modeps
04-01-2010, 06:21 AM
http://evavhost.com/i/news/apb.jpg
Written by Ben 'kragg' Daniels
"Can I shoot that?" "Can my friends and I do drive bys?" "Oh shit, does killing civilians hurt my score?"
These are the important questions that I lobbed at Real Time Worlds during my hands on demo of their new sandbox MMO "All Points Bulletin". The game was one of the large real estate players on the PAX East floor, with a full stage, massive sound system, and a loud British hype man shouting at the crowd and throwing tee shirts. (That seems to have become a staple of EA published MMO's) This all setup the attitude-filled gun fest that is APB.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-1.jpg
The game presents a massive sandbox in the form of the city of San Paro that is split into "social" and "action" districts. The idea behind APB is full customization in a living, persistent city. 100 players are thrown into each instance of the city, picking sides to either be a criminal who will achieve notoriety by robbing NPC citizens, bank heists, arson and various other crimes, or picking an enforcer who looks to maintain order in the city by hunting and stopping criminal players by any means necessary. This ranges from incapacitation and arrest, to putting them down in a violent firefight.
Being one of the high-functioning mutants known as a "left-handed person" I was not at peak performance during the demo. The guys from RTW offered to set me up with a left handed rig but I didn't want to waste time re-mapping keys when I could be shooting people in the face. Even when forced to play as a "normal" the controls felt fairly tight, with key mappings similar to Grand Theft Auto on the PC. Now, this game will obviously draw references to a "Grand Theft Auto MMO", and the carjacking and urban violence will lend itself to that. However, where the game really shined and separated itself was in the huge amount of customization options.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-2.jpg
APB allows a player to customize pretty much everything. Your character's appearance, clothing, weapons, vehicle, team/clan tags, even the music in your car and the music that plays when you kill another player. You can actually gain in game cash and achievements by crafting and selling your custom items to other players in the game. At one point in the demo I ran by the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters that was designed by a beta player. The only drawback I felt was that during the demo the city felt a little sparsely populated. However, it should be noted this was a demo that only had 12 people playing, versus a fully populated instance of 100 players. The graphics and animations were smooth, and driving felt natural, although I awkwardly ran down many civilians in an ambulance due to playing with the wrong hand. The city is full of destructible objects and structures to drive your vehicles through, adding extra action to the high speed chases.
These high speed chases can kick off at any time due to the "APB" alerts, which indicates that the criminal players have initiated a mission or crime that is high profile enough to send the enforcer players after them. This is when the fun really begins. As an enforcer, I was able to review the threat level of the criminal players committing the crime in progress, and was able to call for backup should I feel that I was outgunned (which I was, FYI) I was also able to commandeer any vehicle I needed to get to the scene as quickly as possible. Naturally I took a large murder van, but was quickly informed I should dive out of it at high speed and obtain a sports car. The sports car was short lived due to much wall crashing, but it survived long enough to get me to my fellow enforcers and begin a short shoot out in a crowded city street. Imagine a conflict in Grand Theft Auto 4, only there are real people shooting back at you, because they really want their infamy score to increase as a cop killer. Oh, and for you to hear the Lil' Wayne song they chose when they put a bullet through your skull. Sound like the violent PvP MMO we've both been waiting for? You're goddamn right it does. The combat was augmented by incredibly satisfying sound effects of tires screeching and bass rich gunfire. Unfortunately the sound was being swept from side-to-side on the stage so I didn't have audio the entire time.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-3.jpg
APB is an ambitious game. MMO's have a habit of over-promising and under-delivering, especially when they are heavy on player conflict. RTW has explained that they will keep balance by incrementing weapon upgrades and pushing players into new instances when they advance to keep them with others of the same skill and gear. I am cautiously optimistic that heavy beta testing will prevent their "anything can happen" city from turning into a metropolis of player exploits. I am definitely excited to see what All Points Bulletin offers when it officially releases, as the idea of a persistent competitive game that doesn't involve swinging swords in an arena could be the breath of fresh air the MMO landscape needs.
8vbXr9R5mNA
Written by Ben 'kragg' Daniels
"Can I shoot that?" "Can my friends and I do drive bys?" "Oh shit, does killing civilians hurt my score?"
These are the important questions that I lobbed at Real Time Worlds during my hands on demo of their new sandbox MMO "All Points Bulletin". The game was one of the large real estate players on the PAX East floor, with a full stage, massive sound system, and a loud British hype man shouting at the crowd and throwing tee shirts. (That seems to have become a staple of EA published MMO's) This all setup the attitude-filled gun fest that is APB.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-1.jpg
The game presents a massive sandbox in the form of the city of San Paro that is split into "social" and "action" districts. The idea behind APB is full customization in a living, persistent city. 100 players are thrown into each instance of the city, picking sides to either be a criminal who will achieve notoriety by robbing NPC citizens, bank heists, arson and various other crimes, or picking an enforcer who looks to maintain order in the city by hunting and stopping criminal players by any means necessary. This ranges from incapacitation and arrest, to putting them down in a violent firefight.
Being one of the high-functioning mutants known as a "left-handed person" I was not at peak performance during the demo. The guys from RTW offered to set me up with a left handed rig but I didn't want to waste time re-mapping keys when I could be shooting people in the face. Even when forced to play as a "normal" the controls felt fairly tight, with key mappings similar to Grand Theft Auto on the PC. Now, this game will obviously draw references to a "Grand Theft Auto MMO", and the carjacking and urban violence will lend itself to that. However, where the game really shined and separated itself was in the huge amount of customization options.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-2.jpg
APB allows a player to customize pretty much everything. Your character's appearance, clothing, weapons, vehicle, team/clan tags, even the music in your car and the music that plays when you kill another player. You can actually gain in game cash and achievements by crafting and selling your custom items to other players in the game. At one point in the demo I ran by the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters that was designed by a beta player. The only drawback I felt was that during the demo the city felt a little sparsely populated. However, it should be noted this was a demo that only had 12 people playing, versus a fully populated instance of 100 players. The graphics and animations were smooth, and driving felt natural, although I awkwardly ran down many civilians in an ambulance due to playing with the wrong hand. The city is full of destructible objects and structures to drive your vehicles through, adding extra action to the high speed chases.
These high speed chases can kick off at any time due to the "APB" alerts, which indicates that the criminal players have initiated a mission or crime that is high profile enough to send the enforcer players after them. This is when the fun really begins. As an enforcer, I was able to review the threat level of the criminal players committing the crime in progress, and was able to call for backup should I feel that I was outgunned (which I was, FYI) I was also able to commandeer any vehicle I needed to get to the scene as quickly as possible. Naturally I took a large murder van, but was quickly informed I should dive out of it at high speed and obtain a sports car. The sports car was short lived due to much wall crashing, but it survived long enough to get me to my fellow enforcers and begin a short shoot out in a crowded city street. Imagine a conflict in Grand Theft Auto 4, only there are real people shooting back at you, because they really want their infamy score to increase as a cop killer. Oh, and for you to hear the Lil' Wayne song they chose when they put a bullet through your skull. Sound like the violent PvP MMO we've both been waiting for? You're goddamn right it does. The combat was augmented by incredibly satisfying sound effects of tires screeching and bass rich gunfire. Unfortunately the sound was being swept from side-to-side on the stage so I didn't have audio the entire time.
http://evavhost.com/i/press/APB-3.jpg
APB is an ambitious game. MMO's have a habit of over-promising and under-delivering, especially when they are heavy on player conflict. RTW has explained that they will keep balance by incrementing weapon upgrades and pushing players into new instances when they advance to keep them with others of the same skill and gear. I am cautiously optimistic that heavy beta testing will prevent their "anything can happen" city from turning into a metropolis of player exploits. I am definitely excited to see what All Points Bulletin offers when it officially releases, as the idea of a persistent competitive game that doesn't involve swinging swords in an arena could be the breath of fresh air the MMO landscape needs.
8vbXr9R5mNA