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Gaming APB Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 6 Jul 2010.

  1. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    Apb is worse than star trek was which was a poor mmo on release
     
  2. Skiddywinks

    Skiddywinks Minimodder

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    You can pay a monthly fee. You don't have to play it as a PAYG model. I don't know why so many people are complaining. It's £8 a month, just like WoW IIRC.

    EDIT: Granted, the initial paying price only nets you 20 hours, which is kind of a rip if you plan on nailing it 5 hours a night. BUt the monthly fee from then on is in line with every other MMO out there. And for those that can't nail it for 5 hours every night (or even one hour a night for a whole month), 20 hours works out as a nice way to ease people in without making them think they have to get the most value.
     
  3. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    I'm frankly astonished at how bad the review is. You clearly played the game solo. I joined the game solo and within a week I have a list of friends who play and we team up together and have great fun. Some from the UK some from germany, france and the netherlands. I am not really in a clan yet, but some people in another community I am part of are thinking of organising one.

    This business about not finding a good group or a bunch similar minded players - I have yet to encounter anything different in any other MMO or game until you make the effort to find a decent clan or bunch of friends or likeminded players to play with.

    Sometimes I use the in game VOIP, which I do not have any problems with, but I mostly type in group chat, or use Vent. Heasring your enemies cursing you out when you kill them is hilarious.

    The imbalance of the guns is an issue, one I hope gets addressed, but has been an issue in every single type of MMO I have ever played, and is the same problem in games like Bad Company and other shooters such as CS.

    The customisation options available and tools available are incredible. Maybe there could be more guidance in game on how to use them, but a quick search on Youtube shows lots of examples of players showing you exactly what can be done and how to use them.

    I don't want my hand held and every single step of the way explaiend to me I want to discover a lot fo it for myself. The tutorial was more than enough to get me going, District chat answered every question I had or the people I grouped with, or the forums. Such a chore to....ask somone.....

    Performance wise for graphics and what have you, 32 bit systems have problems. 64 bit systems do not. There is very little, if any, lag.

    It does frag up your hard drive a lot though and running a defragger regularly (which your doing anyway, right?) helps a LOAD.

    Players have quickly found the best spots to camp and take out those who do not work as a team with ease. Those with any brains at all or teamwork can overcome these odds and I enjoy the challenge of doing so.

    I do not subscribe to camping in these spots myself but I have certainly figured out ways to overcome the gits that do it. It is most often groups of criminals doing this, and an enforcer has the perfect tools at their disposal to ruin them from doing this...as in....their goal.

    I can easily see these problems - which are all rather minor - being resolved fairly quickly by the devs, same as in any other MMO by patches. They are not a big deal.

    I continue to have fun in this simple fun shooter, love the cars and the fights I get into and the inventive ways players are discovering on how to play the game.

    This shitty attitude of the reviwer of not taking on missions because the chances of him beating a seemingly stronger team (solo by the looks of it or with randoms) being remote are disgusting. We don't care who we are up against we have fun win or lose, which is the main thing for me in any game.

    All those supposedly bad ass players with better guns die to teamwork every time, they are overly reliant on them and are a great challenge and fun to take out anyway!

    Grow some balls gets some friends or a clan to play with.

    The game can quickly suck solo for sure. What MMO doesn't or do you forget the purpose of an MMO?

    The payment model is fantastic, I haev yet to see any coherent arguement of why it is bad - in fact it is superior - to most other MMO payment structures.

    I hope the game continues to be fun, I'm having a blast, and as with any other MMO it will improve overtime. it is a casual shooter game that is fun. Take it in that way and get some friends and you will have fun. Play solo or continually group with retards and it will not be. Same as every otehr online game I can think of ad infinitum.

    I would give it a good 7/10 and say this is one of the worst reviews I have ever had the misfortune to read on this site.
     
  4. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    The intial price got me 50 hours gameplay and I will be paying £8 a month. When I get bored of it I will play it now and again and buy 20 hour blocks of time to do so for £4 or whatever it is. Fantastic price structure for casual gaming.

    I am yet again amazed how people fail to grasp such a simple concept as the price structure.
     
  5. NuTech

    NuTech Minimodder

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    Nobody is failing to grasp anything, people are just confused why RealTime Worlds thinks that APB is a 'MMO' and why it warrants any ongoing fees at all. The game makes extensive use of instancing and battles don't really involve more than 16 people at best (average skirmishes will involve around 8 people). Games of this sort are either entirely free to play with optional micro-transactions or funded by annual expansion packs. APB's current format just reeks of a major cash grab because they know they delivered a lacklustre product.

    It's all besides the point anyway - I guarantee APB will be drastically changing its pricing structure very soon.

    I think 1UP summed it up well:
     
  6. Hovis

    Hovis What's a Dremel?

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    I agree that if you pick up APB with the intent of playing it as some kind of scruffy Billy No Mates rolling solo or in pick up groups, mugging pedestrians and stealing cars that you'd be mad to buy it. But that's just one way to play. The crazy way. The way most reviewers picked.

    Personally though I love the game. Last night I rolled with my crew through the financial district in my pimped out van, Moloko blasting out the speakers, the guys hanging out the sides with weapons ready, taking the occasional pot-shot at a passing pedestrian, waiting for either some cops to man up and have a go at us, or for a mission to pop. And when a mission kicks off it is on like Donkey Kong, because everything is on a timer, this section four minutes, then a bonus two minutes for the next section and so on, every mission can come to a knife edge multiple times. Or maybe the cops just come at us, so it's a guns blazing car chase through a city which already probably has two or three other such car chases going on, throwing that big beast of a car around the corners, seeing it rise up on two wheels a bit (SUVs and muscle cars can roll at this point, specially if they hit the curb) gunners hammering away, bullets whanging off the bodywork, it's the Zen of car chases.

    Does it make me rage? Yes. A thousand times a day. No game has ever made me rage harder. Why? Because it's got me rapt in it. The gameplay is so competitive, so often running on the edge of a knife, that it's almost impossible to play it casually. I think I've actually invented new swear words for times when I get arrested, because the standard ones can't cut it.

    The match making system gets panned, a lot, but I love it. If every mission was simply four guys against four guys, or always even numbers or whatever, it would get old fast. Now sure, sometimes, I feel like I've been screwed by the system. When you're team is outnumbered eight to four things are bound to get a little hairy and no, it's not 'fair', but it's almost never boring. Whether you're a lowbie in a mob trying to take down some heavily tooled up nutters, or you're ploughing through mad numbers of foe it's a hoot. And if you get screwed what's the harm? You get some rewards anyway and you don't lose anything. But that's the beauty of the game, it hooks people, I've not known many folks who could take a loss easily in APB.

    Weapon balance is tied to faction balance, which is for me the games big flaw. The Enforcer gameplay just feels a lot more finessed and the less than lethal weaponry gives them a lot more to do and a lot more variety in their play. As a criminal you kill folks, you blow them up, shoot them, drive over them, land a car on them from a jump, blow up a car parked next to them, shoot a skylight out from under them so they fall through it to the warehouse floor below, push a car that's about to explode close to them, ram their car into an oncoming truck, or whatever, but as an Enforcer you do all that, and get to stun and arrest folks. Also the need to counter the stun weapons penalises the criminals against their lethal counterparts, so it's all a bit skewed, but it's not so bad and maybe they fix it, stranger things have happened.

    As for the pricing, it's not that much of an issue really. Bit cheaper than an MMO for a month of play, a lot of my friends have sold in game items for points in order to buy more time. Similar system to EVE. The main reason it warrants fees are the same as any other MMO, running servers, holding onto your character data and continual development. Just because a game features orcs, elves and PvE doesn't magically entitle it to a tenner a month either. Most MMOs have smaller instances than APB yet demand greater fees.

    All that said I think it's a hard game to recommend to the world in general because you've got to be competitive. You just can't play it if you're not. It'll break you into little newbie cubes and feed you to the pigs. You've got to love winning and you've got to hate losing enough to bounce back thinking of revenge every time. The customisation stuff all fits into that, because you can stand out from the crowd. It's not enough to just beat somebody, you want to look better than them, you want a cooler song to play than theirs when you've killed them and so on.

    Honestly I think getting put off by the reviews could be a tragic missed opportunity for a lot of players who could absolutely love the game. It's just not for the faint of heart is all.
     
  7. Faulk_Wulf

    Faulk_Wulf Internet Addict

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    The point was not that a game should hold your hand, but that NO direction is just piss poor design.
    Plenty of games don't tell you squat about how to play. Braid is a stunning example.
    Many fighting and shooting games are similar (I'm thinking Tekken, Street Fighter 4, Soul Caliber // MAG, etc.)
    But even these don't leave you FLOUNDERING, there is SOMETHING there to help you.

    I'll leave my opinions about the rest of the game out though.
     
  8. iwog

    iwog Linux cursed

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    I'm gonna copy paste myself here:
    The problem with all your don't play solo arguments is that most people choose to meet new people in game and don't force their will upon their current friends and say play this with me now. The game gives no indication of how to join a clan, and I've never seen anyone advertising them, the second may be because I haven't spent enough time hanging around in social districts, but then again I didn't pay to idle, and I know it costs me nothing.
     
    Last edited: 7 Jul 2010
  9. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Also, I didn't write the review.
     
  10. iwog

    iwog Linux cursed

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    :duh::wallbash: I apologise, am gonna have go correct things. What with you posting the link in the forum and commenting on my original thread I just assumed. But like the adage, when you assume you make and an ass out of you and me. Just gonna add this to the list of things I've screwed up this week.
     
  11. 7earitup

    7earitup What's a Dremel?

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    4 out of 10?

    You have to be ****ing kidding me. This game is the most fun I have had in years. Yes, the weapons are unbalanced. Yes, the driving is wonky. Yes, there are a **** load of issues. But as soon as those issues are tweaked and resolved, this game will be pretty much perfect.

    Anyone who gives this a low score because it is a "bad shooter" is a Call of Duty fanboy. This is NOT an FPS game god damnit.
     
  12. impar

    impar Minimodder

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    Greetings!
    You read this post?
     
  13. NuTech

    NuTech Minimodder

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    You do realise that a professional reviewer can only review the product in front on him, and not the product that it might one day be?

    You just effectively said "yes this game is bad, but once it's good it will be perfect". That doesn't make any sense.

    Also - Destrctoid (3.5/10), PCGamer (5.5/10) and 1UP (D) all seem to fall in line with Bit-tech's review.
     
  14. Hovis

    Hovis What's a Dremel?

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    http://www.next-gen.biz/features/review-apb-all-points-bulletin?page=0,0 <-- I think this review is perhaps the only one I've read where the reviewer actually gets what the game is about.

    APB is a game that you either get, or you don't. Certain elements, especially the match making, are difficult to fathom at first, but it makes sense when you get used to it. Players who are facing higher threat opponents get much greater rewards (and usually get to have greater numbers too) and players who have the tools and the talent to boss any other four man team in a district will usually find themselves matched against greater numbers. Whether you're getting mobbed or you're one of the mob trying to just throw bodies in the way of a team of killers you will generally always be really challenged. I've never played a game, even a pure PvP one, that was so willing just to keep turning the screw on the difficulty. And you either rise to the challenge or get your coat basically.
     
  15. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    Spot on review there Hovis. Gives the flaws and a fair score.
     
  16. 7earitup

    7earitup What's a Dremel?

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    No, I said the game is great, but it would be perfect with some tweaking. Don't be a ****ing tool.
     
  17. Vakuum

    Vakuum What's a Dremel?

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    Me and my friends spent about 30 hours the last 3 days in this game. It's a ton of fun and I can't really agree with the review. However, if you roll solo, this game will suck. This is NOT a game to play alone as pickup groups are never the same as brushing up against 3 or 4 people who all play with voice.

    The upgrades are a bit in-balanced, but the real issue is skill. APB has a very hard learning curve, and those with an R above 150 normally know how the game works cause they've already played it for a good while. But fear not, upgrades isn't all, and btw, higher rated players give higher "xp"! :D

    I play Enforcer with 3 other friends, we are all on voice and we never roll alone. We have had some of the most insane "heat moments" and hard fights against groups of players with double our rating. There are some glitches in the game, and som fixing to do. But when played togheter, APB is still a great game!
     
  18. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    I got 5 hours left of my free 50 hours...can't beleive how much real fun I am having. For the first time in a "MMO" in a helluva long time.
     
  19. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    @Faulk Wolf.

    I agree it could do a bit more to help. But bleh, all you have to do is aask in district chat and the answer is there in moments or post on teh forum for half a dozen helpful replies, or look on Youtube. Or even hover your mouse over icons. I didn't find it such a chore personally, but there certainly is room for improvement in stiff like that. I played so many games it just doesn't take me long to figure stuff out maybe.

    I remeber playing EvE when it first came out. Now THAT was a steep learning curve
     
  20. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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