Splash Damage, Stop Hiding : Othor Games

» Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:36 am

Personally, it seems sort of odd that after all the negative press for this game, that SD hasnt really said or done anything to back up there game. This reminds me of when Epic Mickey came out and Warren Specter was all like screw you all.

Paul Wedgewood, who left his voice all over the place with his developer diary videos, should come out and defend his game. It's decent, defend it dude. Since apparently this game has a story, and its leading up to a sequel, go figure, it just seems like it is going to be very difficult for this title to garner enough hype to recaputure their original audience.

Am I wrong?

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:09 pm

Personally, it seems sort of odd that after all the negative press for this game, that SD hasnt really said or done anything to back up there game. This reminds me of when Epic Mickey came out and Warren Spector was all like, "Yo people, you don't understand my game, so Please continue, my good sir. or get better".

Paul Wedgewood, who left his voice all over the place with his developer diary videos, should come out and defend his game. It's decent, defend it dude.

Am I wrong?

I agree its would be good if he defends his game i would stay for awhile if it gets the attention it needs

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:01 am

I really have never seen anyone from a company post at their forums. I think it's common for them to not partake in it but i think they might watch it.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:32 am

I dont mean on the forums, Im sure there have been some magazines, or game publications wanting to reach out to him. But Im sure he has a personal blog/ facebook/ twitter/ myspace.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:00 pm

I opened another thread earlier yesterday with nearly the same topic and asked about some infos from Bethesda, but hell they rather post Parkour-videos instead of clearing up the community whether they are working on a patch or whatnot.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:25 am

there was the minor patch last saturday that you must sign out of xboxlive then back in again for it to take effect minor fixes wont come as a dlc the game is working fine for me now and besides the bugs and lag they explained alot about why the game was made the way it was alot of complaint comes from people who thought this would be a clone of other shooters read gamespots graphics comparison this is the best 6 ive ever played

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:45 pm

I really have never seen anyone from a company post at their forums. I think it's common for them to not partake in it but i think they might watch it.

You've obviously never looked through The Elder Scrolls or Fallout forums then, the Developers take part in those forums all the time.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:38 pm

plenty of devs do post on their forums. even if its saying 'yup we are aware of problem X and we are fixing it'. examples include ea sports and dice.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:43 pm

Personally, it seems sort of odd that after all the negative press for this game, that SD hasnt really said or done anything to back up there game. This reminds me of when Epic Mickey came out and Warren Specter was all like screw you all.

Paul Wedgewood, who left his voice all over the place with his developer diary videos, should come out and defend his game. It's decent, defend it dude. Since apparently this game has a story, and its leading up to a sequel, go figure, it just seems like it is going to be very difficult for this title to garner enough hype to recaputure their original audience.

Am I wrong?

I'd like to hear what hey're up to too, but it has only been 10 days since US release, 7 days since EU release and 5(i think) days since the last patch. My guess is they're busy working on the next patch.

A tweet or 2 wouldn't harm though.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:40 am

As for defending his game, I don't really think he needs to.

It is clear alot of the community is more then willing to do so, and in the end the community defending the game will have alot more impact then him doing it.

Best thing he and his team can do is keep advancing the game, how ever I would definatly like to see more activity by the dev team on forums, getting to know your community is never a bad thing.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:07 pm

I really have never seen anyone from a company post at their forums. I think it's common for them to not partake in it but i think they might watch it.

On monday night combat and bad co 2 forums.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:22 pm

Well, they came out after they received the initial negative comments and said what they were going to work on in a patch. They also are giving out the first DLC for free. They post on their forums all the time, just not here. This is bethesda's forum, not splash damage's.

I don't know what gamers expect these days. Want a constant video stream of them working on the patch?

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:25 pm

Well, they came out after they received the initial negative comments and said what they were going to work on in a patch. They also are giving out the first DLC for free. They post on their forums all the time, just not here. This is bethesda's forum, not splash damage's.

I don't know what gamers expect these days. Want a constant video stream of them working on the patch?

I know what i should expect,a complete working game the day i pay for it. Just like anything else i buy.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:54 pm

Id much rather them be hard at work trying to fix the many issues in this game than trolling the forums, that being said it would be nice to get a "Hey we are working on fixing X and X"

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:28 pm

A formal, "Yes, we're working on the issues, WE'RE PROUD OF WHAT WE'VE DONE, AND INTEND TO SUPPORT IT. Now stop trying to rush perfection and LET US WORK ON THE *#&$ING PATCH!" statement would be nice about now. Much emphasis on those capitalised bits, obviously.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:06 pm

I know what i should expect,a complete working game the day i pay for it. Just like anything else i buy.

Let me know how that works out for you. Basically every single online multiplayer game will have issues that will need to be worked out once it is released to the masses. I'm not saying that is how it should be, just being realistic.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:46 pm

Paul Wedgewood, who left his voice all over the place with his developer diary videos, should come out and defend his game. It's decent, defend it dude. Since apparently this game has a story, and its leading up to a sequel, go figure, it just seems like it is going to be very difficult for this title to garner enough hype to recaputure their original audience.

Am I wrong?

Well, I sent him a friend request on XBL, so I can see his profile, and he has been offline for like five days; hopefully he is busy working with the team on a patch.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:47 pm

Day Zero:
Tuesday 10 May 2011 - Brink Released

Day One:
Wednesday 11 May 2011 - Mr. Wedgwood releases first statement

Spoiler

Now that Brink has been released in North America, we’ve had hundreds of thousands of people create their character and join the civil war for the Ark. Seeing the game out there being played and enjoyed by so many is very exciting for us, and we’ve been hopping into multiplayer matches ourselves to get in on the action with all of you.

Before we dive into this blog update, we’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who’s been sharing their feedback about Brink. We keep a close eye on what all of you have been saying about the game and wanted to give you an update on what’s been happening on our end:

Xbox 360

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.

We’ve also been getting new reports of lag when playing online, especially in matches with lots of human players. We’re all huge multiplayer fans here at the office and we know how important a lag-free online experience is. We’re urgently investigating this issue and seeing what we can do to improve things in that area. Stay tuned.

Information on PS3, PC, and the game’s upcoming statistics site after the break…

PlayStation 3 Update

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.

PC Update

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.

Statistics Site

We’ve also seen a few questions about the Brink statistics website and what you should be doing with the VIP code that’s displayed in the game. When the Brink statistics site launches on www.BrinkTheGame.com, you’ll be able to register a profile on there and can then use the VIP code from inside the game to link your Xbox 360 gamertag/PSN ID/Steam ID to it. More details on all of that soon!

Lastly, please do keep your Brink feedback coming. 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.

That’s it for now – thanks for reading and see you online in Brink!

Paul Wedgwood
Game Director

Day Three:
Friday 13 May 2011 - First updates roll out (PC) and announcement of FREE DLC as a thank you for sticking with SD

Spoiler

We have been working on updates for Brink to address the lag issue that some people have reported they were experiencing.

In the meantime, we have made a configuration change for 360 users (which will be available to the PS3, once PSN is up) that alters the number of human players when matchmaking for “Campaign” and most ‘Freeplay’ modes to eight total human players. This new configuration will allow those connecting to and hosting matches (particularly those with lower upstream bandwidth) to more reliably find and connect to quality hosts via the match-making process – resulting in less lag and more fun. This change is being rolled out today and will be available worldwide.

For players who haven’t been experienced lag, we’ll still support 8v8 on all maps via a new ‘Big Teams’ configuration in Freeplay, and through custom settings in Private matches. There is no download required for this update and it will be available automatically the next time you log in to play Brink and launch either campaign or standard Freeplay matches. This should allow players new to the Ark as well as veterans to find quality matches suitable to their preferred play style.

We are also releasing an incremental update for PC players via Steam that addresses AI, GPU, and server issues. See the full release notes on Steam. Many of these fixes are being included in the full update for the 360 and PS3 versions.

We would like to thank you for supporting Brink and for your continued feedback. To show our appreciation for your support of Brink, we will be making the first DLC for Brink available for free when it is released. This DLC is planned for June and will offer additional maps and new content for players. We’ll continue to provide announcements about the next title update, as well as the first DLC release as that information becomes available.

- Splash Damage & Bethesda

Day Five:
Sunday 15 May 2011 - PSN back up, updates hit the consoles

Spoiler

With PSN back up, the configuration change for Brink is being rolled out tonight and will be available worldwide soon. Want to know if you’ve gotten the update? Look for “Big Teams” in the public match settings (see screenshot above).

Day 10:

Friday 20 May 2011 - Present

Community complains that there has been no action on the side of the development team or the publisher to fix issues with the game.

So, Mr. Wedgwood responds on DAY 1 and everyone now thinks he is in hiding and that SD isnt supporting the game, this doesn't sound like a development team in hiding, it sounds to me like a development team diligently working on fixing issues that some players have as well as bringing DLCs to you with more of what you want.

I know what i should expect,a complete working game the day i pay for it. Just like anything else i buy.

Really, what MP game have you played on release day that didn't have lag, bugs, glitches, or any other "game breaking" issues? Hell, give me any game that doesn't have issues.

Patience is a virtue.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:28 am

Day Zero:
Tuesday 10 May 2011 - Brink Released

Day One:
Wednesday 11 May 2011 - Mr. Wedgwood releases first statement

Spoiler

Day Three:
Friday 13 May 2011 - First updates roll out (PC) and announcement of FREE DLC as a thank you for sticking with SD

Spoiler

We have been working on updates for Brink to address the lag issue that some people have reported they were experiencing.

In the meantime, we have made a configuration change for 360 users (which will be available to the PS3, once PSN is up) that alters the number of human players when matchmaking for “Campaign” and most ‘Freeplay’ modes to eight total human players. This new configuration will allow those connecting to and hosting matches (particularly those with lower upstream bandwidth) to more reliably find and connect to quality hosts via the match-making process – resulting in less lag and more fun. This change is being rolled out today and will be available worldwide.

For players who haven’t been experienced lag, we’ll still support 8v8 on all maps via a new ‘Big Teams’ configuration in Freeplay, and through custom settings in Private matches. There is no download required for this update and it will be available automatically the next time you log in to play Brink and launch either campaign or standard Freeplay matches. This should allow players new to the Ark as well as veterans to find quality matches suitable to their preferred play style.

We are also releasing an incremental update for PC players via Steam that addresses AI, GPU, and server issues. See the full release notes on Steam. Many of these fixes are being included in the full update for the 360 and PS3 versions.

We would like to thank you for supporting Brink and for your continued feedback. To show our appreciation for your support of Brink, we will be making the first DLC for Brink available for free when it is released. This DLC is planned for June and will offer additional maps and new content for players. We’ll continue to provide announcements about the next title update, as well as the first DLC release as that information becomes available.

- Splash Damage & Bethesda

Day Five:
Sunday 15 May 2011 - PSN back up, updates hit the consoles

Spoiler

With PSN back up, the configuration change for Brink is being rolled out tonight and will be available worldwide soon. Want to know if you’ve gotten the update? Look for “Big Teams” in the public match settings (see screenshot above).

Day 10:

Friday 20 May 2011 - Present

Community complains that there has been no action on the side of the development team or the publisher to fix issues with the game.

So, Mr. Wedgwood responds on DAY 1 and everyone now thinks he is in hiding and that SD isnt supporting the game, this doesn't sound like a development team in hiding, it sounds to me like a development team diligently working on fixing issues that some players have as well as bringing DLCs to you with more of what you want.

Really, what MP game have you played on release day that didn't have lag, bugs, glitches, or any other "game breaking" issues? Hell, give me any game that doesn't have issues.

Patience is a virtue.

Thank you for gathering all of that up Wyatt Waste Range. You are a jewel.

edit: Oh, and I'm going to quote you.

» Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:08 am

SNIP

Subtract 3 days for everyone not in the US.
Day ZERO in the UK was the 13th of May (and it was the same in the rest of Europe I believe).
*sigh*

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:45 pm

I'll rather for them to be busy looking into the issues some people are having then to be up on here lolly gagging or blowing air up my ass. The silence is deafening, which makes me think the next time someone from their company responds... good news will be presented. I'm sure SD and Bethesda are very aware of the complaints, do remember they put alot of money into this tiltle (especially in advertisment). I doubt they are just sitting back twitterling their thumbs, or laughing at their consumers. The game just hit the market and mostly all networking games need a grace period to hammer out the kinks. I remember playing games on last gens consoles and never had a forum to post glitches, much less have Devs continue to improve their games after I purchased them. I think they deserve a little more patience before we start throwing them into the fire. I'm a bit old school so I'm not use to being spoiled with DLC and/or patches after buying the game. I respect that and will never over look that extra bit of professionalism and courtesy.