APB fights for survival: test new features right now

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Following yesterday's news that Realtime Worlds had entered into administration , we got lots of comments lamenting the death of their urban sandbox MMO. As if in response, they've upt up a public test world with a mass of new features. We've got the meatiest chunks of the patch notes below. And it seems the developers are listening to customer complaints - improving the well known weaknesses within the game. Radical weapon rebalancing, improved vehicle handling, and new weapon audio are all on the patch notes. Have you played the test version? We'd love to know how the improvements feel in-game.

A spokesperson for the corporate rescue firm Begbies Traynor has said that they "want to offer reassurance to gamers that APB will not only continue as an online service but will be improved and supported 100% during this restructure." They're aiming to effectively transform RTW into a well oiled, APB-developing machine. They've put a test realm online that you can try out here , with the following changes to the core game on that realm:

  • Improved vehicle handling
  • Time for open world vehicle break-ins has been lowered from 10 to 3 seconds
  • Arrest and Rescue times have been lowered
  • All weapons rebalanced and now include recoil
  • All weapons fire out to 100 metres
  • All weapon audio has been updated
  • Crouch is now client-side predicted
  • Accuracy modifier on sprinting
  • Accuracy now regains over time rather than instantly
  • Vehicle husks now block weapons fire
  • Field of view is now weapons specific
  • Hit VFX should now align with the direction of the weapons fire correctly.
  • Added graphics options for Dynamic Shadows, Environment Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, High-Quality Bloom, Distortion Value, Anisotropy, and Anti Aliasing.
  • Various VoIP crash fixes

They've also added some new hats and outfits, instrument packs, and body kits for your car. We'll let you know if it's any good.