All Points Bulletin

I ran across a MMO review site and saw this game that appears to be in betas right now.

http://www.apb.com/

According to the info, its being made by the original creator of Grand Theft Auto, and from the videos, it seems to have a very similar feel to GTA, but with the MMO aspect added on. You can play either side, criminal or enforcer (cop), and free roam the city, group up with others, and take on various objectives.

Seems very interesting but according to the FAQ, it seems like player capacity will be limited to only 100 players per map (channel), even though the server (world) can house up to 100k. If balancing is done by the server, this means that your basically playing on a 50v50 map (maybe less cops as criminals can group up into gangs [clans] who can fight against each other as well as against enforcers), which doesn't seem that "massive" to me. Then again, the maps don't appear that big either, so I can see why there is a limit to the number of players per map (channel).

it looks promising. if it were like Just cause2 but mmo that would be pretty sweet. the issue with an mmo and this style is since its all pvp everyone would be in the same area just do fight. so need real need for a huge map

The game sounds pretty cool. How do the channels and world work? Are the channels are various instances in other MMOs? If so then having 100 people in one instance is much larger than other MMOs I've played.

You might consider "channels" to be various instances of the same map. The way I understand it, the world (main server) can house up to 100k players. From there you choose between 3 maps to join and the server will place you on the map, but you will be in a specific channel. So if you and a friend went on, and both went to the same map, you might be on channel 3 of that map, while your friend is on channel 5 of the same map. Its the same map, but your in different instances.

I'm just wondering how/what its going to do about balance. Gangs (clans) can fight against other gangs and enforcers, but it appears that enforcers only fight against gangs. I can see that balance would be an issue if one side has too many players compared to the others when the instance is limited to 100 players. I can also see problems when clan members want to play with each other, but can't because the instance the majority is in is already full.

Well, i've been in the beta for a month or so now, and I've preordered the game Only 3 days till its released for those who preordered it

I myself am passing on this, I blame my poor shooting skills.

http://na.apb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24473

People who preordered get access to the retail game Saturday @ 9AM EST!

played it for about an hour... wasnt a whole lot of fun after gettings started. lots of bunny hoping and random shooting

I played the beta, while it's fun, the guy with the best weapon is usually the one who wins. I haven't played it for like 2 weeks now.

The animations and graphics seem very poor compared to GTA 4. I will have to see reviews for this game before buying it. Hope they release a trial or something though.

I am currently playing this game on the early release. I really like it, the character customization is endless. This game has alot of potential. It can be a bit frustrating at the begining when you have crappy weapons. I just hope they add more content soon like a new district or city.

My character's name is Powder, I am in the zombie universe as an enforcer

I am also on the Zombie server as an Enforcer name is RadioChick