European community tournament for Brink announced!

Wanted to share details on this awesome opportunity for Brink fans in Europe.

Put together by our colleagues in our London office, between May 4th and May 6th, they’ll be running a community tournament at Splash Damage HQ — pairing gaming journalists with members of their respective online communities. Together they’ll form four-person teams (one journalist, three community members) competing against other community teams in Brink’s Stopwatch mode.

To find out how you can get involved (including rules), check out the sites participating:

The winners of the event will receive either an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, plus a copy of Brink.

id Engine Evolution

Just watched this GameTrailers.com video highlighting the evolution of id Software games through the years — from Commander Keen to RAGE. More than anything, the video reminded me of how blown away I was by Wolfenstein. Buried in storage somewhere, there’s a a Wolfenstein “movie” I made when I was 13 — combining gameplay footage and live-action nonsense in my backyard (from an FPS viewpoint, of course).

Watch the video above and feel free to share your favorite id memories in the comments section.

Fan Art Update

Hope everyone’s enjoying their Friday night. Before some relaxing, I thought I’d share the latest fan art contributions sent to us. Some really fantastic stuff — including our first fan art for RAGE!

Regarding our fan art section, please pardon our dust. We’re in the process of moving everything to the Bethesda Blog Flickr page. There you’ll find three album sets: Latest Fan Art, Elder Scrolls Fan Art, and Fallout Fan Art. As we get more contributions for our other titles (RAGE, Brink, etc.), we’ll create new albums.

If you’d like to share your work, email us at bethblog@bethsoft.com. Likewise, if you see your contributions on the Flickr page already, feel free to send us updated information for the image(s). With the Flickr page, we’re now able to put titles and descriptions in for each piece.

Brink’s DOOM Pack previewed

Recently GameStop put up a new video showcasing their pre-order bonus for Brink in North America. For those of you that might have missed it, the DOOM Pack features the following in-game items…

  • Unique “Hellspawn” body tattoo
  • Exclusive UAC (Security) and Cacodemon (Resistance) customized skins for the Bulpdaun SMG
  • Exclusive UAC Marine Body Armor (Security) and Lost Soul Screaming Skull
  • (Resistance) t-shirts, exclusive UAC beanie cap (Security), and DOOM bandana (Resistance)

For more details, visit GameStop’s website. If you want the DOOM Pack and you’re outside North Amercia, check our blog post here.

What we’re playing

While it’s been awhile since the last time we did one of these, I can assure that we not only love playing making games, we still use up our free time playing them. With a slew of awesome games now available (including Crysis 2, Total War: Shogun 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3), not to mention a new system (Nintendo 3DS), we’ve got plenty to keep us busy before and after work.

This week’s featured game is Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP (iPad) — currently being played by Harvey Smith (Arkane) and Michael Musick (id).

Below you’ll find all the games we’re playing this week that aren’t Portal 2 (it’s almost here!). Let us know the games you’re playing and what you think we’re missing out on.

Harvey Smith: I’m playing Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP (shown above), which is by far the best adventure game I’ve played in many years. It has a sense of wonder and mystery that most games lack, delivered in parts by the minimal storytelling, by the very analogue touch gameplay controls and even activation UI, and by the distinct (and unusual personality) of the setting and fiction.

Shinji Mikami: F1 2010.

Matt Hooper @id_Hooper: Crysis 2, Torchlight, Dead Space 2, and Bullet Storm.

Cory Dornbusch: Total War: Shogun 2 and Team Fortress 2.

Aaron Mitschelen: Rift. Also playing  Disgaea 4 in Japanese.

Mark Lampert: Unreal World.

Frank Matzke: Super Street Fighter IV (3DS) and  Crysis 2. Continue reading full article ›

The Top 10 Most Vile Roundups

Let’s get one thing straight: Clavicus Vile (pictured above, kickin’ it) is the most outrageous and excellent Elder Scrolls god, and there’s really no arguing to be done. That said, if you somehow feel differently, IGN has their own opinion in a new “Top 10 Gods of The Elder Scrolls” article. Vile believers: don’t believe their lies.

A few more tidbits from around the web:

Steamworks feature set and system requirements for Brink revealed

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a surge of requests from the community asking about Brink’s PC system requirements. Today we’ve got those details PLUS information on how the game uses Steamworks. Lets start with the latter…

With the inclusion of Steamworks, players will have the following features…

  • Steam Achievements
  • VOIP (in addition to the already existing in-game chat)
  • Leaderboards
  • VAC (Valve Anti Cheat)
  • Dedicated Servers
  • Friends Support
  • Steam Cloud (for save data)

After the break, check out the game’s minimum and recommended system specs…

Continue reading full article ›

Brink ability preview on Facebook

With Brink now coming out a week earlier, we plan to vault over the next month even faster, with loads of fresh info blasting straight into your feeds.

For instance, over the next two weeks, Brink fans will want to head over to the game’s Facebook page, where we’ll be spilling the details on many of the abilities players will be able to unlock. Just head to http://www.facebook.com/brinkthegame and give us a “like” to get the updates each day.

Brink it forward: Release date moved up one week!!

Exciting news alert!!! We’ve moved up the release date for Brink by a week. The game will now release on May 10th in North America  and May 13th in Europe. Wanna learn more? Read the media alert below…

Bethesda Softworks Announces Earlier Release Date for Brink

Bethesda Softworks, a ZeniMax Media company, today announced that its acclaimed first-person shooter, Brink, will be available one week EARLIER than originally scheduled. Brink will now first be available for purchase in North America on May 10th instead of May 17th, and in Europe on May 13th instead of May 20th.

“Production wrapped on Brink earlier than we planned and we didn’t see any reason to keep gamers from getting their hands on this highly anticipated game as soon as it was ready,” said Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks. “It’s apparent from the tremendous reaction so far that people are eager to jump online and play, and if we can make that happen earlier – we’re going to.”

Brink, an immersive first-person shooter under development at Splash Damage,  a studio celebrated for its multi-player expertise, was named as the ‘Game of Show’ at Eurogamer Expo 2010, while G4TV.com declared “Brink takes shooters to a whole new level” and Destructoid.com proclaimed “it’s going to be one of the standout shooters of the year.” Blending single-player, co-op, and multiplayer action into one seamless experience, Brink features dynamic battlefields, extensive customization options, and an innovative control system. Brink will be released for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows.