Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.brick-force.com

I was given an invite into the beta for this. It's a pretty neat idea, it combines a multiplayer shoot-fest like CoD with military weapons and some unlocks with Minecraft style graphics and - crucially - a Minecraft style editor for building levels!

I've had a few games this morning. The action is simple, fast and fun with lots of gunfire and explosions. You can blow up certain materials and some of the levels are ingenious. To ensure the best levels become popular, after each game you can rate it out of ten.

There seems to be a levelling system with some unlocks but even with my starter SMG and trying to maneuver my mouse on a cushion I had no problems scoring quite a few kills and having a good time.

I haven't seen many bad things, but a few that stuck out were:
-a BF3-style closeup of your killer's face. It's only there for a split second (unlike BF3 where it seems like you spend a week) but the high-pitched laughter that sometimes plays is needlessly antagonistic for what's otherwise a jolly and colourful game.
-it's free-to-play, so as ever there's a real money shop selling faster upgrades or cosmetic accessories.

I'll have a play around with the level designer later and see how it compares to Minecraft. Certainly it would be fun to have Dimrill's cathedral or Davpaz's stadium as places to fight!





This is the best trailer I've seen (it's in Korean but the game itself is in English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aej9xEDXHtY

I always liked the idea of Minecraft but couldn't justify the time sink, this looks like it could be more to my liking.

Minecraft isn't a time sink if you play multiplayer with us! I suppose it could be if you wanted to play 'proper' singleplayer and search for your own materials and fight things and stuff.

Just registered for this, i don't suppose you have a 'friend key' i can grab to activate the open beta?

Sorry, I was given a friend key by someone else.

Having delved a bit deeper and played with the level editor I've been soured to it somewhat.

Apart from the standard equipment, everything is rented, either with in-game points (earned by playing) or 'tokens' you buy from their shop. As I said before, the standard noob guns are perfectly decent, so renting a better gun is something of a treat, I suppose.

However, they also sell tools for the level editor. The standard level editor tool (which can place or remove bricks) is functional but it's very slow, and has a limited range. Don't worry, though, you can rent better editor tools, for seven days! There's also abilities, such as being able to have a long line of blocks place themselves automatically (something useful to me trying to build a long wall for my border crossing map) or have bricks automatically swap with different ones (again, useful for me building the road through the border crossing). These have limit uses and, yes, you need to buy more charges for them too.

Renting the mid-level editor tool costs about 500 tokens, 1000 tokens costs you EUR4.99.

I can't help but draw a comparison in my mind with Notch charging you for diamond pickaxes, or seven days access to Creative Mode. Indeed, the standard level building tool is just that little bit too slow and irritating that you'll feel tempted, just to get this damn level idea out of your head and into the game while it's still fresh. 'Registering' a map in game costs too, I'm not sure how much but you need to do this to make the map publically available.

I'm not so sure now. Buying powerups and guns, okay, fine, that's something I'd expect in a free to play game. However, the unique thing about the game is the ability to build your own levels, and stifling people by making doing so unpleasant unless they ante up is a step too far for me. I had some awesome ideas for maps but I don't know if I'll have the patience to build them as slowly as the free tools will force me to.

Wow. It's a fun little game and a great idea but I can't help but think their greed is going to be its undoing.

ahh nps will keep my eyes out for a pass and have a look.

That does sound like they are trying to cash in a bit much with the editor though, shame, looks like a cool game

This puts me off a lot!

This

Yeah, fuck that.

When the game itself launches properly, I think it might be still worth a try if only to see how unique and cool it is. The actual shootery isn't super-fast twitch gaming, it's nicely paced and is fun. However, I'd much rather pay a one-off Minecraft-style 'purchase' than think that if I don't want to spend a whole week building a map it's going to cost me a fiver.

Possible friend keys: http://www.brick-force.com/forum/showth ... d-Key-List

Nope. The micro transactiony nature of this has completely put me off. They can suck a fuck.

Plus, this was on kickstarter too.

The community is charming:



What a cunt. Surely the effort of building the map is the 'work'.

Also, it's surely in the interests of those who like the shooty part to encourage those who like the building part to create useful and interesting maps?

Sorry, we've just received notification that merely talking about this game necessitates a charge of 20p a thought.

That's okay, I've played a few rounds of the game and earned enough free brick points (or whatever) to buy myself ten thoughts in the in-game shop. Also I can rate your thoughts to earn more brick points, and if I like the game on Facebook I can probably get even more imaginary money.

I can see why they've done it, though. They don't want to end up skint like that poor bloke who made Minecraft.

<Trooper likes this>

What's QQ?

Some say it means tears, crying, that sorta thing.

Others say it means ragequitting as per hitting Alt-Q-Q in Battlenet to drop out of a Starcraft/Warcraft game you're losing.

Seems quite apt for these clumps.

https://www.brick-force.com/forum/showt ... d-negative!

Some people are happy to be the cattle, it seems.

The guys that go before Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.

That's always what i've taken it as, the emoticon for teary eyes.



This is new to me, I suspect this is a retrofit to try and make sense of it from people who don't know the emoticon reference.

I could well be wrong though, and it could be the other way around.

A friend code in case anyone wants it:

VIP-VF1YNC72W0

I've also been given a gift of brick points for being in the beta.