Brink updates detailed

By Fred Dutton Published 11 May, 2011

Splash Damage makes day one tweaks.

Even though it's not hit European shelves yet, a wealth of tweaks for Splash Damage's Brink have already gone live, with more to follow.

As detailed by studio co-founder Paul Wedgewood on the game's official site, an Xbox 360 update was made available yesterday addressing "several of the issues raised in some of the early US reviews."

Texture loading times have been reduced, multiplayer client prediction improved and a number of crash-causing bugs stamped out.

Wedgewood also promised a future patch was in the works to address reports of multiplayer lag.

"We're urgently investigating this issue and seeing what we can do to improve things in that area," he promised. "Stay tuned."

A PlayStation 3 update is also ready, issuing the same tweaks as its Xbox 360 counterpart along with improvements for host migration and a fix for an issue with the game's Ability Wheel.

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

A PC update is also due soon, which will enhance Steam crash reports and correct a bug that corrupts character data. Beyond that, a further patch is being prepped to sort out a widely-reported FOV problem.

"Please do keep your Brink feedback coming," added Wedgewood. "It's really useful to us and we really do check all of it. We have teams at Splash Damage and Bethesda dedicated full time to resolving any issues you discover."

The parkour-inspired multiplayer FPS, due out here on Friday, won a lively 8/10 from Eurogamer's Simon Parkin earlier this week.

"Brink is an exceptional team shooter, smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style," he wrote.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • darkmorgado #1 1 year ago

    "Buy online for £194.85"

    Erm...

  • kadooosh #2 1 year ago

    ...What

  • Shikasama #3 1 year ago

    Can EG confirm what version they reviewed? It's weird that there is no mention of what other sites express some pure white hot outrage at with technical faults.

  • barchetta #4 1 year ago

    That includes the headphones though..... ;)

  • HyperTails #5 1 year ago

    @darkmorgando

    It comes with a headset which hikes the price up. Though if you pre-order from Zavvi you get the bandana mask which sounds like a good deal.

    Anyway, i'll probably get this, but with PSN down and gamers (and reviewers) all commenting on it being laggy and havig lots of issues, by the time PSN comes back online it should be cheaper. I'll just get it then.

    However, it is one of the most unique titles (esp for a FPS) in a while, so I hope they can fix its issues quickly.

  • MattEdWithCheese #6 1 year ago

    Really? Surely the review would have mentioned if such issues existed...

  • Laminator #7 1 year ago

    Although the game shouldn't have released in such a state it's nice to see they are working hard to get patches out quickly to sort it out. I kept my preorder in despite some negative reviews, really want to play a online shooter that does something a bit different for a change.

  • coolbritannia #8 1 year ago

    Multiplayer lag is an understatement from the videos on youtube.

  • HyperTails #9 1 year ago

    @coolbritannia

    That's true. I saw WingsofRedemption's review on YouTube and the lag is AMAZINGLY bad. Seriously, you guys should check it out. It'd drive me insane.

  • Er-El #10 1 year ago

    I heard it runs like shit on ATI cards. Any plans to look into this?

  • Psycho101 #11 1 year ago

    AMD released a Catalyst hotfix (11.5a) ysterday that is said to contain "optimizations and fixes" for Brink.

    I can't test them myself as I no longer own an AMD card, but according to feedback on several forums, it can help in some cases. Feedback on the issue ranges from "There is no issue on my AMD card" to "The hotfix drivers fixed it" to "It's still broken". Sounds like anyone with major concerns on how the game will perform on their config should either borrow a friends copy before they buy or if not, wait it out. You could be fine or you could be screwed.

  • Arsecake_Baker #12 1 year ago

    Strange i could have swore that the EG review confirmed no problems at all!

  • Silvz #13 1 year ago

    Many of the US reviews stated multiple problems because they didn't receive the day one patch, when it has already been released in Europe even though the game isn't out. So in the US, which is also where most of the negative reviews are coming from, they're playing an unfixed version of the game.

    Which is also why the press release states that they're trying to fix issues raised in "US reviews of the game".

    Here in Europe the patch was out as scheduled, therefore Eurogamer has been playing a much better version of the game. Which is likely why the issues weren't mentioned in the review.

    I heard this from the main dev guy (the American one with the beard) on a Machinima Live Stream of the game which he joined for about 15-20 minutes in order to have a mini interview with them. Check it if you can, he answers a lot of questions about things like lobbies, lag, texture popping and balancing...
    Edited by Silvz at 12/05/11 @ 00:17

  • dean0null #14 1 year ago

    @Silvs Partially true, but I most people are claiming that the graphics are still messed up and that the lag didn't noticeably improve after the patch. I would steer clear until you hear people saying that the lag is gone. That might be a while, but as for me my copy is on eBay.

  • captainrentboy #15 1 year ago

    The lag at the moment is game breaking. Five of us switched around being the host to see if that was the issue, it wasn't, and unless you were the host it was pretty much unplayable. :/
    And the texture pop in is horrendous too.
    This is with the 3mb patch by the way.
    It's certainly made getting rid of it for LA Noire next week that much easier.

  • Sodding_Gamer #16 1 year ago

    I'm impressed. At least Splash Damage know how to fix their game unlike Crytek. Which took them like over a month to finally patch some issues, only for it to do more damage lol.

  • KDR_11k #17 1 year ago

    If you use player hosting you need a ton of lag compensation, players just don't have good connections.

  • Murton #18 1 year ago

    @KDR - yup. Most domestic ISPs upload speeds are shockingly low, terrible for hosting large games, then of course there's things like latency and jitter that have never been a priority for domestic ISPs and never will be.

    From the press release:
    "Please do keep your Brink feedback coming," added Wedgewood. "It's really useful to us and we really do check all of it. We have teams at Splash Damage and Bethesda dedicated full time to resolving any issues you discover."

    Please tell Bethesda that you don't need their feedback listening team, especially if the feedback you're looking for it for technical issues. Even a cursory glance at Fallout 3 will show that they're either incompetent or simply don't give a fuck about technical quality. The fact that a bug allegedly fixed in patch 1.1 is still at large and hasn't been commented on since speaks volumes, as does their refusal to even acknowledge the memory leak even when players were posting crash dumps proving the leak in their own forums. Keep everything to do with technical quality in house, Bethesda will only get in the way.

  • Fab4 #19 1 year ago

    Online multiplayer game in lag shocker!

  • CaptainQuint #20 1 year ago

    EG is definitely going down hill.

  • Seoh #21 1 year ago

    I bet splash damage are regretting bringing the game out early "because its finished"

  • evilrobot #22 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 22:12:53 08-05-2012

  • Retro_ #23 1 year ago

    The beta had pretty much the same issues and that was months ago so wtf! saying that, even in the Beta, there was lag free games that were fantastic so the potential is definitely there for this to be a fantastic online co op experience.

  • Ahskay #24 1 year ago

    "Even though it's not hit European shelves yet, a wealth of tweaks for Splash Damage's Brink have already gone live, with more to follow."

    Come again? I've been murdering bots for over 3 days now and having fun with the parkour challenge to best my time. I know Belgium is a piss poor country but officially were still part of Europe!

    Why am i getting negged this time...?
    Edited by Ahskay at 12/05/11 @ 18:01

  • aphex187 #25 1 year ago

    TheSixthAxis gave this a 9! Anyway besides all the grumblings i went out and bought the PC version, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and support the devs hoping that they will support their customers 100% and i have a strong feeling SD will be that one.

  • asphaltcowboy #26 1 year ago

    Looking forward to getting my copy for 360 today... :)

    EDIT: Negged for looking forward to a game?! Who pooed on your cornflakes this morning?
    Edited by asphaltcowboy at 12/05/11 @ 11:42

  • chrisola #27 1 year ago

    @dean0null

    ebay, really? CEX would give you close to sale price in cash!

  • makeamazing #28 1 year ago

    Played it yesterday in SP mode, and to be honest i didnt like it very much.