First Looks All Points Bulletin AKA APB
In terms of weapons, I was only able to play around with the standard-issue assault rifles, handguns and grenades, but I’m told a whole range of weapons will be available to both sides from various reputable (and not so reputable) sources. Regardless, if there’s one thing I noticed in my playtest, it’s that you shouldn’t expect firefights to be a simple case of run-and-gun – some key locations in the city are surrounded by twisting alleyways and some with huge open areas, so tactics are necessary to avoid coming a cropper.
After sitting down to play a few missions for a good hour or two, I came away feeling something that is rare for me when it comes to Massive Multiplayer Online games – a desire to carry on playing. The presentation and structure of play makes this a more casual (and in my case, fun) experience than hardcore grind-fests such as World of Warcraft.
There’s ample reward for getting hooked as well. The game comes with 50 hours of game time within the Action District, but you can top up your hours or purchase a monthly subscription for unlimited time in the main gameplay arena. But besides the chaos and destruction is a deep level of creation and customisation that makes APB truly feel MMO-worthy.
As well as creating almost every aspect of your character, there’s a vehicle studio to tune various acquired cars, and a music studio that allows you to play with a sequencer and make your own ‘death jingles.’ The next time you kill an enemy, that ditty will play on their screen, just to rub it in. Make it something annoying, like the McDonald’s theme tune, for maximum impact.
RealTime Worlds’ tagline for APB is ‘Creativity, Conflict and Celebrity.’ Excelling at one of the first two elements and the ‘celebrity’ status becomes available to you in the form of social notoriety. If you’re known for being a bit of a hotshot in combat, then your bounty from the opposing side ticks up. Whoever kills you wins the bounty – and a renewed price on their own head.
On the flip-side, you can get ‘famous’ by simply creating a lot of items and passing it on to other players. Apparently the editing modes are so intricate that one could create totally custom designs and sell them for RealTime World Points – the virtual currency that gives you game time in the APB’s Action District. The developer hopes that, despite being unproven, this online marketplace scheme will take off.
Throw in virtual rewards, leaderboards, social leagues, and even the ability to place statues of yourself in San Pero, and you have a game that has the potential to be the next evolution of open-world games. Of course, between now and then there remains a few questions unanswered – will exploring the Action District without engaging in missions every so often get tedious, for example – but it’s something that the ongoing Beta will hope to address before launch.
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12 Apr 2011, 7:30 am
http://casimira.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/screen-shot-2010-06-14-at-6-04-32-pm.png?w=500&h=311
This screenshot is one I took of my farm in Farmville. See how neat and regular the fields? The trees all in neat lines, the animals well cared for? The flowers lining the fences, my little person neatly ensconced in her enclosure in the middle of the whole thing? You can see that I had a considerable bankroll, over three million coins at this time, and that I was on level 48. I have over 50 friends, and you can see 7 of them at the bottom of the page. My fuel tank is full and I have about 121 more tanks waiting for me to use. My horses are contentedly lounging in their stable, the cats are in the yard and the dogs are waiting to play. The houses neatly aligned, all ready for visitors. The gnomes are roaming the village, the pigeons are flying around and there are picnics arrayed in two of the yards. On my farm everything is in order. It is neat and free of clutter. There is a beauty in its orderliness and my friends regularly visit me and leave gifts in my box. I can tend my farm whenever I want to and I can help my friends on their farms, and leave gifts for them as well after getting free $100 game cards at http://www.gamercard.info of course. I can make financial decisions that have an expectable outcome. If I plant high yield crops and harvest them on time, I will make money. If I let them wither and die, I will lose my investment. It’s clear and simple.
In my real life, things are not so regular. I get overwhelmed sometimes by the vicissitudes of life. People do and say things that are untrue and make me feel bad, and clutter accumulates that seems beyond my control. I never have enough money, no matter how much I work. I am with twelve-year olds all day, and they are the least predictable humans I’ve yet encountered. I find it relaxing and calming to spend a half an hour in the evening on my farm, bringing order to this little environment. On my farm I am in control, and that feeds something in me. I still cook good meals most days and I make a point of getting out and moving my body in real life. I do things with my friends and family, and I love to go out to the Sacramento River as often as the water level will permit it. My farm doesn’t replace anything essential in my real life. It just provides a little time out that I like at the end of the day.
21 May 2010, 8:35 pm
[...] First Looks All Points Bulletin AKA APB By prisqua In terms of weapons, I was only able to play around with the standard-issue assault rifles, handguns and grenades, but I’m told a whole range of weapons will be available to both sides from various reputable (and not so reputable) sources. Regardless via xbox360videogames.com [...]