All Points Bulletin

[CapnRaccoon]

So yea, European early access started today and I'm super tempted to get the game, I missed out on beta because the launcher kept failing on me; But that's aside the point
I'm sure this subject always comes up with the discussion of MMO games, but the pricing - What's going on? On one hand I'm told there's going to be top-up fees, costing roughly £5 - £6 for 20 hours, and then I read else where that you can buy 30 days unlimited for £9

"Once your game time is up, you have flexibility to top up your action game time from as little as $6.99 (£5.59, ?6.29) for an additional 20 hours, while more frequent players can switch to a 30-day unlimited package for only $9.99 (£7.99, ?8.99) with discounts available for 90 and 180 days" - GamerLimit

Really? This seems a little pointless and I find it hard to believe that they'd pull such a weird plan? Any one got more news on this?
Also, anyone in early access from either US or EU? How is it?

 

[aPod]

It's not pointless it gives an incentive for people who either want to limit there gaming time a way to moderate it and casual gamers to enjoy the game for less money when they wont spend more than 20 hours a month on it.

The core gamer is still taken into account and you're able to pay a typical subscription price for unlimited play.

I think its a good plan.

 

[Curtisthekiller]

The Core of the game seems about total and complete customization, you can customise you looks, your clothes, your grafiti, the music that players hear after you've bested them in combat, create symbols, choose a loadout of your chosen lethal (or 'less than lethal') equipment, and after obtaining enoughf status with your chosen faction be you the Vigilantee with a badge enforcer or out for profit thrill seeking criminal you will begin to obtain "Upgrades" upgrades play a central part into team or even singular play dynamics. For e.g. choseing to get an advanced upgraded slim jim will severely cut down on the time it takes to secure transport in thinly populated areas while the Vehicular endurance upgrade will insure that your (upgraded) vehical keeps chugging under sustained hostile fire. these upgrades extend into catagories and take up the slots therof and nowhere else, however they have to exsist in the first place to upgrade at all; for example a starter submachine gun has no upgrade slots and an advanced sub machine gun of roughly the same stats has 3.
combat seems balanced at first glance with all weapons haveing their respective ranges and efectiveness, at times trying to get close is a mater of luck versus skill as the high hip fire sensitiveity and consistant zig-zaging ensure consistant unlucky deaths and occasonal 'how did i survive that?' moments.
driveing is very fun if litterd with colisions and a strict learning curve and calls for backup are realisticly answerd by other players; in other words not often and on average 2-300 meaters away from the conflicts XD.
all in all however its a mostly smooth if slow to start game. i give it my recomendation
also ive practicly scrached the surface of gameplay it has alot to offer in the way of fun.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

For those who have played it, I read in an interview that enemies are very durable, is this true?

 

[Candidus]

For those who have played it, I read in an interview that enemies are very durable, is this true?

As I understand it, there are no AI enemies whatsoever. Your enemies are people, and provided both of you are/are not wearing body armour, you should be as durable as they are.

 

[Curtisthekiller]

not to double post but... everyone is rather durable to start with, however its not to incredibly over the top untill the endurance upgrades begin to get unlocked by the power gamers i wager.
Edit: kind of annoying actualy considering it takes a great deal of ammo expenditure to take 1 opponent with anything less then a sniper rifle, makes for pulse pounding fire fights though.
can't survive vehical explosions on the other hand XD ka-boom!

 

[ImprovizoR]

I'll probably end up buying this cause I'm a sucker for customization. Then I'm gonna make a biker gang! If motorcycles are available as vehicles that is.

 

[CapnRaccoon]

It just seems odd that you'd miss out on SO much game play time, for such a small price.

I'm glad so many of you posted positive things =] I will definitely be getting this, I just thought that monthly price sounded too good to be true when I'd heard they were going to be charging per hour =]

Anyone cancel a sub' from another MMO for this? I'm thinking of dropping WoW for APB, just because I'm bored of the same old MMORPG routine.

 

[Candidus]

Anyone cancel a sub' from another MMO for this? I'm thinking of dropping WoW for APB, just because I'm bored of the same old MMORPG routine.

I actually unsubbed from WoW the other day. I'm not sure whether that counts as dropping WoW *for* APB, as WoW was never my MMO of choice; I joined and played WoW for my now-ex GF. That established, I'm still not going back to my old faves (EVE mainly), specifically because of APB.

 

[Spazztic]

I'll probably end up buying this cause I'm a sucker for customization. Then I'm gonna make a biker gang! If motorcycles are available as vehicles that is.

Started playing today, and AFAIK there aren't motorcycles. Just cars.

edit: also, I really like the "pay for how long you play" thing they've got going. I'm usually a casual gamer, and I have a crap ton of different games I play at one time, so I may not come back to a game for days at a time. I can get through a whole month on $5-10. It's nice that they seem to be thinking about gamers other than the hardcore crowd, at least when it comes to subscriptions.

 

[Zaik]

I managed to get a beta key for it, and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except maybe someone i really hated.

The tutorial was ok, not particularly great or terrible(aside from all vehicles handling like there's a two inch thick sheet of ice on the road everywhere forever), however immediately following that was the most annoying experience i've had trying out a new MMO.

I left the tutorial district(as a criminal) and went to whatever they called the one where you actually play the game. I show up and have no idea what to do, so i just wander around a bit and suddenly I'm put in a mission to go get some item in some place. So i grab a car and start swerving and sliding down the straight road trying to get there, and about 7 seconds later such and such guy got the item and now we(apparently other criminals in the area got the mission too)have to get it back before he turns it in to some arbitrarily safe location. That's great and all, however he's half the city away, and everyone in my "party" is also incredibly far away, presumably because they have no clue what is going on either. So i start following the indicator thingy that says where the item is at, and about 15-20 minutes later i realized it was going to be completely impossible to catch him because my car handles like the steering column is made out of rubber bands. I probably chased this guy for a half hour, barely managing to stay within about 200-300 meters before he got to whatever arbitrary safe zone he was supposed to take it to and the mission was over.

So, I waited around a minute, and was put into another mission because one of the people in my "party" apparently ran over too many people because his car handles like crap and he got 5 stars(or whatever they called it, it was totally a rip off of GTA though) and now the enforcers have a mission to kill him, so we have to protect him for whatever reason a bunch of criminals that had never even seen each other(literally, in the hour I've been playing this I've yet to actually see another player aside from people going in the opposite direction i am that i inevitably run in to because i can't turn at all without totally losing control)would do that. So, apparently this guy is on the WHOLE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY. Back where i started. so i slip&slide back over that way, but long before i can get there, he's dead, mission over, we lose again.

All in all, terrible car handling, absolutely no character advancement aside from cosmetic changes, confusing missions being the only actual gameplay, I wouldn't play this game if it was free, i definitely couldn't recommend someone paying for it, unless i really, really hated them.

 

[cerebus23]

if things have not changed since beta 2 i would skip it, i mean the sub model isnt bad since you can plunk down a few bucks and have a bank of free time to play cause 1 or 2 hours at a time is about all you can take with the endless mission spam.

weapons were horribly unbalanced, missions were limited, activities were very limited, and you have to do alot of missioning to unlock a lot of the custom stuff.

but the fact you have to buy the game and pay a sub to play there just is not enough there there, especially if you own gta4 and have all the online modes that has got with a ton more stuff to do a much bigger sandbox to play in in, rather than relatively small districts that only seem big because the cars are garbage.

maybe if they have added a bunch of stuff, or in a few months if they expand the game with patches it will be worth a look at, nevermind the price drop that will come eventually.

predict the thing will go free to play eventually cause i cent see a ton of people paying to play the game long term.

 

[Zaik]

predict the thing will go free to play eventually cause i cent see a ton of people paying to play the game long term.

I was thinking the same. Global Agenda did, cause that crap was pretty bland too(although the tutorial was pretty cool, pretty bad when the tutorial is your shining feature :/). APB will probably follow suit pretty quick.