apb-reloaded posts

APB Reloaded's official blog site continues to post updates on the status of this first person shooter MMO's revival. Gamersfirst's Bjorn Book-Larsson breaks down the schedule of when the current closed beta test will turn into the game's open beta time period.

In short, the game will still be in closed beta mode for a while as the development team tries to fix a number of issues. However they plan to invite more people to the closed beta tests soon, followed by everyone who signed up to test the game. If everything works as planned, all closed beta testers will be given access to the game's Premium level for 24 to 48 hours, followed by activating the game's micro-transaction content. Once that is clear the floodgate will open and everyone will be able to play in the game's open beta test.

APB Reloaded is still not yet ready for its open beta test but the development team at GamersFirst are learning a lot from the current closed beta to the upcoming MMO FPS revival. In the latest official blog update, its revealed that the game will be getting a much better matchmaking and skill system compared to the original title developed by Realtime Worlds.

The blog post goes into detail on what kinds of skill and matchmaking systems the development team is working on, saying, "We are fixing all this as one of the reasonably early Open Beta tasks (not the very first OB release, but in the second round of OB or so)." There's also a mention that a very small number of hackers have found their way into the closed beta. The blog post states, "Thanks to your hard cheating work, we are now much better equipped to deal with you going forward. How? I guess you will find out."

What comes around apparently goes around for APB Reloaded. The first person shooter MMO started its life in Scotland at developer Realtime Worlds only to have both the game and the developer shut down operations a few months after APB went live back in 2010. Now the team behind the game's upcoming revival, GamersFirst, has decided to open up a new development studio in Scotland.

The BBC reports that GamersFirst's subsidiary Reloaded Productions will open the new studio in Edinburgh with 22 people hired at first. Realtime Worlds was based in Dundee and when it shut down last fall it caused 250 people to lose its jobs. Meanwhile the revival of APB Reloaded is still in closed beta testing with an open beta to start later this year.

The first person shooter MMO revival APB Reloaded is now well into its closed beta test and the latest update from the game's official blog site reveals that 25,000 players are now playing with up to 1,600 players online at one time. All of these players are based in North America but the development team at GamersFirst are working to get the European servers online. Once that happens another 25,000 players will be invited.

The update also states that the development team is working towards the open beta test for the game. There's still no word on when that will happen but when it does everyone who applied for the closed beta (all 250,000 of you) will get early access before everyone else gets a chance to play.

[Via Blue's News]

APB Reloaded has been in closed beta testing for a few days now and the verdict, at least from the game's official blog site, seems to be, "So far, so good." Developer and publisher GamersFirst started inviting people to the revival of the urban-themed first person shooter MMO in late February.

The blog update gets a bit technical at times but overall it seems like the closed beta testing is moving along as anticipated. There are some balance issues of course in terms of the game's weapons. The blog states, "Mid last week we had to de-power the shotgun that could blow up a car in (almost) one shot." Server performance is mentioned with the game able to handle 100 people in one district at a time, saying, "In theory we could actually turn on 50 v 50 in APB in all-out war mode (which is essentially what Chaos mode is) and for future hardware upgrades go even higher in a single district and still maintain good FPS style performance."

About 10,000 people have been invited to the APB Reloaded beta test so far and the blog site says that after the team analyzes the beta info and fixes some more issues, "we will consider starting up the next round of invites."

APB Reloaded will take a big step towards its revival this week. The closed beta applications for some of the people who signed up to beta test the first person shooter MMO are expected to be released by Gamersfirst sometime later this week. People who get the application will have to answer a series of questions about their PC and other topics. In a post on the game's official blog site, the development team states that people who get the application should be honest when they answer the questions.

Over 150,000 applied for the beta test and according to the site if you get a beta application in your email box and "if you DO fill out the form accurately and completely,we expect that the VAST MAJORITY of Beta Applicants WILL in fact get Closed Beta access."

APB Reloaded, the upcoming free-to-play relaunch of 2010's failed FPS MMO, is getting closer to its closed beta launch. In the game's latest blog update, developer and publisher GamersFirst has announced that if you still want to be considered for the first phase of the closed beta you have to sign up on the game's beta page by midnight Pacific time on Tuesday.

GamersFirst expects that the number of beta registrations will go well over the numbers it will need for the first phase of the beta test (it has received over 100,000 beta applications so far). The final number of beta registrations will be revealed later this week along with more details of the closed beta launch.

APB Reloaded is still preparing to launch its closed beta test revival later this month but for this week's status update on the MMO-FPS's blog site, the team at GamersFirst decided to show off a few early screenshots of the Asylum, a new district that will be put into the game when it comes back some time later in 2011.

The blog update from Gamersfirst also talks about how the team is going to improve aspects of APB " that were not really up to scratch" when the game was first released by the now defunct Realtime Worlds. For example the new team will be working to fix all 250 missions in the game but it going to take a little while to get to all of them. Witnessing and game upgrades will also be improved along with scoring, matchmaking and more.

APB Reloaded is still not in its closed beta phase but for the first time the game's official blog site has released some screenshots showing a little taste of what the upcoming revival of the FPS MMO will look like. As you can see from the above screenshot the game doesn't look all that different from the original game from the now defunct Realtime Worlds.

However this week's blog does go over some of the changes in the game that players can expect when closed beta starts up at its new owner GamersFirst (hopefully around the end of February). Besides the previously announced Punkbuster anti-cheat program, the closed beta will also have some balance changes for the game's weapons. Look for some changes in the game's progression and some other tweaks as well.