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All Points Bulletin: E3 2009 Preview
The inventor of Grand Theft Auto presents APB, a game that brings the criminal mayhem online.
Every so often, a game comes along that doesn’t just push the technical boundaries, but takes all those theoretical ideas and bundles them into one title. All Points Bulletin (APB) looks like it’s going to be that kind of game.
Developed by Realtime Worlds out of Scotland, APB is the brainchild of the same guy who invented Grand Theft Auto, David Jones. Unlike the original top-down, low tech mayhem maker, APB isn’t holding anything back technologically.
This game features character and car customization that is absolutely unparalleled, quite the feat given that every game at E3 claims their customization is just that. APB seems to have delivered. Jones ran us through the system at E3 and demonstrated its flexibility.
;)
The staples are all there. People can morph the face and body with dozens of sliders. Aside from the sheer quality of the system, what really sets it apart is how they treat textures. People can quickly paint and apply patterns and decals to clothing or skin and create totally asymmetrical characters. For example, if you want your bad girl to wear one knee high sock, go for it!
This gets even cooler on cars. In the demonstration, they added custom paint jobs. These were quickly slapped onto the car, which then automatically sensed where to apply it and where not to. For example, the system automatically cut out around windows. Then, once applied, it looked not like a sticker on a car, but rather something painted on in real life, complete with the underlying metallic sheen.
To demonstrate the full flexibility, the video behind Jones then showed off a creepy digital Barrack Obama as put together with their in-game tools.
Each player should be able to easily make a character that is completely original to the APB world and the game will never force people to change how they look just because they want to upgrade their character.
;)
They didn’t stop pushing technical boundaries there, either. APB pushes the borders of audio in a range of ways as well:
The game doesn’t just feature fully integrated VOIP, but for the first time, incorporates totally directional 3D sound. In the demonstration, a character could hear a gun battle and went to check it out. As she walked up, she saw two sides in full combat, yelling instructions to each other. As one gunman passed by the character, you literally could hear him coming and passing by.
They also wanted players to “know” who killed them. So, they tossed in an in-game music creation tool that lets people quickly compose their own audio “kill songs.” Shoot someone in APB and they’ll hear the song you put together. It’s kind of a signature.
;)
Finally, through a deal with Last.fm, players are able to import all of their music into the game. As they drive around, they can play it from the radio in their car and, using 3D directional audio, people will hear each other coming as they blast their favorite songs. What Last.fm enables is a real time matching system. It compares the guy playing the song’s library with those of people on the street and if both have the song in their library, they both hear it. If the other guy doesn’t, he’ll hear the closest possible match to that song. That gets around legal entanglements and still lets groups, or gangs, play iconic music as a warning to others.
All of these achievements, combined with absolutely off the charts cities, cars and characters likely means absurdly high system requirements when this game eventually makes it to market. That’s a decision that could ultimately limit their audience, especially since for the initial launch, the game will be PC only (Xbox 360 is likely to follow). It will be a tough balancing act to break new technical ground in a way that is practical to all users.
What none of these achievements tell anyone, though, is what the game itself is about. Jones obviously talked about that too.
Im very interested to see if this game will work!
Pity (for me) that it's a pvp game. It looks totally kick-ass so far..
Thats a big gamble. Seeing how the system requirements seem to be on the high side and if they don't get enough subscribers the game will feel quite empty.
I like some of the ideas but this game looks like it will be pretty exclusive and the amount of information that seems to be travelling from client to server and back with all the customisation looks like quite a bit.
The 100 person instance limit will need to be seen in action to judge, especially depending on how seamless the instances mesh up.
But this: “There really is no overarching story in APB,” Jones noted. He wants the players to be the content and drive it themselves.
That's is so encouraging to hear any dev say now a days.
Very cool concept, and it seems like this is a passion project for the devs which is nice considering the slew of greed mongered titles that have been in development and on the market. Hope it works out well.
Now THIS is exciting.
The computer gaming industry, and MMOs in particular, seem to lack creative people who can think outside the box and really do something truly different.
Grand Theft Auto was possibly one of the greatest ideas ever. I've played the series since the very first one so I have a lot of hope for this game!
Game sounds like it has a good potential. I like the concept of players-cops receiving an APB for committed crime and criminals are players as well. Makes it very fun for both sides. What I really don't want to happen is this game to become like a chaos of Killzone 2 on PS3. Very fun realistic graphics, this game reminds me a bit about Crackdown on Xbox 360. From the article I read that there won't be a chaos and things will be limited to sessions. I hope those sessions will be divided by "cops on duty" against "criminals committing a crime" maybe 5v5 or max 10v10 sessions and not about 50 people on one side against 50 people on the other side.
What would be the best is if APB was issued to the law enforcement agents depending on a severity of crime committed and how many criminals were involved. Otherwise it won't be fun if you will have to join a session "cops against criminals" where 50v50 running around district and trying to make a head shot.
This game looks amazing. My wife and I both love all the GTA games and this looks like something that would appeal to both of us.
But, and this is a big BUT...I'd rather see the graphics knocked down a notch or two and have one large persistent city where there was no instancing. That would be my dream game, because loading screens break immersion.
Graphically this game makes Age of Conan look very dated, and that worries me. Will this game be able to run smoothly with a pc less than $10k ? Because from the looks of it, it's gonna require one monster rig.
Think outside the box? Now that comment was funny. Did they not get the fact that people did not like all the instancing in AOC? Instancing like this does not a MMO make. All this game is a bigger diablo basically.
At least they did not saddle it like the competitors with a ridiculous name like Crimecraft, I will give them that.
The problem with thinking to far outside the box is, you alienate a shit load of potential players. The average person likes thing simple, that's just human nature, but that’s not the point. The main point is the high end computing requirements, that will also alienate a huge percentage of the PC gamer market. They would almost be better making this game a console exclusive since the PC only market is such a gamble with a game like this. I know folks don’t like to hear that, but it’s true. There are a lot of us with good rigs, but not everyone who would want to play it, will be able to. That being said it looks like a rocking game.
sounds great, looks great, and finally an original idea in the mmo market. looking forward to this one.
Guys, this is another instanced shooter that's EXACTLY like HUXLEY & Global Agenda. Both of which, are complete failures in terms of their gameplay. All three, instance the fighting to VERY limited arenas for people to just blast each other apart.
It's sad to say, but it looks like the shooter genre for MMO's isn't here yet :(. Nothing but korean instanced ripoffs (imagine Gunz Online, but with better graphics). :(
I hope you're being completely sarcastic. You'll see if you ACTUALLY waste money on this piece of turd that it's nothing but an instanced worthless-fest. :(
I hope you're being completely sarcastic. You'll see if you ACTUALLY waste money on this piece of turd that it's nothing but an instanced worthless-fest. :(
I BET if it had Orcs, Elfs and magic in it, you would be saying different things :)
You guys really need to get with the program, get rid of your p4/amdxp whatevers, and just buy a new computer. You like computer games right? You like mmo games that you play on your computer right? Your obviously reading this thread so that shows you have some interest in stuff like this. Just get it over with and buy yourself a gaming rig. Dont have the ca$h? Get a job! Got a job and still dont have the money? Cut back on some of your vices. Are you an alchoholic, smoke cigarettes,.. addicted to mountain dew and fast food? Well, thats not my problem. The point: there IS something you can not do as much to save money. And in 3-6 months.. 8-12 months, you should have enough for a shiny new rig that can chew through these games like a fat chick at the KFC buffet.
That said, game looks like it might be bandwidth heavy from all this music sensing stuff. And if some young thug
comes crusing down my street blasting his rap music, i'd like to know which metal song i have in my playlist that will best correlate to his rap.
It depends wich Engine they use / licensed. Trying to find info on that.
By the looks of it, especially the bloom effects... it comes scarily close to the Unreal Engine 3.
If that's the case, then I have no worries the game will run fairly smooth on most hardware of the last 2 years.
Cheers
EDIT: Found it! They use the Unreal Engine 3.
Hm, no dont agree whit you here.
AOC was instanced mainly for its gfx systems, no other reason and no new game consepts in that MMoRPG
APB aint a MMoRPG let that be clear, its quake live in a bigger jackted and character stats.
Its a casual game, a pvp game like any fps but still a casual game.
lovers of saintrow,gta and other games like that will adore this game.
I Like those games, I like masive, I like beng able to make some sort of impact so i will like this game (as far consepts go)
The tradional roleplayer will Not like this game, if they up the server load to 500/1000 players tradional roleplayer would like the game.
100 still fps game nummers.
500+ is worthty to be named a comunity and thus roleplay can take root.
I want to add that this isn't GTA:Online.
Mentioning GTA in the same breath as this game is a marketing tactic. Don't get sucked in. Judge the game on its merits, not on your love for GTA.
I will see how it goes. The information so far released isn't too exciting, let's be honest.
"Each player should be able to easily make a character that is completely original to the APB world and the game will never force people to change how they look just because they want to upgrade their character." Too bad most mmoROLE PLAYING GAMES don't get this...
This game looks graphically amazing! :) I'm not too into PVP but in this case, I would try it out and pretend I'm some hard gang banger with purple hair, crazy tats and one sock. (Whoever commented on getting a better rig and quit eating at the KFC buffet made me laugh! Hahaha! Thanks for the chuckle...
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