Shooter fans: Today was the day Crytek officially released its DirectX 11 update to Crysis 2--an update many a PC gamer believed should have been part of the game in the first place. Regardless, we took some time today to download both the DirectX 11 update and the high-res texture pack. And this Wednesday, there shall be even more downloadable happiness available, in the form of a mission editor, which I'm hoping to spend some time with, if time permits.

The updates add features you'd hope to see in a DirectX 11 game: tessellation, high dynamic range motion blur, improved water rendering, and more. In effect, the changes take an already attractive game and make it look even more stunning. Particle shadows and motion blur are particular striking in sequences with a lot of destruction, and the HDR post processing makes moving from a darker area into an area bathed in sunlight momentarily breathtaking. My work PC took only the slightest frame rate hit when compared to the original, only rarely dropping under a solid 60 frames per second.

The recent trailer does a good job of comparing the enhancements. In addition, we took a few gameplay movies and screens for you to gaze at, though the differences at a glance will likely be minimal to those not searching for them. I am hoping to get some pre- and post-patch screens tonight to share tomorrow, but I hope you enjoy these in the meanwhile!

As I mentioned in my recent Reality Check column, when MX vs. ATV Alive arrived in stores earlier this week, we had yet to receive anything resembling a reviewable copy of the game. The good news is that shortly after the aforementioned column was written, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 retail copies of the game arrived in the mail. I've spent several hours checking out both versions since then, and our review won't be ready until early next week, but I wanted to post a heads-up on how the game is treating me thus far.

The first thing I noticed about MX vs. ATV Alive is that it doesn't feature a career mode. Rather, you simply have a persistent character across all single-player and multiplayer races who levels up the more you play. That's all well and good, except that your rider needs to reach level 10 before you unlock a decent number of tracks on which to race. Prior to that, you have only four full tracks (two of which need to be downloaded using a code that comes with new copies of the game, so they're currently unavailable on the PS3), two short tracks, and two free-ride locales. Racing the same tracks over and over again isn't a huge deal because they're well designed and there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from, but MX vs. ATV Alive definitely feels repetitive early on because so little of its content is unlocked.

Like MX vs. ATV Reflex before it, Alive is played using a dual-stick control system; the left stick steers your chosen vehicle while the right controls your rider. It's a good setup, and it's taken me a little while to get comfortable with it, but it makes getting huge air off of ramps and successfully negotiating sequences of humps pretty satisfying. I'm mostly playing on the default and Pro difficulty levels right now, and I feel like the game is posing a pretty decent challenge. Unlocking upgrades for bikes and ATVs (vehicles level up independent of you depending on how often you use them) makes winning races much easier, but that's quickly remedied by cranking up the difficulty, at which point you earn experience more quickly.

You can also race online if you're looking for a challenge, of course, though for obvious reasons, I'm currently only able to test this on the Xbox 360. I've yet to race in a full field of 12 riders, but getting into lag-free races with seven or eight other players hasn't been a problem at all. My rider is currently at level 15, and I'm hopeful that, over the weekend, I can get him to level 25 and unlock the six or seven tracks that are still grayed out on the event select menu. I guess I could just go to the in-game store and pay $6 to unlock everything, but where's the fun in that? Some areas of the rather unwieldy "MotoClub Depot" don't appear to be open for business just yet, incidentally, but it's clear that while this is a $40 game, the hope is that you'll spend more money buying new rider gear, vehicles, events, and even butt patches for it.

I look forward to delivering a full review next week. In the meantime, if you already bought the Xbox 360 version of the game and happen to be playing online this weekend, keep an eye out for me playing as JusticeCovert.

Of course you remember Spore, 2008's not-quite-revolutionary game about not-quite-evolution. That game soared because of its excellent use of user-created content. Darkspore uses a few of Spore's creation features, but if you were looking for a similar experience, keep your expectations grounded: Darkspore is an online action role-playing game in the vein of Diablo. The game was released today, April 26, though it was in open beta for some time before. While I did get several days of play in that beta last week, I wanted to take in the full experience this week; online-focused RPGs can surprise us in wonderful and terrible ways upon release. This means I'm not ready to deliver word on Darkspore's quality just yet, but I wanted to share with you a few quick thoughts, along with some screens and video taken from my time with the beta.

Darkspore introduces you to its sci-fi world with a short tutorial, giving you control of a hero creature called Blitz and having you slice up a few foes while a robotic voice-over fills you in on the basics. If you've played an action RPG on your PC before, however, you probably already have a good idea of how the moment-to-moment gameplay goes: you click on your alien foes to turn them into bloody bits, occasionally casting various spells to make them dead even faster, or to keep you alive even longer. You do this alone, or with up to three other players as you progress from level to level, though it's worth pointing out that while you can tackle the campaign alone, this is still an online game meant to be shared with friends and strangers: to play, you must maintain your Internet connection and be signed into the online lobby.

You can play the campaign alone, but to avoid frustration, you really are better off buddying up.

The basic action may be ripped from the Diablo playbook, but there's a definite Pokemon catch-'em-all element at work, too. As you level up, you earn access to new creatures to command, from 100 in total (well, 4 variants of 25 heroes, anyway), each of which has different skills and genetic types. Before each level, you choose a squad of three, and can switch between any of the three in battle, depending on the role you wish to play and the effectiveness of your various heroes versus the enemies you encounter. Your sole goal is to cut through swaths of buzzing flies and grenade-tossing robots on your way to a final boss, accumulating as much loot as you can. In between levels, you upgrade your heroes with said loot in the hero editor, enhancing their statistics and leveling them up simultaneously. (Player level and hero levels are separate entities.) This editor is a highly streamlined version of Spore's creature creator. You place equipment on your heroes where you like and can paint them in various ways, but the editing tools aren't very robust, and as a result, you aren't likely to invest much time in them.

Heroes don't have skill trees in the traditional sense, though a few of a hero's six total spells vary depending on the constitution of your squad. You have to consider not just how those skills can be used to maximum effectiveness, but also your heroes' genetic types: heroes take double the damage from foes of the same type. My favorite aspect of Darkspore thus far, however, is how you choose after each level whether to roll for extra loot then or to transition directly to the next mission, which gives you an even greater chance to earn good stuff if you triumph. I just wish there were more context to all of this saber slashing and laser shooting. You don't experience much story firsthand--you are simply told about one, by the same disembodied voice that guides you through the opening tutorial. Aside from collecting crystals and stat-enhancing orbs, there are no mission objectives or other structural elements designed to give you a sense of purpose. At least the game has a slick New Age style. Spacey atmospheric music drones while you make your way across glowing walkways and down planetside corridors.

We're not on Pandora anymore.

There are one-versus-one and two-versus-two battles as well, though I haven't experienced enough of them to get a sense of how much fun they are, though you could say the same about the entire game. I am having fun in the mouse-clicky way of most action RPGs, though I am not yet sure whether the hero collection and squad considerations are enough to give Darkspore the legs it needs to be a long-term prospect. I am hoping to deliver a full review late this week or early next. For now, enjoy the screens and movies, and maybe I'll even see you online!

In case you haven't noticed already, we posted our first wave of reviews for 3DS launch games today. Of the 16 launch titles (17 if you include Europe's Splinter Cell 3D), we've managed to get eight of them reviewed this side of the weekend. Ghost Recon is under embargo until Sunday morning, and the rest will follow next week. We'd have loved to get all of the launch titles reviewed ahead of the system's North American launch, but with access to only two 3DS consoles on this side of the pond, our core reviews team simply wasn't able to devote as much time to 3DS reviews as we would have liked. Big thanks to our colleagues in the UK for helping out where they could. Here are the 3DS reviews you can check out on GameSpot right now:

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Video Review)
Nintendogs + Cats: Toy Poodle & New Friends (Video Review)
Pilotwings Resort (Video Review)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
Steel Diver (Video Review)
Super Monkey Ball 3D (Video Review)
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (Video Review)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D

Capturing footage was especially fun; currently, we have no way of capturing direct feed from 3DS games, so our crew chief Frank "MacGyver" Adams whipped up what I affectionately call THE CHAIR. This ingenious (torture) device requires us to play the 3DS (which is fixed onto a near-vertical surface) more or less at arm's length, with both the top screen and our heads tilted back. To say that I was skeptical (and terrified) as I sat in it for the first time would be an understatement, but Frank did a great job, and we're all really pleased with the gameplay videos and video reviews that we were able to produce as a result of his efforts.

Tom McShea gets comfortable in THE CHAIR.

As of right now, I think it's fair to say that while we're feeling good about Nintendo's new system, we're pretty underwhelmed by the 3DS launch lineup. I believe I'm right in saying that I'm the only member of the reviews team who has preordered a system. I also preordered just one game, which, at the risk of hinting at how our review is going to look when it posts on Sunday morning, is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. Anyhow, it's Friday night and about time that I got my weekend started. Have fun playing with your new 3DS systems, those of you who are picking one up, and be sure to put your Mii Maker to good use by scanning in this QR Code of everyone's favorite Nintendo character.

I've spent a few dozen hours now with Yakuza 4, running around the streets of the noisy, neon-lit pleasure district of Kamurocho. When not kicking dudes in the face and beating them bloody with everything from signs to sofas, I've been engaging in a host of pastimes both innocent and adult in nature. The full review of this latest entry in Sega's gangster saga will be up on Monday, but I wanted to share some of my experiences with you now.

First and foremost, Yakuza 4 is absolutely, completely crazy. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has played the earlier Yakuza games, but if you're new to this series, be prepared for a lot of ludicrously over-the-top fight choreography and a ton of larger-than-life characters. Perhaps the biggest thing that sets Yakuza 4 apart from its predecessors is that you now play as four such characters, rather than just one. The inscrutable Kazuma Kiryu, hero of the earlier Yakuza games, is still here, but he's joined now by three other memorable protagonists. There's Shun Akiyama, a loan shark with a very unconventional way of running his business; Taiga Seijima, a convicted murderer whose quiet exterior hides a passionate soul; and Masayoshi Tanimura, a corrupt cop who operates according to his own moral code.

Each of these four characters has his own fighting style, and his own personality. Like the earlier Yakuza games, the story here is an intricate tale, packed with betrayals and stunning revelations. The way it's told isn't always exciting--many scenes substitute dry text and canned animations for voice acting and prerendered visuals--but it's overflowing with emotion. Like a good soap opera, the heightened emotions and constant surprises make this story an engaging one. And the fact that it hops from one fascinating character to another at regular intervals keeps the story moving until the credits roll.

You have to clobber hundreds of dudes before you reach the end, though. As you run around Kamurocho, thugs constantly approach you and demand your money or just insult you, which inevitably leads to fists and feet flying. Showing these punks the error of their ways is rarely challenging, but it's fun nonetheless. The responsive controls make pulling off insane, physics-defying combos easy and enjoyable, and you frequently level up, which gives you access to new moves to expand your arsenal.

These tough guys enjoy relaxing in the company of women who are paid to talk to them.

But there's more to Yakuza 4 than just brawling. A lot more. Kamurocho is a pleasure district, after all, so it makes sense that on its streets, you find video arcades, bowling alleys, and batting cages, along with more adult forms of entertainment, like massage parlors and hostess clubs. These latter locales were removed from Yakuza 3 when it was released outside of Japan, but Yakuza 4's international release contains the full, uncompromised experience. Spending time with hostesses is a dating sim in which you give gifts, choose responses in conversation, and participate in activities like karaoke (a simple rhythm game) in the hopes of making the hostesses fall for you. Visiting a massage parlor triggers a minigame in which you try to receive as much relaxation as possible from the massage, if you know what I mean. Elements like these certainly won't appeal to everyone, but they do enhance the sense that this is a pleasure district you're hanging out in, and with the early minor exception of a brief bit of time spent in a hostess club, you can avoid these aspects of the game altogether if you prefer. You can also while away the hours (and earn money and prizes) playing poker, blackjack, darts, billiards, mahjong, and a number of other traditional Japanese games of skill and chance.

Regardless of how much or how little time you spend with these activities, Yakuza 4 delivers much more of the outrageous brawling and juicy melodrama that are staples of the series and introduces three memorable new protagonists who can each stand proudly beside the charismatic Kazuma Kiryu. Our full review on Monday will have more detail, but suffice it to say that if you're a fan of the series, or if you're open to experiencing some emotionally charged, hard-hitting action with a distinctly Japanese flavor, I think you'll enjoy your time in Kamurocho.

When you first start up Rift, it's hard to shake the feeling that you've seen this game before. With the art style, the interface, and the basic structure, you see the influence of World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online all over this massively multiplayer online game. (And of course, those games dripped with the influence of earlier games, like Everquest and Asheron's Call.) Its derivative nature was the first thing I noticed about Rift, and when you see screens and gameplay clips, it might be the first thing you notice too. The good news is that Rift is more than just a clone. I've been playing it for a week, and the game has absolutely grown on me. I am still a week or two from delivering a full review, but I wanted to share some thoughts and invite those of you who have entered the world of Telara to share your own as well.

I think it should be said straightaway, however, that in an age when few online role-playing games feel complete upon release, Rift is one of the most slick and refined MMOGs I have ever played during the launch window. I fondly remember the mostly trouble-free launches of Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, and Asheron's Call 2, but even then, few games of this ilk feel like they have everything they need from the beginning. Final Fantasy XIV was missing an auction house and quick travel (among many, many other things); Champions Online and Age of Conan had noticeable content gaps; and Star Wars Galaxies lacked vehicles and mounts. Rift has had a few short downtimes for hot fixes, and I have run into login queues here and there, but otherwise, it is a working, attractive, playable game out of the box. All of the basic features you need in an MMOG are here from the get-go, without having to trust in a patch that may or may not come. Of course, patches and fixes will come; they always do in such games. But Rift isn't a shell, meant to have mechanics bolted on at a later date. It's a fully featured MMOG waiting for you to play it.

And if you are already playing it, I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am right now. There's a certain amount of chaos when you begin. Rift throws a lot of lore at you at once, without much of an introduction. The tutorial gets you up to speed well enough: You are an "Ascended," resurrected and sent back in time to fight the forces of the evil Regulos and halt the apocalypse before it occurs. Quest givers throw a lot of backstory at you, but it's all a bit scattered, like being dropped into the middle of the third installment of a fantasy trilogy. The confusion is compounded once you start looting items and earning different currencies, unsure of how to use some object or another or where this or that currency might be usable. But once the game allows you a moment to breathe, you can get up to speed with the intricacies and start enjoying what makes this game uniquely "Rift," and not "just another fantasy game."

Telara is just different enough to make you want to explore it.

Rifts and invasions are key to setting Rift apart. Everywhere you go, portals from other dimensions open into Telara from which nasty demons pour out. These events seem to happen almost anywhere and everywhere. One of the most memorable moments I have ever had in an MMOG was the first time such a rift opened right on top of me. The sky darkened, purple gunk erupted from the ground, and nasties appeared in flashes of blinding light. Nearby players converged on my location, and we defeated these demonspawn, the game automatically inviting everyone to join a raid group. You might think of rifts like Warhammer Online's public quests, except that rather than having to go to the quest location, the quest location comes to you. Marauding creatures parade down streets toward villages, and you might join a throng of other players as they pass, hunting down these monsters to halt the invasion. Rifts lend welcome unpredictability to a genre sorely needing it.

The other aspect of Rift that sets it apart is its class flexibility. You choose a main class to start with, but within it, you equip three souls. Souls are essentially subclasses, and when you level up, you spend skill points in any of the three. This improves skills you have earned and allows you to learn new ones. It also lets you mix and match to make your own class, though some classes are better fits than others. (After all, no one wants to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.) You aren't stuck with the same three souls for the duration, however; instead, you earn more as you complete quests. My current mage is a necromancer/warlock/dominator, which I enjoy not just because it is a pet class, but also because I can do ranged DPS (that is, damage per second). I can also help with crowd control by, for example, turning enemies into squirrels. (This is incredibly helpful in player-versus-player matches.) But in time, I might swap in other souls to see how I fare as a pyromancer or summon the power of wind and rain as a stormcaller.

Of course, these mechanics are wrapped into a by-the-book, quest-focused RPG. But they go a long way toward making Rift feel truly fresh--a big surprise if you judge this book by its admittedly derivative cover. I need to spend more time exploring this world, clearing dungeons, and closing rifts before I can deliver a more definitive word. But I offer a strong preliminary recommendation for now; not just because Rift makes a few nifty changes to an aging formula, but also because it does so in an elegant package that looks great and runs beautifully.

Several days ago I stayed up until midnight so that I could be among the first players on my server to start playing the new content in World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion. We'll be posting our full review sometime next week, but in the meantime I wanted to give you all a heads-up on where I'm at with the game.

After experimenting with my three level-80 characters in order to see how they had changed following recent updates, I initially decided that the night elf death knight was going to be the one I'd play through the Cataclysm content with first. Predictably, moments after midnight the server was struggling to cope (and eventually failed for a time) as thousands of players all gathered in the same spots to get their Cataclysm adventures under way. Personally, I had opted to hang out near a flight trainer in Stormwind so that I could learn to fly in the original Azeroth continents before heading out to one of the all-new zones. That was my first mistake, because as you can see in the screenshot below, plenty of other players had the same idea.

Spot the flight trainer.

With my flying lesson bought, and after struggling to interact with a couple more non-player characters that were being similarly obscured by crowds of players, I made it to the new Mount Hyjal zone. There, I spent maybe 45 minutes or so trying to complete the same quests that hundreds of players from both factions were also trying to get done, replaced my favorite epic sword with a green quest reward, and then called it a night because competing for quest items and enemies was becoming increasingly frustrating as more and more players flooded into the area. Fortunately, players are much more spread out now, and so the time I've spent playing since that first night has been much more productive.

I've mostly been playing with my dwarf hunter this week, and as of this writing he's level 83 after playing through most of Mount Hyjal and everything that the underwater zone of Vashj'ir has to offer. While I found the former to be a little disappointing because of how similar it is to other zones in Azeroth, the latter really impressed me. World of Warcraft's first underwater zone is everything that I hoped it would be and much, much more. Without giving too much away, some of the highlights include taming your own seahorse mount, a series of flashback-style quests in which you get to play as a naga, and rides on both a shark and a submarine. The ending of the Vashj'ir storyline that you're treated to after playing through all (or at least most) of its 160 quests is also well worth the effort.

Like the original zones that were significantly changed prior to Cataclysm's arrival, the new areas introduced in the expansion are almost entirely self-contained. Previously, quests in any given zone would encourage you to dip in and out of other zones and ultimately move you into them, but that doesn't appear to be the case any longer. Instead, every zone (with the exceptions of those in Outland and Northrend, which haven't changed since they were introduced in the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions, respectively) has a largely linear line of quests that tells a story from beginning to end. I wasn't sure what to think of this new approach initially, but it has really grown on me. Not only am I getting to see all of these stories through to their conclusions, but my quest log is no longer filling up with unfinished quests that I didn't complete before moving on to another zone.

Another reason for the unusually uncluttered state of my quest log is that dungeon quests are now dealt with in a much smarter way. I've played through only two of the expansion's seven new dungeons to date, so this might not be true of all of them, but it seems that rather than going into a dungeon with several quests to complete inside, you now go in with only one or two. Then, as you progress, you have opportunities to turn them in and take on new quests. In Blackrock Caverns, for example, there's a quest associated with each boss, and so after downing one you claim your reward and can accept the quest for the next one. It really is a great system, and I can't wait to see how it's implemented in dungeons like The Stonecore (which I've now found the entrance to--a requisite for being able to run dungeons now, even via the group finder option) and The Vortex Pinnacle.

With the arrival of a new expansion come countless green items that are better than your favorite purples.

In addition to playing with my hunter, I've checked out both the worgen and goblin starter zones, formed a guild with some GameSpot colleagues to get a good look at the new guild leveling and rewards systems, and spent some time playing around with the new archaeology profession. I had already played through the worgen starter zone in the beta the one time that I logged into it, which might be why I found it a little underwhelming, but entering the goblin area for the first time was a real "wow" moment. The zone is unlike anything that has previously appeared in World of Warcraft, and before I'd even reached level 3 I was using a hot rod to navigate it. Archaeology is also good fun as far as professions go, though despite retrieving numerous fragments from several different dig sites, I have yet to finish an artifact. That will change this weekend, I'm sure.

Obviously I'm not ready to deliver my final verdict on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm just yet, and let's be honest, there are probably very few of you reading this who are waiting for a review before deciding on whether or not to buy it. The review will be up next week for sure though, and in the meantime I'll just say that after six years of playing and canceling/renewing my account on more than a couple of occasions, Cataclysm and all of the changes that preceded it have me more excited about playing World of Warcraft than I've been in a very long time.

If you love strategy games, then you know Stardock, the respected developer and publisher behind such games as Demigod, Galactic Civilizations, and the awesome Sins of a Solar Empire. Its newest game is Elemental: War of Magic, an intriguing strategy game that I purchased on Tuesday when it became available on Stardock's own Impulse store. It's unfortunate that technical woes have made this a difficult game to play thus far, so the review may come later than I'd hoped.

As long as you don't encounter crashes, your influence will expand across the map.

Upon initial download, it was hard not to be struck by how poorly Elemental explained itself. If you are a newcomer, learning the game's unique take on turn-based strategy will take a bit of patience. Happily, some tutorial pop-ups have been added since the game's first patch. (Three days after release, two patches have been issued.) The in-game help tome fills in some gaps, but it isn't terribly complete. It tells you, for example, that there are four ways to win a game, but it lists only three of them.

More importantly, Elemental's crashes have become more than a rare nuisance for us. Of course, there is no guarantee that any given PC game will be perfectly stable for every player; you may run into problems I haven't encountered, and you might have a flawless experience. I've played the game on three separate PCs far exceeding the recommended requirements, and using the most recent video card drivers. And unfortunately, Elemental crashes relatively often on all of these systems--two using ATI cards and one using an Nvidia card. On one system, the game crashes every time an army is defeated. DirectX runtime errors and out-of-memory errors, all leading to crashes, have also been an issue.

You can take quests at inns. Why are fantasy worlds always so infested with rats?

After installing the second patch this morning, I was more hopeful, though sadly, games saved before the patch are not compatible with the patched version, meaning I couldn't continue from where I had left off yesterday. I have yet to venture into multiplayer, though as the reviewer's guide (attributed to Stardock CEO Brad Wardell) we received states, "multiplayer just isn't that fun." I am more excited about the included modding tools, not just because I want to flex my creative muscle, but because I am eager to see what other players do with Elemental's strategic foundation.

If you are interested in Elemental: War of Magic, I need to express extreme caution. While you may have a technically flawless experience, you may also run into severe bugs that hinder your enjoyment. Even if they pass you by, you are almost certain to notice other glitches, many of them related to Elemental's less-than-stellar interface. We'll bring you a full review when I've been able to spend vast amounts of time with the game, but for now, at least, you may wish to hold off until the wrinkles have been ironed out.

I wouldn't want to live in the city of San Paro. Packs of pierced and tattooed criminals speed about the streets, chased by equally adrenaline-filled peacekeepers desperately trying to rid the city of its delinquents. Fortunately, this crime-filled metropolis is fictional, so my current tour of duty there isn't life threatening, though it can be a bit harrowing from time to time. Welcome to APB, developer Realtime Worlds' first foray into the (sort of) massively multiplayer market. The game was just released this week, and I've been cavorting about as a ginger-Mohawked enforcer, bringing criminals to justice while admiring my sweet leather jacket as I hang out car windows like a streetwise vigilante. It's too early to tell whether APB deserves the key to the city or whether it should suffer in skid row, but in advance of the review, I thought I would give you a quick look into my life as an enforcer.

The APB notification lets you know when another group has been assigned as the opposition.

Perhaps APB's greatest selling point is the amount of customization on offer. Initial character creation is robust, but it's after you get in the game that this aspect starts to boggle your mind. Here's one game in which you can make sure your character looks nothing like anyone else. Using a Forza-style editor, you can use basic geometric shapes and decals to modify not just the vehicles that you buy, but also your clothing. As you gain favor with your various contacts in the world, you unlock more decals (and of course, new weapons and clothing as well). But you aren't just personalizing your looks: You can also use a simple in-game sequencer to create tunes that your victims hear upon defeat. I haven't made any fancy clothing just yet, though I did purchase a sweet "Assassin's Jacket" some player made with a familiar logo on it. (If you know who Altair and Ezio are, you know what I'm talking about!) I've spent more time in the midi sequencer and created a fun, short, and slightly discordant version of a tune from Ms. Pac-Man for my kill tune.

As for the gameplay, many of APB's ups and downs are obvious within a few hours. You perform missions for your various contacts to gain favor with them and unlock new goodies, which generally involves grouping up with other players and performing mundane tasks while shooting up the rival players assigned to opposing tasks. The game makes it easy to hook up with others, assigning players to groups automatically unless you choose to turn that option off and run about with players of your own choosing. You might get about 10 players on opposing teams on some occasions, though more frequently, there may be four of you. Missions are easy to take: The group leader receives constant mission invitations no matter where he is in San Paro, and when he accepts one, the team rolls out. The game will (hopefully) then match your team up with a competing team--enforcers versus criminals.

One of my favorite moments thus far has been killing a dude named DonCorleone. I capped the Don!

The massively multiplayer aspect applies to the world at large but not to the action. There are firefights going on all around, but I can't shoot up criminals willy-nilly--only members of the assigned opposition, unless there's a bounty on someone's head. It's certainly an interesting dichotomy: large-scale environments with all small-scale shootouts. Some traditional online shooters like MAG, Modern Warfare 2, and Bad Company 2 feature action on a much larger scale, so don't go into APB expecting massive battles. Nevertheless, it's undeniably cool to hang out of a passenger's side window, shooting up the rival team's vehicle as it pursues my team's van, hoping to murder our VIP. It's less cool to be the driver, only because the vehicles, at least at this stage, aren't much fun to drive. They either feel like heavy boxes on wheels or like you're speeding around on streets made of banana peels. Luckily, as with weapons, you earn upgrades for your own vehicles, which you can spawn at designated points throughout San Paro. I'm interested to see how vehicles improve as I earn these upgrades.

I'm also interested to see how the action improves once I gain access to some awesome weapons. You may find yourself up against some pretty tough rivals, using your puny early weapons to shoot up guys with upgraded gear. It can be frustrating to unload a ton of bullets in someone, only to get taken down in a few shots. Things are a lot more fun when teams are on level footing, but there's no guarantee that you'll have a fair fight when you first start. At least the game keeps you moving from one mission to the next, so you won't lack things to do. They do seem to always be the same things, however, and I'm looking forward to seeing if APB develops a greater sense of forward momentum. There's not a lot of story or world/character development, so the game relies on the promise of better weapons and customization options to keep you invested.

Hangin' out the passenger's side of my best friend's ride…

I haven't run into a lot of lag, which is fortunate, but I have encountered some craziness in the launch week. Busted animations and texture pop-in haven't affected the gameplay, but they can still be distracting. On the other hand, certain bugs, like capture spots located inside level geometry, can keep you from finishing missions. Another glitch allows you to unlock countless stuff if you stay logged in to a clothing customization terminal. (Now you know why dozens of unresponsive players are all huddled around those machines in the social district!) However, I haven't had any logging difficulties, and lag spikes have been rare for me, so there is some sugar to sweeten the lemonade.

Look out for a review of APB in the next week or two. In the meanwhile, if you'd like to party it up in San Paro with me, send me a private message on GameSpot; I'm on the La Rocha server!