Off Duty Gamers

I’ve often watched others playing MMO RPG games and thought “Nice, but not for me.” I never really got into the whole idea, until now.

Scheduled for release on June 29, EA/Realtime Worlds brings us APB, a huge undertaking where players square off on one of two sides: The Enforcers, special deputized vigilantes given permission to operate by the Mayor, or The Criminals. Gameplay takes place in the fictional Pacific Rim city of San Paro, with a constant battle waged between the area’s Law Enforcement/Vigilante and Criminal elements. When you join, you decide which side you are on, and then customize your character with unique clothing, tattoos, vehicles and so forth.

APB claims to be the first MMO where the player’s skill will determine progression, rather than time investment, making the whole game take a rather interesting Darwinian approach. I wonder…will we be able to plaster the faces of character avatars on billboards in San Paro if they do something particularly dumb, like the daily crime blotter in your local paper? Hello, EA? Yes, I have a suggestion…

APB is geared to all sorts of players; Leaderboards exists to track kills, arrests, crimes and what not. You can also do side jobs for various contacts, or you can be a lone wolf pulling off daring exploits when the opposition least expects it. It’s truly open ended, and promises to be exciting. Better yet, David Jones, responsible for releases such as Grand Theft Auto, and Crackdown, designed the game.

The game reportedly will utilize Vivox for its in game player communications, which will also allow for 3D positional audio to give you a realistic perspective of where the sound is coming from, and customizable audio voice fonts to give your character their own unique tone. While I think this is absolutely awesome, I have to cringe at the thought of Enforcer Lori turning out to be 45-year-old Frank, from Milwaukee…But in the end, I suppose it is better than seeing an avatar of a lovely young lady with the voice of a cheese grater.

Now, the really cool aspect of the in game audio comes from the in game vehicle radio. Say you have your favorite tracks on your hard drive. APB allows you to synchronize these files so you hear them while playing. Likewise, if another player owns the same song, he or she will hear it as ambient noise from your car. Not bad…but the kicker is this: If the player does not own the title, Last.fm will match the song with a similar artist automatically. That my friends, is a sign of forethought. Unfortunately, it will bring ghetto thumping to the digital world…

Throughout gameplay, there will be many opportunities for players to earn extra cash, used to upgrade vehicles, weapons and clothing. For the criminals it’s as easy as getting a few together and knocking over your local liquor store. When that happens, the game automatically begins searching for similarly skilled Enforcer players, and issues an All Points Bulletin dispatching them to scene as response.

Beta for this game is unfortunately over, but a huge pre launch event, dubbed “Keys to the City” is forthcoming. Originally slated to being June 10, several unexpected issues have pushed it back about 48 hours. Now, before we begin beating down the developers, from what I have read some of the issues have to do with players downloading content from the wrong country…Remember that whole skill determining progression thing? Kinda hard when you no comprende senor. Regardless, things are starting to smooth out (Honestly what game does not have bugs?), and should be back on track this weekend. Pre launch keys are available through a number of sites, most notably online retailers of the game; head over to your favorite one.

Required Specifications are listed below, one I shouldn’t have to add, but apparently this needs addressing, is the ability to communicate in the language you download the game in…Adios!

System requirements: Dual-core 2.5 GHz or equivalent 2GB RAM (3GB for Vista64 / Windows 7 64) nVidia GeForce 7800 – 256MB or equivalent 20GB Hard disk space Headset and microphone recommended. Broadband internet connection required. Input method: Keyboard, Mouse.