McWhertor mentioned the similarities between the two titles in his impressions of APB from Gamescom in Germany last month, and this gameplay clip completely backs him up. Of course this isn't a bad thing. I've had countless hours of fun just tooling around in Free Ride mode in Grand Theft Auto IV, so I could definitely see the finer points of a game that takes that and gives it a direction.

In short, I'd totally hit it, but I'd be thinking of something else.

Realtime Worlds' cops versus criminals online game is focused far more on the flesh and blood player than a computer controlled one, as illustrated by the deep level of customization seen in APB's avatars and highly personalized cars, the first "C" that we wrote about at E3. That customization extends further to what Realtime Worlds calls "death tunes." These are user-created jingles that play when an Enforcer kills a Criminal, or vice versa, written with an in-game music creation tool. It's a griefing tool, rubbing the death of your enemies in their faces with a tune of your choice.

Those were the sights and sounds we experienced during our demo, a pair of missions that involved picking up packages—simply referred to as "evidence"—and delivering them to various locations. The Enforcer team we watched were given that mission by a man named Malcom, who set them up with a nine chapter long series of tasks, a mission we never actually saw the developers complete.

That's because the Criminals interfered. A real life team of players aligned with the Criminal faction were alerted to the Enforcers' activities as soon as the police force picked up the evidence.

What really happened there was that a squad of four Criminal players were matchmade by APB when the cops started their mission, as by design. The same would be true for a group of Criminals, should they solicit a mission. That's where the player-based conflict comes into play, as you won't face anything but human opponents in APB, according to Realtime Worlds.

As the Enforcers and the Criminals clashed throughout the Financial District of city San Pero, APB looked like a mix of a traditional MMO and Grand Theft Auto IV, with stats like player names and "threat rating"—essentially a player's level of skill—displayed above their heads.

Much of the conflict we saw was via gunplay, with players dying and respawning, joining the fray about 100 in-game meters away. The Enforcers have one advantage in APB conflicts, with the ability to "arrest" opponents, extending their opponent's respawn time.

Yes, handcuffs last longer than death in APB.

The conflict portion of APB looked interesting, if a bit familiar, a blend of third-person gunplay that moves at the speed of an MMO. We'd imagine it's the possibilities of improvisation and chaos that will ultimately make the game so appealing, at least on top of the character leveling and deep customization.

APB is slated to be published on the PC by Electronic Arts in the first quarter of 2010, with the developer looking at "console strategies" once it has "everything ironed out."

The application actually seems like it's part beta tester app, part demographic survey. Along with the normal questions like processor type and testing experience, Realtime is asking for your marital status, number of children per household, and income level, which to me doesn't seem to have a great deal of impact on whether or not you can beta test. Most of it isn't optional, either. You have to select an income range - there is no "No comment" option. The company does at least assure applicants that their information is safe.

The form below is fairly detailed: we'd greatly appreciate you giving us the information requested so that we can understand the kind of player who is interested in APB and collect details on your hardware and beta testing experience. Your information is safe with us: we won't sell or distribute it in any way.

Perhaps I am overreacting, but this isn't the type of information I feel I have to share in order to participate in a beta test. I'll gladly fill out a politely requested survey once my beta application is filled out, but I'd rather it be a bit more voluntary.

My qualms aside, Realtime is actively seeking players, and the application page is encouraging.

Selected testers will receive an invitation by email along with details of how to download the game and take part. If you don't hear back from us in the next few months, don't despair, we'll be selecting more people right through to launch and we will need bigger numbers of testers as time goes on. Even if you're not selected for the start of the program you may get an invitation later.

If you feel like sharing, head over to the APB beta application page and check some boxes.

APB Beta Signups [Blue's News]

APB has cost Realtime Worlds around $30 million between development data centers, and hardware, so we'd certainly forgive them if they wanted us to pay a monthly subscription rate to be a punk girl with a white mohawk. However, speaking to VG247 during the Develop conference this week, boss David Jones indicated that was not the direction the company is going in.

"Basically, you have to buy the client. It's a traditional game that you buy...We're not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month' route. What we haven't said is which route we are going, and in some respects we're still looking."

Still looking, but Jones assures that APB's subscription model will be unique and interesting, allowing players to fully understand why they should spend money to cover the company's investment.

And now it's time for my suggestion! Allot sever bandwidth based on the amount of money players on said server pay. The more money they deliver, the less lag they experience. They could even introduce a free server featuring turn-based shooting.

What? It's a brilliant idea.

Jones: APB has cost $30 million, won't have "normal" subs model [VG247]

APB, which comes from the creators of Crackdown, has been in development for a few years and has bounced publishers to land at EA for its expected early 2010 PC release. But for all the times it's popped up in the press, the many unusual ways it works still came as a surprise during Kotaku's meeting with the game's creators at E3.

The game is set in virtual urban spaces that support 100 players competitively in each, or 300 people in non-gameplay social spaces. Each world or shard of the MMO will support 10,000 players who are divided into those spaces. Within those shards you can be a man or a woman, a criminal or a cop ("enforcer"), doing good or bad in whichever region you choose.

If you want, you'll be able to play the game as if it was a single-player game, minding your business by stealing cars, cleaning graffiti, and taking other missions that a criminal or cop might do. But that won't last. (See the APB trailer here.)

If you're a criminal and someone witnesses a criminal player's wrongdoing — or if a car alarm goes off in a stolen car, perhaps — an APB (All Points Bulletin) alert is activated. In this game's case, that means that a dynamic matchmake occurs. The game searches the in-game region and finds one or more enforcers who are equal in skill to the criminal or criminals perpetrating their crime. It gives them orders to stop that crime. And because what is being balanced is overall skill, it doesn't mean the number of players will be even on both sides. Three lowly cops might be sent after one skilled criminal. Or, if the criminal is really good, E.J. Moreland, APB's lead designer told Kokau, all 50 enforcer players in the game's region might be sent after them.

Customization options in APB are so deep that the developers have shown spitting images of real people being generated through the editing tools every player will have for customizing their look and clothes. (Last year at Game Developers Conference, the character customization was shown off to impressive effect). Cars can be rigged to sport famous designs. Even the music played from a car can be tuned to pull from the MP3s on your computer. And, if a player drives by playing music you don't have on yours, then APB will tap into Last.fm and generate a similar-sounding song for you to hear instead. Oh, and you can set custom jingles to play when you kill other players' characters.

Moreland explained that APB is being built to be a sandbox of a game, befitting Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones' past work on the original Grand Theft Autos. It won't be big on developer-made story. "The story is what the players do," he said, "Not what we do."

There was a time when APB was expected to morph into Grand Theft Auto Online, maybe even officially. That's not happening. "I think we're a stronger game for it," Moreland said.

Instead, what gamers will be getting is an MMO that encourages player creativity, a lot of mayhem, and if that APB system works, a city full of cat-and-mouse, cops and robbers scrambling and scrapping across the virtual metropolis.

We weren't given the chance to play the game at E3. A live demonstration showed the character customization. Gameplay was shown in a controlled demo and in a trailer. The game is slated for a first-quarter release in 2010 for PC.

The Crackdown developers are giving thousands of players the opportunity to side with either the Criminals or the Enforcers, both of which look equally unlike the type of person you'd be happy to run into in a darkened alley. But they certainly look well decorated. If there's one thing that APB does, it's offer character customization. It might not be easy to distinguish cop from criminal in the game's E3 trailer, but it certainly looks interesting.

Me? I'm probably picking wholesome ponytailed girl with hockey mask and rocket launcher.

While the game will feature a wide selection of unlockable inventory items, from the fatal to the accessorizing, it won't include bullet time, despite a couple of players requesting the feature.

Due to the action based PvP combat and multiplayer game mechanics required, we do not envision a system involving bullet time in APB.

They're also nixing, at least initially, the idea of mini games and leisure activities.

The idea of mini-games or leisure activities is something we have considered, however at this stage of development we are focusing on the core action aspects of APB first and foremost. This may be something we look into post-release as part of a more generalised social expansion.

The game itself is now undergoing weekly large group play tests and smaller more frequent design tests, according to the developers. So when's that beta coming?

The games testing has "advanced to a very exciting stage internally" and the developers are preparing the initial steps for beta. What's that mean? Why Realtime is opening a Facebook page of course, what else? The Register Your Interest sign up page will let you sign up for email updates, not the beta, but in theory that will be coming down the line sometime too.

So if the game is moving along so swimmingly, why no appearance at E3 this year?

Tony Harman, president of Realtime Worlds, has the spin. Hint, it involves $50 million.

“This year we would have had an exciting presence with APB at E3 if we had continued with Webzen as our publisher. But, given that we re-acquired the rights to APB just this spring and closed a very large fundraising round ($50,000,000) to secure APB’s future, the timing just wasn’t right to attend E3. RTW is very excited with APB’s progress and we have used our fundraising as a means to invest even more heavily in the APB development team. RTW hopes to release more information later this year with regards to game play details and beta plans.”

All Points Bulletin Facebook

Gamers Reports links to an OGaming interview with Stephen Hewitt, lead designer of the MMO cops and robbers 360 game, All Points Bulletin. The biggest carrot APB will offer? The endless turf war between cops and gangs an ever-landscape all set in the pulse of the inner cities. If they give the players enough freedom, this could be a game worth writing about.

APB Q&A [Gamers Reports]
Interview with All Points Bulletin lead designer Stephen Hewitt [OGaming]