'Brink' launch trailer sets forth stall and leaps over it

Action game
Brink is proposing to mix frantic first-person shooting with teamwork and a go-anywhere parkour to create a new twist on a trusted formula.

Set aboard a futuristic floating city, teetering on the edge of violent insurrection after years of overcrowding, players scramble for cover - or over and around it - in a bid to further the cause of slum dwellers or security forces.

Bright colors and highly customizable characters layer a game whose emphasis is on teamwork ( Team Fortress 2, Bad Company 2) with deathmatch missions that can change on the fly ( Section 8: Prejudice).

There's more than a hint of Mirror's Edge about the way players are encouraged to think on their feet and look for alternative routes, parkour style.

While that game's developers have drawn on Mirror's Edge to invest Battlefield 3 with a greater sense of immersion, Brink instead borrows its focus on agility with slides, wall-runs and narrow escapes all prominent.

Despite heavyweight publisher backing from Bethesda ( The Elder Scrolls, Fallout: New Vegas), there's the not inconsiderable matter of L.A. Noire's imminent arrival, coming a week after Brink's May 10 debut in North America.

Perhaps not co-incidentally, Duke Nukem Forever swapped its original May street date for the less crowded June, with Red Faction: Armageddon and Dungeon Siege III following suit soon after.

Watch Brink's launch trailer at youtube.com/watch?v=HxvNMulcjoU or on its official website, brinkthegame.com.