By John Walker on June 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am.
Of everything I saw at E3, APB stood out as the project with the greatest concentration of inspiration. Ignore the surprisingly crappy images that have been released so far – this one deserves your attention. During the presentation a colleague sat next to me leant in and said, “Bloody hell.” A minute or so later I replied, “This is the first original idea I’ve seen all week.” It’s very easy to think of APB as an online GTA. It certainly is a game focused around either committing or preventing crimes in an open city. But what makes APB stand out is just how damned smart it is.
Let’s begin with the trailer.
Many games boast of being “fully customisable”, by which they mean you can choose whether your avatar is male or female, and maybe what colour hat you wear. APB is something quite different. And it only begins with character customisation. A lot of the games shown at the conference boasted of their character designing tools. Each and every one of them needed to take a trip to Realtime Worlds’ private room in order to learn quite how far behind they really are. You may remember last year’s teaser for this that showed some of the options, with the gag reveals of various game developers created spookily accurately in the tool – it’s here. This year we were shown this in far more detail, of which a truncated version was shown on the EA stage, presented by Paul Barnett, and dodgily videoed:
Unfortunately not revealed on that occasion was the final punchline in the extended video we were shown – a character designed to look so uncannily like President Obama that it could well have been a stylised photograph. What you also can’t see above is quite how ludicrously complex the tool really is. When you change a detail, like someone’s weight, it’s also changing the skeletal structure underneath. By having the device follow anatomical rules, you’re not able to create faces that end up looking un-human. Instead the bones underneath will adapt to keep things looking natural. But shape isn’t all you can adjust. How about the volume of body hair? The skin pigmentation (rather than the more common choice of five or six race archetypes, here the skin pigments are accurate recreated, creating skin colours that look natural and extraordinarily varied). Or how about the protrusion of veins? Even that detail is available for tweaking, in case you want to have your Angelina Jolie be as precise as possible. Then there’s make up, contact lens colours… As Barnett comments in the video above, it seems possible to never get around to playing the game itself.
Further delaying your start, as the video above shows, the customisation goes beyond being able to create characters so distinct and recognisable that they’re not going to bother with names floating above players’ heads – you’ll know someone when you see them. It also extends to tattoos, decals, clothes and vehicles. Creating designs in another in-game tool is so elaborate it looks like it should be its own £400 art software. Then with your created work, you can apply it as a skin tattoo, which will automatically absorb the pigmentation of the skin to which it’s applied, and adjust accordingly. It will naturally wrap itself around the part of the body to which it’s applied. Or perhaps you’d rather add it to clothing, where once again it is manipulated to look natural on the material to which it’s applied. Maybe you want it on your car – this time it will take on the sheen or shine of the vehicle, again appropriately wrapping itself to where you stick it, intelligently cutting itself off so it doesn’t obscure windows, windscreens, etc. You can then customise your vehicle, switch out body parts, wheels, even the in-car stereo.
This is beginning to sound like one of those late night infomercials where they presenter cries out, “BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!” It doesn’t stop there. As Realtime Worlds’ founder Dave Jones explained, as they develop the game they keep thinking of other things that the player would prefer to be in control of. Which includes the music. So there’s a complete music creation tool in there. We were shown a couple of copyright infringing tunes that they’d made using the software (which will be an interesting thing to follow when the game comes out – it’s hard to see how the money-grabbing horrors in the various music industries won’t try and stamp their fat, stupid boots all over this) that demonstrated its capabilities. You can go so far as to create your own gloat tune, that will be heard by any player you kill.
There’s a reason for all this, beyond just being incredibly cool. One of the key elements of APB is to be celebrity. The idea is that everyone playing can become famous for something. It might be that you’re the best at head shots. Or it might be that you get killed the most often. And with the auction house that will let you sell designs, decals, tattoos, etc for in-game money, you might become the most famous leather jacket designer. You may become known as the best at creating tattoos. This fame serves to further distinguish you, further create a notorious character.
The game? The game itself? This is where the truly astonishingly clever ideas appear. You’ll either play as a Criminal or an Enforcer. Each has a distinct style of play, and neither will ever have to sit in a lobby waiting for a game to play. With an intended 100 players on each server, the enormous city is also populated by NPCs who will play critical roles. Firstly they will serve as the city’s initial gangs, and give missions to players. Secondly, and far more interestingly, they also provide the means by which the game’s natural action flows. So let’s say you’re playing as a Criminal. You log into the city and want something to do right away. Why not steal a car? You may well get away with it. Take it out and go for a joyride, look for some trouble. Or you may not – you may get spotted by an NPC who will report the APB. Report it to other players playing as Enforcers. Who then come chasing after you.
Or perhaps you’re an Enforcer and you hear word of a bank that’s moving some money. They need security, so you show up to where it’s happening. But Criminals may get wind of this and attempt to steal that money during its journey. The result of this is the game naturally creating PvP missions for players without ever having to throw up a quest screen, or have you sit around waiting for a match. It’s just so smart. It means they’ve replaced AI players from the game with real world players.
These matches are asymmetrical. If you’re especially good, especially well equipped and known by the game to be part of an especially dangerous gang, it’s not going to send a couple of newbs after you. It’s going to report your crime to players who will present a challenge to you. This might mean it matches up two gangs of equal strengths. But it might just as easily send in a larger number of poorer players. And this will escalate. Say your gang of three manages to take out the three players it sent after you, it might then send five to get you. Then it might alert two gangs, then three. Keep winning and it will keep raising the challenge. The notion behind this is it rewards both sides. The players seeing the game send a dozen opponents after them will recognise the respect the game is showing them. The group of twelve sent after the gang of three will love the fact they’re so seemingly outnumbering their opponents.
Recognition will also be rewarded in terms of material goods. Do especially well in a city and you may be able to buy real estate. These buildings will be as customisable as everything else in the game, letting you apply your decals and colours to the walls, so everyone knows whose gang they belong to. You might even receive statues. When I asked Jones how this would work with only limited space on a server, and the likelihood of having to play in a different city when one was full, he suggested that this was mostly tough luck, although there would be some rewards so great that they would “ripple” onto multiple servers.
Balance of such a game is clearly crucial, and this is something they’re still working on. The current ideas are to make it impossible to shoot players who aren’t involved in the mission, but to still let anyone run anyone else over with a vehicle. The logic behind this is to ensure the matchmaking isn’t defeated by griefing or drivebys, but Realtime acknowledge some will disagree. In response to this, they plan to have “chaos servers”, where all such rules shall be removed, including the inability to carjack another player’s car. It seemed that the main reason they intended to do this was to prove to anyone who was complaining what a bad idea it would be, and give them somewhere to find out.
Blimey, there’s so many more details to report. Let’s do music in the game. Jones said how most open city games tend to come with about 100 licensed tracks, but that they realised that most players would far rather listen to their own mp3 collection. But this is an online game. So they’ve done a deal with Last.FM to use their technology in such a brilliantly imaginative way. If you’re listening to a favourite track in your car, and drive past some other players, should they have the same track on their hard drive the game will find it, and they’ll hear it from your car as you go by. Should they not have it, the game will find a track that’s similar and play that instead.
The same logic applies to the in-game VOIP. If you’re chatting with your gang via headsets and another player walks by, they’ll hear what you’re saying. Using 3D positioning, these voices will appear realistically far away, getting louder as you approach.
This barrage of ideas, the attempt to put everything in the hands of the player, only falls short in one area: mission design. At launch all the prescribed missions will come from NPCs. But again, this is not intended to last. Realtime have desires to allow the most successful gangs, those that gain the most notoriety, to eventually become those who design and distribute missions to other players.
If there’s a criticism to be levelled at the game at this stage it’s the sparse nature of the backgrounds. While the characters and cars look remarkable, most of the scenery we saw was bland and grey. Hopefully more interesting locations will be revealed as time goes on. But beyond this, APB looks just jaw-dropping in everything from its design intricacy to its revolutionary approach to matchmaking in an MMO world. It makes PvP seem appealing to someone as single-player minded as me, and that’s a hefty achievement from within my head. It’s such a wealth of ideas in one game, that we can’t wait to get our hands on.
08/06/2009 at 10:07 Npa says:
I damn well hope there’s a traditional bobby suit for the Enforcers.
08/06/2009 at 10:22 Shoe says:
i’m hugely impressed by the video,
but the big problem such designers seem to have is being too intimidating for people who just want to play
I love tweaking my character, but usually not when I first get a game. Any game with a complicated character-maker I usually just mash Random on.
08/06/2009 at 10:28 fishmitten says:
I was reading this with my usual ‘my PC won’t be able to run this… I hope they bring it to the 360′ face on, but then I remembered my new PC will be arriving next week!
This game looks really promising. As long as they retain at least some of the daft fun from Crackdown, they can’t really go wrong.
08/06/2009 at 10:30 Ian says:
And all of a sudden I’m interested.
08/06/2009 at 10:31 Brian says:
This looks awesome. I can’t wait to give it a try.
08/06/2009 at 10:32 Baltech says:
Well, if that doesn’t sound promising, I don’t know what does. The only thing that irks me is the 100 player limit per server. So, as I understand it, its not really a perstant world but you’re always playing on an other server whenever you log in?
08/06/2009 at 10:34 Jockie says:
It kind of reminds me of a GTA mod I once tried, whereupon logging into the server you were asked to choose a role, be it as a policeman, a gunrunner, a thief etc.
Once you’d decided, you were supposed to go around the world interacting with other players in your specific role, so a gun runner would get word that a player wanted to buy weapons and they would go find them and sell them some guns, perhaps that other player was a hitman off to perform a killing, on successful completion the police would be alerted etc.
Decent idea but it was horribly executed with a terrible interface and a poor sense of humour (one of the character classes was a ‘rapist’).
This sounds like it could be great though.
08/06/2009 at 10:34 Ian says:
This has the potential to make me a very happy bunny indeed.
08/06/2009 at 10:35 CMaster says:
I’m also in the “I don’t like really involved character creators” camp. When I play a game, I want to play a game. If I can’t make a decent character in 1-5 minutes, I normally just mash something in and go with it. More sliders/options = harder time to make a non-stupid looking character in my experience.
That said, the game looks interesting at the very least and I recognize some people (eg most CoX players) will happily spend hours tweaking character appearances.
08/06/2009 at 10:36 Jayteh says:
This sound verrry interesting, can’t wait to see some more
08/06/2009 at 10:39 Ginger Yellow says:
It’s great to see APB getting some love. I’ve been excited about this game ever since the original announcement, and my anticipation has only grown with each new piece of information. I’m so pleased that someone is finally trying something different with the MMO concept (see also MAG, though obviously it’s not for PC), and I’m doubly pleased that it’s Realtime Worlds.
08/06/2009 at 10:45 Arca says:
Good lord. This might actually be new, fresh and interesting!
My curiousity is piqued, to say the least.
08/06/2009 at 10:47 jimmy says:
What’s the music in the trailer?
08/06/2009 at 10:54 MrBejeebus says:
Baltech I think what they’re saying is if you get bored of a server you can change onto another 1, but your character and car and whatever will go with you.
You wont be put on a different server each time you log on though i’m thinking..
08/06/2009 at 11:03 Dominic White says:
I just recently got (on the 360, as the PC port is naff) the ridiculously over-the-top comedy GTA clone Saints Row 2. It also has a fantastic character editor.
The first thing I did? I made my character Saxton Hale from the TF2 Jarate comic:
http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/day07_english.htm
Yep, hat and bushy mustache and jean-shorts and everything. This is made even better in SR2 because there’s a British character voice that is just twangy enough to pass for almost-Australian. It also helps that the game lets you pick up and throw people with a single button-press. This strikes me as exactly the sort of thing Saxton Hale would do.
This is going to be my character in APB as well, because Saxton Hale sells products (like drugs) and gets into fights (ALL THE TIME).
08/06/2009 at 11:04 Stromko says:
I’m curious how the servers are going to work, how are they going to enforce the arbritary ‘about 100 players’ population? The more people on a server, the more people that want to be on that server (because they have friends there, or herding instinct, or whatever), and the less people around, the less there is to do and the less reason there is to log in to a server. A lot of MMO clans are also bigger than 100 players, so how do they not fill up an entire server?
Really comparing it to an MMO would be wrong, because 100 players does not an MMO make. That’s a ‘rather big’ multiplayer game, but massive? No.
The closest thing that I could compare what APB looks like, would be the Sahrani Life modification for ArmA. In that, there really wasn’t day-to-day persistence for player actions, if your favorite server was full, too laggy, or empty you’d just try another server (if one was available). They didn’t have to worry about gang buildings, persistant squads. The population would vary between 3 and 20, and depending on how active those players were it was either chaos and constant firefights or tedious building up of funds.
APB looks really amazing, I just hope they’re smart enough to figure out a good solution. A persistant world is wonderful, building up your reputation and that of your gang in a small community where you’re more than just an anonymous ‘toon’ in Barrens chat is a great idea, but I’m not sure how that’s going to look in practice.
It sounds like what they mean is that the 100 players is the server limit, it’s an MMOFPS in that there’ll be bunches of servers with thousands of players spread among them, but you’re only interacting with 99 others at a time. I could see some familiarity forming based on people having their ‘favorite’ servers that they frequent, thus the ‘reputation’ hype could pay off, but tough luck if that server where they have a sweet statue of their character and an office building with custom-graffiti, is already full when they want to login.
08/06/2009 at 11:21 NuZZ says:
Unreal engine 3.0
Anybody else worried ? Huxley sucks very bad; however, it’s an asian MMO and doesn’t count. Unreal Engine 3.0 + MMO has always ended up in the shitter. Fury, for example. Plus the many other games which have tried.
08/06/2009 at 11:22 Dozer says:
I work for one of the UK’s large bus companies. The idea of doing drive-bys and indiscriminately running over pedestrians in a van dressed up to look like one of our buses is very appealing!
08/06/2009 at 11:28 White Noise says:
Does the game allow you to have corrupt enforcers (secretly working for the criminals), and moles (criminals working for the enforcers)? That’d bring about a whole extra level of intrigue, I reckon – massive witch hunts within the enforcer gangs allowing for complete criminal take-overs, or vice versa.
08/06/2009 at 11:35 teo says:
Make your own bikini fotoshoots! Just what the internet needs
The tech seems neat but the trailer didn’t look that great. Ideas don’t make good games so it’s not worth getting excited about them.
08/06/2009 at 11:35 Optimaximal says:
Maybe I missed it, but has there been any confirmation of what this game is actually setting out too do? Is it just one persistent online battle ala. Planetside or is it a mission-based grind like every other MMO.
Also, have they announced how charging will work – is it going to be a monthly-payment MMO (in which case I’m not interested, and neither will many who already have WoW addictions swallowing £15 a month) or are they going to be bold and try the Guild Wars model?
08/06/2009 at 11:38 The Fanciest of Pants says:
This has done nothing to spare me the agony of waiting for this to come out. Thanks a lot, RPS.
(No but really, thankyou).
08/06/2009 at 11:40 Po0py says:
Jesus Christ I really wanted to punch that commentator guy in the customizing video. Right in the face. Three times. And then kick him in the nuts. Tie him to a car and drag him behind me round a roundabout. And then punch him in the face again.
08/06/2009 at 11:46 Carra says:
Enforcers stopping criminals from stealing a van? Tss. I’d expect other gangs to go and steal it from those thugs.
08/06/2009 at 11:52 Lukasz says:
It sounds interesting. Hopefully they will not screw up.
08/06/2009 at 11:53 Tony Mc says:
The music in the trailer is ‘Johnny Got a Boom Boom’ by the rather lovely Imelda May.
08/06/2009 at 12:05 Hmm.-Hmm. says:
I’m not into all that GTA-type gangster stuff, but.. well.. that’s very impressive. Looking forward to hearing more about this.
08/06/2009 at 12:24 Nimic says:
I’ll have to join in with those skeptical of the 100-players limit and different servers. The rest of the game sounds fantastic, but if you’ll end up playing on different servers every time it could somewhat ruin the brilliance of the rest of it.
08/06/2009 at 12:31 The Fanciest of Pants says:
@Stromko
Keep in mind they’ve always referred to it as an “MOG” not an “MMO”.
They’ve never implied the ‘massive’.
08/06/2009 at 12:55 anonymous says:
I plan to make hideous racial caricatures of increasingly more obscure ethnic groups until I find one that won’t get me banned.
08/06/2009 at 12:56 Dominic White says:
Yeah, it sounds like while your character is persistent and can travel freely between the city-instances, the city itself is just a perpetual sandbox of crime and justice. Neither side can ‘win’, as the city itself will just keep generating new potential missions.
It sounds very much like GTA, really, but with procedurally generated missions that may involve up to a hundred human players. This is a very good thing.
If they get it right, this will be the rarest of things: A persistent online game that people play because it’s FUN, rather than because there’s the promise of future fun if you grind fifty hours for a shinier hat.
From the sounds of it, Regular and Chaos modes sound like the difference between, say, GTA4 (which is rather restrained compared to its cousins) and Saint’s Row 2/Crackdown, which are retarded and hilarious.
08/06/2009 at 13:05 Kieron Gillen says:
White: “A persistent online game that people play because it’s FUN, rather than because there’s the promise of future fun if you grind fifty hours for a shinier hat.”
As far as I can work out, it’s their idea. They’ve talked about CS before in glowing admiration as a game which has secured an audience who’ll play because *it’s fun*.
(And, please, don’t let anyone go for the “CS is shit” card. It’s irrelevant.)
KG
08/06/2009 at 13:10 gulag says:
Wow, I can see some great gang ‘style bibles’ being created for this. That character creation vid is a real game-changer.
08/06/2009 at 13:12 Dominic White says:
Well, inspiration from CS is all well and good, but one thing I do hope they do is make characters are least tough enough to drag out firefights a bit.
Ideally (for me, at least), headshots should only be instantly lethal from bigger guns, wheras a light pistol or SMG will require 2-3 hits at least, as you’re going to be spraying a lot more lead around.
I’ve found that gunfights in games tend to be a lot more dramatic if you can die fairly fast, but can still take a couple of lucky hits before going down.
I’d like to think that Realtime Worlds undestand this though, as they did give us Crackdown. They understood that the player wants to feel like a badass there. If they can manage to keep at least part of that feeling of being a nigh-invulnerable supercop, without making the player too ‘big’ for the city around them, that’ll suit me down to the ground.
08/06/2009 at 13:12 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Man. I want get a bunch of mates together and form a Kung-fu hustle style Axe Gang. mmmmmmm.
08/06/2009 at 13:22 Surgeon says:
The more I hear about this, the better it sounds.
I really hope it all comes together and ends up as special as all the features suggest.
Anyone know whether it will be first or third person?
08/06/2009 at 13:27 James T says:
Sounds like the server thing’s gonna clash with the “leave your mark” thing, but that’s alright…. if your custom car comes with you. This is the first multiplayer game I’ve given a shit about; hope it’s good.
08/06/2009 at 13:33 Barts says:
@The Fanciest of Pants
I’m in!
(or, as the Kotaku folks would have it: You have my axe!)
08/06/2009 at 13:45 Orange says:
The design of the mission match making sounds genius. This game is right at the top of my list, won’t be able to resist playing a copper and administering justice to all those young punks breaking the law :P
08/06/2009 at 14:12 Ian says:
Dominic White: But sometimes that next hat is REALLY shiny!
08/06/2009 at 14:23 cyrenic says:
I’m wondering if keeping players motivated to do missions will be a problem. If only a few people are notified about a particular crime, how can the game ensure those people will respond to it? Also, even with the rules they have, griefing still sound pretty easy to do (blocking people with cars, etc.).
Those things aside, this is the MMO I’m most looking forward to (this and Love, anyway :D). The 100 player servers sound like a great idea to me. Seeing the same people on regularly should foster a great sense of community. And if those people suck you can just move to another server.
08/06/2009 at 14:33 Dominic White says:
@Cyrenic: I’d imagine that money/reputation/etc are persistent stats, and that doing missions is the best way to raise them. Still, if you have fun just screwing around and not really getting involved in the big picture, that’s great. I love the idea of a single psycho just randomly taking potshots at anyone driving under a particular overpass, which couuld interfere hilariously with an organized escort op or heist.
I just hope friendly fire is enabled in Chaos mode, because you KNOW that would mean that a lot of heists will end up a massive mexican standoff, deciding who gets the loot.
08/06/2009 at 14:40 Gurrah says:
It all sounds rather great, but I’m not the least bit interested in it because I can’t stand those overly hip and cool gangster wannabe games. It’s a realy shame, because the whole customisation business sounds fantastic.
08/06/2009 at 14:46 the affront says:
Eh, 100 players… doesn’t sound good. Enough arguments against it already to be found in earlier comments. Should have gone for a real MMO with this instead, I hate instancing with a passion.
Also, the character creation is nice and all.. but I can’t say that I know even one guy for whom such a feature would make or break a game, me included. It’s a nice gimmick, but that’s it, really.
Same thing with the VOIP – it’s hard enough to make an ingame system that’s good enough to be widely used by players – now they’re making one that broadcasts what you’re saying to everyone nearby? Sounds like a surefire ticket to make anyone who’s even slightly competitive NOT use it and stick to vent/TS (not like most wouldn’t have done so anyway, just look at LOTRO or similar). I can only see this working as intended on consoles.
08/06/2009 at 14:47 panik says:
hope the character customization includes age.
i want to be a little old lady with a cake hat
08/06/2009 at 14:49 Zyrusticae says:
Note from the FAQ:
“How big is the game world? And how many people fit on one server?
Approximately 10,000 players per world consisting of 100 player district maps. A hundred customized players driving unique cars, doing crimes, shooting or busting each other is well worth checking out.”
“Also, the character creation is nice and all.. but I can’t say that I know even one guy for whom such a feature would make or break a game[...]”
It does for me. ALL THE TIME.
It’s the primary reason I don’t play WoW, and a contributing factor to me refusing to try FFXI.
08/06/2009 at 14:58 Skye Nathaniel says:
I really hope that they implement bandages. Bandages are an excellent fashion accessory.
More seriously, I am skeptical about the mission structure. It sounds like you couldn’t even be a criminal preying on other criminals. I’d hope that it would be more like Eve where you can do what you want and carve out your own enterprise.
Regardless, I’ll be playing this.
I’m actually very interested in the possibility for player-created fashion trends in an MMO.
08/06/2009 at 15:23 Ginger Yellow says:
“Eh, 100 players… doesn’t sound good. Enough arguments against it already to be found in earlier comments. Should have gone for a real MMO with this instead, I hate instancing with a passion.”
I really don’t understand this attitude. How many people do you actually play with in a “real” MMO. For which read MMORPG. Eh, 100 players… doesn’t sound good. Enough arguments against it already to be found in earlier comments. Should have gone for a real MMO with this instead, I hate instancing with a passion. Why can’t we have MMOs that aren’t MMORPGs? And what’s wrong with having ca. 100 players in a persistent environment? It’s not going to be the same as a MMORPG, but that’s a good thing. Heaven forfend developers try something different.
08/06/2009 at 15:24 Dave says:
That mission thing sounds like something my company came up with for a license that we sadly wound up not getting. But I’d love to see it in action, even in a gangster game.
At any rate, I will get this just for the character creator.
08/06/2009 at 15:32 Surgeon says:
the affront says:
Eh, 100 players… doesn’t sound good. Enough arguments against it already to be found in earlier comments. Should have gone for a real MMO with this instead, I hate instancing with a passion.
Also, the character creation is nice and all.. but I can’t say that I know even one guy for whom such a feature would make or break a game, me included. It’s a nice gimmick, but that’s it, really.
I reckon 100 player servers sound about spot on for this.
And the combination of the 100 player servers and the unique character creation will really help you to build your own identity.
the affront says:
Same thing with the VOIP – it’s hard enough to make an ingame system that’s good enough to be widely used by players – now they’re making one that broadcasts what you’re saying to everyone nearby? Sounds like a surefire ticket to make anyone who’s even slightly competitive NOT use it and stick to vent/TS (not like most wouldn’t have done so anyway, just look at LOTRO or similar). I can only see this working as intended on consoles.
I think you’re missing a trick here.
The VOIP features sound quality man.
Now you can be an Enforcer, nick a robber and then spit the immortal words :
“You’re nicked you slag!”
Plus it opens the possibilities for a good bit of banter between the two sides during firefights.
The more games that start implementing specific game related features into VOIP the better.
Then we can finally get away from having to use TS and Vent.
08/06/2009 at 15:59 the affront says:
Ginger: In the “real” MMOs I’ve preferred so far (DAoC, Eve, Planetside – so no, not necessarily RPG) it was often a lot more.. but that’s not really my main complaint about it. Would be much nicer if it was a huge-ass world where you’d actually have to drive for a while to meet up with your buddies, and inevitably be driving past a whole bunch of people doing their thing. Would just make the world feel much more alive than 50vs50 which probably ends up with at best 10 missions going on at any one time. You’d also meet a lot more people (if you’re not actively trying to), because many will probably frequent their usual haunts and never step foot into your instance.
“Why can’t we have MMOs that aren’t MMORPGs?” Did I say “dude, this sucks, stop producing this shit RIGHT THIS MOMENT, I command you by my godlike powers, maggots!”? I should think not. So – of course we can, it’s just that I think it would be better if it was done differently.
Surgeon: We won’t be getting away from that any time soon for guilds/clans/groups of friends, because the one defining drawback of in-game VOIP is that it’s exactly that – in-game. If you turn the game off you’re off the VOIP, obviously. With vent/TS you can just hop on before even starting the game to have a chat, to check if there’s anything interesting going on and you STAY on if you crash.
Also I really don’t know if a “bit of banter” in a PVP game between opposing players using VOIP is such a good idea.. I’m told XBOX Live isn’t such a pleasant experience, especially since in-game VOIP usually does not enforce the code of conduct. Even considering sound quality I still can’t see anyone remotely competitive seriously using this, maybe as a second option to insult the shit out of your enemies while still having vent running in the background for the serious talk.
08/06/2009 at 16:06 waste_manager says:
Quietly looking forward to it now. So long as there isn’t a monthly sub mind.
08/06/2009 at 16:14 Catastrophe says:
This game sounds amazing.
Anyone know System specifications? :/
08/06/2009 at 16:15 Smurfy says:
I’ve never been an MMO guy because the current MMOs seem primitive in a way – this shows me I was right.
08/06/2009 at 16:25 Stupoider says:
Do want!
08/06/2009 at 16:32 skizelo says:
Crikey. Just at the character creation thing. If it’s half as versatile and easy to use as it looks then… crikey.
Also, the notion of the game publicising an individual as “most killed!” makes me… not want to play it.
08/06/2009 at 17:00 Koop says:
I was reading this article with my jaw on the floor.
Gief now!!
08/06/2009 at 17:04 OutOfExile says:
This is definantly one of the games I’m looking forward to the most. GTA MMO is probably one of the top things on my “Dream Games” list, and this character customization is INCREDIBLE. I hope you can have lots of character slots because I can already see my self spending most of my time trying to make TV characters. I hope it doesn’t have a subscription fee, or at least a low one otherwise I’m not getting it no matter how good it is. 100 people servers shouldn’t be too expensive compared to other MMOs.
Also just read about “chaos servers” and real servers. Great idea Realtime :D
08/06/2009 at 17:06 Dominic White says:
OutOfExile: You’re missing the part where they said that each ‘city’ (master server – I’d imagine one per region) will have 100 districts able to hold 100 people each.
It seems very, very unlikely that this is going to be free to play.
08/06/2009 at 17:14 Sonic Goo says:
For an editor so versatile, it all seems to come out in one style.
Also, it needs more bowler hats. For John Steed/Alex DeLarge type people. Like me.
08/06/2009 at 17:22 Psychopomp says:
So, I noticed two things
1.The music isn’t gangsta rap
2.There are clothing options for women that actually cloth them.
All in all, I am in favor of this sort of thing.
Edit:
This game better how bowler hats, and fedoras.
Then I wish to be known for having the largest collection.
Also @Fanciest of Pants
You have my axe!
08/06/2009 at 17:32 Beelzeboob says:
Sonic Goo:
Looks to me liek they picked 2 styles of gang for the video.. the criminals all seem kinda gothy/punky and the enforcers, i dont know, like all rock/metal?
its liek they assigned ethem musical genres or something.. maybe its in strong keeping with the audio thing because they did kinda theme it in the video?
just my opinion, i could be wrong xD
really looking forward to this, they did an amazing job making obama, if thats the kind of thin g you can make easilly then im definately going to be making my own obama enforcer
08/06/2009 at 17:45 Radiant says:
I get the feeling this game will live or die based on the in game fighting.
If the fight system is imprecise or glitchy then holy hell they will catch flack for it.
It really needs a cpma level of attention paid to the fighting as getting the balance right in any shooter is near impossible.
08/06/2009 at 18:02 Taillefer says:
I fear my grandiose ideas of Omar-style infamy will be unattainable with my level of skill.
If they’re not naming people on-screen, what if I create somebody’s clone and follow them around claiming “No. I’m the real him!!”
08/06/2009 at 18:17 Linfosoma says:
Can a server really handle all that info? Im concerned about this game’s stability.
08/06/2009 at 18:22 Hornybeast says:
I look forward to creating a Jesus lookalike so i can shoot all the hitler/hulksters in the face with my holy shotgun
08/06/2009 at 18:26 Kieron Gillen says:
I’ll create an Omar clone and just have cybersex with men.
KG
08/06/2009 at 18:38 Clovis says:
I would guess the 100 player limit has to do with the crazy level of customization. The data representing a character must be pretty large. In WoW you have a few races, a few sliders, and a bunch of non-custom equipment. So sending data on what player A looks like to player B on the fly is not that bad. If this game had to handle it the same way then it might eventually cause some major lag. Especially when you also consider the VOIP and music stuff they are talking about as well. With a set number of players the game can just start loading info for everyone playing on the server to your local hard drive when you start and then just send a “draw player A” command. That would make for a slow start, but no lag later on. If the sever had 1000 people then it would become problematic.
I’m totally making this up, BTW, but highly customizable characters just seem like a possible lag problem without some kind of limit on them. I’m not sure if some other MMO has such customization. AoC maybe?
Oh, and I haven’t followed anything about APB for awhile. So now I’m suddenly excited about this! Thanks RPS! Now if you could just arrange to give this to me for free…
08/06/2009 at 18:41 Clovis says:
@KG: Well, I’m making a Kenard clone, so you best not ignore the kiddies. bang bang!
08/06/2009 at 18:43 Dr. Nerfball says:
Now with a system like this, I’m kinda wanting a clan of people dressed exactly like agent smith from The Matrix. Quite possibly with the line “It is inevitable, Mr. Anderson” as the taunt for whenever they kill someone. Not that I’m going for that. I’ll be the psychotic clown with a rocket launcher. To make those mexican standoff situations a little more interesting.
08/06/2009 at 18:49 Eplekongen says:
@Shoe
“Any game with a complicated character-maker I usually just mash Random on.”
Sacrilege!
08/06/2009 at 18:59 Lack_26 says:
Time to make that number six with the white coat me thinks, heh, cylons.
But this game looks seriously good, I really do hope it isn’t sub-based. I’m fairly sure they could manage a GW system if they get some proper advertising and release some good expansion packs. Expansion packs vs. subs, I’ll go for the occasional expansion any day, a’la GW.
08/06/2009 at 19:09 Krondonian says:
I love character creations. I spent about 45 minutes, then got extra help, making my Oblivion character look as close to me as possible. After incessant tweaking to make it look kinda similar it turned out the head was MASSIVE, as it zoomed in to do all the tweaking. So I spent any thirdperson time loathing myself.
I had a quick look on the APB site and registered my interest for the beta.
No word on pricing; release in the first 3 months of 2010 and only ‘evaluation’ of a console port, according to their FAQ. Unreal Engine 3 based games shouldn’t be too taxing on your PC though I’d guess.
Fingers crossed for no subscription fees. I really want to play this.
08/06/2009 at 19:19 Clovis says:
@Krondonian: I enjoy spending a good amount of time in character creation systems too. However, it has never occured to me to actually replicate myself. The results are only ever disturbing; like listening to the sound of your recorded voice, bleh.
I like to think up how I will play the character (good, bad, whatever) and then design a character around that somehow.
08/06/2009 at 20:21 Kadayi says:
The character creation tool sets a new standard. Definitely getting this if nothing more than to play around with that.
08/06/2009 at 20:35 sinister agent says:
An MMO that I actually think sounds fun. Fuck. What do I do now?
08/06/2009 at 20:41 DeliriumWartner says:
I am SO looking forward to this. The VOIP thing is something I’ve been after for a long time. God I hope it works, and that people actually use it.
Imagine, the Enforcers could get a tip-off that actually came from someone hiding behind a wall nearby. I love that!
08/06/2009 at 21:05 Ziv says:
currently it looks like a pretty good idea. I’ll start saving my money… but i’ll check reviews first.
08/06/2009 at 21:31 Wooly says:
I love the idea of having a super-complex character creation system, but I’m a little turned off by the whole “hardcore” attitude it seems to be favoring.
08/06/2009 at 21:35 Tworak says:
Not enough bloom.
08/06/2009 at 21:39 Artaxerxes says:
Good lord, this is what I’ve been wanting for a long time, it sounds incredible.
To make it perfect, note perfect… I’m going to have pretend its Necromunda the game, then I can die happy
08/06/2009 at 22:44 Pedro says:
Just the chance to drive around like Buford T. Justice blasting out country while whacking rappers, skaters and punks will be worth it.
08/06/2009 at 22:50 Wirbelwind says:
Looks rather impressive.
Worried about lasting gameplay, will check reviews out once it’s out. Good to see they’re heading in a more ‘players create the world’ type of MMO than grinding mobs like WoW.
08/06/2009 at 23:02 SoloJon says:
It does indeed look incredible. I love the idea of the game and the vision, particularly 3d positional voices… but I have to say most, if not all of these “wow that’s so amazing, how can they do that?” features will probably not make it into the final shipping product. Why? Because so many developers and journalists have covered (and similarly gushed over) proposed features like this, and none of it has materialised. I would love to see some of these features, but it just strikes me as more of a dream project than something that will ship given the time and financial constraints. Blizzard, sitting on a wad of cash might be able to pull off some of this shit but I seriously doubt Realtime Worlds is in a place to make it happen. Good luck to them, though, it looks great so far.
08/06/2009 at 23:09 mujadaddy says:
@SoloJon: What’s so hard about shipping a character creator with a little Unreal shooty attached?
The char-creator has been shown off for at least 6 months or so.
08/06/2009 at 23:09 bitkari says:
Very nice.
What I love most about this is that rather than simply aping the incumbent treasury minister – the Right Honorable Member from Azeroth North – they’ve tried to create an entirely different sort of experience.
And, from what I’ve seen of it so far, the inevitable game design issues really do appear to have been thought through properly, rather than solutions merely hoisted out of existing MMOs.
Alongside SW:ToR, this is one of the MMOs to watch.
08/06/2009 at 23:21 Taillefer says:
It would be nice to have the character creator to play with before the full release. I also wonder if they can license out just that part to other companies, seems flexible enough to be used anywhere.
08/06/2009 at 23:53 Erlam says:
““Also, the character creation is nice and all.. but I can’t say that I know even one guy for whom such a feature would make or break a game[...]”
It does for me. ALL THE TIME.”
I WILL spend a good week making my character, no joke.
09/06/2009 at 00:00 negativedge says:
This just sounds gimmicky. The fact you start with a thousand words on character creation is a problem. I play games. I’m sick of designing avatars that I won’t care about after fifteen minutes. The actual game seems full of holes – what is to stop the “group of newbs” from interfering in a delicately scripted (and that is what this is: scripting) event? And if there is something to stop them, then what is the point of making it a persistent (semi) MMO? And who is to say the players will have any interest in following the events and stories the designers are pinning their entire strategy on? Say the cops don’t feel like protecting that armored car from the bank? Or the criminals don’t particularly want to go after it? What happens is nothing happens, and everyone gets bored. And with set, small limits on players per server, things will quickly stagnate: either everyone will end up a newbie with no desire to exploit the rules, because that is what happens when the good players stop playing, or everyone will be a hardened expert and there will be no room for growth. This just seems to be jumping on as many bandwagons as possible (customization, co-op, procedurally generated events, persistent world, GTA) and hoping it all works out in the end. Here is what happens when you offer your delicate vision to the masses: they break it, because they are not you. Sometimes I am honestly baffled at the kinds of hype otherwise intelligent people fall for.
09/06/2009 at 00:52 ThatPirateGuy says:
I can only hope they have a awesome pirateship tattoo stock as I would hate to have to attempt to replicate using a mirror and software.
09/06/2009 at 01:01 Moonracer says:
I’m thinking if there are no names floating over heads or other player identifiers your best bet would be to make a character who looks just like a generic NPC citizen :D
09/06/2009 at 02:18 The Shed says:
I remember that this was originally slated for PC and 360? Have I gone crazy? It almost definately was, has that changed now?
@Negativeedge: If I recall right, the whole “delicately scripted” mission system was actually a well-camouflaged matchmaking system. If you wanted to do a mission, you’d check out the current city-wide APBs (enter matchmaking) and the game would then create a scenario, or take an already-made scenario, and matchmake your party with another party. So basically you only do a mission if you want to, you shouldn’t ever feel like you don’t want to do it. I guess some people might enter matchmaking then not do anything, but I’d imagine they’d get a bad rep and possibly penalization.
I think you should go and have a read of the other articles on this game. There’s a wealth of information explaining how it will (should?) all work that isn’t mentioned here. Imho it looks like it’ll work to an extent, but tbh all I really care about is a game that’s fun to play. If the gunfighting’s no good I’m outta there. x
09/06/2009 at 02:38 John Walker says:
SoloJon – if it’s piles of cash you want, then I think the creator of Lemmings/GTA might just be sitting on such things : )
09/06/2009 at 03:21 k says:
Any word on if there will be in-game advertising? With this level of detail, I see “product integration” or “product placement” being a desirable outlet for national advertisers.
k.
09/06/2009 at 03:27 Radiant says:
@Delerium I think that only server assigned enforcers can kill/stop people doing a job.
But saying that maybe a spy network ala Eve will crop up on forums?
I think the great things about online worlds is how they don’t necessarily work out how the creators intended.
Maybe the chaos servers will create their own systems?
But then maybe that [relatively low] 100 player limit of APB will stifle the amount of weird social systems that something like eve’s populous has created.
09/06/2009 at 04:18 DD says:
This game is like a dream coming to life! I remember in the 90′s just hoping for the day when games become this god damn awesome.
09/06/2009 at 04:46 malkav11 says:
I want that character creator in something else. The actual game doesn’t sound like my sort of thing at all.
09/06/2009 at 06:15 Thecolours says:
Is there going to be a monthly subscription fee? That would be a deal breaker for me.
09/06/2009 at 06:27 Alex says:
If they want The Affront’s support, they’ll have to make sure that the notoriety system recognizes the numbers of times a player can honourably say they’ve impregnated a player character from an opposing gang.
09/06/2009 at 07:08 sigma83 says:
negativedge: Thy name is appropriate! =P
09/06/2009 at 07:26 Biz says:
sounds interesting but the reason GTA works is because it’s all scripted. this developer doesn’t have any experience making this kind of multiplayer. i doubt they’ll pull it off.
09/06/2009 at 08:30 General Kielbasa says:
Persistent Counter-Strike with customisation. Oh that is SO original.
thxnothx
09/06/2009 at 09:52 TauQuebb says:
It looks and sounds a good idea, but good ideas tend to go south, remember Spore?
09/06/2009 at 09:54 sigma83 says:
Yeesh there’s a lotta negativity going around.
09/06/2009 at 10:15 Rei Onryou says:
I was hyped since they showed the character editor and the details here just make it seem even more awesome. A major contender for my MMO time.
09/06/2009 at 10:30 Cian says:
Watching the trailer I alternated between glee at the ease and flexibility of the character creation system and earnestly hoping that the same system would be used for EVE come Ambulation.
Is it so wrong not to want to pay two subscriptions a month?
09/06/2009 at 10:31 Ginger Yellow says:
“Blizzard, sitting on a wad of cash might be able to pull off some of this shit but I seriously doubt Realtime Worlds is in a place to make it happen. Good luck to them, though, it looks great so far.”
Realtime Worlds got a $50m investment to make this game. I doubt money is a problem (at least in the development stage).
09/06/2009 at 11:27 Supraliminal says:
This is looking like The MMO (MOG, MG, MMORPG(not), whatever) I have been waiting. Real people doing things instead of NPC’s.
If I only could do the Phonebooth thing with this, then I would be happy.
And about the Axe Gang: I’m in.
09/06/2009 at 11:45 Don says:
Problems and doubts:
It’s a small, non-persistent world.
How will the lag be with 100 people shooting on a single server?
Players look unique, but can you play different classes or have different skills?
If it’s not at least as fun as TF2, I wouldn’t play it.
09/06/2009 at 14:41 Hyudra says:
People who are commenting about how the character creation doesn’t matter need to realize that there’s different kinds of players.
WotC breaks players down into 3 categories: You’ve got Spikes (Play to win, achieve goals), Timmies (Timmy plays for the experience: for the immersion, the awesome moments, the social aspects) and Johnnies (Johnny plays for the creativity: the customization, the art, the unconventional ideas & playstyles). Naturally, we’re all a blend of the above, but most of us have preferences in what we play & why.
This game looks to appeal to both Timmy & Johnny. Depending on how gameplay & combat is, it may bring in the Spikes. It looks simply fantastic, and I’ll be following along with any upcoming news about APB.
09/06/2009 at 14:49 Doug F says:
My character creation plan:
Mirrored Aviator Shades, Mustache & Sabotage by the Beastie Boys on heavy rotation
I can’t stand it
09/06/2009 at 15:00 Tei says:
…. On most games you can only change your character once. And the optimization of the character “build” has been a task for the powergamers (a subtype of “achiever”). So creativity is really limited in most MMO’s.
09/06/2009 at 15:43 Ohle says:
This just keeps sounding better and better. I can’t wait to get my hands on it… though as with all MMOs, I may have a hard time playing enough to justify the monthly expense… unless I’ve magically missed something and they’re going for ad-supported free gaming? :D
09/06/2009 at 17:40 Zyrusticae says:
@Don
Got that first one wrong. It’s a large, persistent world, with 100 100-player districts.
Y’know, they really should clarify this point for everyone to see…
09/06/2009 at 22:05 damien says:
1. details of this game sound not only fantastic, but make my soul a little less heavy in the mornings. the innovations attempted here are *that* interesting to me.
2. relational VOIP sounds brilliant as a feature. perhaps it’ll get gamers in the habit of not bloody yelling into the microphone that is an inch away from their gob-holes? i can also see it creating a non-corny-LARPy sense of gameplay in that players who are witty or amusing or especially (cleverly) abusive will stand out to people beyond their mates. (all you boring lads weep now.) as for compromising some sort of team strategy / secret conversations to nearby players, i cant really imagine that many secret strategies have ever worked out too well in games like CS. we know the maps, defusing the bomb is not top secret, and no one ever stays hidden for long. also: try whispering?
3. i find it strange that everytime i hear about a game attempting something *new* or different, a line of naysayers, grumps and the “it’ll never work” posts appear.
i guess i just get confused at the fact that people complain about how samey games have gone and then take incredibly harsh views on any product that attempts to break out of that mold.
i know i’d rather try something new and fail than try the same drek we play week in and week out and succeed in making another copy.
let them try something, anything. hopefully we’ll all be very glad they did.
//
teo says:
Ideas don’t make good games so it’s not worth getting excited about them.
without being an ass, i’m wondering what does make a good game if ideas dont?
09/06/2009 at 22:41 Cian says:
I’d just like to say that if Doug F ever needs someone to kick ass, take names and drive through boxes with, I am there.
10/06/2009 at 00:21 sigma83 says:
teo says:
Ideas don’t make good games so it’s not worth getting excited about them.
‘without being an ass, i’m wondering what does make a good game if ideas dont?’
Any number of awesome things, from Blizzard style polish to Rockstar style pants-on-head fun but they all _stem_ from good ideas.
10/06/2009 at 08:27 Nate says:
I’m just looking forward to seeing the various ways people will make absurd avatars. APBorn anyone? Someone will find a way.
Regardless, the customization will have an effect– would you group with a Jugaloo?
10/06/2009 at 13:43 DrazharLn says:
I’m all a flutter!
SWTOR and APB, two shiny new MMOGs that I might actually enjoy, as opposed to the many other MMOGs I’ve discarded for being too boring, grindy or harsh.
+Broderlands, Just Cause 2 et al … 2010 is going to be a memorable year for gaming, methinks.
10/06/2009 at 18:32 tombraiderguy says:
O_O
O_O
O_O
<(O_O<) Dance Kirby Dance!!!
11/06/2009 at 15:29 Marco Almeida says:
Looks live everyone is sleeping and forgot about CrimeCraft and this is a free game!
http://www.crimecraft.com
Oh I get it… APB is from EA… YAY Lets just love it -_-’
13/06/2009 at 20:34 undead dolphin hacker says:
Is there loot? Is there leveling?
Sounds like Grand Theft Planetside, which is cool and all but will be a commercial flop. Add on a “wtf” customization complexity and no ability to solo and you get an EVE vibe too, which further guarantees this will flop.
I mean, if they manage to swing it like EVE and keep their expectations low they could possibly make money off this. But I doubt it. EA wants to kill WoW.
And for the idiots who’re going to come crying like infants about “YOU DONT CARE ABOUT INNOVAYSHUN??!!11,” I reply: Innovation doesn’t matter if no one plays your game. This is a copycat industry and there is no rational reason to copy games that don’t make money. To put it another way, the industry is all about standing on the shoulders of giants… not dwarves.
Cynical and sure to piss off the hyper-sensitive games are art crowd, but the key to understanding the gaming industry is in the word “industry.” Innovation comes in baby steps outside of fundamental breakthroughs like text -> 2D, 2D -> 3D, and 3D -> 3D physics.
Brilliant, ahead of their time games like APB (is being built up to be) are just going to make everyone say “huh?” and get thrown in the dustbin. Sad but true.
13/06/2009 at 20:42 Tei says:
APB > Global Agenda > Crimecraft > Gunz
18/06/2009 at 15:01 Brass Gerbil says:
@undead somethingorother
“add on a “wtf” customization complexity and no ability to solo and you get an EVE vibe too, which further guarantees this will flop.”
Hrm. I wasn’t aware that six years of continuous growth constituted a “flop.”
Methinks you might be suffering from a cranial deficiency, rendering you incapable of playing EVE. No need to be embarrassed; it’s a common failing.
21/06/2009 at 17:02 Zealbot says:
“Unreal engine 3.0
Anybody else worried ? Huxley sucks very bad; however, it’s an asian MMO and doesn’t count. Unreal Engine 3.0 + MMO has always ended up in the shitter. Fury, for example. Plus the many other games which have tried.”
I attribute that to the awful method of hit detection in the engine. I hope the devs know what they’re doing and add some lag compensation, because Epic still doesn’t seem to understand it.
22/06/2009 at 00:18 PHeMoX says:
Wow, this game looks incredible. I really like the GTA vibe and the customizability. Just excellent the way you can make custom tattoos and stuff like that.
I hope they’ll add a somewhat more convincing physics damage system to the cars, but this might be the first MMO that I am willing to pay for playing!
22/06/2009 at 00:20 PHeMoX says:
By the way, I sure hope we don’t have to pay for each and every item though, but I fear we do…. as that’s what most MMO games seem to be about. Micro-transaction here, micro-transaction there.
20/08/2009 at 07:39 Starhammer says:
I’ve been looking forward to this for some time. I’m a big fan of customization, and if this lives up to it’s demos, it’s gonna leave everything else in the dust. Wish I could just import this game into my City of Heroes experience!
Haven’t read anything about this tidbit yet, so if any devs are poking in here from time to time, take note: I’m hoping we can use the games customization capability on our weapons as much as on our bodies, clothes, and cars… and not just slapping some badass decals or carvings on the stock, but altering grips, heat guards, miscellaneous attachments, custom stocks, longer/shorter barrels… anything someone might want to do with a real gun, or even a prop gun (I’d love to build one of the Chinese M1-L1 Pulse Rifles from Deep Rising in this game).
On another note, regarding Criminals and Enforcers… One of the things that always bugged me in a lot of MMOs (WoW, CoH, etc) was having little or even no ability to interact with opposing factions outside of killing each other. I’m hoping this game will give us room for undercover enforcers working at passing themselves off as criminals (any undercover cop movie… especially Fast & the Furious or No Man’s Land) or a vigilante criminal enforcing the law on his own terms… or also dirty cops and snitches, playing both sides against each other and looting the bodies for themselves when the dust settles.