Brink is out now in the US and apparently out in the UK tomorrow. We’ve spent the last couple of days playing it, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for our full critical verdict. Nevertheless I thought I’d say a few things tonight, including venting my frustration with a critical bug, and providing you with our server details for US and UK-based Brink servers. Read on for a mixed bag of information!

Quick thoughts on Brink: I like it, but it’s flawed. The teamplay is really rewarding, the slidey stuff is great (if a bit random), the character creation and progression works okay, and the general look and feel of the game is largely what I wanted and expected. On the other hand, it’s a bit disappointing. The maps are often dominated by a couple of chokepoints, a situation which is exacerbated by the corridor-based nature of the whole thing. The selection of weapons too is a bit… well, we’re going to talk about all this tomorrow. In short: it’s not a bad game, but so far it’s not a great game, either. I’m getting into it, though. I know exactly the kind of gamer who is going to get a kick out of this, because they’re kind of PC gamers I’ve been socialising with for years. I think even some of them will struggle to get past some of the issues herein, however.

BUGS: There are some minor bugs in there, but nothing that seems to really hurt play. IF YOU CAN PLAY. The most significant bug so far seems to be people simply not being able to get into the game. Threads like this one seem to reveal a gamut of bugs, some of which are driver-based, but others which – and I am extrapolating from my own experience of being locked out of the game here – seem to be from some kind of file corruption. The upshot of this is that some amount of people (impossible to tell how many) can’t get into the game to play. I’d imagine it’s a pretty small number, but it is there. This is, of course, a pretty awkward situation for the game to be in, and is probably going to take weeks to iron out. Not good.

SERVERS: If you do have the game, or are getting it, then why not play with RPS chums? Look for Rock, Paper, Shotgun servers both UK and US on the server browser. They’re set to objective for now. Here are the IPs, in case that is any use:

LONDON: 85.236.101.11:27315

CHICAGO: 209.212.144.158:27615

Servers supplied by the ever-helpful Multiplay.

I’ll hopefully see you online… Or you can wait for our thoughts tomorrow.