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Rise and Shiny: War Thunder
War Thunder, a new instanced-based WWII flying battle, uhm, thingy, didn't really seem that appealing at first. It looks nice, and yes, the planes can be controlled in a few different styles ranging from an FPS twitch style to a more "realistic" mode, but I was worried it would be just another slogging grind until I was able to have any fun. There's some truth behind my worry about the grind, but overall I had an incredible time in the game. The only real shame is that I didn't get to put as much time in it as I would have liked. The game had infrequent connection issues, but when they cropped up, they lasted a while. Even so, each match lasted long enough to give me a pretty good taste of combat. I stuck with the "arcade" style of gameplay. It's a simpler way to control the planes that allows players to point the mouse pointer for control. You might need to land for repairs and take off again, but it's as simple as slowing down until you touch down. I started to take the more realistic mode's tutorial, but as soon as it told me I had to manually control much more of the plane's controls, I gave up. Call me a wimp, but I just wanted to shoot planes.
Rise and Shiny: The Aurora World
There are a lot of MMOs out there. A lot. Sometimes I rattle off a list of MMOs during a conversation with fellow fans and they look at me as if I have butter pouring from my fingertips. They don't believe it, but they know it's happening. There are that many MMOs out there? Yes, there are. There are literally thousands in the world, hundreds in the United States. Out of all of those many different titles that I have played and come across, I like to say that most aren't really bad or horrible, but just... the same. Bland, boring, vanilla, dull. I like to throw the figure "80 percent" around to represent how many of them are just ugh. The Aurora World is an MMO. It has systems. It has skills to learn, and pets and monsters and quests and all of those trademarks that have, unfortunately, given MMO developers blanks to fill in on a checklist that is titled "MMORPG." There are a few tricks up the game's sleeves, but only a few. Actually, The Aurora World reminds me of one of my favorites, Zentia, but it lacks the soul that made me love Zentia.
War Thunder opens US beta server, starts development on mobile version
War Thunder, formerly World of Planes, has been soaring through open beta for several months now. Gaijin Entertainment decided that it's time to make a few flight adjustments, however, and announced that it has opened up a separate US gaming cluster to improve latency times for North American players. The developer also let slip that it has begun development on a mobile version of the game for both iOS and Android platforms. Gaijin said that War Thunder has attracted 1.5 million active users who have flown a total of 224 million missions since the start of beta. The developer recently put out version 1.29 for the flight sim; the patch makes a number of significant improvements such as four new aircraft, improved damage models, and a new economy. [Source: Gaijin Entertainment press release]
War Thunder enters open beta, new trailer released
Gaijin Entertainment has announced that its War Thunder World War II-based online flight sim has officially entered open beta. The title, formerly known as World of Planes, has been in development for over four years. The open beta comes almost a year to the day after Gaijin's announcement that the game had evolved "beyond pure aerial combat." Gaijin previously developed Birds of Prey, a console-based entry in the long-running Sturmovik series. The company has released an open beta teaser trailer that you can view after the cut. You can also join the beta test via the game's official website.
The Firing Line: 16th century fragging edition
What do War Thunder, World of Warplanes, Leonardo da Vinci, and Tribes: Ascend have in common? Not a whole lot aside from their respective appearances in this week's edition of The Firing Line. Won't you join me after the cut for a rundown on some recent and notable online shooter news? If you're feeling particularly ornery, you can point and laugh at the fact that I'm still not in the War Thunder beta.
World of Planes renamed, evolves 'beyond pure aerial combat'
Gaijin has renamed its forthcoming aviation-centric World War II action MMO. The title was formerly called World of Planes (not to be confused with World of Warplanes), but will henceforth be known as War Thunder: World of Planes. The official website has been redesigned to reflect the change, and most interestingly, Gaijin states that aviation is no longer the title's sole focus. "This name change is significant because the online multiplayer universe Gaijin is developing has evolved beyond pure aerial combat. The massive historical battles featured in War Thunder cannot be fought with aviation alone -- World of Planes is only the beginning," the site says. What this means is anyone's guess, since Gaijin has not offered any details regarding ground- or sea-based combat as of yet. The company has released a new screenshot gallery, though, and you'll find that and more at the new official site.
