DC Universe Online is now free-to-play

Just a heads-up for those interested. Starting on November 1st 2011, which was yesterday, DC Universe Online went free-to-play. I'm not that much into superheroes but I'll give it a whirl.

At this point I have very little knowledge about this game but I'll try to learn it as I go along. If I can get past the first couple of hours without getting bored, then I'll probably keep playing.

The free version of the game does seem a little restricted compared to, say, World of Tanks, but let us not forget that DC Universe Online started out with a subscription-based model. You can still subscribe, fear not, but now there's the option to try-before-you buy.

I've currently downloaded about 10GB of the 14GB game client. Yikes! I'll probably fire up the game over the next couple of days.

World of Tanks - more addictive than you'd think

What's the best game of the year? Depends who you ask but for me it was definitely World of Tanks. The novelty of the concept, the great gameplay, the vast number of tanks and maps, the endless ways in which a battle can take happen, the infinite replayability, the pseudo-realistic mechanics and physics and, why not, the free nature of the game conspired to make it one of the best games I've played in years.

Of course, not everyone is sold on it. Some people don't like the shooter genre. Some don't like tanks or the WWII setting. Some don't like playing online against others. And on and on. But from what I gather, World of Tanks has a huge worldwide gathering, especially in Russia where it is being developed. A reader informs me that it is actually developed in Belarus. My apologies.

One of the reasons why World of Tanks is so popular is the freemium business model. While other MMOs have started with a subscription model and then switched to freemium when they realized not a lot of people were playing them, World of Tanks was built around the concept of "free" from the get-go. In this aspect, my humble opinion is that it is really well designed. As a free player you have access to all the tank tiers (from 1 to 10) and all the maps. Other freemium games impose certain restrictions on how high you can go. Not this game. While paying customers can reach maximum level much faster, a free player can also get there, through patience and perseverance.

But here's the thing. There's a big chance that if you start out as a free player, even if you intend never to spend a cent on this game, you might find yourself voluntarily shelling out some cash at some point. The very thing happened to me. Though I spent a puny amount compared to hardcore players, I did show my appreciation to the developers by spending some money in the game. This is a good thing. A good game deserves compensation. The more people pay for it, the better the game becomes.

Let me tell you a story that enforces the above.

I'm an European living for many years in the US. I don't have any friends here who are gamers but back in Europe I know a bunch of hardcore nerds, just like me, who love PC games. One of them is a really good friend and we share a lot of interests but these aren't all the time identical. For example, we both love WoW and Diablo but he also likes games such as Dragon Age, The Witcher, Mass Effect. I don't like those but I like Borderlands and Glitch to give a couple of examples.

When I went to my home country on vacation last summer I demoed World of Tanks to my friend. It was easy: download the ~2GB client (very quick at European broadband speeds), install it, login with my username and password. I played a couple of battles for him and he showed some mild interest. I wasn't expecting him to really get into the game.

A few days later he told me that he had created an account and was now playing the game. I was like, woot! He had some initial frustrations with some of the gameplay but ended up being hooked by it. After I got back to the US he told me he was obsessed with the game. He'd even bought a subscription to it and had advanced along the American tank destroyer line farther than I had. Of course, I have a lot more tanks spread across many different lines but still...

So you see, World of Tanks can really grab you hard when you least expect it and it won't let go easily. There are, of course, players who have quit the game in frustration over one aspect or another. One of the main factors of contention is the matchmaker system which sometimes can pit you against tanks 3-4 tiers above you, where you don't stand much of a chance. I admit that the game is not perfect. But you know what? The version number says it is still in beta (currently version 0.6.7) and the devs are continually working on it, fixing bugs, improving mechanics and adding new tanks and maps.

I am not as obsessed with World of Tanks as I was at the beginning. These days I fire it up once every few days, or maybe a couple of times a week. Then again, I'm mostly playing Glitch. But when I do play it, it's almost therapeutic. I just love this game in so many ways. Even if I get raped two minutes into a battle, who cares? I will just load up another tank and perhaps win the next battle with 5 kills.

If you are undecided, if the genre mildly appeals to you, I urge you to try this game. You won't regret it and you might even end up addicted.

In closing, here's a screenshot of a recent glorious battle I fought in. Our team steamrolled the adversaries, with 13 kills on our side, 2 suicides on their side and 1 loss for us. My "Easy 8" Sherman was hanging by a thread at the end.

Glitch review

Glitch is one of those games that I would never have seen myself playing, the way I can't see myself ever playing Farmville. I heard about it by chance and seeing that it's a freemium MMO, I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, I liked it a lot. It may not be as complex or involving as World of Warcraft but it has surprising depth.

At first impression, Glitch may look like a children's game, all done in Flash and with those cute and colorful graphics. Don't make that mistake because it is not. Even their FAQ specifies that you need to be minimum 14 to play and children between 14 and 17 need a parent's permission.

So what the heck is Glitch? First, Glitch is a browser based game made in Flash. Second, it's a weird sort of hybrid between an adventure game, a platform game and an MMO, or a cross between Farmville, Mario and World of Warcraft if you will, except that there's absolutely no violence in it (or at least none that I have discovered so far). Glitch is essentially billed as a "social" game, in that it actively encourages players to interact with each other and help one another. I'll get more into that later.

Glitch takes place in the strange realm of Ur, which is a world that exists only in the collective dream of 11 giants. If the premise seems fantastical, that's because it is. Throughout the game you'll come across numerous picturesque and so-very-strange landscapes, a world that only a fictional giant could dream. In the game, you play the role of a "glitch" which is essentially a denizen of this uncanny place.

You navigate the game by moving left or right, jumping up or down, just like in a platform game. The world is made up of various zones which usually share a common theme. You can view each zone as being the product of one giant's imagination. Apparently even the artists who designed them are different, so the graphic styles also differ from zone to zone.


Zones are further divided into streets with wacky names. All the action takes place on these streets. You explore the world by moving from street to street and zone to zone. Streets in the same zone share the same basic art style but zones vary from a desert setting to forests, highlands, bogs, a wintery place or two and other places which are very hard to define.


The goal in Glitch is to... Actually there is no goal and there is no end game. At least not like in games such as WoW. It's a sandbox game in that you are free to do whatever you want. As you first start the game, a short tutorial guides your steps until you start getting the hang of a few basic actions but from there on you are free to explore and advance at your own pace and in your own style.


Stats

A Glitch character does not have classic attributes like Strength, Intelligence and so on, but (s)he has a thing called "metabolics" which is a collection of several vital stats. These are Mood, Energy, Experience (and level) and Currants.

Before starting a new character you are given the option of customizing his/her appearance but this can be changed later at any point.

Mood is gained by performing various actions and it measures your general happiness. If you are happier you gain more XP and lose less energy. If you are not, the opposite happens. In my time playing Glitch I never had to worry about Mood. Since I perform a lot more actions which increase Mood than decrease it, I'm always extremely happy.


Energy is the most bothersome thing so far and that's because every action that you perform requires energy. In other games this is called "health" and when it drops to zero, you die. It's much harder to regain energy than it is to spend it, especially considering that energy slowly drains away even when you aren't doing anything. You can replenish it by eating, meditating and you get some of it back by completing quests. At the end of a game day (4 real-time hours) your energy will also be topped off.


Experience is generally gained by performing actions and completing quests. "Performing actions" includes a wide variety of things but I'll get into some of them later on. As you gain new levels your maximum energy and mood levels increase. That's good because you can perform more actions with one "fill up" as you level up. From what I can tell so far, there are no limits on how many levels you can have. I heard of a player reaching level 101 in the beta but I imagine that is very hard to accomplish with casual play.


Currants represents the game's currency. Think of it as "credits" or "gold" or "dollars". You gain credits in many ways: by completing quests, by selling items to vendors, by finding coins (just like in a platform game) or by selling stuff on the auction house. I will refer to them as "credits" henceforth, to prevent confusion.


Pet Rock

Your constant companion during your stay in Ur is a magic rock that you can access from the top of your gaming window. This rock gives you quests but more importantly learns skills for you.



Activities & Socializing

So what is there to do in Glitch? Lots of things. For starters, there's the exploration aspect. Initially you'll probably be overwhelmed by the plethora of streets and zones but all this is made easy with the help of a map and a "GPS mode" in which you can click on a destination and the game gives you turn-by-turn directions.

There are many strange and weird activities that you can engage in. You can, for example, pet and water trees for a boost to morale and XP but at the cost of energy. You can pet piggies which subsequently allow you to "nibble" them, giving you meat. You can hug chicken which gives you grain. You can massage butterflies with lotion, after which they allow you to milk them for, you guessed it, butterfly milk. Then you shake that milk transforming it into butter. Compressing it renders cheese. You can turn these various ingredients into food by using the correct tools (such as a Cutting Board or a Frying Pan). To use tools you also typically require the appropriate skill. But more on that later.

The same weird universe which makes chicken give you grain, also provides Egg Plant which are a type of tree which, when harvested, gives eggs. You can use your skills and the appropriate tool to transmute cherries into all kinds of fruit. You can also mine 4 different types of ore (which has further uses). Here's where a very nice social aspect of the game comes in. Mining is similar to WoW. A mineral node has several "charges" which you deplete by mining the node with your pick. Each charge takes about 10 seconds and yields a number of ores plus, occasionally, a precious gem. One or more players can also mine the same node, which depletes it quickly but gives each player a bonus based on how many people are mining the node at the same time. This is really cool because once a node is depleted, another one spawns nearby within a short period of time. So not only is "ninja-ing" permitted but it is actively encouraged and highly recommended.

I don't really socialize a lot in MMOs, as you all know, unless I need help with something. The Glitch community seems very helpful indeed. Just ask in general chat and someone is bound to help you. One instance where I needed help was when a quest required me to borrow a tool from another player. I needed another repair tool to repair my own repair tool. I know, recursive, right? At low levels those tools aren't exactly cheap so it takes a measure of trust to just hand that item to another player. Yet, that's exactly what happened: a guy offered to help me and we both got our stuff repaired.

That's about as far as I got with socializing but it feels like a very helpful and nice community. But then again, there aren't many ways in which to grief players. The only things which seem to deplete are mineral nodes (where you are rewarded for sharing with others) and coins which you grab by touching them, but coins respawn quickly anyway. (BTW, coins can give you energy, mood, credits and favor with the giants). Stuff that can be harvested, such as the various trees and animals, yields mats for each player separately so there's no fighting over resources. Typically resources from trees and animals can be harvested once a (game) day. Speaking of which...


How time flows in Glitch

In Glitch, one game day is the equivalent of 4 real-time hours. Moving to a new day does several things: it fills up your energy levels, it resets resources on trees and animals (though resources seem to replenish more often than that but it bears testing) and it resets your quota for various actions. For example, you are only allowed to collect a certain number of coins in a game day.

Days are grouped into months but what strage months they are! The shortest (Recurse) has only 1 day, while the longest (Fever) has 73 days. And their names are, well, judge for yourself. I lol @ them all the time.


Inventory

You start up with 16 item slots. Each slot can hold a bag, while bags can have 10 to 16 slots. This gives you a maximum of 256 item slots which is quite a lot.


Skills

Skills are what gives even more depth to Glitch. They are a collection of passives and actives and essentially open up the world to you. While at the beginning you might be limited in what you can do in the world, learning a skill or three starts to open your horizons. You can cook a myriad different recipes, plant and harvest your own crops, grow your own farm animals, buy your own house (more on that later), mine, teleport, dabble in alchemy and engineering and loads of other stuff. The devs also add new skills in time.

Remember the pet rock? The skills in Glitch are learned one at a time but the rock does all the learning for you, in real time. Level 1 of a skill might take, say, 10 minutes. The next level might take 35, the next 2 hours, the next 8 hours while the last one can take a few days. The cool thing is that you can play the game or logout during the time a skill is being learned because the rock does the learning for you! You can even check on your progress from the browser window, without entering the game world. While it is perfectly possible to learn all the skills in the game, it's all a matter of time. The more skills you learn, the longer it takes for subsequent skills to be learned. For example, if skill A can be learned in 1 hour with 0 total skills learned, the same skill might take 1 day with 30 skills learned. But then there's a skill called Better Learning (which has 5 levels) which increases the number of total skills you can learn before receiving a time penalty. So far, the longest skill I've had to learn took me over 4 days. But that's ok because at this point I have learned over 35 skills which allow me to do almost everything in game, albeit not efficiently all the time.

Housing

Glitch is one of those few MMOs which provide housing for players. This is done via instanced housing districts. There are districts scattered throughout the different zones and each district has a certain type of house. Some are cute cottages, others are tree houses, others are apartments in highrises, some are underground hovels while yet others are sprawling mansions. Homes range in price from 1500 credits to 50,000 credits. For my first home, bought around level 11 or so, I paid 4000. It's located in a mountainous area, with living quarters underground and a garden topside.

Houses offer several things. First, there's a storage area with additional slots which varies depending on the price of the home. Then there's a trophy case, which apparently displays your "trophies" on a shelf but I still have to find a use for that.

Then, each house has at least a small garden plot, as well as patches where you can plant trees. This means that you can plant, tend and harvest crops in the privacy of your own home. You can also keep animals and there's a whole system for collecting meat and milk from them automatically, which I have yet to explore.

Achievements

Glitch has a zillion achievements associated with all the actions you might perform in the game. The fun thing is that thresholds are seemingly random. For example you might get an achievement for petting 111 trees, or for milking 87 butterflies. So there's no round number like 100, 1000 and so on. Achievements are not meaningless either: they all give you experience and favor so it's both fun and practical to reach a new milestone.



Favor and the gods

The "gods" in glitch are represented by the 11 giants. They each have shrines spread out randomly on streets, one shrine per street. You can build favor (or reputation) with the giants by donating items to their shrines, by completing quests and through various other means. I won't go into many details why it's important to cultivate favor with this guys, suffice to say that it's worth it. One good reason is that each skill is associated with a primary giant and two secondary giants. You can't progress past a certain skill level if you don't build up favor sufficiently with the patron giant.



Trading and auction house

Like in most MMOs, trading can be done directly by handing an item to another player, through an in-game mail system and via an auction house. I haven't done a lot of person-to-person trading but I have used the auction house to buy, but mostly to sell stuff. It works well and it has a "live search" function where it narrows down results as you type something. Furthermore, it groups results based on the items which match your query and then you can drill into the specific item where you can see the price per unit as well as the price per stack.

Death

Death in Glitch occurs when you run out of energy. That's why you need to keep an eye on your energy level. Still, death is very forgiving. You end up in Purgatory where you have to squash grapes a few times until "they" let out. If you use the keyboard to do this, instead of the mouse, it's just a matter of hitting Enter over and over again (thanks to the context-sensitive menus) while moving over the grapes. When you get revived you get about 15 energy so you won't last long if you don't eat immediately.


Other stuff

From what I understand, the world is not static. New zones and streets are continued to be built, by the players themselves. There are communal events where players can contribute mats to build a new street. This is akin to the opening of the gates of AQ in WoW.

One particular street is winter-themed. The temperature is so low that your energy (essentially your life force) drops continually while there. I had to go there for a quest and it provided a frantic change of pace.

There are random events which award you with random items, as well as keys that you can find which unlock special areas filled with goodies. I have found a few keys but have yet to visit one of those areas.

My goals

I have a few simple goals that I wish to achieve. I continue to learn new skills even though it's becoming increasingly difficult. I aim to learn every skill that is useful to me. Then, I want to make enough credits to buy the most expensive home (50,000). I currently have over 20,000 credits at level 17. After that? I don't know but I'm sure I'll find stuff to do.


Conclusion

There are many aspects of Glitch that I have omitted or haven't discovered yet. Sometimes I get bored with the game and take a few days off. It doesn't matter because I can keep learning my skills while I'm away.

I haven't even discussed the paid portion of the game. As far as I'm concerned I don't find any use for any of the stuff offered by paying. You get more character customization options, including cosmetic stuff that you can buy, as well as teleportation tokens which allow you to teleport anywhere in the world but I'm happy the way things are without paying.

One thing that annoys me a little is the energy issue. Almost everything you do eats your energy. To replenish it you need to eat. To eat, you need to cook (which uses energy) stuff that you have gathered (which uses energy) or buy food (with credits obtained from other activities which require energy). Even this problem is beginning to fade as I gain levels and learn new skills. That's because upgraded skills allow me to perform various actions at a lower energy cost, while gaining levels gives me a bigger energy pool (which gets replenished daily or when I level up again).

While Glitch might not be everyone's cup of tea, it's a refreshing (and non-violent) change from games such as WoW or World of Tanks. I started skeptical but soon grew to love it. I highly recommend it.

I caved in, bought gold

Whoa there, before you all blast me, I'm not talking about WoW! Just to make myself clear (for the 1000th time), I am against buying WoW gold and I believe it trivializes the game anyway. Having gotten this out of the way...

The game I bought gold for is... you've probably guessed it... World of Tanks!

The way gold works in WoT is not that obvious from the beginning. In fact, considering that the game is free to play and it offers pretty much the entire tech tree and all the maps regardless of whether you pay or not, you can theoretically play through all the 10 tiers of tanks without spending a (real) dollar.

The catch is that it becomes harder and harder to gain XP and credits (the game's currency) as the tiers go by. By tier 6 it takes a very long time to gain all the necessary XP to upgrade a tank with the best equipment and even more so to move on to the next tier.

World of Tanks has an interesting XP system. Each tank gains XP individually but at the same time, 5% of that experience is saved separately in a "Free Experience" pool which means it can be used by any other tank. Experience is used to research upgrades. Credits are used to buy those upgrades after they are researched.

Once a tank researches all the possible upgrades, it continues to earn XP but that XP is now worthless for this particular tank. You can choose to turn off XP in return for accelerated crew training. But isn't the remaining XP now lost forever? Not quite. That's where the gold comes in.

World of Tanks has such an innovative F2P model that it got me (I'm a notorious tight-fist) to spend money to enjoy the game even more, after only 2 weeks of playing it. For $30 (2 months of WoW) I bought 6500 gold.

Here's what I used the gold for:

1) I converted the remaining XP for tanks which I had either sold (yes, you can still recover the XP from those tanks), or for tanks which had become elite (all upgrades researched) to Free XP. I used that Free XP to research some upgrades badly needed for one of my tier 5 tanks.

2) I trained the crew to 100% for one of my favorite tanks (a Marder II Tank Destroyer if you are curious) and also for my tier 5 tank (a Panzer IV Medium Tank).

3) I might buy an extra garage slot later.

4) I might purchase a 1-month premium account, which allows me to gain XP and credits at a 50% increased rate.

5) Finally, I might buy a premium tank which allows me to farm credits because it is cheap to repair and automatically makes 50% more credits from battles due to its premium status. Unfortunately this tank costs about $40 in real money so I'm a bit on the fence on that.

Was it worth it? Here's a short analysis of each of the above points.

1) Converting XP is relatively cheap. Since having a lot of XP sitting around on other elite tanks doing nothing is not going to help, I consider it a very good thing to be able to transfer that XP to tanks which need it desperately. As a result, I was able to more quickly research the upgrades my Panzer IV needed in order to not suck so badly in combat. Now, the tank is competitive and a blast to play.

2) Initially I was skeptical about training the crew. A new tank starts with a crew at 50% training, unless you are willing to pay a lot of credits to train them to 100%. Problem is, it becomes progressively harder to reach that 100% as you get closer to it.

The quick solution is to spend 200 gold to train each crew member. That's about $1. A tank with a crew of 5 will cost $5 to train to 100%.

First, I trained the crew of 3 for my Marder II Tank Destroyer. The vehicle already had all the upgrades and it was performing well. Let me just say this: the first battle after buying 100% training, I killed 7 enemies (out of a total of 15). My previous record had been 4.

 On top of that, I also won a very wacky medal (it's just like a WoW achievement), for killing the last enemy with my last shell. Hah! Now that's something you don't see every day!

The other tank I trained crew to 100% is my Panzer IV, a Medium with high firepower (when upgraded to the max). Was it worth it in this case? Hell yeah! My tank performs to the top of it's abilities now and is an armored machine of death (at least until it gets spotted).

Why is 100% crew skill so important? Because at 100% crew training every stat on the tank is worth 100%. Crew also aims faster, more accurately, drives better, repairs damage in combat quicker, puts out fires quicker, spots enemies from a farther distance and so on. After 100% you have the option to further specialize each crew member in a number of skills such as camouflage, repair and firefighting. But you can only start specializing once you reach 100%. And if you don't pay for that 100%, it will take ages until you get there.

3) More garage slots are good if you like playing with several different tanks. I already have tier 2 and 4 tanks which I enjoy playing, in addition to the tier 5 and the Tank Destroyer. I would also like to try my hand at SPGs (Self Propelled Guns, or mobile artillery) at some point. Problem is, garage space is limited. The only way you can increase it is either by buying more slots or by selling some of your tanks. It's almost a given that I will fork some gold (300 per) for an extra slot or two.

4) A premium account allows you to earn 50% extra XP and credits from battles. This will simply allow me to progress 50% quicker. Otherwise it doesn't give me a tactical advantage. I'm not sure I'll try it for more than a month though.

5) A premium tank is good for farming credits because these tanks are already fully upgraded (no need to research/buy new equipment), repairs on them are very cheap and these tanks earn 50% more credits than a normal tank of that tier. The only problem is that the nicest such tank, a German Heavy named Löwe costs about $40 in real money. I'm not so sure I want to spend so much money on one tank at this point but it is certainly a possibility for later. First, I'll see how the premium account works, but only after I get back from a short vacation.

There are other ways in which to spend your gold. For example you can buy some premium consumables (such as first aid or repair kits) or premium ammo (only useful in tournaments, unless you're swimming in cash and don't mind shooting real dollars each time your gun fires) but these are of no interest to me.

In conclusion, is it worth buying at least a little bit of gold in World of Tanks? From my point of view, the answer is a resounding YES! Not only does it help make the game more enjoyable by cutting down on some of the grind, but it also helps support the developers who made such an enjoyable and involving game.

Clarification about World of Tanks

There are two things that I forgot to mention about World of Tanks. These are only for the benefit of those who haven't tried the game yet and are tempted.

First, just to make it clear, each player controls one tank. This is not an RTS so you're not in command of a tank squadron. Your "avatar" is your tank but you can own several tanks in your garage. You can only take one tank out at any one time.

Second, I like the way they implemented dying. After your tank is destroyed, you are out of the game. Here, you have two options. You can either stay in battle until the end and switch your view between the remaining allied tanks by clicking the mouse buttons. Or, you can choose to leave the battle. Leaving the battle is cool when you're not playing with friends because you don't have to waste time until the end. Don't worry though, you won't lose any experience or credits by doing so! The awesome thing is that you can go to your garage, pick another tank and join a new battle while the previous one is still in progress. When each battle is over you will get a summary of the outcome, plus your credit and XP earnings and any metals that you might have earned.

That's all I wanted to say.

World of Tanks blitz review

I never thought I would see myself getting into an online PvP game but here I am, talking about World of Tanks. If you've been reading my blog for a while you are probably aware that I hate PvP in World of Warcraft. It's just not my thing. Games like Counterstrike? Bring it on!

I'd heard about World of Tanks vaguely but what attracted me was the fact that the game is Free To Play (F2P) and it has tanks. I kind of enjoy the World War II setting so I thought that since it's free, I might as well give it a try.

World of Tanks is a simple game taken at face value. Essentially there's only one game mode: capture the enemy base. You can also win the game by destroying all enemy tanks or by attrition after the 15 minute timer expires. Under the skin, however, lies a very complex combat simulator which revolves heavily around physics, line of sight, camouflage, terrain configuration and so on.

The best way to play World of Tanks is with friends, because you can get everyone to implement a common strategy. For lack of friends (as in my case), the game creates battles between evenly matched groups of 15 players. This mode pits together tanks which are roughly in the same class, so you won't ever get tier 1 light tanks with tier 8 heavy tanks.

I have only played World of Tanks for three days but I'm already hooked. I've only gotten so far as a level 2 light tank but I want to persevere until I can upgrade to something nicer.

There are two resources in the game: credits and XP. Both are gained in battle but you can lose a game and still win plenty of them. XP is gained in lots of cool ways, for example based on the damage you do to enemies but also on the number of enemies spotted and many other ways that I haven't yet discovered.

Strategy plays a large part in World of Tanks and I have a lot of learning to do. I have already had some glorious battles, including one where I helped capture the enemy base with only 2 "health points" left (out of 90). Scouting plays an important part in the game, as well as protecting slower tanks, spotting enemy tanks for the heavy artillery and also sniping.

Playing the game is fun but if you want to advance, you either need to play a crapload of games (because XP and credits come slow), or buy gold. Gold is a resource that can only be bought with real cash and it can be used in various ways. You can use it to buy XP or credits, or in exchange for various other benefits such as an extra slot in the garage.

Here's where I'm starting to really appreciate that this is a F2P game. I can enjoy it without paying, or, if I want to progress quicker, I can go ahead and spend some cash. I'm very tempted to do that in fact, except that I find it harder to explain to my wife that I need to buy "gold" for some game than to pay a monthly subscription (as with WoW). To be fair, World of Tanks does have a monthly subscription but I'm not yet clear as to what benefits that brings.

The graphics are very good and the game runs well on my machine which is about 2-3 years old. The sounds are also good but I'm starting to wonder whether all the guns sound the same. The game client itself is lightweight for this day and age, at only 1.8GB.

I'm afraid I haven't been entirely coherent with this review but give me a break, ok? :) I'm a little bit stoked after discovering such a cool new game. And you know what? The game hasn't even reached version 1.0. Talk about innovative.