GDC 08: APB’s “Content is the Players”

I think many of us were supremely disappointed to find out Realtime Worlds had moved on from Crackdown to develop some game called APB and not Crackdown 2 – but if APB ends up being the game GTA creator Dave Jones described it to be at GDC, we’ll all forget what Crackdown even was.

Rather than try to summarize what has amounted to one of the most impressive presentations at GDC, here’s a snippet of 1UP’s preview of the game:

APB looks like the simultaneous appeasement of every wish/bitch list I’ve written over the years about both MMOs and open world games. It’s a game that’s combining both of those genres and stripping each of many of their respective annoyances. All I’ve ever wanted from an MMORPG is a place to be an individual and have a sense of accomplishment without wasting hundreds of hours doing nothing more interesting than killing the same boar a thousand times. And the central element of a great open world game has always been a big space full of interesting things to do with a great big pile of toys.

For the first time in recent memory I’m actually having difficulty containing my excitement enough to convey it properly. A short, instantly attention getting phrase like “MMO Crackdown” doesn’t begin to do the thing justice. It looks far, far better than that. This isn’t an MMORPG, and it’s much more than another sandbox game. Dave Jones simply called it a “Multiplayer Online Game,” which is a bit nonspecific, but at least isn’t loaded with preconceptions. This bears the look of something very new.

GameVideos has several other videos in addition to the one above, which you can view here, here, and here. You can read the full preview of the game here and join the line of people that want to get their hands on APB right now.

via 1UP