I've never believed the "PC gaming is dying" complaints, but it has been sad to see so many games launch without modding tools or a proper standalone server. Brink is fixing at least one of these issues with a proper, free, standalone server launching prior to the game's release. You don't have to rent a server, you don't have to play on their servers, and you can adjust anything you'd like. My enthusiasm for this game just went up several notches.

"The Brink Standalone Dedicated Server allows anyone to run multiplayer servers for the PC version of Brink," the official page states. "As the server is standalone, it does not require a full version of Brink to be installed and is completely free."

You'll be able to adjust the settings to your heart's content, allowing you to build your own community and run games exactly the way you want. "The Brink Standalone Dedicated Server includes several different game configuration files covering all of the regular game modes, including campaign, stopwatch, objective, and co-op challenges," the FAQ explains. "In addition, there are a variety of server-side commands available that allow you to further customize your server, including team sizes, time limits and overtime, warm-up rules, friendly fire, voice chat, availability of Command Post buffs, rank restrictions, number of bots, and password."

It's very possible our friends at ArsClan will be hosting a Brink server, so show them some love and help them get a good community started. We're going to be speaking with some of the developers behind the game next week, so please let me know what you would like to know before the interview and I'll pass the questions along. Lastly, it's very possible I'm going to have some copies of the game to give away at launch, so keep your eyes open.

Brink is coming to the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 on May 10.