APB using UE3 is insanely customizable!

[[HSP]@uToPL@y]

==============================
ATTN EDIT: I apologize and am sorry for posting this a bit too late
to use the beta demo, as the promo ended yesterday! on the 19th :(
Even though the keys are still available, I don't believe you'd be able to login
with it now - since the full retail game is using the servers I would imagine.
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A GTA style MMORPG using the unreal engine 3.

You can customize your character & ride to your hearts content.

The current minimum hardware requirements for APB are as follows:

* Intel Core2 Duo 2GHz or equivalent
* 2GB Main Memory
* Geforce 7800 256 MB or equivalent
* 256kbit/sec internet connection

The current recommended hardware requirements for APB are:

* Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz or equivalent
* 4GB Main Memory
* Geforce 8800 512 MB or equivalent
* 20GB free disk space
* XP x32 / Vista x64 (Vista 32 not yet advisable) / Windows 7 x64. 8GB of disk space to install

The installer requires at least 8GB to install.

Download the beta demo here: @ 64MB
http://na.apb.com/downloads/na-installerMS

Watch Videos Here:
www.realtimeworlds.com

www.ea.com

www.apb.com

www.youtube.com/user/RealtimeWorlds
.

[Sergeant Kelly]

Looks pretty cool. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. Is it an open beta?

[[HSP]@uToPL@y]

I believe it is, and there are links on the APB site to register an account and get a beta key - which you apparently need first because the account requires the key.

When I tried to install it, I basically passed on all requirements except processor & disk space! :(

Time to upgrade! :|

[Blazzing]

Yea its open beta, you only get to play for 5 hours.
If you pre-order the game you get full time for the beta I believe.

[[HSP]Sonix]

I've heard the game is terribly unbalanced..

You unlock new guns as you go on, but you get set up against high-leveled players, even if you're low leveled.

[Blazzing]

[Zephyr]

[[HSP]Sonix]

I guess those guys just had bad experiences..

I guess i'll check this out when it goes full :D

[[HSP]@uToPL@y]

[Zephyr]

[DeathSparx]

[Blazzing]

So i bought the game, Here's a little run down. Keep in mind this IS an Mmorpg despite is appearance, it has all the characteristics of an Mmorpg, Such as the grind and the P2P which i'll start with.

It is pay to play, there's two methods for payment though.
You can buy your game time hours independently per hour and they are not used if you're not playing.
-So for instance you could buy 50 hours with this method, play for an hour. Come back in a year and still have 49 hours of play time left.
Or alternatively you can pay purely per month/3month/6month.
With this method you get unlimited hours.
-But if you buy a month, play for an hour and come back in a year... your account will no longer be active.

For both methods you pay for your game time with RTW points, this is an in-game currency that you can buy with real money. This currency can also be used in the Market and for trades so theoretically you can pay for your game time without using any real money at all.

Gameplay

There's two factions, Criminals and enforcers(police).
Each have this own play-style and features. Naturally a criminal will run around and mug people, spray graffiti, steal Ect.

Obviously the enforcers are the complete opposite, they hunt the criminals, clean up the graffiti and so forth. They can also "witness" crimes, you can stand near and watch a criminal in the process of committing a crime and you will get a mission to engage that criminal right there.

Both factions can not just up front engage each other, you have to be on a mission in order to engage a criminal or enforcer. The missions are basically a matchmaking setup it revolves around the criminals crimes.
For example if a criminal were to mug an NPC, then the enforcer would get a mission to engage that criminal. The enforcer can choose weather or not to accept the mission or not. The criminal cannot.
You can call for backup and escalate a mission to a higher player count for larger battles.

Eventually after you've destroyed enough of the other faction, you will prestige. There's 5 levels of prestige and you can advance it buy winning missions/killing the other faction. As soon as you hit the 5th prestige.. Anyone on the other faction can kill you, you can kill any of them until the point where you die and your prestige drops. Once you prestige your position and status become available to everyone's map in the city.

There is three total districts. Social district, Financial district and waterfront district. Financial and waterfront are combat zones and social is a neutral zone where you do all your customization/social stuff. Criminals and enforcers both share this area, but don't engage whatsoever.

The customization

I've never seen a game with this much customization, period. It really is incredible. There's a music editor, character editor, clothes, symbol and vehicle editor. They all come with their own unlock-able content which you gain by playing the game. No ones character/vehicle/clothes are the same. You can also add your own billboards/signs around the game. Recruiting for your clan? Add some publicity!


-Symbol editor
This is basicly a mini-photoshop which comes with many preset shapes and decals. You design your icons and images in this application for all too see. You then can use those creations on your vehicles, tattoos, clothing.
Heres some screens that i took.



-vehicle editor
Here you modify your vehicles. Attachments, colors, graphics..
This is the place to add your symbols to your vehicle!
Theres tons of vehicles you can buy, every type imaginable. Sports cars, minivans, trucks, armored bank trucks and more.

This pretty simple truck I made, all I did was add a pin stripe and change the color of the doors/hood. You can create much much more detailed vehicles, I just didn't spend the time.


-character editor
There is INFINITE possibility's for character types, this is the most detailed of the editors. You can control the aspect of EVERYTHING on a human body. Same as the other editors, here you can use your symbols to make tattoos/clothing graphics. There is also hundreds of clothing options to unlock.. want to run around in a bikini or Tuxedo? Go ahead.
No character in the game is 100% identical to another.



Music editor
This is a basic modern piece of music design software. You can make your own songs. You can set a song as your kill tune and force your enemy to listen to that song every time you kill him/her while they wait to respawn.
Even this doesn't lack in material, the music editor comes with 20+ instruments which can be spliced together to make any kind of song you want.


Now onto the issues of the game. The customization aspect of the game is very very smooth and polished, but the actual gameplay combat is extremely lacking.

Matchmaking
I never noticed this in the beta, but Sonix was indeed correct actually.
The moment we logged onto the game and got into some combat we were placed against someone FAR FAR more advanced. This guy had a Rocket launcher that instantly gibed anyone in a vehicle or if they couldn't dodge it on foot. His character was created on day 1 of release and our characters had just started. All I had was a starting assault rifle with mediocre damage and terrible range.
Missions
There is only 3 types of missions in this game.
"kill these guys, recover this item and bring it here, cover this place"
It gets EXTREMELY Boring unless you have someone to play with which I did. If you get a friend or friends to group for battle the game because intensely easy due to your organization and poor matchmaking of random players who don't even bother strategizing like a group of people who know eachother would.

I have a suggestion to improve this, match a large group of people who are likely all under a clan to another large group of people all in their own clan. This will result in more competitive and fun matches for both a person who plays alone and someone who is in a clan and often plays in large groups.
Bugs
My game will spontaneously crash approximately every 30 minutes for absolutely no reason. I've troubleshooted for hours, updated drivers, reinstalled the game but to no avail, many others have this issue too. Its very lame to crash in middle of a firefight.
This is probably just because the game was released and every new game has some kind of bugs obviously.
Weapons
There are many many weapons which are all upgradeable to personalize your play style, But when there are 2 over powered weapons out of 30+ weapons then naturally everyone uses those.

The weapons need to be more balanced then they are at the moment, its fairly "meh" to find the same two guns being used by everyone because they're overpowered.

There is also the stun guns only usable by enforcers, these guns stun your target and then you can proceed to Arrest them. The benefit to arresting is you increase the time it takes to the criminal to respawn which could be the difference in winning the mission.
These guns are extremely unfair in a group environment. There are variations on every lethal gun and it has a stun gun counterpart. This results in an obtainable "stun gun sniper"... you can stun an entire team from a very far distance while your team runs up and arrests them all.

The game has potential if they fix the negatives, if they don't in a fair amount of time then I wont continue playing after my time runs out since I personally care more about the combat then the customization.

[[HSP]@uToPL@y]

Can't wait for the arcade vesrion! o.O
Insert dollar token here! o.o

Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome game - but once you pay for a game that should be it! :((

[axonflux]

I liked the review. I could see you snipe-stunning an entire team, would be funny as hell to see.

@ Auto, Pay to Play MMO's are justified in my opinion, you're paying for active content, updates etc. for a minimal fee.

Hopefully they fix match making..

[Blazzing]

I guess if you have 32 bit OS the game is limited, it hogs up ram like heck.