Tag Archives: Brink

Splash Damage: MMO shooters are the future

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Brink

Adding MMO elements to First Person Shooters is the future of the genre. That’s according to CEO of Brink developer Splash Damage Paul Wedgwood.

As the Train2Game blog has previously reported, the Game Developers believe Brink will ‘end the genre as we know it’

And when asked by CVG what would be the X-Factor for shooters in future Wedgewood replied:

“That’s really easy. I just want a really good massively multiplayer shooter, thanks. I’m desperate for it. Why isn’t there? I just can’t stand the fact that there isn’t one yet. I’d do it but 140 staff? Managing 140 people? It’s just so hard.”

“You know, for a long time it hasn’t been technically feasible because you need super low latency connections for good shooter combat and that’s generally incompatible with 1000 people being on a server at the same time”

“I think there’s definitely going to be some cool stuff that comes around,” he added “But I think the massively multiplayer shooter, one where we’re all engaged in the same continuous environment is the thing that’s going to truly impress me next.”

As Train2Game students will know, MMOs themselves are big business with World of Warcraft having over 12 million subscribers.  Star Wars: The Old Republic developers Bioware have claimed WoW is the ‘touchstone’ for MMO design, as reported by the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, can the MMO framework be transferred to the FPS? Would you be interested? And what are your thoughts on the upcoming Brink from Splash Damage?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: CVG]

Brink will ‘end the genre as we know it’ say developers

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Bethesda Softworks and Splash Damage have released a third developer diary about their upcoming first person shooter Brink. (You can watch a previous Brink developer diary over at Gabe’s Train2Game blog.) This latest Brink developer diary is titled ‘Brink: The end of the genre as we know it’ in which the developers discuss Brink’s ‘unique meld of single and multiplayer modes’ which form the basis of the game.

This third Brink developer diary begins with Creative Director Richard Ham telling us that the squad based shooter bridges the gap between single player and multiplayer games. Brink Game Director Paul Wedgewood echoes this theme by adding “We’re finally blurring the lines between offline gaming and online gaming” Splash Damage certainly want to let gamers know that this is the unique feature of Brink!

The Brink developers are very keen to push through that the game doesn’t have a pre-set path, with the player being able to choose their own story whether they are playing online or offline. Completing team based objectives in both modes will earn Brink players experience points which they can spend on customising their character with their own unique selection of clothes, weapons and other accessories.

Brink does look very impressive and it’ll be very interesting to see if the amalgamation of the single player and multiplayer experiences work when Brink is released in Spring next year.


Train2Game students can watch ‘Brink: The end of the genre as we know it’ below.

So Train2Game, do you think the idea behind Brink is a clever one? Or do you believe it might fall flat in reality? Are you looking forward to Brink? And do you think you could combine single player and multiplayer experiences into one whole game?

You can leave your thoughts on Brink here, or on the Train2Game forum.