APB Reloaded is a massively multiplayer online third-person shooter game based in the modern-day fictional city of San Paro. In a state of near anarchy, players choose between two factions, Enforcers and Criminals, in order to control the city. Criminals and Enforcers battle in this open-world environment to control territories, commit or stop petty crimes, and gain notoriety within their own organizations. Be it on foot or from the driver seat, APB Reloaded melds player-on-player combat within the immersive world of a city on the edge of total chaos. With a robust set of customization tools, gamers can choose the exact look of their in-game avatar, character crests, tags clothing and even the cars they drive.

Where will you stand in the battle for control? Discover unforgettable weapons, experience incredible customization and try to survive a frenzied battle for control of the streets.

Patch 1.5.2 is now live, and it officially begins the start of Open Beta Phase 2! Many of the Open Beta 2 changes will dramatically change the way you play the game and it sets the foundation for some exciting improvements coming in the future. So much has changed in fact that we're going to need your help in making sure that everything is tuned and balanced just right. Help us by providing your feedback on Facebook and on the official forums.

Here's a small taste of what is waiting for you the next time you log-in:

• Improved Matchmaking & Opposition - The matchmaking system has been completely overhauled and now integrates your skill rating when creating matchups.
• District Recommendation will place you automatically in the best matched district for your skill level when you select the main district buttons from the main district select screen.
• Revamped Missions - We've made updates and completely re-written over 60 missions, and removed several missions that just weren't that fun.
• Action System Improvements - Shooting now outranks ever other action, including sprinting. We've also reworked animations to give you a smoother and more realistic play experience.

This patch brings some of the biggest changes to APB Reloaded since Open Beta began. Once again, your feedback is vital in the process of balancing everything this new patch brings to APB Reloaded. Be part of the future of APB Reloaded and start playing today.

Here are the patch notes to the latest version 1.5.2 (103) update hot off the press.

New Feature: District Recommendation

• Added a new feature to check a player’s skill rating and automatically recommend a district containing players of a similar skill rating.
• This allows low and high tier players to go into districts with players of a similar skill rating, dramatically improving their chances of getting good matchups on opposed missions.
• Players can use this feature by choosing either of the two action district buttons on the main District Select screen.
• Players can still use the ‘Instances’ tab on the District Select screen to manually choose a district as before.

• The matchmaking system has been redesigned to integrate better with the new skill rating system.
• The biggest improvement will be the matchmaking system taking into account how confident the skill rating system is about a player’s skill level. This should result in improved matches, especially for new players.

• Added a new feature to automatically team up individual ready players and small groups into larger teams to take part in missions together.
• This increases the chances of players getting matchups as well as the chances of participating in missions with more players per side (i.e. bigger missions).
• On completing the mission, players are presented with a popup dialog, asking if they want to group up. Players saying ‘yes’ will then be put into a group together.
• Players who don’t wish to take part in Team Alliance can opt out on the ‘Groups and Friends’ menu.

• Changed the order of action importance (I.e. which actions may be interrupted by other actions).
• This means that shooting now outranks every other action, including sprinting. This does not allow firing while sprinting, but it does mean that holding both sprint and fire at the same time will now fire instead of sprint.
  
  • There is a known issue where players can occasionally perform the sprint animation in a direction other than the one they are travelling in. We will have a fix for this issue as soon as possible.
• Other changes include allowing players to switch weapons again while already in the process of switching weapons, and allowing weapon switching while sprinting. Players can now also go directly to the crouching position when sprinting.

• Updates to over 60 missions, primarily changing their final stage(s) to be opposed objectives (both teams have something to do, not just attack/defend).
  
  • In some cases, we have completely disabled missions that require a total reworking.
  • Also adjusted the timings of several missions to better balance them (this primarily affects VIP missions).

• Rifling: Fixed this as it wasn’t correctly increasing the effective range of the weapon in previous builds.
• Happy Landings: Decreased the distance a player can fall without entering the heavy landing animation (not exactly a nerf here, at level 3 the distance is the same as it was in 1.5.1).

• Fixed mods not being removed and recovered when they are on an unequipped weapon that has expired.
• Fixed the weapon stats for shotguns only showing the per-pellet damage as opposed to the full shot damage.
• Fixed the ALIG 762 R&D III having the wrong name in the Armas Marketplace.
• Added a kill icon for the ALIG 762.

• Increased the jump height slightly to improve the flow of moving through blocks in districts.
• Increased the distance the player can fall without entering the heavy landing animation.
• Increased the chat box size by one line.
• Fixed a couple of low-frequency server crashes.
• Fixed a couple of low-frequency client crashes.
• Fixed Michael Simeone sending a blank email.
• Fixed the ‘Backup’ UI message naming the player you are already opposed to instead of the player joining the match.
• Fixed Threat icons not updating in the Group UI element, if the player is in a vehicle.
• Fixed Threat icons not updating on the ‘Groups and Friends’ UI menu.
• Fixed the UI ceremony message showing the Threat Training icon when a player is Bronze 1.
• Fixed the Clan tab on the ‘Groups and Friends’ menu only ever showing the ‘In Training’ Threat icon for a player’s threat level.
• Adjusted cash income from Missions, Activities and Contact Levelling.
  
  • Reduced all cash from completing Contact levels.
  • Removed the increased cash amount for non-premium players on higher tier missions. Premium players now receive 125% extra cash from missions across the board, compared to non-premium players.
  • Reduced the cash gains for non-premium players on all activities (Open World, Kill/Arrest/Task Completion).
  • Adjusted increased standing amount for Premium players:
  •  
    • 30% over non-premium players at Tier 0 contacts.
    • Additional 15% increase for each level over Tier 0 (45% at Tier 1, 60% at Tier 2, 75% at Tier 3, 90% at Tier 4).
• Added a Vehicle Spawn machine outside the Karnak Casino in the Financial District.
• Fixed a client crash when applying a blank or empty symbol as player graffiti.
• Fixed a bug where the game would not first look for opposed missions when all group members are ready (putting them on an unopposed mission instead, with the possibility of opposition later), if the group leader has already been ready for over 30 seconds.
• Screenshots are now saved as compressed PNGs, rather than bitmaps.