GDC 2013: World of Warplanes keeps flying toward the horizon
World of Warplanes is still in testing, but it's been playable at a few events now and has staked its claim as a distinct entity from World of Tanks. Wargaming.net's CEO Victor Kislyi and global operations director Vlad Beloserov were at GDC recently showing off more highlights from the game, which promises to deliver exactly the sort of high-energy dogfights you would hope for.
As it stands now, the game has about 10 maps and 100 planes. Each of the planes can be fully customized, while each map is meant to play differently rather than just being different background scenery -- some maps are foggy, some have skyscrapers or mountains, some are set at different times of day, and so forth.
Actual gameplay has continued to receive polish tweaks; the game retains both easy and expert control modes, with the latter playing more like a flight simulator and the former allowing you to simply point your mouse in the direction you want to fly. Enemy planes and your own can be riddled with holes that show the sky through your shredded wings, and the UI allows you to track your plane's optimal speed and altitude to maximize performance in combat.
One extra tidbit revealed on the show floor was that players of both World of Tanks and World of Warplanes can reap extra benefits from both games, as experience earned in the former can be used to improve in the latter. While there's no set release date for the game at this time, the game continues to impress and will be flying into more open testing as soon as Wargaming.net's teams are happy with its performance in smaller test venues.
%Gallery-130862%
Massively sent its ace reporters to San Francisco to bring you back the biggest MMO news from this year's GDC, the largest pro-only gaming industry con in the world! Whether it's EVE Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic or that shiny new toy you've got your eye on, we're on the case, so stay tuned for all the highlights from the show!
