fallout 3,  comes Brink,  Bethesda’s brand new first person shooter, developed by Splash Damage.  This game is stated to come out in spring 2010, hopefully but there are rumours that it might come out in the Fall of 2010.

So you are probably wondering, “what is Brink?”

Well, in an interview with Richard Ham done in September 16th, 2009,  he talks about how this is a brand new FPS that is currently in Pre-Alpha and is far different from any other shooter out there.

This game is running on the Id Tech 4 engine, which was used on Quake Wars, but it has been overhauled to make this game look visually amazing.  Using a new texturing model called Virtual Texturing, they are able to create some of the most visually pleasing gameplay that I’ve seen.

So, here’s what we know from that interview: Brink is set on the Ark, a floating island built in the early 21st century.  The Ark was built to create the “perfect green way of living”, meaning that they use solar power and other green forms of energy to be self-sustaining.  It houses five thousand people and is used for celebrities to come and have photo-ops.  Unfortunately, a rising of seawater causes global flooding’s and with people being left homeless, they turn to the Ark for help and all are welcomed, raising the population to fifty thousand people.

The story starts off thirty years after the rising sea waters and the floods.  The population has been split into an upper and lower class of citizens.  This is where you step into the shoes of either the “Security”, which looks to be the police of the Ark and come from the upper class section, or the “Resistance”, a bunch of lower class people trying to fight for anything they can get to survive. Because of all this, the Ark is on brink of civil war.

The differences that have been noted from any other FPS out there are these:

- Camera Changes: The center of the screen is fixed to increase the feeling that you’re actually walking instead of having the entire camera bouncing from left to right to copy movement.
-The Gravity Well: For you Halo and Call of Duty players, this is one that you will notice.  In Halo, the Gravity Well is what gives that magnetic effect on the radical when facing enemies.  In Brink, the further away an enemy is, the stronger the Gravity Well is.  This will increase the turning rate of the character when aiming.
-Controller Mapping: If you played any Halo games on the console and got annoyed because the controls were switched from what you know, you’ll find controller mapping helpful. Brink’s controller layout is similar to CoD but has also been given the ability to map controls to the user’s preference.

The one major difference in this game is the S.M.A.R.T. button.  S.M.A.R.T. stands for  “Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain,” and this button will make it easier for a player to move across the map, no matter what object is in the way.  Using the S.M.A.R.T. button, you point yourself in a direction that you want to go, hit the button and off you go.  This is to help new players to be able to “pick up and play”.  But do not fear gamers, this button does not need to be used.  The game has its own jump and crouch buttons mapped to it and the same movements can be done without the button.  Not using the button increases you efficiency and allows more freedom throughout the game.

As for the gameplay itself, it is modeled after Call Of Duty, so you know that it will be great to control.  As for single player, not too much is known aside from the story that is mentioned earlier on in this article.  When starting the game, you will have to choose from one of two sides to play as: Security or Resistance.  Once you have made the choice, you will be taken to a character customization screen and then you’ll move onto the game.

There are three basic modes of gameplay are available:  Single, Co-op and multiplayer.  Each mode allows you to upgrade your character through experience points gained.  Upgrading so far just seems to be changing the appearance of your character and adding more armor or being able to use different weapons.  Also, within the game, you are able to change your class by visiting the command posts. Doing this will change objectives and experience points avaliable for you to do and will give more objectives for your teammates to do as well.

In multiplayer, which is 16, 8 v. 8, you will play either Security or Resistance, and each with their own objectives will face off against the other.  All types of players are welcomed in multiplayer, since not one player can hold their own against the other such as in Halo or Call of Duty.  If you are not a frontline fighter or just keep dying and want to try something else, you can select another character class and help your team in another way, such as the engineer class.  As an engineer, you can upgrade your teammates’ weapons and make them better throughout the game.

Brink is seemingly a contender for one of the big games coming up this year or at least one of those great games that will fly under the radar for most people, like Psychonauts.  This is all of the information we have found out so far about Brink and are looking forward to its release.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher:  Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Splash Damage
Release: 2010

Sources:

Interview:
http://www.videogamer.com/videos/brink_richard_ham_interview.html

Images:
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/101/1019715/dev-blog-bethesda-softworks-blogs-about-th-elatest-news-with-brink-fallout-3-and-wet-20090828024544998.jpg

http://www.bethsoft.com/images/games/brink_02B.jpg

http://www.bethsoft.com/images/games/brink_04B.jpg

Girls in video games represent 40% of the gaming population according to statistics form the Electronic Software Association. It definitely doesn’t feel like this with video games seeming like a male dominated environment. But the most masculine gaming genre, the First Person Shooter (FPS) have always been invaded by very aggressive females.

Since the late 90’s female gaming guilds have dominated servers and have intimidated boys. Back in 1999 female guilds like Clan PMS, Women of War, Babes With Attitude, and Rail Girlz were making boys uncomfortable in Quake 2. In a largely testosterone based environment female gamers stick together to combat male gamers. The idea that females don’t game, and that agressive games are for boy is definetly a lie. To read more about late 90’s in Women With Weapons.

Recently a friend showed me an article by Regretful Morning which had a very descriptive photo of the life of a Female Gamer in FPS. Females in this environment are extremely aggressive to keep up with their male counter-part. Offensive slurs and quick remarks go hand in hand with the quick play style of FPS. Female gamers have to be sharp in the game and with their tongue if they want to keep up in this highly male dominate environment. Even the maturity of the average female gamer does a number on gamer guys as they let the insults roll of them. Ultimately it a matter to skill that is displayed in game, if a girl can kick ass it doesn’t matter if she’s a girl.

The popular web show, The Guild, even pointed out the popularity of females playing FPS when the introduced the character Riley. To the right is a picture of The Guild’s main character Codex and Riley playing a FPS, and Codex not handling it well. Riley’s character is an over aggressive spunky girl who loves to shoot things inside and outside of game. This show typifies gaming stereotypes and they well express a FPS girl who love’s to hurt things and is incredibly hot.

FPS will always have girls playing them, and more aggressive girls – and boys who play FPS will appreciate them. There is something Hot about a girl wielding a gun and fragging some zombies, and even thou they may be very intimidated were glad their out there.

Well here we go again, a new technology that will be pushed for acceptance but will eventually fail. I’m of course talking about Nintendo’s Virtual Boy. Oops, I mean 3-D gaming).

If you have been watching this past Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the big buzz has been around 3-D televisions. Some big names like Panasonic and Sharp have been showing off some new televisions with this new 3-D technology. Aside from this problem from the gaming world perspective is that there are just some general problems I see with this even being in your house, aside from having things like Natal being pushed on us even though that does seem better at CES from last time we saw it.

The first issue I see is the price. Do you remember the price of HDTVs back when they first came out? The higher end models were about $5000. During a recession and high unemployment the market is now introducing a new television they expect us to buy?
My second issue is with the 3-D glasses themselves. Imagine you bought your shiny new 3-DTV and you brought all your friends over to watch the big game. That’s when you notice you only have four 3-D glasses for you and your eight friends. To resolve the issue you have to kick some of your friends out, or host smaller parties. Now that you’ve kicked out some of your friends, one of your friends has reading glasses. You now have to tell him to wear both sets of glasses, shut up and enjoy the new TV. That’s not to mention that some of the 3-D glasses require batteries which is excessive weight.

Now to speak about gaming issues. Everyone of us who went to see Avatar and thought it was awesome. Well that’s all and good until you try the game itself in 3-D. This is a bad idea to begin with because movie game are always bad no matter what. Secondly if you have ever seen any movie that was 3-D, I found it is a headache to keep those glasses on my eyes for long periods of time. With the 3-D glasses that require batteries this causes more of a problem, because I can game for days at a time and prolonged usage could cause migraine. If I’m wearing glasses with batteries in them, I might as well be wearing the night vision goggles I got with Modern Warfare 2 (at least they are cool). The thing that bugs me the most: HD gaming is the expensive cost. Even now it’s still a big chunk of money out of your wallet for the HDTV, the cables and the surround sound. But switching over to a new format when not everyone is already on HD seems ridiculous to me.

Yes it does sound cool, but it’s just not worth it.
So how are they going to market it to us? Well, it’s a “brand new experience” and “immerse yourself in the game”.  Well, that’s crap.  First of all, I don’t want to be immersed into a game by having its characters thrown at my face.  When I get immersed into a game, I would rather have it done by a great story like Uncharted 2 or Final Fantasy 13 ( it’s not out, but I’m hoping for big things).

Come Febuary 2010 Austrilia will be openning it’s first video-game bar. Video game bars are starting to open up all around the world now that video-games are being considered an alternative night-life style. This venue is offering high-end coctial drinks and latest new game releases. The bar is also centered around a focus of social games, like guitar hero tournaments. With big names like Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg & Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw supporting this project they expect geeks to flock in from all sorts of areas to game. With a capacity of 50 people, it is a smaller bar but will comfortably fit a large number of gamers.

For more information visit their website or their facebook fan page

With Tatsunoko vs. Capcom coming around the corner a new Fight Stick has been announced by Mad Catz. Now when I first heard that the next Campcom cross over fighting game was announced for the Wii I was a little scared. Like really the Wii-mote and nunchuck are nice but I could never play a fighting game on them. This latest model from Mad Catz, your Wii-mote slides right in and your ready for wireless play.

Campus Gamers always has Fighting Sticks avaliable at their gaming events because the control and play style with fighting sticks are much more comfortable for fighting games. I actually believe they do make you play better (but we do offer controllers there for people who are not fans of the fighting stick).

The Fighting Stick is priced at $79.99 on the GameShark store, the official Tatsunoko vs. Capcom FightSticks is expected to be available between the middle and end of this month.

As an additional bonus Mad Catz has announced the fighting stick will be backwards compatable. Nothing has been announced with what yet, but it is assumed it will work with you classic Campcom downloads on your Wii.