Remember Hawken? it was a very promising free to play mech action/sim game for the PC in active development, until it ran into some troubles, and work on it was suspended. However, it appears now that the game will be re-entering the land of the living, thanks to the developers of APB: Reloaded, Reloaded Games, who have acquired the property.

“I’m pretty excited to now be able to announce that Reloaded Games is the new owner of Hawken,” New producer Joshua “capnjosh” Clausen of K2 Network said on Facebook.

“It’s a seriously great honor to be a part of the Hawken story, and I want to see it thrive.”

In addition to this, a list of update priorities for the game going forward was also shared on Facebook:

• Fix password reset
• Get Forums working again
• Fix more deployment stuff
• Fix a bunch of tools systems
• Fix more back end systems
• Plan new updates and future changes

Of course, it is not entirely sure what this might mean- while APB: Reloaded can certainly be viewed as a successful relaunch, there are some who feel Reloaded’s support for the game was and is lacking. It remains to be seen whether or not they can give Hawken the attention it deserves.

You guys remember APB? That was the crime simulation MMO that was made by the developers of the original Crackdown a few years ago, that bombed spectacularly and closed down before its corpse was salvaged as APB Reloaded, which is only a little bit better.

Well, now Deep Silver, Reloaded Games and The Workshop Entertainment have announced that they will be bringing the game to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as well, in case you are interested, or in case you want to play GTA: Online without actually playing GTA: Online for some reason.

Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver/Koch Media GmbH, says: “APB Reloaded has become a phenomenon on the PC with a very passionate and faithful community. We are really thrilled to help Reloaded Games and The Workshop bring this fantastic world to life on the new generation consoles.”

Bjorn Book-Larsson, CEO of Reloaded Games, says: “Over the past year it has been great working with Deep Silver and their experienced publishing teams from the Saints Row, Homefront and Dead Island franchises, as well as with the veteran development team at The Workshop, led by great members of the original Tony Hawk, Call of Duty 3, Borderlands 2: “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage” and The Evil Within teams, and getting their deep insight into how we can best transform APB Reloaded into a great console experience.”

Peter Akemann, CEO of The Workshop, says: “On a technical note, because APB is such a technically complex game, featuring thousands of destructible objects and heavily customized players and vehicles in every scene, we are thrilled to help make APB a reality on these brand new high performance hardware platforms.”

As with the PC version, the console versions will also be free to play. They are expected sometime in Q2 2015. Stay tuned.

APB or All Points Bulletin was deemed to be a new and different kind of massively multiplayer online game – until it released at a time when the subscription model was winding down (thus resulting in heavy blows to Funcom with The Secret World) and fell flat. This lead to the closure of the original developer Realtime Worlds.

But apparently things seem right in APB land, as APB: Reloaded, a new free to play version heavily based on the original has risen up from the ashes. It already saw lots of success in the past year when it stayed on Steam’s Top 5 list of free to play titles. And judging by Reloaded’s desire to create an “all new APB experience”, nothing seems to be slowing it down.

Source: GIBiz

APB Reloaded is still popular according to new stats sent by the studio. They say that the game is still popular and is among the top 5 titles on Steam, and that’s for the free-to-play category, where there’s isn’t a staunch competition.

The studio mentioned that as of the beginning of the first quarter of 2013, APB Reloaded resides as the fourth most-popular free2play game offered by Steam, besting gaming juggernauts and iconic brands like Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online, and DC Universe.

“Being a visionary publisher usually means that everyone continually tells you that you won’t succeed, and the run-away global popularity of APB Reloaded is validation that we have found something very special in the free2play space,” said Reloaded Games’ Chief Marketing Officer Rahul Sandil.

“Industry pundits decried our decision to secure the rights to All Points Bulletin and make the game free2play. Game critics and non-supporters doomed APB Reloaded to obscurity once we officially launched, yet here we are, a year later, with global sell-through of the retail version in Europe, licensed distribution in Brazil and Russia, and the game remains a top five most-popular downloaded game on Steam.”

APB Reloaded will be getting more updates like Settling the Score, with an improved District instancing mechanic, a new scoring system that balances arrests, kills and mission objectives, and new way for players to choose their own spawn point after death.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

APB reloaded gets a new update and you can check out the features below. The game was reviewed by us, which you can check out over here as well. The update introduces new joker tickets that gives players new ways to earn items without spending money, unlockable titles and improvements to the Fight Club Challenges.

“The APB juggernaut keeps on rolling and we are really excited to see so many new players join San Paro every day,” said Myra Widodo, producer for APB Reloaded. “As a special thank you we’re giving away 1 day of free Premium and 400 Joker tickets to all players who want to check it out! The free Premium code can be found in the Armas Marketplace: Simply login, redeem and enjoy 1.9.0! Just make sure to enjoy the free Premium before it expires on July 31st 2012 at 11:59pm (PDT).”

Key Features of the Update Include:

1. Joker Tickets – A brand new way to earn Armas items, without spending a dime. Players earn these valuable tickets through Fight Club challenges and redeem them for invaluable loot, including Armas weapons, outfits, vehicle and brand new titles.

2. Unlockable Titles – Players can show off their street cred with new, unlockable Titles. These preset titles appear under the character’s name and are based on ranks, roles and achievements.

3. Fight Club Challenge and Social District Enhancements – Tons of gameplay, challenge and security optimizations and enhancements. New to the Social District is the Joker distribution where players can use their Joker tickets and buy items from new NPCs, Ophelia and Wilde.

GamersFirst today announced the live release of version 1.7.0 of the Free2Play online action game APB Reloaded.

Key Features of the Update include

• Weekly Challenges added to the Fight Club zones. Players can now compete for several tiers of prizes using entirely new, heart-pounding game modes.
• New Progression Contacts in the game, handing out new player levels and the very latest experimental gear and gadgets. By finding them, players can earn themselves cool new virtual gear.
• New Mods and Features can be picked up from the new Contacts, bringing new capabilities to players including increased inventory, radar jammers, recoil decrease, opponent tracking and the ultimate high-tech way to lock vehicle speeds at MAX.
• Combat has been enhanced with new marksmanship and mobility modifications and sweet new weapons.
• New Custom Clothing Sets including this spring’s ‘must have’ Paramilitary rig.
• New Vehicle Kits for both Criminals and Enforcers. Players can cruise in style and smash into buildings and opponents while looking even cooler than before.

“New Breed Part 1 is a major step forward for APB Reloaded. The team has been listening to players’ feedback and making sure that every update makes San Paro a more incredible place to play”, says Michael Boniface, General Manager of Reloaded Productions.

It’s a free-to-play MMO and is set in a city called San Paro. The developers say it’s not GTA, and I agree, it’s not; its much worse than that. The game is fun sometimes, especially when you have those incredibly fast car chases that can really be satisfying. The game is so inconsistent that these fun moments don’t last for too long. The city is fun to drive in and create chaos, and you can do a lot of things here, including camping.

The major issues with the game can range from camping to glitches, and these are the things that suck all the fun out of it. There’s an in-game economy; you can buy guns, cars and they are all priced depending upon how awesome they are. So the bottomline is that if you have a powerful weapon or a good car, you will dominate in this game. If you’re skilled, that’s a bonus.

If you have played the original game you will know that the driving mechanics were one of the worst things ever. GamersFirst has rectified this and the controls and the car movement is quite responsive here. This makes a lot of difference and transforms the game as majority of time you will be driving here. It’s good to know that they have listened to the criticism and fixed the things that were important. That still doesn’t make the game good though, it’s still the same mediocre game like before but playable.

There is a lot of recoil here and it will encourage you to fire in short bursts rather than spray-and-pray, and this is one of the good things about the game now, considering the original version had completely poor shooting mechanics. There’s no story here or a decent mission progression system, it is also incredibly repetitive which drags the whole thing down and simply makes it a chore to play most of the times.

The city feels sterile and there’s not as much detail compared to a GTA game, which is again, understandable, but let’s be honest here, the environment makes a lot of difference. It is fun to drive a car and shoot the shit out of everyone, but it becomes boring after a while and isn’t satisfying. There isn’t really a lot of improvements here to call it a reloaded version, but I appreciate the developer’s ability to at least fix the driving since that actually made the game playable and somewhat fun.

APB Reloaded is only recommend if you can buy things to remain competitive. It’s not a terrible game, mind you, but it’s not exceptional either. Free-to-play makes it easier for people to check it out and look at its economy and the gameplay on offer, but the game doesn’t do a good job of showcasing it.

This game was reviewed on the PC. 

APB Reloaded is available at Best Buy. The retail box includes more that $50 of in-game items and services, including:

• 30 days of account wide Premium service, providing players with faster reputation and experience gains, more in-game currency rewards and a 20 percent discount in the Armas Marketplace, APB Reloaded’s in-game cash shop.

• 500 G1 Credits, redeemable in the Armas Marketplace.

• A faction-specific Cisco Z180 sports car. This all-wheel drive vehicle provides players with a fast, maneuverable and durable ride especially designed for mission in the mean streets of San Paro.

• And the exclusive Magnum ACT-44 Last Stand secondary weapon, a powerful, permanent handgun with great stopping power available to all characters on the account.

• And a super-secret bonus PERMANENT weapon.

GamersFirst announced today that the Company’s blockbuster open-world third-person shooter, APB Reloaded, has joined Steam.

Available for download today, Steam members can now join the fight for control over the fictional world of San Paro while the game continues to refine itself through the open beta process.

“GamersFirst is and always will be focused on our community, and being able to deliver the truly unique gaming experience that APB Reloaded offers to Steam subscribers only strengthens that commitment,” said Rahul Sandil, SVP of marketing and business development for GamersFirst. “Steam and GamersFirst share a common passion for authentic gaming experiences and dedication to delivering the very best entertainment possible to the PC platform.”

Check out the live action trailer from APB Reloaded. It’s a live action trailer, so be prepared to see some real humans. It features some clantily clad girls and a NFSW scene, so tread carefully.

[a]list games and GamersFirst present “Be All You Can’t Be,” an action-packed video trailer for APB Reloaded. Epic shootouts, murderous schoolgirls and YouTube celebs…You’re welcome!

The trailer doesn’t really show anything significant from the game, and is only for show. So don’t get your hopes up for this one. It’s well made though, so worth a watch.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.