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Still really up in the air about this game, watching that latest trailer, to me it seems like they do not have a single new idea on the table. Soldier, Medic with revive, Engineer who builds items, disguising oneself as the enemy, all things done so, so many times prior to this game. And objective based online gameplay has been done and attempted a whole lot already as well, and in a lot of cases when it is a new IP doing so, it has not been all that successful. So not sure about this title the more I think about it. :blink:

Still really up in the air about this game, watching that latest trailer, to me it seems like they do not have a single new idea on the table. Soldier, Medic with revive, Engineer who builds items, disguising oneself as the enemy, all things done so, so many times prior to this game. And objective based online gameplay has been done and attempted a whole lot already as well, and in a lot of cases when it is a new IP doing so, it has not been all that successful. So not sure about this title the more I think about it :blink:
Sorry, what did you expect them to come up with? They pretty much invented team based objective game play.

Sorry, what did you expect them to come up with? They pretty much invented team based objective game play.

I don't know what I expect them to come up with, maybe a new class that has not been done before? Is it only really every going to be medic, soldier and engineer?

I am quite aware of what they have done in the past as I played the hell out of Enemy Territory, it is almost all I played exclusively when it came out 8 years ago. And that is my point, 8 years and nothing all that different except some parkour moves. I know that is the case with all FPS's, but I guess that is my other point, it is a pretty stale genre. I have the one series I really like with BF, and unless these other games are really doing something new and unique, which I am not necessarily seeing yet with this game, they are not really high on my list of games to check out.

I will still check this game out, and I very well may even wind up loving it, but it really is becoming a very stale genre with no real advancement in at the very least new ideas, at least IMO. and FTR, it is still my favorite genre and what I enjoy playing the most, and it very well probably always will be, but I am really at a point I am left wondering is this it with the genre itself?

I don't know what I expect them to come up with, maybe a new class that has not been done before? Is it only really every going to be medic, soldier and engineer?

I am quite aware of what they have done in the past as I played the hell out of Enemy Territory, it is almost all I played exclusively when it came out 8 years ago. And that is my point, 8 years and nothing all that different except some parkour moves. I know that is the case with all FPS's, but I guess that is my other point, it is a pretty stale genre. I have the one series I really like with BF, and unless these other games are really doing something new and unique, which I am not necessarily seeing yet with this game, they are not really high on my list of games to check out.

I will still check this game out, and I very well may even wind up loving it, but it really is becoming a very stale genre with no real advancement in at the very least new ideas, at least IMO. and FTR, it is still my favorite genre and what I enjoy playing the most, and it very well probably always will be, but I am really at a point I am left wondering is this it with the genre itself?

I agree with you DirtyLarry. But unless and until they don't launch new Engines i don't think there will be any new advancements in this genre even if they come up with ideas.The developers are hitting a technological stalemate. UE4 might bring something new & frankly speaking, after seeing those Battlefield 3 videos, all other FPS games looks last-gen - for kids.

What game are you onto nowadays sir?

I agree with you DirtyLarry. But unless and until they don't launch new Engines i don't think there will be any new advancements in this genre even if they come up with ideas.The developers are hitting a technological stalemate. UE4 might bring something new & frankly speaking, after seeing those Battlefield 3 videos, all other FPS games looks last-gen - for kids.

What game are you onto nowadays sir?

First off indeed, BF3 is my most anticipated game of the year, by far, no competition. I have said several times though over the years on these forums BF is pretty much my personal favorite shooter ever, so I am a bit biased.

Honestly I do not play much MP, probably because of what I was saying, but when I do I still play Bad Company 2. I mainly have just been checking out the SP campaign of games. Specifically most recently Bulletstorm and Killzone. Both of which are definitely somewhat guilty of being not to innovative, especially the latter with Killzone, truly no innovation in it at all, but I did still enjoy aspects of it. Bullstorm at least implements the whole scoring system, which although although that has been done before to a certain degree, it has never been the entire basis for a game, so I think they did a pretty good job. That and I also really enjoyed Painkiller. Despite what I was saying above, I also do feel that sometimes mindless fun is in order and I do not always feel like games need to be super innovative to be good.

Besides those 2 games, I mainly am playing Pixel Junk Shooter 2 on the PS3. Old school gameplay all the way, but somehow it still feels new. Kind of what I was alluding to, I do not mind games based on previous ideas, but there are indeed ways to build upon those ideas. I fully realize it is not an easy thing to do, and I fully realize that it is also damn near impossible to take risks these days with video game development costing so damn much and so much being at stake, but one can dream I suppose. Not sure what I expect, but like I said perhaps a game that dares to create all new classes would be a nice start. Maybe it cannot be done, perhaps the classes we all know and love are the only classes that make any sense in a game, but I cannot help but think there is some room for improvement in that area.

What I am supposed to do with 'graphics' if the netcode of BF3 will suck and if it has tons of lags? When BC2 was released it was horrible.. Lag, Server Crashes, Browser list issues, Stats issue, etc. Took them over 6+ months to fix those issues.. and even still many servers lag when they reach 32 players.

I don't understand how BF3 will handle 64 slots(players) ..I hope they will rework on there netcode because even at present ET's anti lag is much better then BC2 one IMO.

ET is still being played after 8 years. Why?

Maps: 100+

Modding: Good amount of mod's offering different game play.

Server Files: Players can host there own servers, rather then entering in Ranked and Non Ranked BS.

I just hope, they will release SDK for modding community so they can add new maps and such.

Looking forward for Brink.

What I am supposed to do with 'graphics' if the netcode of BF3 will suck and if it has tons of lags? When BC2 was released it was horrible.. Lag, Server Crashes, Browser list issues, Stats issue, etc. Took them over 6+ months to fix those issues.. and even still many servers lag when they reach 32 players.

I don't understand how BF3 will handle 64 slots(players) ..I hope they will rework on there netcode because even at present ET's anti lag is much better then BC2 one IMO.

ET is still being played after 8 years. Why?

Maps: 100+

Modding: Good amount of mod's offering different game play.

Server Files: Players can host there own servers, rather then entering in Ranked and Non Ranked BS.

I just hope, they will release SDK for modding community so they can add new maps and such.

Looking forward for Brink.

BC2 is a far more advanced game than ET though...Can't really be directly compared like that.

And I haven't had too many issues with bc2 lag, its really only certain servers. On a good server the game is totally smooth for me.

Still really up in the air about this game, watching that latest trailer, to me it seems like they do not have a single new idea on the table. Soldier, Medic with revive, Engineer who builds items, disguising oneself as the enemy, all things done so, so many times prior to this game. And objective based online gameplay has been done and attempted a whole lot already as well, and in a lot of cases when it is a new IP doing so, it has not been all that successful. So not sure about this title the more I think about it. :blink:

well, SMART is something new in mp fps, the parkour elements...

and they have tried a lot of new things imo. unique design, great character and weapon customization options, almost no one shot kills (only a sniper headshot on a light body type kills with 1 shot), weakened grenades with cooldown to eliminate spam, medic doesn't revive but throws you a syringe so you can revive yourself when it's safe etc :laugh:

and probably many more that we don't yet know about

I honestly don't see how anyone can say this is unoriginal, while there are a bunch of Call Of Honour: Bad Modern Warfare Companies released every year.

Be still my heart...yet another FPS.

There's plenty of other styles of game coming out ... just because there's lots of FPS games doesn't mean more shouldn't be made because I for one love them and I know millions of others do. I buy them all and play through them all. And I will be buying this.

I don't know what I expect them to come up with, maybe a new class that has not been done before? Is it only really every going to be medic, soldier and engineer?
I don?t think there is anything fundamentally wrong with 4 core classes; Medic, Solider, Engineer and Recon.
I am quite aware of what they have done in the past as I played the hell out of Enemy Territory, it is almost all I played exclusively when it came out 8 years ago. And that is my point, 8 years and nothing very different except some parkour moves. I know that is the case with all FPS's, but I guess that is my other point, it is a pretty stale genre. I have the one series I really like with BF, and unless these other games are really doing something new and unique, which I am not necessarily seeing yet with this game, they are not really high on my list of games to check out.

I will still check this game out, and I very well may even wind up loving it, but it really is becoming a very stale genre with no real advancement in at the very least new ideas, at least IMO. and FTR, it is still my favourite genre and what I enjoy playing the most, and it very well probably always will be, but I am really at a point I am left wondering is this it with the genre itself?

I think you are understanding how SMART will change gameplay. Don?t get me wrong me and my friends have massive reservations about Brink as well. We aren?t sure how SMART is going to effect our fast paced style of gaming. It might ruin the game entirely or change the face of it all together.
First off indeed, BF3 is my most anticipated game of the year, by far, no competition. I have said several times though over the years on these forums BF is pretty much my personal favourite shooter ever, so I am a bit biased.
All we ever talk about on TeamSpeak is either Brink or BF3. We all agree that we psyched for both. But at the moment, I?d say we are more excited for BF3. Most of us are still playing BC2, and we all love the fact that we can take a building, blow a wall up and make it into make shift cover. Arguably this changes MP more than SMART could in my opinion. I?ll probably end up getting both. But having never played any other BF game than BC2 (and my friends tell me BC2 isn?t a true BF game). I?m unsure what to expect!
Honestly, I do not play much MP, probably because of what I was saying, but when I do, I still play Bad Company 2. I mainly have just been checking out the SP campaign of games. Specifically most recently Bulletstorm and Killzone. Both of which are definitely somewhat guilty of being not to innovative, especially the latter with Killzone, truly no innovation in it at all, but I did still enjoy aspects of it. Bulletstorm at least implements the whole scoring system, which although that has been done before to a certain degree, it has never been the entire basis for a game, so I think they did a pretty good job. That and I also really enjoyed Painkiller. Despite what I was saying above, I also do feel that sometimes-mindless fun is in order and I do not always feel like games need to be super innovative to be good.
There is no doubt for me, SP is dead for me. I?ve got loads of stuff to play though Bioshock 2, Bulletstorm, Dead Space 1 & 2, Assassin?s Creed 2, Assassin?s Creed: Brotherhood, Black Ops, Medal of Honour but I just can?t be moviated. Why? Because SP is nowhere near as fun as MP. The last SP I really properly enjoyed was Mafia #1 and that speaks volumes to me.
Well SMART is something new in MP FPS?s, the parkour elements...

And they have tried a lot of new things IMO. unique design, great character and weapon customization options, almost no one shot kills (only a sniper headshot on a light body type kills with 1 shot), weakened grenades with cool down to eliminate spam, medic doesn't revive but throws you a syringe so you can revive yourself when it's safe etc :laugh:

and probably many more that we don't yet know about

I honestly don't see how anyone can say this is unoriginal, while there are a bunch of Call Of Honour: Bad Modern Warfare Companies released every year.

I?m honestly not bothered about the customization, ie face paint. I?m more interested regarding gameplay. And how SMART will impact that. From the very little footage released so far, I can?t decide. It looks a lot slower paced when compared to ET:QW (in my head anyway). And that doesn?t feel great to me. But then again BC2 felt tons slower when I came from ET:QW so maybe it?s just one of those things.

Things I do like about Brink is there is no one hit kills (that goes for melee as well). So bye bye snipers. Grenades have been reduced to do less damage, thus removing nade spam (and my magicnades :(). One thing I do wished they would implement. Is to remove prone. I hate prone. Prone does nothing to help or promote gameplay.

I do find the Medic thing weird. Why not just have the person who needs a revive have the feature to ?tap out? so the medic knows not to revive you.

  • 4 weeks later...

It's great that they're releasing it a week early. :)

New trailer:

Also, here's what you get if you pre-order it on Steam:

ss_17c9981cf76343ae0b28091099e2135bc52b2410.600x338.jpg

Click for larger version...

  • Exclusive weapon: the ?Hockler? Machine-Pistol
  • Exclusive ?GreenEye? Combat Optical Scope
  • Exclusive Security ?Sloani? Combat Mask
  • Unique Dogtag body tattoo

System Specifications confirmed:

Minimum Specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or equivalent

RAM: 2GB

GFX: nVidia 8800GS / ATi Radeon HD 2900 Pro or equivalent

OS: Windows XP with SP3 / Windows Vista / Windows 7

HDD: 8GB free

Recommended Specs:

CPU: Intel Quad Core i5

RAM: 3GB

GFX: nVidia GeForce GTX 460 / ATi Radeon HD 5850

OS: Windows XP with SP3 / Windows Vista / Windows 7

HDD: 8GB free

It's great that they're releasing it a week early. :)

New trailer:

Also, here's what you get if you pre-order it on Steam:

http://www.brinkthegame.com/pre-order/

There's a list of all the stores that have pre order bonuses. I'm not sure where I'll order from if I do. I'm liking the Gamestop and Best Buy ones.

I still can't get over the weapon bobble though. :laugh:

Edit: Here's a link with better pictures:

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2010/08/17/brink-pre-order-bonuses-announced/

Wow, this game actually has my attention, its like TF2 + a modern FPS like COD or BF put together.

Im definitely considering it now. Sad part is, all these games (portal 2, gears 3 beta(atm), this, etc) are all placeholders till BF3 comes out lol. So im kind of being careful about dropping $50 for maybe 2 months of fun.

I still have Homefront and Crysis 2 too play. Havent put in enough hours to be happy with my purchase yet, but love both games.

OH THE CHOICES!

@Singh: Thats not you, i dont see the 400 after the name :p

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The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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