Console APB would be "a different game"

By Oli Welsh Published 25 May, 2010

Realtime Worlds still wants to do it.

APB lead designer EJ Moreland has told Develop that the online crime shooter would be "a different game" if it was released on consoles.

It's "clear that Realtime Worlds wants a console version of APB," he said, but it couldn't and wouldn't be a straight port.

"Usually when you play a console-to-PC port, or vice-versa, it's usual that the game won't work as well as it did on its original platform. So for us, what we see for APB on consoles - and we've had discussions about this - is to make a different game that fits better for the system," Moreland said.

"I had strong concerns that the game we were making for PC wasn't going to be viable on console. We would want to do some things to make the game much more console-centric."

APB was originally planned for release on 360 and possibly PS3, but since its appearance at E3 2009 under the wing of publisher EA, only the PC version - due for release in July - has been discussed.

According to Moreland that there has been no "definitive decision" to scrap a home console version, but a decision was made to focus on PC only for first release.

"Development started as PC-oriented and, at a point where we had enough resources to compile our own console team, we decided to dedicate our talent on the PC game to make it that much better."

He said there were no definitve plans to begin developing console versions of the game.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • christourlord #1 2 years ago

    It barely works on PC, so I'd hate to see what a bad port would play like on consoles.

  • mingster #2 2 years ago

    Yup after playing the Beta i definately wouldn't pay for it.

  • ChthonicEcho #3 2 years ago

    The one MMO-esque game I saw myself playing. Then they went back on their promises and said there would be a monthly fee and microtransactions.

  • hiddenranbir #4 2 years ago

    APB is better suited for a 64-bit PC. Finally the time has come to be free from the shackles of 32-bit memory limits.

    And pretty awesome you guys used a beta to demo a game instead of bug testing. Good job!

    I agree with echo on the shame it did turn out to be a sub thing, although it is rather flexible.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 25/05/10 @ 09:52

  • shadowaspect #5 2 years ago

    I just started playing the beta last night, but 'barely works on PC'? Really? Seemed to be running fine.

  • thegamesthething #6 2 years ago

    So the trailer for this on Live for the 360 launch was perhaps slightly optimistic then.

  • Quickstick4 #7 2 years ago

    @christourlord and @Mingster: its a beta....you were meant to find the bugs and report them.

  • Dylbot #8 2 years ago

    @shadowaspect

    If you're running on anything that isn't in the high-end then the performance is absolutely atrocious. My lappy will run most UE3 games at medium to high settings at the monitor's resolution (1280x800), but with APB it just completely shits the bed. Even when I'm rocking 60fps (with everything dialed down to minimum) I'll jump in a car, start driving, and bam, 5-second pause while my computer catches up. The sound stutters, it has horrible lag spikes all the time, it has graphics crashes every five minutes (which only after the latest patch aren't fatal).

    I love the idea of this game, and thoroughly enjoy it when it's actually working right, but they need to do some serious low-end optimisation before it hits retail or it is going to absolutely tank.

  • Ziggy_badMonkey #9 2 years ago

    I hate to say it but after playing the beta this is going to bomb IMHO.
    They have spent 5 years on a game that feels like GTA Multiplayer.
    There didn't seem to be any depth to the game at all and that's essential for an MMO.

  • hiddenranbir #10 2 years ago

    @dylbot

    Come on, what do you expect? This is a game that is pushing 32-bit machines to their limit, requiring 2GB of RAM as an absolute bare minimum. It is an ambitious game that is taking the next step. Sure, they could just water it down to be perfect for low end 32-bit machines but that will keep us forever in the technological dark age. Frankly, we need more games that are driving consumers to move past this barrier.

  • Quickstick4 #11 2 years ago

    @Dylbot - Whats your spec? It runs fine on my PC and my spec is about 3 years old now:

    Intel Dual Core 2.66Ghz
    8800GTS 312MB
    4GB RAM
    Windows 7

    I always find "it barley works" comments suspect IMHO, its normally a reason other than the game epically in this case because the game uses the Unreal engine. However as i said before: IT IS A BETA!

  • Dylbot #12 2 years ago

    I'm on C2D 2ghz, 8600M GT (OC'd to 625/1250/500 - any higher causes it to bug out), 2gb RAM. I'm pretty certain that it's the ram that's causing the bottleneck, due to the ridiculous amount of custom content. It runs smooth as butter in the designers, even with the high LOD models/textures, which lends weight to this theory.

    And I'm well aware that it's a beta, thank you. I didn't say anything to the contrary.

    @hiddenranbir

    Sure, push the barrier, maybe when it doesn't cost the price of two of the three current gen consoles just to upgrade your RAM to the required amount. The worst thing is, I was achieving playability before the latest patch, because I was able to edit the inis and tweak the graphics settings to my liking. Now it overwrites them as soon as I start the game.

    I'd love to go out and drop £500 on a new machine to play this, but I (and many others) aren't going to see this one game as justification for that kind of spendage, especially when other games are still running fine.

  • mingster #13 2 years ago

    It ran fine on my PC and its about 3 years old with a not very special graphics card.
    I know it was a beta and i can overlook bugs etc..
    The overall gameplay which cannot be corrected by patches etc.. was not good.
    It could run aon a console i'm sure just the whole thing is not worthy of a monthly fee or micro payments.
    If it was as originally intended a one off payment then free from then on it would be worth considering.
    As an ongoing cost investment then no its not worth it.

  • Quickstick4 #14 2 years ago

    @Dylbot - I think your right it may be your RAM primarily, however it may also be your CPU. 2GHz is a very low speed for these days. You have a Laptop with pretty much the exact same specs as mine so im incredibly impressed you got it running at 60Fps at all!

    Technical vs Design - I dont want to comment, just I feel the game is fine technically, and i like the fact that it targets more high-end PCs as its more future proof.

    I do agree with the point they are squeezing the market as a result. If you look at the Valve hardware survey http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey they are leaving behind allot of the market.

  • gintoki #15 2 years ago

    Well if it isn't on a console I won't be able to play it. Then again if there is the fee to paly online I won't be playing it either so never mind.

  • Jay-ITFC #16 2 years ago

    "console-centric" = dumbed down :(

  • Razzajazz #17 2 years ago

    I'm quite enjoying the beta to be fair, and I have a Radeon HD2900XT, very powerful in its day, but getting on a bit now, so my PC's not totally cutting edge. I see what people are saying about lack of variety to a certain degree, and they will certainly need to add more modes/districts very quickly after launch, but still, the game is a lot of fun, IMO!

  • Dylbot #18 2 years ago

    @Quickstick4 - If you're running at 800x600 with a tweaked .ini you can get pretty awesome framerates right up until it has to stream a lot of data from the server. Primarily, this means when you're driving anywhere and when you enter a firefight with someone you haven't come across yet/using a weapon you haven't seen yet in that instance of play. If there was the option for lower quality sound and world textures (I've already got the low detail custom textures thanks to my 32-bit shackles) then lower end machines might just be able to get decent playability.

  • Sunyavadin #19 2 years ago

    The payment system killed this game for me.

  • Bander #20 2 years ago

    I couldn't play it. With only 2GB of RAM it wouldn't run.

    Thing is, no program that I frequently use on my PC needs as much RAM as I have. About half of it just sits there doing nothing. So although it's a relatively easy thing to upgrade, I'm afraid I can't be bothered.