mstewa

Just a bit of a side note, anyone who thinks NDA's are to prevent competiting companies from finding out about a games cool "features" should probably let that go. By and large, MMO dev's get into just about every MMO beta there is. It's a close knit community and odds are someone knows someone else working on a competitors product. The Bioware/Mythic studio is so large, and so pervasive that generally everyone in the industry knows someone working there and probably as an "in". Moreso, they were probably "in" the Beta when it was in "Alpha".

It's impossible to keep those kind of secrets in the industry, so NDA's aren't there to keep other studios from knowing the cool stuff you are doing. They "might" be there to protect you legally should you try to sue someone who steals your idea, but in game development, all ideas are stolen so its very difficult to fight those in court anyway.

It amazes me that Everquest gets better content updates than Everquest II does. Heh.

Amazes me that they still make content for EQ1 yet have clearly decided with the latest EQ2 expansion to abandon making new content (aside from adding a class). That sounds a bit hateful but its more a tribute to the legs and community of EQ1.

@augustgrace

Possibly, but burning man full of its "stinky hippies" tends to far more passive than a real post apocalyptic world would be. People tend to be friendly, all about "sharing with the common man" and generally aren't afraid they could die at any moment. Nor are they in any way worried about who might be "infected".

While I understand the intended parallels of survivalism, burning man really isn't about survival. Assuming you arrived in a vehicle with enough gas to leave, there are plenty of options within an hour or twos drive to solve any near problems of starvation, or lack of commercialism. The article makes some valid points about efficiency and self reliance but burning man is in no way = post apocalyptic future. Burning man tries harder to be more about utopian ideals. And we're not even discussing the ridiculously large quantities of drugs involved with burning man which for many is the real reason to go.

@Rhazes

Really? I could make every jump I tried just like in the old days, even with the little starter 4-bangers. They did alter the driving mechanics significantly. And in one mission style, deliberately slow down your acceleration rate so you can't just run away with the cargo. But other than that, no, the cars go just as fast as they did as far as I'm concerned.

@(Unverified) "No sort of matchmaking". Ah, unless you're deliberately trolling APB uses an automated matchmaking system, this isn't BF2/Call of Duty. You go into the city, you make yourself ready and you get assigned a mission, maybe by yourself, maybe with others. You get auto-matched against someone of similar threat level, if its not similar you or they call for backup until the teams reach 10 each or are considered balanced by the system.

Until you reach stupid high threat levels/gold the system actually works pretty well.

@Destati Umm, no. You do not need to buy this retail boxed copy, you can go register and download the game for free. The retail box copy costs $30 and is basically a bulk purchase of some things you can get from the cash shop. Such as premium account for 30 days (roughly $10 cost), a car unlock and a permanent weapon. I don't know what the perm weapon is, but those generally run $20-$40. So the retail box is what G1 considers "fair market value" if not a slight better than their current rate deal.

Note I'm not saying if thats a "good" deal, just pointing out that if you "were" to spend money in their cash shop, you are definitely getting the cost/value ratio if you buy the boxed copy. I don't agree with G1's pricing for permanent weapons, but having played the game, you make more than enough in game cash with regular play to keep yourself kitted in whatever your preferred gun of choice is. Having a premium account ($10 a month) will get you plenty of "extra" cash to experiment with, buy lots of cars/custom looks etc.

There are some really nice guns in the cash shop, that cost a decent chunk of change that can make your life easier before you h ave access to higher tier guns that's true. The "whisper" is the common "pay 2 win" gun mentioned a lot. I tend to beat guys running a "whisper" with nothing more than a single slot Obeya rifle frequently. It's not usually the "whisper" that beats me, just a player who played smarter using his guns advantages better.

@jmerriex While I do work in the industry, I do NOT work for Gamersfirst. I played APB back when RTW owned it and I play now. In fact, I actually play under this screen name (not always the case for all my online games). I'm more than happen to engage in conversation that doesn't involve silly accusations like calling me a corporate shill just because I dont' see much lag. Having played most FPS's since they evolved on PC's (yea, I've played "networked" DOOM when "networked" meant null modem cables) I'm well aware of what "Lag" is. I /have/ seen lag in APB but it is by no means pervasive or systemic I thought I was pretty clear on that. I should add that I play on the west coast server and I live, *gasp* in California on the west coast and have pretty good pings to the west coast servers. Generally I find the people who it frustrates most are the people who like to blame it for the reasons they lose.

I'm far more worried about G1's ability to squash the hacking which occurs at the higher threat levels than I am about any lag and I don't even see that much hacking on US servers (apparently its pretty bad on the EU ones).

Whatever floats your boat though. If you want to rage online about how bad a game is from your perspective feel free. I tend to tell people if they played and liked APB, or wish they liked APB more when RTW owned it, it's definitely worth trying out now. It has no cost of entry, you can easily check out the gameplay improvements and balance changes and decide for yourself if APB has gotten better with only your time as a cost factor. No, it's not some kind of second coming of shooter games online, but I /do/ find it entertaining and a compelling game. There really is nothing else quite like it in its space and ultimately it has some of the most amusing and dynamic battles I've played in shooters.

@theinternetman I've been playing for over a month, at least an hour every night give or take a few days here and there and have yet to see the network problems people complain about. After the last "server lag eliminated" announcement I see the very occasional odd network collision (i.e. I bounce/stick to some terrain that wasn't near me on my screen for a second or so). Nothing however that is remotely game breaking.

Gamersfirst has done nothing but improve APB as a game since it launched, minus the cash shop implementation which in all fairness, doesn't really hurt the game. I think their prices for permanent weapons are just outright silly. Granted that just made me look at the retail release and think "huh, if you get a vehicle and a gun, that's a decent price compared to the cash shop".

This game has a terrible website with horribly bad english translations, badly formatted text and illegal use of Star Trek imagery. Why, exactly, would you want to play this game given that level of clumsy presentation?