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To register for the beta, we have decided to take a pretty "simple" route in order for you to take the first step; (1) simply submit your email here: http://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/ in the "stay up to date" box. Make sure you give us one that we can actually reach you on - and not the 14 minute email variation :). (2) Create a GamersFirst account (preferably with the same email, though not required)

But then it gets a little trickier. About 2 weeks before the closed beta (which probably means on or about the first week in February), you will receive an email sent to the address you submitted above. That email will have a unique link where you will go to activate your beta request. In order to do so you will be asked to submit a lot of additional data, among other things your DxDiag (if you don't know that is, then you might not be a great closed beta candidate) and some additional information about you, as well as about your system and your own background as a gamer. Once we have verified the data, we will then send you back your actual beta key.

NO PRE-EXISTING ACCOUNTS will be part of the closed beta. During the closed beta you will create throw-away accounts. That's the purpose of closed beta.

We're going to add a contact to each district that you don't level and gives out new missions that we'll add that will be more fun for all participants. As the new missions get positive feedback, we'll replace the worst offenders from the existing missions with the new ones. This should hopefully allow us to constantly be phasing out sub-par content and replacing it with great stuff, without just stripping out too many things from the beginning and accidentally leaving too little content. At the same time, we'll be fixing the mechanics on all the existing missions that are broken at a base level to improve the experience (top contenders for fixes include Hold Item, Territory Control, VIP and Chase missions).

When non-mission crimes are committed, the criminal doesn't receive money directly, instead it's added to a pool of dirty money that they need to visit a money launderer to actually add to their cash. When they do so, the money is multiplied by their notoriety bonus (we'll be making this a lot more obvious for players) to give the amount they actually get, and then their notoriety is reset to the base level. This should hopefully introduce a play-style where criminals want to go on a large crime-spree before cashing in.

At the same time, when they commit a crime, any off-mission enforcer can witness them (the icon will only appear if you can witness them, rather than the previous implementation of being able to witness, but a match not occurring). When witnessed, their dirty-money pool is moved into a small task item in the criminal’s inventory that either team must drop off to end the encounter. Whichever side drops it off gets the cash. If either the criminal or enforcer was on an unopposed mission when doing the crime, that mission will immediately end and the new mechanic will kick in.

On the other hand, there is no reason the PvP fighting shouldn't also be extended to it's logical conclusion, and we are considering starting a new mode where we hand back direct control to the player, a la Counterstrike. Potentially we would call that "Session Mode," "Clan Mode" or "Team Mode" or something similar. Of course this type of mode risks breaking the design-continuity between the Social Districts and Action Districts, but fundamentally, there is no good reason you should not be able to have more of a lobby-type function where your clan can take on a competing clan (even Crims on Crims), and have a show-down in a new (presumably smaller) map until one clan or team stands victorious. It would be like challenging someone to a duel at dawn, posse vs posse. And if you don't yet have a clan, what better method to find future clan mates than by permitting a more user-controlled joining process that enables short, fast paced game instances that can be completed in ten to twenty minutes.

There is even a third design philosophy; PvE collaborative mode using fast-paced (minimal-story) PvP mechanics. The closest here would be a Zombie style mode (hah - didn't I just question Zombies earlier?). The idea would be that you and some buddies should be able to show up at a building in the Social District, and upon entering you descend into a Resident Evil style nightmare clearing Zombies (and not a whole lot of story progression beyond shooting). This third mode is really just a PvE event with minimal story line, but would be something that provides more variety for the gamers, since it's a really great "introductory" collaborative mode mechanic (everyone is a winner, except the dead zombies who are all losers).

Our end goal is clear - we want people to become so engaged in the activities we will make available in San Paro that gamers want to "hang out" in some part of the city almost all the time. There should be a huge variety of interactions (PvP, PvE, collaborative, single-player, storylines, social interactions etc.) and  players should really drive what modes we spend our time expanding and increasing in size (and what modes we abandon).

we’ve upped initial damage on all weapons, adjusted recoil for most weapons, and changed accuracy so the weapon very quickly blooms out to its minimum accuracy, but regains it very quickly once you stop firing

marksmanship will not disable when you fall short distances, teammates will now show accurately on your personal radar screen, the arrest exploit has been fixed

Witnessing has been completely removed for the time being (the ready system kind of broke it), but we plan to reintroduce it in a near future build in a much improved fashion

we're seeing a much higher decline rate for Dispatches and Calls for Backup than we expected

prevent players being added to matches in the final stage with only seconds to go (that's a change we intend to make anyway), since no-one wants to be forced to join a mission where they have no chance to influence the outcome

When players enter the district, they're 'Off Duty' or 'unavailable' or however you want to think about it.  Once they're done with checking mail or sorting their inventory, they hit a key and switch to 'On Duty'.  From that point on, they are at the beck and call of their Organisation, and the matchmaking system decides who goes where and does what.  Participation in individual missions is no longer a choice.  Your Organisation is sending you to do a job, so get with the programme.  After the mission, if you need to get more ammo or respawn your vehicle, just flip back to 'Off Duty' and nobody will bother you until you're ready to go again.

Players are now able to enter the Exec Saloon or Dolton Broadwing when touching them.

The ‘Supermag’ weapon upgrade no longer upgrades both the clip and the magazine size.

The ‘Steel Plating’ vehicle upgrade level 1, 2 and 3 now correctly adjust a vehicles armour value.

Johann, who originally had worked on the PB integration for the original release, and is now responsible for the overall anti-hack/anti-cheat detection for the game as a whole

while it may be virtually impossible to ever win the war against cheaters completely, we certainly intend to give it our best shot

We originally integrated PunkBuster into APB in January 2009. After this was completed, it was disabled and essentially left untested until near the end of Closed Beta (~ April 2010), since it was not deemed an essential feature to enable before launch.

Catching and removing cheaters from the game remains our top priority.

major overhaul to vehicle handling to make cars more responsive and less slippy overall

We''ll be addressing a number of the worst camping spots in the game in an upcoming patch

Click here to download it.

five hours of gametime in the Action Districts

All APB game servers will be offline between 09:00 GMT until 12:00 GMT on 17/08/2010. This is to deploy 1.3.1 (55). This is a small patch to fix ''I''ve Friends in High Places'' achievement and an exploit. Full patch notes will be available on Tuesday.

So what can we do about Cheaters in APB? Well there are a ton of "cheat-busting"solutions out there such as NProtect, HackShield, PunkBuster, XTrap etc.

none of them are perfect

easily circumvented

Beta Application Keys will be sent this coming week.

To redeem you Beta Application Key you must first create a GamersFirst account and then log in with the account on which you want to activate your beta access.

Beta Application Keys guarantees that you will have a chance to APPLY for access to the APB Reloaded Closed Beta, regardless of how you received your key