Gameplay The game takes place in a modern-day, fictional city of San Paro where there is a constant battle between

Enforcers and Criminals, and the player will need to d ecide to which faction they want to belong. Other activities involving missions within the game allowing the player to earn extra money, which can then be used to upgrade weapons, vehicles, and their char acter appearances, all of which influence the game.[11] For example, several Cri minal players may rob a convenience store within the game; the game will then se ek out one or more Enforcer players of equivalent skills and other criteria and will issue an all-points bulletin for them to stop the robbery and apprehend or eliminate the Criminals. The camera focuses on the character from above the shoulder in which the current ly equipped gun is held, allowing the player to peek around corners before they lean around to shoot. The player can also zoom in using right-click for better a im. Weapons cannot be bought straight away from NPC contacts. The player must ac hieve different goals to unlock the purchase of weapons, varying from completing a certain number of missions successfully, to achieving a high enough standing with a contact or organization. Contacts sell upgrades, equipment, weapons, vehi cles and clothing. Ammunition can be bought from Joker Ammo vending machines, sc attered around the 3 districts. Players cannot normally attack each other unless they are enemies or allies in a mission. This prevents death matching and grief ing. Depending on faction, players will have either a Prestige or Notoriety level, go ing from 0 to 5. This level goes up as the player successfully performs actions that help their faction's cause, such as killing players of the opposing faction , completing missions successfully, or by engaging in activities unique to their faction. Such unique faction actions include mugging pedestrians for Criminals, or arresting Criminals for Enforcers. The level decreases as the player hinders their faction; for instance, team-killing, dying, and destroying city objects a s Enforcers. At level 0, a player is free to do as they please, and will not hav e enemy players dispatched against them. At level 1, the player receives slightl y greater rewards from missions, and enemy players will be dispatched against th em if they witness them performing certain actions. At level 2, the rewards are increased even more, and enemy players may be dispatched against their missions. At level 3, enemy players may be sent against the player regardless of actions, and rewards are increased further. At level 4, the player will receive increase d rewards, enemy players will still be dispatched against them. At level 5, the player has a bounty put on their head, which allows them to interact with any pl ayer on the server. They can be killed by any Criminal or Enforcer, but a bounty player can kill anyone on the server. All rewards are greatly increased for a p erson with a bounty for being able to achieve goals while under extreme pressure . When someone kills a player with a bounty, unless they are an Enforcer killing a fellow Enforcer, the killer receives a large money and standing reward for be ing able to kill such a high-threat player. A bounty can be removed by death, or by reducing Prestige/Notoriety enough to reduce the level to 4. APB also claims it will be the first multiplayer online game title where the pla yer's skill determines the character's progression, as opposed to the normal mod el of time investment. At Game Developers Conference 2009 it was announced that Vivox would be providin g voice chat for the game. The software allows players to customize the voice of their characters with voice fonts, and to communicate using 3D positional audio . Also revealed was the ability to synchronize music from your hard drive to the i n-game radio. If another player owns the same song being played, it will appear as an ambient sound from your car. However, if the player in question does not o wn the song: Last.fm will automatically match the track with any similar artist. [12] [edit]Development

APB has been described by Realtime Worlds executive Colin MacDonald as being "th e bastard child of everything we've been striving towards over the 15-20 years" and a culmination of "what [David Jones has] always wanted to do from GTA and be fore Crackdown and APB."[13] APB was planned as early as 2005, initially as a Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 title, and intended as the flagship title for the then-newly founded Realtime Wo rlds studio created by David Jones.[14] Then, it was planned that the Xbox 360 r elease would be in 2010. In the interim time, Realtime Worlds developed the vide o game Crackdown, released in 2007, which bore some resemblance to the concepts that were to be in APB. At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, David Jones stated that APB would be rel eased in 2008.[15] Jones noted that APB would be more like a multiplayer online game with players interacting with up to 25 other players at the same time. He a lso noted that the game compared well to the typical style of fantasy or sci-fi "multiplayer online" games such as World of Warcraft, but did not expect to comp ete with those games, as the concept was different. On 14 April 2008, Realtime W orlds announced that it had raised $50 million for APB and other future projects .[16] However, he also confirmed that Realtime Worlds was now looking at a 2009 release.[17] In this same announcement and subsequent interviews, the company st ated that that game was now scheduled for release on Microsoft Windows in 2009, and with options for eventual versions on the Xbox 360.[18] On 21 April 2008, Realtime Worlds announced that it had reacquired the global di stribution rights for APB, significantly amending the arrangement made in 2005 w ith Webzen Games.[18][19] An industry rumour suggested that Realtime Worlds plan ned to sell the game to Rockstar Games in order to re-craft it as a massively mu ltiplayer Grand Theft Auto, though Realtime Worlds denied these rumors.[20] In June 2009, Andy Eddy from teamxbox.com reported, "Not only did a spokesperson indicate to me after the EA announcement that the title was being developed for Xbox 360, during today's presentation [at E3 2010], Realtime's Dave Jones said that the first consideration would be the PC release, and then it'll come to the console side. So, while what follows isn't strictly for the Xbox 360, it seems that Realtime Worlds sending the game our way is a definite. If everything that I saw today actually comes to our favourite system, we should all be very, very happy."[21] In July 2009, EJ Moreland from Realtime Worlds made it clear that APB would be a PC release only for the first release, but they would be looking at the possibi lities for a console version.[22] A PC closed beta ran from 19 October 2009 to 4 June 2010.[23] This was followed by an open beta which ran from June 12, 2010 to June 19, 2010. On 30 April 2010, a press release was published by official fansite APB Evolved that included pricing information and release dates: 29 June 2010 in North Ameri ca, 1 July in Mainland Europe and 2 July in the United Kingdom.[3] A subscriptio n-like system was used, where players purchase game time for action districts, e ither by purchasing hours or by opting for an unlimited playtime option for 30 d ays. Players were required to purchase a copy of the game which included 50 hour s of initial game time.[3] Both the game and the website were available in Frenc h, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and English.[24] [edit]Music The game houses an in-game music system similar to Grand Theft Auto. It features established acts, but also emerging artists including Atlas&i and Avosetta.[25] The game allows players to import music into the music player. If other players also have the same song imported to their music player, they will hear the music on the player's car radio. If another player does not have the same song import ed, Last.fm will select a similar song to play instead.[26]