When it comes to computer games, Iam a bit of a fence sitter. I definitely don’t queue outside Game at midnight, to get the latest release of Call of Duty and neither do I know every cheat code for Princess of Zelda, but, I have to admit, that every now and then a game comes along that I get hopelessly addicted to - Super Mario Galaxy was the last one. A few years back, the kids got a Wii for Christmas and I spent the next two days, glued to the console, with my children taking shifts feeding me and getting me refreshments. This obsession went on until a) I had clocked the first round of Super Mario (when I got to the end of the game I realised you had to redo the whole thing again, this time as Luigi and collecting purple coins instead of yellow) and b) my wife told me that if I didn’t get off the Wii and let the kids have a go, she was going to beat me about the head with it.
In hindsight, this was fair enough.
The other thing that completely consumes me when it comes to computer games, is creating my onscreen character. I have been known to never actually getting around to playing a game, so obsessed am I in ’pimping’ my perfect character, car or what ever it is that I need in order to play the game. I guess it must be the writer in me, the need to have the perfect character and setting before I can continue. So when the boss told me about this new first-person, shooter game, where not only do you have a huge character customisation option but you also have the ability to
choose your characters tattoos - I was very interested.
The game is called, BRINK, and is released by Splash Damage for major consoles on the 20th May in Europe. As I said, the game is a first-person, shoot-em-up where you can decide which character you want to play the game as. There is a huge list of hardcore nutcases you can take-over for the duration of the game; from skinny rat-like fellahs to muscle-bound weightlifters or as
BRINK put it; ‘While there are a number of complete ‘archetypes’ designed by the developers, the individual components for each look can be mixed and matched along with additional options to create thousands of unique, individual characters.’
Of course you have the usual hairstyle, body type, facial features, army fatigue inspired fashion wear choices but in BRINK, you also have the ability to change your character’s voice pack and more interestingly for us - you have the option to slap some ink on your characters bodies!
Not just a skull on the forearm or an eagle on the chest either: the developers have gone the whole way with this one and come up with 16 different styles of tattoos to take your pick from. You can choose to tear up the town with a set of Japanese, biker, South Seas or prison tattoos. For those with short attention spans and unlike in real life, you can also change your tattoos depending on your mood that day.
This is all great for us tattoo enthusiasts, a chance for our alter egos to represent more of our real character traits but it does now leave me, with just another customisation choice, that will prolong the time it takes me to actually getting around to game play…
Luckily, Brink comes fully loaded with expectation from the gaming community, a good reputation preceding it and who knows, I might even be tempted to join that queue outside Game after all. Brink looks like an up all night belter!
Reviews of Brink will be published in issue 201 of Skin Deep when the hardcore have a chance to really crank it up. Meantime, you can check it out for yourself over at brinkthegame.com.
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