Every so often I’ll ask you guys, both on Facebook and Twitter, about what games you intend to play over the weekend or with whatever free time you find in your week. It’s great because, I get a refresh on what is out there at the moment and I get to share suggestions with the rest of the community. Typically, that’s about as far as it goes but I’d to spotlight a few titles that were mentioned in our most recent discussion, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Lord of the Rings Online and World of Tanks.
Few games focus so closely on one particular type of vehicle unless they are a cars racing or an aeroplane in a simulator title. Of course there are a handful of exceptions that have enjoyed mainstream appeal (Wave Race 64 was quite cool, right?), but by and large there won’t be one vehicle type that has a game entirely dedicated to it. If there is to be one vehicle to buck the trend, then a tank would be an excellent candidate. Enter World of Tanks, a free-to-play game that has a huge amount on offer before you even begin spending money on additional content.
Gameplay is intuitive and a lot like a first person shooter, keyboard and mouse controls are used to move, aim and shoot. There are other control options you pick up as you become comfortable; cruise control, turret lock and switching shells will all become crucial but the learning curve is not so steep that you won’t be able to adjust quickly enough. The important part about this is that, rather than being thrown in to the battlefield and mixed into the cauldron of advanced and inexperienced players, you will be matched against an opponent with similar weaponry. The playing field is further levelled by a random selection from various maps which helps to negate any advantage gained from acclimatising to a terrain.
Individual battles range around 15 minutes, enough time to dip in and dip out if you so choose but chances are that once you get into one, you’ll want another and then a bunch more. It may be the case that you look up from an extended play session and realise that days have passed since you began your campaign. But that’s not a bad thing, is it?
