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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

APB: Actual Game Footage

By Jim Rossignol on September 18th, 2009 at 1:06 pm.


The first not-filmed-by-wobblecam game footage trailer of urban crime no-subscription fee MMO-shooter APB turned up on Gamespot this morning, and I’ve posted it below. It’s got cars crashing and smashing, dudes getting shot, doors getting, er, opened, and a funny joke about dancing in MMOs at the end. Well, it’s kind of a joke, I suppose.

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111 Comments »

  1. 18/09/2009 at 13:11 starclaws says:

    Looks amazing … Completely amazing. Except for the sparks flying when you hit a pedestrian ;p

  2. 18/09/2009 at 13:14 Jacques says:

    Looks suitably ridiculous and fun. Also, was that Audio Bullys I was hearing?

  3. 18/09/2009 at 13:20 Professor says:

    looks absolutely awesome.

  4. 18/09/2009 at 13:21 CakeAddict says:

    Seems like a great game to pull of some mischief in with some buddy’s :3

  6. 18/09/2009 at 13:28 mpk says:

    This game is teh secks. I cant wait to play a machine gun wielding, lingerie wearing, facially pierced crack whore. AND IN THE GAME!

  7. 18/09/2009 at 13:30 Wrestlevania says:

    Very high hopes for this, though I don’t my creaky old desktop will run it. Character customisation looks phenomenal, but I wonder how the game world is going to play?

    I’m expecting it’ll be very much like Grand Theft Auto 4′s side/incidental missions and tasks, like when you see an unfamiliar blip on the map and it turns out to be a person or phone booth that gives you a new mission.

  8. 18/09/2009 at 13:30 Wrestlevania says:

    don’t > doubt, sorry.

  9. 18/09/2009 at 13:32 Flibberdy says:

    I would like to become famous for mowing bad dancers down with a truck. They will build a statue in my honour.

  10. 18/09/2009 at 13:34 Nick says:

    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ARGHGRARG*YRYGEARA I CAN’T CONTAINNNN YESSSSSS

  11. 18/09/2009 at 13:34 duel says:

    this is so gangster

  12. 18/09/2009 at 13:34 Nick says:

    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ARGHGRARG*YRYGEARA I CAN’T CONTAINNNN YESSSSSS

    On another note, this looks amazing.

  13. 18/09/2009 at 13:35 Lambchops says:

    Looks like it could be fun.

    @Jacques – that was indeed some Audio Bullies. Though if i dod get the game i intetend to piss people off by zooming around in my car playing some chilled out folk.

  14. 18/09/2009 at 13:40 Butler` says:

    Might get it for console when it finally comes out

    BLASPHEMY etc

  15. 18/09/2009 at 13:42 Turin Turambar says:

    Shooting things with a cursor in the middle of the screen is never better on consoles :P

  16. 18/09/2009 at 13:44 catmorbid says:

    looks cool, though for some reason the world seemed very empty to me. Maybe it’s just the video, but still.

  17. 18/09/2009 at 13:48 paddytehpyro says:

    Looks good. Im kinda not fond of the 100 people in a city limitation though. Would have been nicer if they had either more per city or more citties per shard that you can just drive/catch a train etc between.

    Those crashes and the vehicle handling looks quite nice though. Which I wasnt expecting really…

  18. 18/09/2009 at 13:49 Schmung says:

    Seriously looking forward to this.

  19. 18/09/2009 at 13:52 Butler` says:

    Be nice to hear something on char development / abilities / how much focus on gear to see if it will be more than GTA online

  20. 18/09/2009 at 13:53 Sp4rkR4t says:

    Everything about this game looks rather spiffing indeed.

  21. 18/09/2009 at 13:56 Jim Rossignol says:

    If I ever make a game I am going to call it “Actual Game Footage”.

  22. 18/09/2009 at 13:59 Ansob. says:

    Hey, that spells out AGF, no APB!

    (bad) jokes aside, this is looking really nice, especially since there are no subscription fees involved. I think I will definitely be picking it up when it comes out.

    If only to make a gang o’ crims wot all dress up in suits from Armani’s summer 1983 collection.

  23. 18/09/2009 at 14:03 Gutter says:

    100 players in the city, 10,000 players in the world?

    That’s a “world” with 100 cities, all exactly the same or what? If it’s the case, I’m staying away from this one.

  24. 18/09/2009 at 14:05 Paul Moloney says:

    This could be great fun; I’ve found Crackdown to be the most fun full-price game I’ve played on XBox 360, and this looks like a hyped-up Crackdown with proper combat (not the usually lock-on travesty that consoles force on you).

    P.

  25. 18/09/2009 at 14:06 teo says:

    Wow that looks like shit :[

  26. 18/09/2009 at 14:08 sexyresults says:

    cool bananas

  28. 18/09/2009 at 14:22 Ian says:

    I’m fairly certain playing as the goodies is starting to appeal to me more in this one.

  29. 18/09/2009 at 14:33 Mike says:

    Christ. I hope I get into the beta. Looks much better than the grainy YouTube stuff.

  30. 18/09/2009 at 14:40 Eplekongen says:

    I wonder how large a percentage of the people watching that movie are born the first of January in the early 1900s.

    Also, the game will probably by great in itself, but my God, how many adolescent punk ass wannabee gangsters won’t there be playing? I cry.

  31. 18/09/2009 at 14:40 Andrew Dunn says:

    This really does look like GTA: The MMO.

    Fucking want.

    • 18/09/2009 at 20:01 airtekh says:

      I concur.

      I’ve been wanting to play a game like this since GTA3. Why it has taken this long when we have had a plethora of fantasy MMOs is a mystery.

  32. 18/09/2009 at 14:46 Andrew Dunn says:

    Oh, also, the game is PC-only. So anyone wanting to get it for the 360 is shit out of luck.

    • 18/09/2009 at 16:34 Butler` says:

      There seems to be some confusion around whether or not it’s going to hit XBOX 360 and no one knows for sure it seems (see: wikipedia entry).

      I wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped the 360 version though, no one else has managed to make a console MMO and I doubt realtime worlds are in any position to break the mould.

  33. 18/09/2009 at 14:55 Davee says:

    It does have a pretty darn big resemblance to GTA4 – only on first looks though, I know there’s much more to it. And if they do okay (as in not too much consolification and bugs), this could turn out very nice indeed. Looking forward to it!

    • 18/09/2009 at 14:57 Davee says:

      Correction: As I saw one commenter going to pick it up for console, I thought it was going to be multi-format, but if Andrew above here is right (wich i think he is) you can ignore my “consolification” statement…

  34. 18/09/2009 at 14:57 The Hammer says:

    Oh my god. I wasn’t expecting the game to be that fluid and kinetic. My want for this game has just SHOT UP.

    VERY nice trailer.

  35. 18/09/2009 at 15:52 MrBejeebus says:

    Oh my I want this!

    It looks better than I couldve hoped, seems to be more proper gameplay and less STUPID MMO STUFF.

  36. 18/09/2009 at 16:05 Nahual says:

    Their refusal to accept valuable training materials is the reason why Australia will be the first to fall when the zombi apocalypse comes.

  37. 18/09/2009 at 16:15 Schmung says:

    Clearly we require an RPS Baddies group to fight against the upstanding types in Rock Paper Justice. Assuming of course that the game is actually decent, which I dearly, dearly hope it will be.

  38. 18/09/2009 at 16:16 cncplyr says:

    Wow very nice! Can’t wait!

  39. 18/09/2009 at 16:32 cyrenic says:

    For those of you confused by the “100 per city” metric, think more of a giant TF2 map that has 100 people in it, where you and your friends get dynamically matched up against other players on the fly. You won’t be stuck in that one city.

    Calling the game an MMO is misleading, it’s much more of an online shooter from what I can tell.

  40. 18/09/2009 at 16:33 Vinraith says:

    That looks really cool, though I’m increasingly concerned that it’s going to be one of those games that’s only fun if you can talk a pile of friends into playing it with you.

  41. 18/09/2009 at 16:44 suibhne says:

    Am I the only one who’s less interested after that trailer, rather than more so? It looked really clunky to me.

  42. 18/09/2009 at 17:03 Carli Lee says:

    The graphics look great on this

  43. 18/09/2009 at 17:09 Dominic White says:

    It looks like GTA4 multiplayer (which was surprisingly great, especially team-competitive modes like Mafiya Work) but megascale, which suits me right down to the ground. No subscription means that I’ll almost certainly be preordering this, so long as Play.com or Zavvi do one of their super-cheap PC preorder deals.

  44. 18/09/2009 at 17:14 l1ddl3monkey says:

    So are we all set for an RPS Crew to dominate some servers, innit?

  45. 18/09/2009 at 17:15 Tom says:

    Looks like online GTA IV… exactly like it infact.

  46. 18/09/2009 at 17:17 Tom says:

    Sry Dom, didn’t see your post there.
    Yep, team co op modes in GTA IV are awesome.
    Team deathmatch in the city on a 32 player server is freakin amazing. Especially when a team gells, even if only a little bit.

  47. 18/09/2009 at 17:21 monkehhh says:

    I don’t think I can resist this game, it looks solid. SOLID.

  48. 18/09/2009 at 17:31 Chaz says:

    It looks good, but I’m not sold on it yet. Too many unknowns at the moment. The whole 100 hundred players per city thing still raises a lot of questions. How big are the cities? Are the cities different? Can you move freely between them? Will the game just end up playing like a bunch of unusually arranged TDM type afairs? I suppose we’ll only find out closer too or upon release.

  49. 18/09/2009 at 17:43 Dominic White says:

    I just know that my cop character is going to be a classic 70s style supercop, with big shades, an awesome ‘tache and whatever is the biggest, heaviest revolver in the game.

    I also hope to find other, like-minded retro supercops, and together, we can be MAGNUM FORCE. You can just hear the theme-tune playing already, can’t you?

  50. 18/09/2009 at 17:49 autarch says:

    I want to run a small corner convenience store in this game. Instead of surveillance cameras mounted in the ceiling corners, however, I would totally need to mount some machine gun turrets instead.

  51. 18/09/2009 at 17:56 Lucas says:

    While the vehicle physics look good (suspension, collisions, j-turns, jumps), the handling in some bits is suspicious to me (taxi weaving, SUV cornering). I really hope driving skill matters when it comes to chases and such. If it’s badly arcadey, rubberbanding, or whatever, that will let the air out of my tires.

    It should be like the movies with great driving in chase scenes such as Ronin, The Transporter, and The Bourne Identity. I did love the multi car jump sequence and the rollover near the end of this.

    Please let vehicle choice or customization have meaningful trade-offs as far as ease of use and performance, required skills, durability, and so forth. Don’t make it dumbed down or one-size-fits-all.

    • 18/09/2009 at 22:32 Saul says:

      Watching the footage in the developer podcast, the driving physics unfortunately look awful. Here’s hoping they manage to pull them back from the brink. Everything else about the game looks awesome.

  52. 18/09/2009 at 17:58 SlappyBag says:

    I just came.

    Muff said.

  53. 18/09/2009 at 17:58 SlappyBag says:

    Nuff*

    The appropriateness of that spelling error is fun though.

  54. 18/09/2009 at 18:02 K.Boogle says:

    Another game with an over-the-shoulder view? And the character model is again in the left side of the screen?
    I don’t know about you folks, but whenever I play a game where the model is occupying the left part of the screen and we get to that over-the-shoulder view, it creates this mental itch that just cannot be rubbed. It feels wrong to play it that way. All the time I try to mentally move the model to the right position, but of course that is futile, and this frustrates me to no end.
    When the hell did this camera view become the standard? Who the hell can bare it?

    • 18/09/2009 at 19:48 Vinraith says:

      That drives me batty too. I was playing the Arkham Asylum demo and kept drifting to the left trying to center the character. It’s really maddening, and in a lot of cases the character also occupies far too much of the screen. I don’t know what’s driving this particular trend, but I wish it would stop.

    • 05/03/2010 at 15:00 Ovno says:

      Because a centered character really gets in the way in a shooter, there should however be a left handed option to move the character to the right.

      And I believe the trend was started by gears of war because the ceo of epic thought that the character in the centre really got in the way too.

  55. 18/09/2009 at 18:16 Shalrath says:

    “I don’t know about you folks, but whenever I play a game where the model is occupying the left part of the screen and we get to that over-the-shoulder view, it creates this mental itch that just cannot be rubbed.”

    It’s funny you say that, because I tried playing Gears the other day, and I was constantly moving forward+left to try to centre the fucking guy. Why the hell is First Person so impossible now? Everyone seems to shy from it. However, if a game HAS to have Third Person, please make it centred. It just makes more sense.

  56. 18/09/2009 at 18:34 Marcin says:

    Hmm, I wonder if you can play this as a solo assassin type person. Just creep up on any firefight, pick a side, and join in. Or do you declare for a side when you start your character?

    • 18/09/2009 at 18:51 Dominic White says:

      Most servers won’t let you do that, but apparently there will be some ‘chaos’ servers, where you’re allowed to just mix it up with whoever you see, without requiring a mission related to the area. Normally, you can’t hurt people that aren’t part of your current encounter, although you can see them.

    • 18/09/2009 at 19:21 Marcin says:

      “Current encounter”? I need to read up on the mechanics more, I think. Thanks!

  57. 18/09/2009 at 18:57 BlackKraken says:

    You choose to be police or a naughty crim when you start a character I think.

    As long as it stays sub free i may give this a go, GTA IV’s multiplayer gave me an itch for this sort of thing.

  58. 18/09/2009 at 19:05 Heliocentric says:

    I’d be a chaos server player. Not being able to shotgun someone in the back of the head just because “they are not in my encounter” would annoy me wildly.

    If they stay free to play i’ll be getting multiple copies for my microlan, if it needs a monthly fee, it can forget it.

  59. 18/09/2009 at 19:13 Heliocentric says:

    I get why third person shooter mans are not centred.

    In chaos theory if your gun is away you are centred, you are the focus of the action. When you get your gun out you clear the middle of the screen, allowing things like grenades to be more easily judged, and just getting the hell out of the way.

    Of course, in chaos theory you could swap sides with a single key tap.

  60. 18/09/2009 at 19:35 theleif says:

    @ K.Boogle and Shalrath:

    Yeah i feel the same. I’ve thought it’s because i’m left handed, so, to have the character on the left, and forcing me to have the camera fixed over my right shoulder disorients me. Maybe.
    Just a theory.

  61. 18/09/2009 at 20:01 JM says:

    Was that the David Brent dance from The Office at the end?

    Game’s looking great. I just can’t wait – especially after getting hooked on Champions Online’s customisation, which is nowhere near as good as APB’s offering.

  62. 18/09/2009 at 20:03 Wisq says:

    Tiny trailer window + no fullscreen option + a thousand different shades of “dark” = recipe for an in-game trailer that doesn’t actually reveal very much. Congrats, Gamespot and APB, you’ve found the winning formula.

    That said, I’m sold by the mere concept of playing a GTA-esque game where

    * one person can drive without worrying about shooting,
    * one person can shoot without worrying about crashing into stuff (or about their insane AI driver),
    * you’re not being shot at by a million AI with either terrible or perfect aim (depending on game), and
    * your opponents are driving and shooting just as intelligently and/or recklessly as you are.

    So assuming there aren’t any major screw-ups, this might be a game that actually drags me back into the whole mumorpuger thing. Maybe.

    • 18/09/2009 at 20:26 Dominic White says:

      You do know that you can click the little video twice to bring up the originating site, and an HD version of it, right?

    • 18/09/2009 at 20:39 Wisq says:

      Funny — the first time I tried that, it just took me to the Gamespot terms of use, rather than the video page. Now it seems to work as you say. Thanks for the tip.

      (On a related note, it seems Gamespot finally cleaned up their site. I remember when my browser had to load 400 to 500 images just to view any page on their site. Now it’s just over 100 images — not great, but tolerable.)

  63. 18/09/2009 at 20:47 Muzman says:

    How long has Jason Statham had a recording career?

  64. 18/09/2009 at 21:53 fearghaill says:

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Sideburns, handlebar moustache, aviator glasses, and Sabotage by the beastie boys on constant repeat.

  65. 19/09/2009 at 00:04 Shnyker says:

    THIS SONG?! What is this crazy awesomeness? Have never heard it, maybe living in America is why.

  66. 19/09/2009 at 00:46 The Pink Ninja says:

    Bioware could learn alot from the choice of video music.

    Anyway, looks great other than the off centre camera.

  67. 19/09/2009 at 00:57 Benny says:

    My problem with this game is that i very much doubt i’ll actually make it into the game proper. The in game creators will leave me consumed for hours. I mean creating my own character, clothing designs, car designs, music… maybe a week or two after i get it i might actually get to shoot someone.

    • 19/09/2009 at 03:11 cyrenic says:

      They haven’t officially announced it yet, but they’ve hinted heavily that the game will include a marketplace where you can sell stuff you make (for real monies). I think it’s going to be part of the business model of the game.

  68. 19/09/2009 at 04:06 Jetsetlemming says:

    Hope there’s some camera options instead of forcing me into Gears view. I hate Gears view, it makes me feel like I’ve got a blind spot and I’m running crooked. A higher up centralized third person camera angled down works just as well for the benefits of Gears view, with the only con being it getting squished up against you in tight areas indoors, and this doesn’t look like it has a whole lot of close quarters indoor areas.

    Anyone who’s ever played Max Payne knows how a third person shooty game should work. Every. Single. One.

    Other than that, looks fucking awesome.

  69. 19/09/2009 at 07:04 waffles says:

    If it’s in the center, you have the dude in the exact center of the screen, which is generally where stuff happens.

    • 19/09/2009 at 10:02 Dominic White says:

      Yeah, over-the-shoulder is definitely what I prefer now (and just a reminder – I’ve been playing videogames since the days of CGA graphics) for that exact reason. Having the camera locked directly behind your character gives you a blind-spot in exactly the place where you wouldn’t want one.

      Plus, I dunno about the rest of you, but I think Resident Evils 4/5 would have looked just plain dumb with the camera centered. There’s definitely something a lot more cinematic about close, low and to the side.

    • 20/09/2009 at 01:52 Mo says:

      Yeah waffles, exactly. The over-the-shoulders view makes way more sense, it’s just not what people are used to. “Back in the day” 3rd person games would have auto-aim (see: Tomb Raider), and that was for a very good reason. It’s difficult to aim at something you can’t see. :)

  71. 19/09/2009 at 18:20 LionsPhil says:

    Yes, this. Max Payne [2] was not just a gimmicky third-person shooter—it was a beautifully executed third-person shooter.

  72. 19/09/2009 at 19:21 fullbleed says:

    Was that the Ricky Gervais dance at the end? This game looks insane, cars driving on roof tops should add an automatic 10% to any review score.

  73. 20/09/2009 at 01:06 TeeJay says:

    “how many adolescent punk ass wannabee gangsters won’t there be playing”

    All the too-cool-for-skool ‘indie-grime-dubstep’ hipsters these days have beards, square glasses, cable knit-sweaters and listen to “folk”.

  74. 20/09/2009 at 13:39 Cooper says:

    If I’m gonna get what is being touted as one of the best character creators out there, I’m gonna want to look at my corrupt piece of bacon… Even if it is just their right shoulder…

  75. 20/09/2009 at 22:41 Werglburgl says:

    I predict heavy amounts of micro transactions, otherwise this is just too good to be true.

  76. 02/10/2009 at 03:37 mags says:

    two things hey cooper feminist-anarchy two what music is this?

  77. 20/10/2009 at 12:34 Dan says:

    Woop! I just got my ‘you have been selected as a beta tester’ email for APB. I bounced up and down in my seat and got some funny looks.

    Anyone else? (The email, less the bouncing.)

  78. 20/10/2009 at 14:06 Kadayi says:

    Anonymous Coward said:
    Woop! I just got my ‘you have been selected as a beta tester’ email for APB. I bounced up and down in my seat and got some funny looks.

    Anyone else? (The email, less the bouncing.)

    You're not actually supposed to tell people dude.

  79. 21/10/2009 at 12:15 kukuruza says:

    Looks suitably ridiculous and fun

  80. 27/10/2009 at 17:58 hrmf says:

    me too! wee, teh awsumness \o/

    *bounces

  81. 28/10/2009 at 15:40 KindredPhantom says:

    Don't get too excited, it is only in beta at the moment.

  82. 05/03/2010 at 15:15 oceanclub says:

    I never found that the Max Payne games were affected by said Max being in the middle of the screen. And in some games, the off-centre character is a complete distraction (such as Red Faction Guerilla).

    P.

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