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All Points Bulletin: Hands-On Experience
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
At the recent PAX East show, Garrett Fuller got some hands-on time with Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin and today reports on what he saw.
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The coverage on APB has been ramping up lately here at MMORPG.com as the urban crime MMO continues to turn player's heads. At PAX East we got a demo of the game from Social Media and Community Manager Chris Collins. Chris gave us a run through of the customization aspects of the game as well as talked us through some PvP in the Financial District. The look and feel of APB is fast and furious. Guns, crime, cars, and combat make this MMO that rivals Grand Theft Auto in its intensity, read our interview with Dave Jones if you have any issues with that comparison.
APB claims host to 100 players in an instance and 100,000 players in a city. This quantifies it as an MMO and the urban crime setting allows Criminals and Enforcers to battle it out. There are no official police as the Enforcers fill that role, but the Enforcers do have the right to stun gun you and hand cuff you which can really slow things down. The criminals do not get this ability. The other advantage is that you do not know who the Enforcers are until an APB goes out on you and someone is assigned to stop you. This is an environment that Chris said they hope will create rivalries between Enforcer players and their Criminal nemesis.
Read APB Hands-On Experience.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
It sounds awesome however I have this feeling that the game will be released in an early state (like alot of other MMOs) which will turn a lot of the players away after the first month.
I hope I am wrong because if this is executed correctly this game as the potential to be great!
Played: World of Warcraft (5Y), WarHammer (3M), Anarchy Online, Runescape (5+Y), Lord of the Rings Online, Runes of Magic, City of Heroes/Villains, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Fallen Earth (1M)
Currently Playing: Guild Wars
Currently Trying: None
Taking a Break From: EVE Online
It has a very long way to go they need another good year but are launching it soon...a GTA type game just dosen't transpose as well as you might think to a MMO.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! it howls like hell!
it should do fairly well as long as its not like crime craft where its just a cheap death match game disguised as an mmo
I don't understand the instancing. He says 100 per instance, but then talks about a battle being as big as 20 vs 20. I understand that in a large area it would be unusual to have all your player in one spot, but wouldn't it be possible to have 50 vs 50, or are we talking about a world lobby with instanced 'crime zones'?
The game has three zones, 2 allow combat, 1 is purely social. The two combat zones each hold 100 people, however it is not free for all on the standard ruleset (there is a hardcore ruleset too).
So what happens is inside the 100 man instance, the game dynamically matches enforcers vs. criminals. Enforcers cannot just go out and shoot criminals, they have to commit a crime first. When a criminal commits a crime, nearby enforcers get a pop up asking if they want to stop the criminals, if they accept the criminal gets an APB message, meaning enforcers have been matched up against them. Only the enforcers that accepted that mission can kill those criminals, however they can call for back up and with both sides calling for back up repeatedly, the game will escalate that battle to up to 20 people on either side. So in any one instance, you can have two 40 man battles and a 20 man battle, or a large battle with smaller battles all around.
On the hardcore ruleset, its just enforcers vs criminals, when you see them you can kill them right away, so theoretically, in a hardcore ruleset instance, you can have a 50v50, but they haven't given much info out about hardcore rulesets.
Also, you must pick between enforcer or criminal and you cannot switch between the two on the same server. Theres a tid bit in the article about factions, what I assume it refers to is the in game npc factions which give you missions and rewards, not the enforcer/criminal factions.
You can have 5 20vs20 battles going on in the same area, you won't be able to shoot people outside your mission but you will see them fighting it out. Instaces are references to the map, outside of that there are no dungeon like instances.
As long as I can still hit them with my car, it's all good.
Ah, I see. Thank you, that was a very helpful explanation.
Dosen't sound like a 'hands on experience' from what I am reading? Sounds like a dog and pony demo. If it was (hands on) I'd have liked to read something about that experience, it would have been good to get some new information about how the game 'feels'.
Only 2 factions for PvP..
So much for innovation
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Looking forward to this, can't wait!
Personally, I hope its more of a shooter game where players progress by skill/experience and social aptitude, rather than just another gear treadmill. My reward is getting to know other players and learning to play the game well with them, not some superficial carrot-on-a-stick.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Players do NOT progress through skill/experience...well, yes and no. You earn them through leveling up your contacts (NPC's which give you missions to complete) for example, steal a car, protect your stolen goods, tag walls (graffiti) kill opposing team (Enforcers and/or Criminals and others) It's a very interesting and fun game and seems it's done a good job so far. Alot of other things to do if you're not in the mood to do missions. If you're really interested in the game, you can always apply for beta, they are still accepting. Just don't put on the part why you want to beta test is that you really want to play it badly because that will not get you in lol
I'd try it but I don't care about PvP anymore in mmos. I'm sick of it. If they have some co-op option like L4D or Splintercell or a lot of other games these days, I'd play it. Well that is if the modellers and texture artists no how to make good looking characters. Seems most don't.
I should have clarified. When I say "skill/experience" i dont mean skills that you use on a User Interface or Experience Points, I mean skill as in aiming, when to reload, gaining high ground, flanking, and experience as to having played the game for a long time and knowing the intricicies of driving and maps, shortcuts, etc.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
By far, the best character customization out today. You won't be disappointed in th least.
Well hands on experience could be provided only by Beta testers. And trust me no beta tester would be dumb enough to talk about APB, RTW(Realtime world) have really strict NDA, strict enough that you are not even supposed to tell others you are beta tester, as if you would tell somebody and they found out, youre permanently removed from beta testing.
Yep, bad article that was basically a shameless commercial.
This game don't pass the smell test with me. 90% of the positive posts about this game are "IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!! YOU CAN DETAIL CARS AND DRESS UP YOUR TOONS HOWEVER YOU WANT!!!!!!!!!"
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii.
--In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses.
--The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence!
--CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
Can't wait to get my hands on this title. Should be a fun face paced, hop in hop out whenever and have fun plus feel like you are progressing, like call of duty.
The game is not good from what I experienced at pax.
This is true. And because of that NDA, a lot of the people talking about the game on this thread is seems are gonna get banned :P
MMOs played: Too many
Watch List: FFXIV, CoH:GR, GW2, SWTOR, TERA, Earthrise
It would have been cool if you could recruit people and make your own faction.
Thank you for your insightful comment. You did not sign any NDA at PAX (I'm almost certain), so I'm sure you're ready to give us a lengthy article on your experiences as well.
Because he's obligated to write a full-fledged article amirite?
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Nope, however a little info on what he did not like and why his experience was bad would be nice. As forums are for discussion, theres not much to do with his comment. Anyways, I hear great things from many other people that have details to back their opinions, so if he cant give any info on why its bad, I'll just assume he got owned in pvp and nerd rage quit.