It's a simple idea, one that has been done before in multiplayer tank games, though none so direct, so efficiently. It has small hints of a role playing game in it. Just enough to keep things interesting and engaging for those that care about such things, like the powdered sugary sweetness sprinkled on the top of your favorite desert. In World Of Tanks the entire joining of all its parts joins up to make one superbly satisfying ground pounding armored war experience. There is just something about the crack and thump of a tank gun, and the resounding clank of the empty shell hitting the floor followed by that sound of another round being loaded, it just make me smile.

From the first introduction of the tank in World War I at the little known Battle of Flers and later It was then used with less success at the Battle of the Somme. It proved the tank was here to stay in land battles. With War's advances in weaponry so did the tank advance in technology onto the proving grounds of World War II. World of Tanks does a superb job at showing off the tank as a major asset in warfare. It also gives the players a chance at the many different types of tanks, and through an interesting system of game play, allows players to research new tank types as well as parts of the tank for improved reliability and tactical defense and offense on the field of battle.

World of Tanks is a free to play team based MMO game featuring very accurate renditions of histories meanest armor, from Germany, America, and The Soviet Union. It has also been confirmed that France is also in development. There are a wide variety of tanks and armor in the game. It Features light, medium, and heavy tanks, as well as tank destroyers, self-propelled artillery and prototype armor.

The game makes a perfect mix of action adventure, simulation, strategy with a hint of customizing role play by way of a virtual crew for the tanks and the ability for the crew to get better at their jobs as the player advances in battles.

While the game is a play for free, Wargaming.net smartly utilizes a micropayment system in the form of Gold to generate revenue and therefore in turn support the game. Support the game they do, as notated, French Tanks are being researched and will soon be implemented in the game, there have been talk of more maps as well. The developers have let on some of the plans thus far to include that the main branches of the French Tank Tree are at the final production stage. Further Tank Trees to be implemented into the game are to be French, English, and Japanese. Though word is, it does not stop there, the assembly of tank-building nations such as Italy, Hungary, Sweden and other as of yet un named may be in the works as well.

If this is indeed true then the amount of different tank types and other armored vehicles will put a huge goofy grin on any ground pounders face.

The darker side of any online game is the folks that just do not play well with others. These not so nice players either exploit game code or use some other way to cheat in game. The administrators and the game client are very aggressive when it comes to taking care of these folks and such transgressors are actively dealt with and either banned from the game for a short time or the worse, banned forever.

Now you may well ask, well if it's free what is the use of premium accounts? Well there are quite a few perks and boosts for premium members. Premium membership provides 50% more credits and experience per each battle. This in turn gives the player the ability to research vehicles a lot faster than the non-premium players giving them somewhat of an edge. Players can opt to have a premium account for a day, three days or even a week or a month at a time. Now the pay to get a faster leg up and perhaps an edge when it comes to tech research and experience has had some players dub it pay to win. Does it throw things out of balance?

Maybe in some ways, though as in real life it mirrors in some ways, those with the money to spend on the research and technology get ahead faster than others. At the time of this write up it breaks down in U.S dollars like this....To purchase gold 1250 gold comes to $6.95, 3000 is $14.95, 6500 is $29.95 and 12000 is $49.95 and the big one that gives the player the most is 25000 and that is a big $99.95 that is a bit of change no matter what the exchange rate comes to where you're from.

When in the virtual garage, this is where the player can look over crew rosters, fix and add to the tank with upgrades and reloads or even of course do the research to the way to bigger and better tanks. When the research window is displayed it shows information on all available upgrades for the current vehicle. Here the player can also see the current tech tree which shows other vehicles that with time the player can research.

Adding equipment improves the vehicles defensive, offensive and survivability on the battlefield. Some equipment can be mounted and un-mounted on the vehicle. While others cannot be un-mounted at all once it is installed. Equipment causes certain effects, and some of the equipment needs certain conditions to take effect. Like using optics of the binocular telescope or camo- netting require the Tank to be stationary.

In game, there are pretty interesting levels of damage that can take place. The damage system is rather robust and a player can pick apart another vehicle by for instance taking out its tracks. Different things can be damaged and cause different effects. The engine, the turret, the gun, tracks, and radio can all be damaged from enemy fire. The games system of damage takes into consideration armor thickness, angle of armor and of course the historical weak spots on different vehicles. In game I have been victim of the one shot kills though and they do in fact happen.

Thus far entering battles takes place through something akin to a lobby. The way the game does it is pretty simple. It gives the player a basic choice of battles click and enter. Just entering and you're in the queue and the game client finds a game for you and balances things out for sides. The bare bones of the game are sort of like a team death match with capture points on the map or enemy base kind of elements to it. A team can win by capture of the enemy base, or destroying all the opposing team.

Using terrain and bush and tree cover helps to hide the tank when it is not moving. Some tanks have camo-paint already have some advantages and are harder to spot. I was a bit disappointed in the game, when some tanks seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to disappear. Worse yet, a few times I would have a tank kill my tank and appear out of thin air. Not from some cover mind you, but on open terrain. It is unknown at the time of this writing if this is a bug in the game, or some really nasty lag.

The good old WASD keys are what you use to drive the tank and mouse buttons help with the camera or view and firing the gun. The ammo in the tank can be changed between different shell times from Armor piercing and also High Explosive. Using the 1 to 3 keys switches out the types of ammo if you have the three different types. Then the 4 to 6 keys selects consumables such as fire extinguishers, med kits and repair kits.

If you're taken out during battle there is no re-spawn, you get to sit and watch as the rest of the battle rages and you are rooting for your side to win. It is rather cool though because with a click of a mouse you can jump around to other players on your team to see how they are doing, or perhaps what they are doing to stay alive so long. As a new player you may spend a lot of time looking at your burning hulk of a tank. Fear not you will get better and have a blast at this. There is nothing like taking out an opponent in this game because it's not just an AI opponent, it is a fellow player who is thinking and doing their best to take you out. Just remember strategy and team work is a must here. Just remember try something novel and give your team mate room so they can maneuver if they have to back up out of the line of fire. Or if you see your team mate firing, don't be stupid enough to pull in front of them and block their field of fire.

Ambushes work well, as do interlocking fields of fire. There is nothing like multiple hits on a target to make short work of them. In aiming players will notice that the round cross hair aiming point expands when moving, thus making your fire less accurate. From a stand still position or slow moving the cross hairs shrink and make your fire more accurate.

At the end of a battle players are rewarded with credits and experience, win or lose you get something from your battles. Credits are the in game currency and can be used to purchase new tanks, Non Player Character Crews, as well as parts and supplies for your tanks.

There are so many different tank types and bits of equipment to customize things out for the player. Simple direct, but so much fun, now if the incredible disappearing tank right freaking in front of you can be addressed it would be even more awesome. Even with the gripes, World of Tanks lumbers in and seems to be the dominate force right now in MMO land right now.

Not to sit back and leave it at that incredibly enough the folks at Wargaming.net are bolstering things with what may be considered the big three in the MMO industry. Soon to join World of Tanks, will be two other games sure to drive folks wild who love the WW2 era machines. While these will not be integrated into one another they will stand powerfully on their own. World of Warplanes and World of Battleships is in the works now.

We at Impulse Gamer are looking forward to both, though I have to admit my first draw will be to the air to air combat of World of Warplanes. We know a little bit about the game and what little we do know makes me itch to get my hands on that one. Word is that the aircraft types will date from the 1930?s and up through to the 1950?s. I am a bit apprehensive that my understanding is that there will be no cockpit view, though there will be a kind of feature much like World of Tanks where you can view the site. One thing that sound ultra- cool about this one is a damage camera view that will pop up and treat the player to a view of where they are hitting the target and blowing the heck out of it.

The other thing I have mixed feelings about is that general word thus far is that you won't have to worry about take -off and landing, just bang you're in the air ready for combat. Bases are part of the game, so expect perhaps bombing raids on each other's bases with AI AAA guns perhaps. Air to air combat and multiplayer gaming brings some interesting things to the MMO table. Sure there have been plenty of Air to Air multi-player games in the past. What we expect to see is the same cool innovations that were put into World of Tanks. The coolest thing to see would be one side protecting bombers and the other side working to take them out. We are in a wait and see pattern here for this one.

World of Battleships is a whole new twist on things, and it will be interesting to see just how playable this one is going to be out on the wide ocean. Will it be a matter of there they are and just blast away? How will they bring that tactical feel to such a game as World of Battleships? What we know so far is that there will be battleships, cruisers, frigates, destroyers and then also PT boats. Since the PT boats worked a lot around islands, it will of great interest to see how this is worked out. One thing at this time anyway we have heard we will not see are submarines. It is feared that using submarines will unbalance the game play way too much. We will however see carriers. While there will not be player controlled planes, players running a carrier will be able to send planes out on missions using AI pilots. We think perhaps much like you hire crews in World of Tanks. Now it would be interesting if the pilots have to be replaced if lost? perhaps that would be too much who knows. But it would sure give a feeling of loss losing crew and having to replace them with new recruits.

World of Warplanes is what is coming next after a pretty solid introduction to gaming from World of Tanks, then this is to be followed by World of Battleships.

All in all World of Tanks even with some of its minor annoyances is a very addictive game and a solid addition to worthwhile gaming. World of Tanks is great because it can be played in small doses or just jump into one battle after another. Check it out now Look up World of Tanks on the web and have a go!

Have fun, play games.
Edwin Millheim
Impulse Gamer