Posted by Spooner | 1 Comment

APB interview with Kitkat & Deum

Well holy shit. I’m finding it pretty hard to find a coherent way of saying this but I’ll try. On Monday the 18th (basically after this coming weekend) I along with joe and Roger from our For the Lore podcast will be interviewing Lead Creative Designer Stephen “Kitkat” Hewitt and Community Manager Chris “Deum” Collins from Realtime Worlds and the upcoming game APB. APB is essentially the most anticipated game to be released in 2010 and if you haven’t yet looked into it, what the fuck are you waiting for?

I’ll give you the best description of the game as possible since it happens to encompass pretty much the most awesome bits of everything we’ve ever played.

It’s a semi-sandboxed persistant world like GTA 4 (and spearheaded by the man who created the original Grand Theft Auto and started this whole thing), but plays as a 3rd person shooter with leveling and different weapons and upgrades but no stats or “gear” so no MMORPG treadmill like the gear grinder games but there’s different factions and extreme PvP with customizeable player owned cars on the level of the Need 4 Speed games with a character creator that makes Aion and Sims 3 look like a fucking joke and it also streams Last.fm coming with 100 songs at ship and you can jack in your own music libraries and customize the music so enemy players can hear what you play for them for example when you kill them.

One sec need to catch my breath. So in short, this game is going to bring the balls back to the MMO.

The game takes place in a modern-day, fictional city where there is a constant battle between “Enforcement” and “Criminals”, and the player will need to decide to which Faction they want to belong. The two sides battle out for control of the city, with territory within the city being contested continually 24 hours a day, so that players must concern themselves with both offensive and defensive moves.

Other activities involving missions within the game allowing the player to earn extra money, which then can be used to upgrade weapons, vehicles, and their character appearances, all that influence the game itself. For example, several Criminal players may rob a convenience store within the game; the game will then seek out one or more Law Enforcement players of equivalent skills and other criteria, and will issue an all-points bulletin for them to stop the robbery.

APB also claims it will be the first Massively multiplayer online game title where the player’s skill determines the character’s progression, as opposed to the normal model of time investment.

At GDC 2009 it was announced that Vivox would be providing voice chat for the game, the software allows players to customize the voice of their characters with voice fronts, and also to communicate using 3D positional audio.

Read More

Posted by Spooner | 4 Comments

Looking Forward for 2010

Well I’ve just about recovered from the Holidays, there’s this migraine that won’t go away and the taste of something dead in my throat but other than that and the massive summit of trash outside on the curb – it’s been a pretty awesome Christmas. We’re very close to the New Year and if only by comparison 2010 is looking to be a Golden Age of Awesome compared to the living nightmare of 2009. Sure this year has had some pretty amazing times but thus far the stress has outweighed the good by a vast margin. So what do you have to look forward to for Spooncraft in 2010? Well half of that relies on you.

The following is a list of all the titles and feature you know 100% will be coming up in 2010 and of that you’ve got my word:

Starcraft 2 – Yes friend the Beta test is imminent and I’m hoping that beta key I submitted damn near 6 months ago is going to rock me in. According to the magic 8-ball it seems that you’re going to get a lot of footage from the Beta event as I record tons of HD gameplay video.

Bioshock 2 – When this Feb. release hits my desktop you’ll see a lot of story spoilers as well as competitive multiplayer videos. Not to mention I’ll be gone for a few days as I bleed my eyes out soaking up every pixel of this soon to be masterpiece.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – The prospect of playing as a Worgen got me back into the vortex of WoW. I’m actually rally enjoying myself right now as compared to ever before and I have to attest half of that to playing a new class I’ve never touched before (Rogue) and the other half to playing more casually (which means I’m not raiding yet nor plan to for a while) and I’m back on the Alliance with my original crew of cohorts.

APB – If and when this is released expect me to touch some on the game and more than likely buy it and report regular news and other updates. If it turns out to be another Aion flop then it’ll drop off my radar but somehow I doubt that anything can live down to those standards.

The Daily Fap – This feature isn’t going away at all and if anything it’s frequency will be ramped up to a more weekly offering.

Diablo 3 – As always any news and content I can score will be posted here but keep in mind the game is most likely not going to even hit a Beta test until 2011, but we’ll see. I’m still holding a candle for this as my ultimate sequel next to Starcraft.

Blizzcon 2010 – As always if they have one and regardless of where they have one

That about does it for 100% guaranteed games I’ll be playing and features you’ll see. I’m on the fence about Star Wars: The Old Republic simply because the choose your own adventure style of gaming that Bioware loves isn’t something I jive with typically. I personally much prefer to be along for the ride and have it be an amazing and incredible one instead of being forced to pick and choose the little nuances in the story, I think that’s a job for the writer not the player. Unless of course you’re playing Little Big Planet.

So leave a comment or two or ten and list the things you want to see in 2010. What are you most excited about for this coming year and the turn of the decade? The new Metroid game? The new Castlevania title? Dante’s Inferno? Startrek Online? New tech? There’s a ton of new and exciting things coming in the next 12 months, what can’t you wait to experience?

Read More

Posted by Spooner | 2 Comments

APB Gameplay Footage

The more I hear about APB, the more I want to give it the time of day. It really does feel like a unique and different experience as far as MMOs are concerned. You do have a pseudo-leveling aspect in the game which will grant you accolades and better weapons/upgrades for your vehicle and person, but ultimately there are no stats in the game. You’re not going to get a backwards baseball cap of the bandit, or any of that nonsense. Your character is your character and your own prowess at being able to shoot accurately and maneuver yourself will decide who’s the best. It really is a game of skill at this point.

Also, the built in Last.fm support and custom playlists, and music creators (when you kill a guy it will play him music you made/chose) is just freaking incredible!

I’ve never been good at 3rd person shooters/action games though (platformers don’t count) and this really does feel a lot like the customization of Aion only 10x better, the sandboxed/free world of GTA4 (only with hundreds of other live people), and the player controlled factions of Planetside (only with less Hamburger Hill firefights). Coming to you from APB Zone is a gameplay doubel feature where you’ll get to see how some of the mechanics work.

One caveat to remember is that this is in the very early beta and thus a lot of spit & polish isn’t present in the game. With that said however, the individual character customization is jaw-dropping. I am going to have some fun with this ladies and gents. Now if only somebody at Realtime Worlds reads this and sends me a beta invite.

Read More