Well, i cant seem to find any info on this. Googling this topic brings up the "stand alone" server for "steam", and none of the info i've accumulated thus far has said much of either.

Heres my thing. I'm very impatient. I'm the guy who gets priority over night on things he buys online, when i want something, i want it ASAP. I paid for it right? Why should i expect less. Anyway...

Heres my deal. I dont like any of the packs that come with other pre-orders, except the one on steam. However, i can say i'll probably spend like 2 days downloading it, depending on if i'm lucky or not. My initiative would 99% of the time still be to order it from gamestop, or pick it up somewhere else like best buy. However... My question (which will influence my decision)...

Will brink be its own thing, or will it require steam to start up like so many other games these days. If it requires steam, i mine as well just get it on steam anyways since its got content i'd prefer, however, i hate steam with a fiery passion. For whatever reason, Steam ITSELF crashes the games it plays. Every game. No exception. If Brink is a stand alone game that doesnt require a second hand client that takes 3 years to update, fail, and be manually patched, i'll just pre-order from gamestop, or over night it from Amazon... Somethin.

Again, sorry if this has been discussed, but i've found no info on the topic myself.

It will require STEAM to play, so.. Yeah, even if you buy the hardcopy you'll have to use steam and all to play it

http://www.splashdamage.com/content/brink-pc-gets-steamworks-system-requirements

Sorry you have those problems with steam. It's gotten a lot better since it first came out. I hated steam with a passion when half-life 2 came out and I could hardly play my games. Now though I enjoy steam and get most of my pc games off steam.

Steam often lets you start downloading before it's been released, and then they just keep it locked until the official release date. I believe this has been mentioned for Brink, I know it was an option for FONV (if I hadn't gone to bed earlier I could have been playing FONV minutes after it was unlocked).

Out of curiosity when was the last time you tried Steam? I've been using it less than a year and it's been great on my system but I know earlier it could be a real bear to wrestle with.

Should be noted that even with pre-download, dlc codes cannot be activated until Launch.

I still currently use steam for various games. But... Though I admit, yea its gotten better, Steam is still the main reason that a game will crash on my system. I've surmised this based on that no other games, save a few rarities that always have had issues, present the same problems. Even if its not steams fault, it still leaves a bad taste every time a GAME ON STEAM dies on me and steam is just sitting there smiling all innocent like it doesnt svck...


I play Sniper, Crysis, Magicka, Hacker Evolution, Mount and Blade, Portal 2, Half-life 2, Fallout NV, all of which crash fantastically, some more then others though we wont mention FoNV... i mean names.... Other games not on steam just dont.

Thanks for the info though, i'll be ordering it on steam. Hopefully it wont take long (atleast be done by the time its unlocked). Also, thanks for the sys requirements, i didnt know they released those yet.

The client of Brink requires Steam to play, this is because it utilizes virtually all Steamworks features (friends lists, leaderboards, achievements, server integration).

The server of Brink is a standalone package, however I understand that it can be downloaded through Steam as well. Bethesda have stated that they hope to release the dedicated server files a few days before release in order to give game server providers the opportunity to setup the large amount of servers that will be waiting to be installed as we speak.

Steam-based is far better in my opinion, due to the networking of games and gamers that it provides (as well as the supplementary features), and their support service is actually pretty on-the-ball. ^_^

I hear preloading starts next monday. You can wait out the initial rush of downloaders, preload at ~7, and be ready to play the instant it releases.

Through steam, PC players are also getting Valve Anti-Cheat. Don't confused this with playing Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops through steam, though. It isn't the same, and isn't supported by V.A.C. nor does it use Steam's features. It's quite standalone.

However with Brink, every PC dedicated server will have V.A.C.

Maybe I'm misreading this, but you do realize both Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops use VAC, right? The biggest difference Brink will have [in comparison to MW2] will be dedicated servers.

Yeah, you weren't misreading this. I managed to forget, I am confusing them with CoD 4 on the PC (Which plenty of people still play, but plenty hack as well.)

Just hoping to not see hackers ruin the fun to be had in this game.

Would you rather have Games for windows live O_O