Anticipation abounds!

It always seems like at least once a year I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for some game or another. However it's been slow for me for a long time. There's been no mmo's upcoming where the concept just blows my mind and I have to have it ASAP for the longest time. The last game I can think of that had this effect on me was Darkfall Online which was a tremendous disappointment to me because of the rampant cheating going unpunished but that's another story.

However my excitement is born anew with the news about a game that has flown under my radar until this year: APB, also known as All Points Bulletin. With GDC 2010 having just wrapped up in San Francisco some new details about this game have been released and I like what I'm hearing. The game has in-game leagues and ladders so people know who the most bad-ass players are because statues of league-toppers are in the social area of the city of San Paro where the game takes place.

If I had to describe the game to someone who wasn't familiar with it I would say that it is essentially an MMO version of Grand Theft Auto. Players can choose to be criminals or enforcers (essentially police or bounty hunters) and their gameplay depends on that choice. For example criminals may get a job from someone to commit some horrible crime, and once word gets out enforcers in the area are assigned to stop this crime.

To say I love this concept would be a huge understatement because the idea of forcing players into direct conflict which is such a breath of fresh air from: "kill a bunch of these monsters which are so ridiculously weak that it's no challenge at all but you'll level so deal with it." Warhammer Online came close and while I love it I do not think it went far enough for a game toted as a PvP-centric game. When I say Warhammer came close this is because it had public quests that brought you into direct conflict with the enemy in competition which was an absolutely amazing thing at the time of it's release and still something I don't see often at all.

The sad thing is that we'll all have to wait for a while for APB to come out, there's mixed reports about what the release dates are and it's been pushed back several times. I can only hope that APB is exactly what I've been waiting for and that Realtime Worlds, the company who makes the game, doesn't make any terrible decisions near the beginning that can doom a game in the current climate.

And now for some related material!
A video I made of some GTA IV shenanigans
Youtube channel for APB Videos