All Points Bulletin. Anyone still excited about it?

Jast

I was looking up APB(All Points Bulletin), trying to find any new news on it. The only thing that happened on the main website is that it got updated with a games for windows tag. The release date has been pushed back to 2008. The website aside from that hasn't been touched for two years, it still says copyright 2008. But I still have hope the game will come out. It sounds awesome. We can form an Arcadian police force and take down the badguys. Penny Arcade can become the strongest force in the game.

If anyone is wondering what the game was, APB(All Points Bulletin) is supposed to be a third person shooter Massive Multiplayer Online Game. It's all based on PvP action, with two factions, the cops and the gangs, fighting each other. The game is based off of player skill instead of grinding for experience, even though I think it's still going to be like Call of Duty 4, where you have to kill guys or stop crimes to rank up. The game was thought up buy the guy who originally created Grand Theft Auto is being developed by the guys who made Crackdown.

Dublo7

I've never even heard of it.

Mojo_Jojo

APB?

darleysam

Crackdown was one of my games of the year. I'm absolutely looking forward to both APB and The Outsider (from Frontier, David Braben's lot).

Zzulu

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

APB?

Jast

All Points Bulletin.

Mojo_Jojo

Jast wrote: »

All Points Bulletin.

Do we have any other details outside of a title?

Jast

If anyone is wondering what the game was, APB(All Points Bulletin) is supposed to be a third person shooter Massive Multiplayer Online Game. It's all based on PvP action, with two factions, the cops and the gangs, fighting each other, in many different cities. The game is based off of player skill instead of grinding for experience, even though I think it's still going to be like Call of Duty 4, where you have to kill guys or stop crimes to rank up. The game was thought up buy the guy who originally created Grand Theft Auto is being developed by the guys who made Crackdown.

One scenario that could play out, a gang steals the car, the police are alerted, the police arrive, have a shootout, kill the gangmembers, and resolves the crime.

Mojo_Jojo

That does sound awesome, although perhaps I'm just letting my imagination run wild here.

Endomatic

It's a cops vs. thugs MMO.

That's kinda all I know about it. I saw some screenshots from a previous thread some time ago. Seems interesting, but I'm skeptical whether they will do a good job (just like any MMO really).

Jast

It sounds exciting at least. I hope they get it out before 09, the concept sounds so cool.

zimfan

This and Left 4 Dead have pretty awesome concepts that could or could not end up as crappy games.

Lawndart

The only reason I'm interested in the new version of APB is that it brings up nostalgic memories of one of my favorite arcade games ever, the original APB.

Kagera

Wasn't this a top-down arcade game back in the 90s?

Because that game ROCKED!

edit: HAHA! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.P.B._(arcade_game)

Dublo7

zimfan wrote: »

This and Left 4 Dead have pretty awesome concepts that could or could not end up as crappy games.

I don't think L4D will be a crappy game.

Mai-Kero

Isn't this what Huxley was supposed to be? Is Huxley still coming out?

Pharezon

Dublo7 wrote: »

zimfan wrote: »

This and Left 4 Dead have pretty awesome concepts that could or could not end up as crappy games.

I don't think L4D will be a crappy game.

From what I saw it looked like a User made mod and not a full blown game.

Mojo_Jojo

Mai-Kero wrote: »

Isn't this what Huxley was supposed to be? Is Huxley still coming out?

It's even been cancelled altogether or scaled back to something not remotely interesting but I can't remember which.

xzzy

Lawndart wrote: »

The only reason I'm interested in the new version of APB is that it brings up nostalgic memories of one of my favorite arcade games ever, the original APB.

It's surprising how well the game has aged, too. I saw a still functioning unit 4 or 5 years ago and had a blast playing it.

I tried it under less legal auspices last year, and it just ain't the same without the steering wheel.

Jast

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

Mai-Kero wrote: »

Isn't this what Huxley was supposed to be? Is Huxley still coming out?

It's even been cancelled altogether or scaled back to something not remotely interesting but I can't remember which.

Huxley is still coming out. It's in Korean beta right now. I don't know if it's been scaled back since I haven't been following it. The game seems like a UT clone, fast action.

JCRooks

Hmm, well a few months ago, I believe the Realtime Worlds guys said they weren't working on a sequel to Crackdown yet, since MS hadn't asked them to, and it was too late since they were already in the middle of working on another game. I have to imagine that it's APB.

Anyway, the premise sounds interesting. Hopefully we'll learn more about it, and other '08/09 titles for the 360. News has been pretty slim, since all of the focus was on Holiday '07 which is now over.

Jast

I hope it's APB. It could be some preivously unannounced title, but I doubt it. I"m hoping this game hits by summer of 08, but with the lack of news it'll probaly hit around October/November. There has to be a beta.

darleysam

I do believe it is APB being worked on, but I wish it were Crackdown 2 instead. That said, if it turns out good, I'll be happy to play it.

Jast

Crackdown 2 was good, but the singleplayer was nothing special, and the collecting and grinding your skills was boring. The real fun was in teaming up with a friend in coop and just destroying everyone. Other people like the singleplayer and collecting orbs and stuff, but it just wasn't interesting to me.

Zombiemambo

Jast wrote: »

Crackdown 2 was good, but the singleplayer was nothing special, and the collecting and grinding your skills was boring. The real fun was in teaming up with a friend in coop and just destroying everyone. Other people like the singleplayer and collecting orbs and stuff, but it just wasn't interesting to me.

Are you from the future?

Jast

Oops. I think I'll keep that one the way it is.

Pharezon

I want crackdown 2

Iriah

I want Crackdown with an actual plot. And some humour. And more ammo. And a reason to use cars, like car chases. And to shoot from inside cars.

Cherrn

Yeah. Although I love Crackdown, it definitely has the highest "make your own fun" ratio of any sandbox title I've played. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it could've used more content - and not just relating to the story. They could've stuffed a greater variety of challenges in there; hell, just a greater number would've helped. Once you've gotten level 4 athletics, there's no reason to go exploring outside of getting achievements, since the orbs don't do anything. The city is huge, but I thought it felt empty most of the time.

darleysam

Iriah wrote: »

I want Crackdown with an actual plot. And some humour. And more ammo. And a reason to use cars, like car chases. And to shoot from inside cars.

I believe Rockstar are already working on it.

Jast

GTA IV does look good, I just hope they get rid of the annoying missions that plagued GTA San Andreas.

GrimReaper

Can this be like real cops? So I could take fat bribes, sit on my arse all day eating donuts and covering up for other cops mistakes?

Jast

Never saw that movie before, doesn't look too bad.

Jast

Some new news, although small. The devs said they will be showing some footage of the game at GDC. Now I got this from another forum, so it may be wrong, but it does give me hope. We'll see what happens next month and see if there's new footage.

Jast

Some small, but also new news. There was recently an interview with Webzen's Sang Woon Yoon, a high up. It was mostly about Huxley, but there were a few comments pertaining to APB.

Here's the full interview, but here's the stuff that mainly talks about APB.

That's pretty smart. Still a lot of companies now are trying to bring Korean MMOs into the U.S., and they're having varying degrees of success with that, because there's a new one launching every day pretty much. Is it still a 2008 target for APB?
SY: Yeah.

How is the development going on that so far?
SY: We're getting busy, in crunch mode.

It seems like a very ambitious project.
SY: Yeah, it's very big. We have a lot of big features, and some ambitious stuff.

Thanks to teamxbox forums for finding this.

Fireflash

Big features, ambitious stuff! Whooo!

darleysam

Excited for it?
Hell yes.

Eurogamer wrote:

Realtime Worlds boss Dave Jones has been showing off the huge amount of customisation options featured in forthcoming PC and Xbox 360 title All Points Bulletin.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference, Jones discussed his decision to stay away from traditional MMO genres for APB. "The more fantasy you go, the more sci-fi, basically you're diminishing your audience," he said. "People these days don't want to learn things over and over again. Making games contemporary, urban and cool lowers the boundary."

So for APB, he explained, Realtime Worlds decided to "replace geek with chic" - Air Jordans instead of Stalker Boots, Raybans instead of telescopic eye goggles, AK-47 instead of Braggart's Bows and so on.

Then it was time to show off the character creator, "a big part" of APB. "Effectively it's user-generated content," he observed. "But one of the problems is 90 percent of user-created content is crap. We've all seen Second Life."

Jones said he wanted players to be able to make unique characters using a free-form, high quality and easy-to-use system. He demonstrated the high level of detail you'll be able to choose - not just your character's body shape and skin colour but things like hair length and how pronounced their veins are. You can even place moles and freckles wherever you like, or choose how old scars you've selected look.

There will be a huge wardrobe of clothes to choose from and these are also customisable. You can use a decal creator to design your very own logo and apply this to your outfit. Plus you can place the decal on your character as a realistic-looking tattoo or stick it on your car. You can share it with fellow gang members so they can do the same, and buy and sell decals within the game.

To demonstrate the potential of the character and decal creators, Jones showed off some he made earlier - "The Geek Squad". An APB-created Peter Molyneux appeared on-screen, complete with Lionhead-branded jacket and trademark black polo neck. Jones also created characters looking impressively similar to Warren Spector and Richard Garriott. For the finale, he presented an in-game version of Shigeru Miyamoto - and as the camera panned down it was revealed he was wearing only boxer shorts. Covered in images of Toad.

Cars are fully customisable too - according to Jones, you can expect the same level of depth as you'd find in a standalone racing game. There are all sorts of cosmetic tweaks you can make, and you can also fiddle about under the bonnet.

Even the in-game music is customisable. Realtime Worlds has established a partnership with music sharing site last.fm and they've developed a system which will let you choose what tracks your car plays as it drives round. If you pass another player who also has one of those tracks in their MP3 library, that's what they'll hear as you drive by.

According to Jones, there's no grinding in APB. He took inspiration from Counter-Strike - "the best online game ever". Instead of "playing like a programmer" in games like World of Warcraft (which, Jones was careful to point out, he's a big fan of), the fun and reward will come from interaction between players. Because you have more freedom, missions are dynamic and entertaining even if you repeat them. "Players will come back again and again because the gameplay is fun, not because they are working their way through a grind," Jones promised.

A grindless MMO? Sounds intriguing. We'll find out if Realtime Worlds has pulled it off when APB is released later this year.

Update: Ellie missed it because she had to duck out the session early, but Jones confirmed one other intriguing feature of APB at the end of his talk. Players will be able to carry video cameras in the game and use them to make movies and post online. Jones said his testers had already used this feature to re-make an entire Final Fantasy VII battle sequence in APB's world. This was part of his philosophy of supporting emergent behaviour among players, and it certainly sounds cool to us.