APB doing quite well. 130,000 PC gamers agree.
As we recently reported, Realtime Worlds had entered into administration on the back of the poor performance of their urban sandbox MMO, APB. Today, Realtime Worlds released APB’s player statistics for the first time, and it’s not doing quite as badly as everyone thought.
23 Realtime Worlds devs re-hired for MyWorld
Twenty three former Realtime Worlds employees have been offered their jobs back. They’ve been asked to resume work on Project: MyWorld, following interest in the social game from investors.
APB fights for survival: test new features right now
Following yesterday’s news that Realtime Worlds had entered into administration, we got lots of comments lamenting the death of their urban sandbox MMO. As if in response, they’ve upt up a public test world with a mass of new features. We’ve got the meatiest chunks of the patch notes below. And it seems the developers are listening to customer complaints – improving the well known weaknesses within the game. Radical weapon rebalancing, improved vehicle handling, and new weapon audio are all on the patch notes. Have you played the test version? We’d love to know how the improvements feel in-game.
APB developer Realtime Worlds ready to close
Realtime Worlds, the scottish development studio behind Crackdown, APB, and the newly announced MyWorld, has entered administration. The company now has a short period of time to find more cash or it’ll be forced to close.
Realtime Worlds announce MyWorld
I’m about to show you a video, but first, let’s have a moment of silence for the APB fans. Just, you know, bow your head or something.
Alright, here’s Realtime Worlds’ new game you can explore “early next year.”
Realtime Worlds giving APB a “major overhaul”
An official Realtime Worlds poster has outlined the company’s plans for APB in a lengthy forum post on the official forums. They’re proposing a pretty startling revamp of many of the game’s key faults. Read on for the details.
You’re nicked: Metropolitan Police APB clan
In APB, Realtime Worlds’ online cops vs robbers shooter, a creative clan of enforcers has recreated the look of the London Metropolitan Police Force with the game’s advanced character creator.
Human Avatar: APB marketing madness
The first time any of us are presented with a character editor, we are compelled by primal urges to slide every slider up to maximum, producing “maximum face”. Then we mock them, laugh at how silly they look, etc. APB would like you – via an online poll – to do that to a human being.
APB review
There are moments in APB where I found my heart pounding out of my chest, beating faster than my assault rifle could empty ammunition. APB’s San Paro is a online city where the criminals fight the police on the streets, both sides player-controlled. When it works, it’s incredibly exciting. The problem is, it doesn’t work.
PC Gamer UK Podcast 42
Trust me, I’m Machiavelli: We kick off season two of our podcast with talk of our new site. Tim, Tom, Graham and Craig discuss why Guild Wars 2 will be genuinely different, the crushing disappointment of APB, the cleverest thing about Portal 2, how drama works in The Old Republic, why Bethesda should use the Rage engine for the next Elder Scrolls, the ridiculous inconsistencies of Singularity, and how the PC fared against the consoles at E3. The true identity of the podcat is also revealed. One Twitter question demanded a photo of where we record our podcast, so there’s a grainy phone pic below the fold.
Download the MP3 here, subscribe here, and find our older podcasts here.
APB ads will play through your speakers in-game
APB, the upcoming cops and robbers MMO from Realtime Worlds, will have audio adverts that play every couple of hours. When you enter a new district, you’ll hear an ad. If you stay in that district for more than three hours, you’ll hear another ad the next time you change district. It’s not… that bad, as some forumites have said on the subject, but it’s still a bit weird for a service you’re paying for. Look at it like this: when you buy the game, you’re also buying 50 hours of time - and therefore, 16 adverts. Hmmmmm.
[via APB.com, image thanks: Dead End Thrills]
Get one of 20,000 APB beta keys just by signing up
Welcome to the PC Gamer community: your first task is to click that Register button on the top right. Do it soon enough, and registering with us will not only let you add your voice to the smartest, wittiest, gaming-est PC games site on the internet, but also access to the APB beta.
20,000 community members will each receive a key for the APB beta, granting free access to the online car-crunching cops and robbers game until June 19. Download the client from APB.com and create your character; we’ll start sending keys out daily on June 14 until our supply is exhausted.
Update! The beta has now ended.
Watch the APB intro
APB, the cops-and-robbers MMO by some of the boisterous chaps who started the GTA series, is out on July the 2nd. The latest cinematic trailer is actually the game’s intro, so it paints a pretty wretched picture of a dystopia where the authorities will take help from anyone willing to point a gun at a bad guy. If you want to play the game yourself before you buy it, the first 20,000 people to create accounts here on PCGamer.com will all get beta access – see here for details. If you just want to know more, we have a full preview here.
Is APB on our most wanted list?
A burning car drives past on two wheels. A tattooed, nipple-ring wearing thug leans out of the window, firing back at a wailing police car. It’s strange to think that this is happening because Realtime Worlds’ creative director Dave Jones got pissed off at Dark Age of Camelot.
