Good morning, day, evening or night - depending on what time of day you faced a choice in the game War Thunder, faced with the most difficult choice, namely, which tank to play. Because there are a lot of them in the game. Today we will give a general overview of tanks in the game War Thunder.
The technique varies
Sounds like Captain Obvious. As for Var Thunder, the equipment varies in three parameters - depending on the country of origin (USA, USSR, Germany), on the combat characteristics (light, medium, heavy tanks and other equipment) and on the rank, of which in the game, as known, five.
It’s not enough to be able to drive a car; you need, figuratively speaking, to understand its soul. For some it comes easy, for others it takes a long time to figure everything out. But don’t worry, if you are with us, you will definitely understand everything, because we will only cover the most important things. Of course, there are always nuances, however, in most cases they are individual, that is, you will have to fill your own bumps with your own forehead. But bumps are nonsense, the main thing is to avoid choosing the “wrong” tank, and we will help you with this.
So, the first, most important and eye-catching classification of tanks is the classification by country of origin. At the initial stage of the game, Soviet and German tanks, let's start with them.
USSR
BT-7. Created in 1937. Easy. 45 mm gun, 188 rounds of ammunition. “Flies” for your dear soul, much faster than in reality (although the speed is still a maximum of 50 km/h). Everything is complicated with armor, but the combat tactics on this tank do not involve direct clashes - it is better to shoot “on the move” or from cover.
T-60. Model 1941, 20 mm gun, 754 ammunition. Light tank. The battle tactics are approximately the same as those of the BT-7 - move more quickly and not expose yourself to gunfire. The armor of the T-60 is, to put it mildly, weak - a kind of “paper” tank. But in terms of speed and maneuverability, it will still give everyone a head start.
T-28. Model from the early 30s of the last century. Caliber 76, small ammunition - 69 shells. But if he does hit you, it’s worthy. Refers to medium tanks. Its main advantage is its “thick” armor; with the right skill, you can get under bullets. But the turret turns very lazily, so aim better.
T-26. Model 1939. Caliber 45, ammunition 205. Frankly speaking, it’s a brake, it drives very slowly. Therefore, first of all, pay attention to pumping the tracks and suspension. You don’t have to upgrade the armor, it’s already quite good.
T-70. Light tank 1942. Caliber 45, ammunition 90. The armor is good, the speed is also good, and in general, the tank is quite powerful - it goes up the hill for dear souls. The bad thing is that by the time the turret turns, the target will have already jumped over the horizon.
T-80. Also from the light models of 1942, caliber 45, ammunition 94. What’s good is that the turret has simply excellent aiming, you can shoot, in general, from any position.
T-34. The most famous of all Soviet tanks model. The first release took place in 1940. Gun 86.2, ammunition 77. The armor, in addition to being durable, is also made in such a way that shells from the tank often ricochet and therefore in many situations the T-34 can get away with it. It hits seriously, but the rate of fire is not so great, so don’t try too hard on planes and other fast-moving targets.
ZIS-30. This is no longer a tank, but a self-propelled artillery unit (SPG). Caliber 57, ammunition 20. Armor - hug and cry, there is practically none. However, in order to destroy the ZIS-30, you must first hit it, and this is not so easy - it is a very nimble machine. What else makes me happy – well, very happy powerful gun, capable of tickling the nerves of even heavy tanks.
SU-76M. Self-propelled gun, 1942 release. Caliber 76.2. Ammunition 60. It hits very powerfully, but you need to choose a position - the vertical aiming is not very wide, so it won’t be possible to aim from elevated places. Another disadvantage is that the armor is completely “paper”. And, accordingly, in addition to weak armor, it provides amazing maneuverability and speed; ideally, such a machine is good for attacking from the side or from the rear.
SU-122. Self-propelled gun with 122 caliber and 40 rounds of ammunition. A serious howitzer, a threat to everyone on the battlefield. True, quite slow.
KV-1, model 1939. Caliber 76.2, ammunition 116. Heavy tank with good armor and low maneuverability. Moreover, maneuverability is so low that it is better to think through the route of movement in advance, even before the start of the battle. Well, there’s one more minus - the armor is, of course, good, but if they sneak up on you from the rear, it won’t seem like much.
KV-85. A heavy tank with 85 caliber and 70 ammunition. In some ways, this is the same KV-1, whose armor was reduced in favor of speed.
SU-152. Self-propelled guns with very sad armor that hits very powerfully. This technique was also called "St. John's wort" because it was created in order to beat the German Panthers and Tigers. The battle tactic is to hit, because if you don’t hit, they will be crushed in the blink of an eye.
Germany
Flakpanzer I Ausf.A - self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. The ammunition is small, but if you do not reveal your position completely (hiding in the bushes, for example), it is very helpful in the battle against aircraft.
Jagdpanzer 38 (t) Hetzer. It's quite a bending self-propelled gun, and it holds up well to a blow to the forehead. But to fill it up from the side - there’s nothing to be done, alas. It shoots well and quickly, but the horizontal aiming is small.
Panzerbefehlswagen IV. The main battle tactics on this tank is to make short dashes (because the armor leaves much to be desired) to reach the battlefield and kill everyone from cover, not allowing them to sneak up to the sides.
Panzerjäger Tiger (P) Ferdinand. It hits very well and drives smartly backwards. But it’s very easy to topple it from the sides or the stern. Another serious disadvantage is that aircraft love these tanks and are able to shoot them down.
Sturmgeschutz III Ausf.A. Nimble, allows you to take good aim and quickly “twist your head.” The armor is average, and the ammunition is small.
USA
American tanks appeared in War Thunder relatively recently. And it’s very good that they showed up - everyone in the game immediately perked up, there was variety after all.
3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10. It's a great thing - it runs quickly, shoots powerfully, and even has a machine gun on the turret, which allows you to keep aircraft at bay. It's a pity that the armor is low and the turret turns slowly. Advice - try not to “collect” all the stones and trees on this tank, you can damage the crew.
120 mm Gun Tank M103. A miracle, not a machine - mobile, maneuverable, large turret rotation angles, serious firepower– it would seem, what else is needed for happiness? But there are also disadvantages - the armor leaves much to be desired, and the tower is so huge that it just begs to be shot at. In general, this tank is a very good target for the enemy.
90 mm Gun Tank M47 Patton II. The armor is relatively good. Speed too - a tank can quickly repel an attack or just as quickly overthrow, or even slip behind enemy lines. The ammunition is large, but shells rarely penetrate armor. In addition, the tank is an excellent target, so rushing in an open field is not recommended. Plus, the ammunition constantly threatens to explode.
Assault Tank M4A3E2 76 (W) Jumbo. Without good team play, this tank is of little use, but if you are lucky with a squad, rush forward and destroy everything, this is an excellent breakthrough tank.
Cruiser Tank Grant I. Distinctive feature This model has two towers, so you can throw a lot of punch at your enemies. But before fighting with real players, it is recommended to practice on bots in order to figure out exactly how to shoot from two towers at once. By the way, with such shooting there will be many misses from the second tower, since it is considered additional.
Heavy Tank T32. The tank is heavy, but quite fast - the speed is 35 km/h, and it picks it up almost from a standstill. A very solid weapon. The downside is the long reload time.
M18 Gun Motor Carriage. As in that joke - powerful, but light. The gun is very solid, it rushes around the field like crazy, but once you hit it once, that’s it, screw it. Perhaps the most effective battle tactic on this tank is to quickly capture a position, but this can only be done if you are playing in a link. You can also shoot on the move, supporting your own fire, and try not to stand still. For beginners, we can offer this option: you simply choose a convenient position and hit the enemy from afar, periodically changing your location.
Medium Tank M46 Patton. It has good speed and can one-shot almost any tank into the side. So your appearance in the enemy’s camp will always be a surprise.
Rocket Launcher T34 Calliope. Compared to any other ground vehicle in the game, this is a very unusual thing - a rocket system volley fire, which represents launcher on a Sherman chassis. It hits very well, it’s a pity it’s only close – at a maximum of 600 m. The armor is low, the visibility is high. In general, it is very interesting to play with her, but also very dangerous.
Light Tank M22 Locust. A very nimble machine, capable of “sneaking up” on enemies from the rear or from the side without any problems. And she is a bad target; she successfully uses the terrain for camouflage. True, the armor is no good - even a banal encounter with a tree can become a problem.
Super Heavy Tank T28. Well very powerful tank, it is simply impossible to penetrate it “head-on”. But good armor has its price - the tank's movement speed is only 12 km/h, and reloading is very long. Although in duels over long distances he simply has no equal.
All of the above are the most popular models, and they are also the most studied. But the list, unfortunately, is not exhaustive. If we had to write a detailed review of all the tanks available to choose from in War Thunder, we would have to publish a small encyclopedia of about six hundred pages. However, we hope that this short guide will allow you to do right choice tank in the game, and we’ll read about it in our next article.
That's all for today. Bye everyone and see you soon.
Genre: MMO/Simulation
Developer/Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
Version: 1.3.5
Windows and OS X (in the future): Free [Official game website]
...Well, girls, and then girls. Remember this song? She is very suitable for the game War Thunder, although the planes in it are just the beginning great history, in which there will be tanks with other ground equipment, and even a fleet. Moreover, they will be able to fight on the battlefield at the same time. But for now let's return to planes, fortunately there are a lot of them in the game.
If you're tired of large-scale tank battles since the Second World War, then let's move from the stuffy and small cockpit of a tank to the even more compact cockpit of a combat aircraft in War Thunder. Here the player is invited to try on the role of a combat pilot and fly airplanes from the World War II era. More precisely, the models available are current from 1928 to 1948. That is, you will be able to fly both slow biplanes and high-speed ones jet cars, some of which had enough fuel for literally a couple of minutes of flight.
The War Thunder genre stands for Massively Multiplayer Online, which means you will have to fight against real rivals, although there are also some kind of single missions. One of the important features of the game is its suitability for both casual gamers who are not used to delving into the wilds of the game and want to press four buttons while watching the colorful action on the screen, and for fierce hardcore gamers who need maximum realism. Among such hardcore fans there are often real pilots, and War Thunder is one of the few games that can please them. Moreover, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, airplanes are only one part of a larger project. But before we delve further into the game, let's look at how to use it for OS X users, because for now there is only a client for Windows.
Trying is not torture
Today it is not yet possible to officially launch War Thunder on OS X, but this problem will be resolved very soon. Testing of the corresponding client is in full swing, and as soon as the participants in this process finish identifying bugs, official version will be publicly available and on Steam.
However, for many years now, the lack of an application or game for the Apple computer platform has not been a problem. There are several ways to run Windows programs in OS X, and one of them is Crossover.
Its main difference from BootCamp and virtualization programs is that, in fact, the Windows application runs directly in the OS X environment, and the necessary libraries are emulated in random access memory. The advantage of this solution is that you do not need to install Windows. The second plus is very good performance compared to traditional virtualization programs. The downside is significantly weaker compatibility. But if you manage to run the application via Crossover, then it will work no worse than its counterpart for OS X, if such a thing existed.
But there is no official support for War Thunder in Crossover, but judging by reviews on the Internet, it can be launched using this utility. Trying is not torture. I downloaded the program, launched it and began the installation process of the Windows application:
It is not difficult. In the menu that appears, select Other Application, Further operating system choose which one will be emulated at startup (I chose Windows 7, but you can experiment) and start the installation process, which proceeds in the same way as in the Windows environment.
As a result, the launcher was installed without problems, it started, but then a glitch occurred - the game files loaded very, very slowly:
I don’t know what the problem is - in my Network or in a break in the main line to Russia and Europe, which, according to the law of meanness, occurred precisely during testing of War Thunder, but I never waited for the download to finish. However, the experiment was partially a success. Accordingly, if you have Crossover, or even better, Crossover for Games, you can try installing it this way. Many people start it.
The most compatible option is Boot Camp, that is, straight Windows installation on a Mac using OS X. You'll have to reboot into another OS, but you'll get the most out of your hardware that it's capable of. By the way, the proprietary engine Dagor Engine from Gaijin Entertainment It is very flexible in configuration and is loyal even to weak PCs by modern standards. You can play passably on a MacBook Air and enjoy incredible beauties on a monstrous gaming PC or.
You can also run the game, but the performance will be worse, since the creation of a virtual environment itself “eats up” a lot of resources, and you also need to “run” applications in it.
And now a little insider! Gaijin Entertainment is currently undergoing active development a full-fledged War Thunder client for OS X. Moreover, it is already working, is being tested, and towards the end of the year it will be available to everyone. That is, it will be possible to do without the “dancing with a tambourine” described above. Hurray, comrades!
Video review
Airplanes for everyone!
The game was announced back in April 2011 under the title World of Planes, and the gaming media took this announcement as a joke, which was facilitated by the date of the announcement. But this was not a joke.
In 2012, the project was renamed War Thunder, and for a reason. The fact is that in the future the game will go beyond airplanes, but we’ll talk about that a little later.
A closed beta test was launched in March 2012, an open beta test was launched in November, and in fact it is still ongoing. Although since then the game has been updated more than once, it works stably and, in general, it turned out to be a very perky “rubilovo-mochilovo”, which I personally did not expect from a flight simulator.
I myself have tried several times in the past to join small company lovers of flight simulators, but could not overcome the complexity of the controls. Gaijin Entertainment perfectly understood the problem of these types of games for the mass player and were able to solve it, and in a chic way.
War Thunder has a unique control scheme when difficult fighting machine with dozens of devices, it can be moved on the game screen with just one mouse and four buttons. Moreover, the game remains a simulator, and the plane behaves very realistically, it’s just that the computer takes on all the difficulties. A person can only indicate the direction of flight, press the trigger and increase or decrease engine power (that is, accelerate or slow down the plane). The system itself calculates when and which components of the aircraft to activate, inject fuel, etc. Why all this complexity? To maintain realism. Even when you simply point your mouse where to fly, you literally feel with your whole body the movement of this machine, how it turns, how its mechanisms and hydraulic systems work with effort, but if you go a little too far, you can lose your wings if you play in the “” mode. Historical battles».
By the way, about game modes. The most widespread and interesting option for most users is “ Arcade battles" As I described above, the controls are simplified as much as possible, although the flight of the car feels very good. In addition, the parameters do not affect the game in any way external environment, the plane cannot fall into a tailspin or lose its wings due to too sharp maneuvers, but the pilot, if the player is ineptly piloting, loses consciousness once or twice. Other features of arcade battles include endless fuel and ammunition. True, reloading does not occur instantly: it will take 10–20 seconds for machine guns and up to a minute and a half to replenish the supply of bombs.
But if the realism of the controls and behavior of the aircraft is sacrificed for casual players, the battles themselves look very lively. Moreover, in this game the most important role is played by the skill and experience of the pilot, and not by the power of his “machine”.
Thus, an experienced pilot in a slow biplane is quite capable of shooting down a jet. And if he also uses advanced controls (he works with flaps himself, for example), then a beginner, even on a powerful machine, should be wary.
The arcade combat isn't divided by country, and the playing areas aren't particularly large, although they're spacious enough that you don't feel hemmed in by walls. You just don’t have to spend 10 minutes to fly to the enemy - a minute or two and you’re already in the thick of the battle. And you don’t need to take off from the airfield either, the plane “throws you out” immediately in the air, and if you are shot down, you can return to battle on another plane. There is usually a supply of three to six cars.
In general, in arcade mode, experienced players can relax and “farm” money, and beginners can simply enjoy the game and even feel what it’s like to fly a World War II plane under enemy fire.
In " Historical battles“There are already much fewer concessions. Or rather, only one - simplified controls. Ammunition will have to be replenished at the airfield; fuel also tends to run out; there are no clues as to when the target is within range of machine guns and the pre-emptive fire marker. It is also impossible to change planes like gloves after death.
But in this mode, missions that are as close as possible to historical battles are available and you can feel like a real pilot in a team of other similar pilots. In “Historical Battles”, individuals die in the first minutes, or even seconds, of the battle. It is necessary to think through tactics and work together, cover and protect each other. For fans of simulators, this is a great opportunity to plunge into their favorite atmosphere and disconnect from the real world. This mode is a good compromise between realism and gaming excitement.
Usually, having reached a certain level in “Arcade battles”, people move on to “Historical battles”, since “ Realistic combat" - this is for real maniacs. This mode is interesting for real pilots and people who sleep and see themselves in the cockpit. A joystick is required to use it, and other accessories such as pedals and throttle are also very desirable.
Only the view from the cockpit is available, because you need to control a lot of instruments, take into account the characteristics of the external environment, and even monitor the sky, since there are no highlight markers in this mode. You'll have to look out for the enemy yourself. Some fans even use a magnifying glass for this. It’s good if you managed to take off from an airfield in this mode, because this is a whole science. Often inexperienced people are unable to take off from an airfield even in the “ Historical battles", let alone "Realistic". As a result, half the team may remain on the ground, which makes the more experienced pilots wildly angry.
In terms of flexibility, War Thunder turned out to be the most advanced simulator. It is accessible to people completely far from the realities of flight and at the same time interesting to professionals who are capable of flying a real airplane.
Naturally, as in any MMO, War Thunder involves pumping and development of equipment, as well as its crew. There is also internal currency in the form of silver lions and gold. Silver is earned in battles, but gold will have to be bought for real money, although a certain amount is available to all beginners initially.
There is no particular need to spend real money in the game. You can perfectly upgrade the entire aircraft branch without investing a penny of real money. It will just take a little longer. The main thing is experience and ability to play.
As for airplanes, there are dozens of models. There is equipment from the USSR, Germany, Britain, the USA and Japan. Each country has its own development branch. You can upgrade both the aircraft and the crews themselves (survivability, endurance, farsightedness and other parameters for pilots, efficiency for ground services, etc.). Addictive!
But the game and leveling up are one thing, but what about the picture? At this moment you don't have to worry. In the presence of powerful computer You will enjoy realistic clouds, soft shadows and reflections, high-resolution landscapes and translucent ocean water, through which the shallow water reveals the bottom and in which the sun is reflected very naturally.
High-quality textures and aircraft models, reflection effects and glare, all this is fully present. The damage system was also pleasing - the wings are pierced through with bullets and can be shot off (or will fall off on their own during a clumsy maneuver), the tail is removed only in this way, a stray bullet can kill the pilot and a seemingly undamaged plane will turn into a dead piece of iron. When you shoot down an enemy yourself, especially during a frontal attack, the hundreds of flying debris and pieces of skin through which you spectacularly rush through look incredibly cool. True, a frontal attack is a lottery, often ending in the death of both cars.
But even if the computer is not the most powerful, the game looks good and, most importantly, runs quickly even on a PC 3 or 5 years old.
Napoleonic plans
War Thunder is one of the most realistic aviation simulators of our time, which is accessible to everyone. A unique project, but that’s not enough for the guys at Gaijin Entertainment.
Literally by the end of autumn it is planned to introduce ground vehicles into the game. Yes, yes, it will be possible to control tanks and, probably, other vehicles that are not destined to fly.
And that is not all. In addition to tanks, a fleet will be introduced into the game. Now it is present in the form of active decorations, in the future you will be able to control ships. It is expected that in some modes different types technicians will fight against each other. The batch will turn out to be extraordinary.
I already mentioned a full-fledged client for OS X above. Towards the end of the year we will be able to play War Thunder without Boot Camp and other crutches. But what do you say about iOS version of the game? But this one is also in active development! And not some kind of addition for great game(such as maps, instructions or a separate control panel on the tablet screen), but an independent project with the prospect of playing on one server against those who are sitting at a PC. Although this prospect is rather vague, OS X and Windows users will be able to easily play on the same server.
The development team is also developing helmet support in the game. virtual reality Oculus Rift. With its help, you can immerse yourself in War Thunder so much that the real world will become something distant and unreal. Don't believe me? Watch the video below:
Now War Thunder is an excellent flight simulator for all categories of users, from the most inexperienced players and shooter fans to real pilots. By the end of the year, the game will try to compete with other similar projects by adding ground vehicles. And in the future, it can turn into a global MMO on the theme of World War II, in which air, ground and sea military equipment will converge.
(No votes) 
"was initially positioned as the first and main competitor to the increasingly popular World of Tanks. Only the developers of the new creation realized that the competition was not about who could come up with a new feature faster. It's important to create something radically different. Because they were made on this moment three most important steps thanks to which “War Thunder” is today the most formidable competitor of the Belarusian brainchild.
More than a year has passed since then, tanks were added to the game about airplanes. And now war is raging everywhere.
War Thunder is the most realistic online game about military equipment.
Step one - no arcade. The developers set themselves the task of creating the most realistic online action movie about military equipment. Each new combat vehicle introduced had average characteristics, which were subsequently changed to those that actually existed.
It was believed that War Thunder is the most beautiful game about tanks. It was like that for a long time until it came out in Russian.
Thus, the player will feel the mobility of the IL fighter in the same way as the soldiers who fought on them did during the Great Patriotic War. No health points - the projectiles have natural ballistics and damaging power, and the damage to the enemy will depend on how and where the player hits. Thus, the noob will quickly die in battle, being shot down only by a small burst of fire from even the least outstanding fighter.
Yes, the picture is a little processed, but this does not prevent us from seeing how well-developed the aircraft models are. He looks real.
What should you choose: War Thunder or World of Tanks?
Step two is an alternative start. Since the niche of tank battles was already occupied, the developers began implementing air battles in order to then move on to ground battles. This made it possible to attract the attention of players who were interested in aerial battles, and not the clanging of virtual tracks. Extensive beautiful maps with a huge number of geographical objects of varying degrees of elaboration were created and developed. This made it possible to most meticulously examine the capabilities of your combat vehicle in order to develop the most effective combat tactics. In addition, the creators realized in advance the need and justification for the use of the Navy - aircraft must regularly return not only to ground airfields, but also to aircraft carriers to replenish supplies. When did competitors from Belarus announce their own game about combat helicopters, the time has come to move on to a new round of development...
However, tank models are not far behind. Every detail is in its place, you can study where and what.
Tanks or planes. Or maybe all together and at once? But where are the ships?
Step three is the cooperation of military branches. With the release of ground vehicles, it would be illogical to divide the servers into two types of battles, because they all take place on the same map. While you, my dear reader, are driving your beloved T-34 towards the enemy, lively air battles may be taking place above you. In addition, such an approach would be stupid if it were not for the possibility of interaction between military branches. Airplanes can easily fire at tanks, and vice versa. Realism, clearly worked out in the air, was carried over to the ground. Not only do tanks fight on gigantic maps, but they also have no health points. It is enough to have powerful ammunition and knowledge of the location of enemy ammunition to blow up an enemy tank even with one shot.
Aircraft
Tanks
Ships
The online game War Thunder is a multiplayer flight simulator dedicated to combat aviation, armored vehicles and the navy of the Second World War and the post-war period. It is the main competitor of Wargaming, which has released global brands such as World of Warplanes and World of Tanks.
Game process
Battles in War Thunder are sessional, and leveling up is based on unlocking new planes and tanks. The main condition for achieving success is upgrading your crew. Each plane or tank has its own crew. The system for pumping it up is quite deep, which involves improving the skills of pilots, drivers and other characters. The game is simply overflowing with a variety of equipment (more than 170 aircraft, plus count the number of tanks), the leading nations among which are: the USSR, Japan, USA, Great Britain and Germany.
The War Thunder project was developed by the Russian company Gaijin Entertainment. Initially, it was created in the form of a regular flight simulator, but time passed and the game gradually turned into a rather interesting vinaigrette of air and tank battles, which is wildly popular today, but the project is still fresh and is just beginning to gain momentum.
War Thunder covers a fairly extensive period of time. Technique in online game War Thunder is very multi-time (so to speak), starting from the clumsy shelves of early aviation, continuing with the well-known technology of the Second World War, and ending with jet fighters, which first appeared only in the Korean War.
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There are several battle modes in War Thunder. Arcade combat is the most popular, in which teams fight on random maps. In this battle, each player has several planes at his disposal (they were shot down on one and took off on the other). The next mode is historical battles, where each player plays for a specific nation; this mode allows you to play out real historical battles that took place earlier in history. Here you will have to take off from aircraft carriers and military airfields. In the last mode, custom, the developers provided players with the opportunity to train in team game. The conditions of this battle are chosen by the players themselves.
The developers have worked on the role of tanks in battle Lately very much. Now that real players have been put behind the wheel of tanks, it has become very difficult to hit them. To completely destroy a ground target, you only need to hit the tank itself; other attempts will not bring any results to the pilot.
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conclusions
The online game War Thunder has proven itself since its inception; the developers have taken the project very seriously and are constantly developing it. A very cool flight simulator, much better than its Belarusian counterpart World of Warplanes. Beautiful graphics and interesting gameplay make it even better and more beautiful. I recommend it. This project really deserves a better rating - an A+.
Video review of War Thunder
Free virtual entertainment is gaining more and more space in the gaming industry. Income from free-to-play games are growing rapidly from year to year. This distribution scheme, when you don’t have to pay for the product, gathers a large audience, and the monetization method based on bringing small amounts for certain bonuses, he is able to work for many years. The quality of the games themselves is also improving. This is understandable; after trying a better game, the user will not want to stay the same, and the price barrier does not prevent him from constantly trying something new, as often happens with games of the classical form of distribution, where many excellent projects remain deprived of attention. Perhaps it was this factor that influenced the domestic studio Gaijin, famous for its flight simulator IL-2 Sturmovik: Winged Predators. One way or another, the company decided to try its hand at the world of free entertainment and released - An online game dedicated to the technology of the Second World War (and post-war) - planes, tanks, and then ships.
The game is available for download both on the official website and in the service Steam, as well as on the console PS4, where it became one of the starting projects. Recently, the versions are fully compatible, that is, players with both PC, so with PS4 play on the same servers. Finally, the opportunity has arisen to clarify the relationship between the two opposing camps in a war game!
On startup War Thunder will ask you to create a special account, including on PS4. You can make friends, create teams and fly together, everything is as standard modern game. Initially, only two aircraft are provided from each participating country, of which there are five in total: the USSR, Germany, Great Britain, the USA and Japan. You can fly one by one different countries in any order, but in each battle only aircraft of a specific nation, selected right before the battle, are available.
By default, the hangar of each country has space for only five aircraft, but it can be expanded, including for real money. After playing the first few matches, you come to the conclusion that the number of aircraft in the hangar is one of the determining factors for success in the arcade and, at the same time, the most popular mode. The whole point is that in everyone battle like this The player has access to all active aircraft in the hangar. Having lost one, you can choose the next one and so on until the last one. However, over time, the realization comes that it is skill that has a greater influence on the outcome of the match, and in practice, the battle is more likely to end when bases are captured, and not because one of the teams has run out of available equipment.
As for realistic and simulator battles, you can take one tank or one plane into battle, for active actions in battle (killing enemies, capturing points, and just being on the front line) you are awarded revival points, for which after death you can “buy” the next unit of equipment. And if the player loses immediately, then there are no points, and you can leave the battle. But if you shoot enemies and then die, then you can choose the next vehicle from what is in the slots, provided that you have enough points.
On the other hand, research of new aircraft. They depend on the game mode and from about the middle of the fourth era they become very long. Without donating, you will have to devote a lot of time to the game, so it’s easier to pay and immediately open what you need. Having a premium account gives a strong boost to research speed. And when playing on premium equipment, they are even twice as fast. The only place where you definitely can’t do without money in a crew is crew qualification: the second stage there is only for a donation, but not particularly expensive. However, the scheme War Thunder cannot be classified as "pay to win", you can still play without paying a penny and have a lot of fun. And if so, why not support the developer with a coin, especially when they are actually the only ones in the world who have released a decent online flight sim with excellent graphics and physics of aircraft behavior, thoughtful gameplay and cross-platform play between PC And PS4?
Flight Sims are notorious for their reliance on dedicated input controllers, be it a joystick or a gamepad, so the controls can be a real barrier for many. Although in this case there is nothing to worry about. The developers managed to please everyone at once. With three fundamentally different game modes, arcade, realistic and simulation, War Thunder will find its audience both among those who like to relax in the evening with friends, without particularly straining, and among veterans of virtual aviation, armed with special equipment in the form of all kinds of joysticks. At the moment, the game fully supports about twenty models from such manufacturers as Logitech, Thrustmaster, Saitek and others. It is possible to use a keyboard mouse or gamepad in simulation mode, but as soon as you start the introductory training course, the essence of joysticks in this kind of games immediately becomes clear. Even harmless take-off and landing cause difficulties; maintaining the required altitude and speed is even more difficult, and if you try to perform some somersault in the air, you will fall into a tailspin and fall to the ground faster than you can die in the air.
The modes are very different. In the arcade, the planes have a very large amount of ammunition, missiles and bombs are restored automatically according to a timer, planes and tanks are more durable, it’s easier to control the planes without stalls and spins; There are lead and hit markers, that is, it displays exactly where bullets and shells will hit.
Realistic battles, in turn, have more complex control of aircraft, less and less survivable, historical ammunition is included and the need to return to base for replenishment, there are no markers where to shoot, the location of the hit must be calculated based on your experience, when overloaded, the wings of aircraft can come off and overheat engine.
Simulator battles are the most difficult. In airplanes the view is only from the cockpit, in tanks only from the turret (not from the tank). They are created for true aviation enthusiasts who understand the behavior of aircraft and are familiar with the features of each individual model. If in reality a certain aircraft could not perform this or that aerobatics at a specific altitude and speed, then it will fail in the game. Additional depth here is also provided by the elaboration of details. Take, for example, airplane tapes. They are upgraded - some are more effective against lightly armored fighters, others against attack aircraft and bombers. And, unlike the arcade, the ammunition supply of ammunition, as well as rockets and bombs, is limited here, and to replenish them you need to return to the base, so the choice of ammunition is very important. As is the choice of classes. Fighters are designed to destroy other aircraft, attack aircraft are designed to combat, to a greater extent, ground targets from low and medium altitudes, and bombers are suitable for destroying ground targets from high altitudes.
In addition, aircraft often differ characteristically across nations. The USSR is strength and maneuverability, Great Britain is the balance of everything, the USA is strength and weapons, Germany is the balance, Japan is the most maneuverable, but at the same time the most vulnerable and often with very weak weapons.
In arcade mode, everything is much simpler. Airplanes are more responsive and maneuverable, although each still has its own unique characteristics and they must be taken into account. Among them, the most significant are maximum speed, turn time and climb rate. The first allows you to fly away from your opponent or catch up with him, depending on the situation. The turn time is, one might say, an indicator of the aircraft’s maneuverability, which is extremely important to take into account when a battle has already begun. The lower it is, the faster the plane turns and attacks, so for a successful game you need to study different kinds equipment and conduct a constant analysis of their capabilities and the capabilities of enemy aircraft. If in the future it is not possible to attack faster than the enemy, you can compare the rate of climb parameter and try to climb to a different altitude, gaining time and thinking about the next step. War Thunder- the game is not about primitive aiming and instinctive squeezing of the trigger; here, analysis of the battle scene and competent attack planning are much more important. Very often, players make the mistake of going too low with their advanced aircraft, this is just the chance for more primitive but maneuverable aircraft to shoot them down.
It is also much more effective to achieve results by helping each other. To do this, it is not necessary to constantly chat with the entire team; it is enough to fly with someone in pairs. Play with a friend, staying close to each other everywhere, and see how much the number of aircraft shot down or ground vehicles destroyed increases. Playing in a team is simple and logical, as is the management itself. A special circle, which can be moved around the entire screen, sets the course of the aircraft. Simply put, wherever you point it, it will automatically fly there. A small crosshair a few meters from the plane shows its immediate direction, it also serves as a sight. To shoot down a plane, you need to aim at a special marker of the enemy's movement, which changes depending on its direction and speed of movement. It seems simple at first, but the difficulty increases as you begin to encounter faster aircraft and more skilled players in battle. An experienced pilot, maneuvering competently, will easily knock off the sight, but a smart one will also lead you into a trap, exposing your plane to air defense attacks. Equipment can also be modernized by gradually researching certain parts that improve both flight performance and armament. Naturally, here too you can speed up the process by purchasing certain modifications for real money.
Each aircraft model has its own crew, which gains experience for each successful action of the player on that particular aircraft. An untrained crew easily breaks down when wounded, loses concentration when overloaded, which is reflected in the darkening of the screen, poorly follows the enemy, and the marker of his plane appears later than it could. A well-trained crew allows you to play more efficiently, and a more efficient game upgrades your crew faster. If you put a bad crew on a cool plane, the game will be very difficult. But a fully upgraded crew without a skill will not give any advantage. Therefore, donating to the carriage and bending it will not work. And in an arcade there is practically no point in this.
As noted above, realistic combat is a kind of golden mean between a simulator and an arcade, average difficulty, where, compared to an arcade, planes (and tanks) do not have a marker where shells hit, the ammunition is limited, and to replenish it you need to land at the base , damage and overloads, which can cause the wings to come off, have a more critical effect. This is a simulator, but without complex physics with all the stalls and spins for fans of this business and the ability to look at the plane and tank from a third-person view.
Here, as in arcade combat, the mouse reigns supreme. Featuring a simple control scheme, the mouse and keyboard combination is superior to a gamepad (joystick) in target accuracy and ease of viewing. In addition, in a realistic battle, as in the simulator, you are allowed to take only one plane. Break it and go for a walk, Vasya. Because of this, the entertainment value compared to the arcade game and the satisfaction from the complexity of the controls decrease. Perhaps it would be better if the developers removed it altogether and focused their attention on the simulator battle, in which it is so difficult to find a match due to low demand from players. The complexity, as well as the small reward for such back-breaking work as controlling an airplane in conditions of limited visibility, takes its toll - after all, in a simulated battle, only the view from the cockpit is available, and enemies are not highlighted, which makes it difficult to detect them, and realistic physics behavior of aircraft.�
The players PS4 don't be afraid of fighting rodents in the hands of pilots with PC. In the console version for the gamepad, there is both a traditional control scheme and one that copies the mouse. Any of the sticks is responsible for the movement of the cursor, customizable as desired, and the accuracy ultimately depends on the skill of the player. Once you get the hang of it, you can fight almost equally against a mouse. In the settings there is also an option to connect the latter, but it was not possible to properly configure it.
In general, setting up controls different from what is by default is a real disaster. While swapping the sticks or reassigning the buttons is not difficult, I couldn’t reconfigure the axes, such as moving the yaw axis from the right stick to the triggers, despite numerous attempts. In the control settings menu, the devil breaks his leg and there is no way to figure it out without half a liter, and even with it. You have to play as is, limiting yourself to a minimum of changes.�
I would also like to note the magnificent visual component of the game. The aircraft models, honed by experienced designers, fly over extremely photorealistic landscapes and look great. The developers were also able to create a cockpit view for each aircraft. It’s especially nice that the roar of the engine is heard in the cockpit differently than from a third person. Fantastic job!�
Aircraft version for PS4 holds up well compared to PC on high graphics settings, but not the highest. The impression of decent smoothing and synchronization of frames is slightly spoiled by the unstable frame rate, which noticeably decreases with increasing detail from card to card. In any case, given the scale of the locations and the complexity of the physics of the aircraft, the game looks amazing on this gaming platform. On the other hand, playing tanks on PS4- sheer torment. They are not optimized at all and are incredibly slow.
During the entire time of the game, it was not possible to identify any significant flaws in the game balance. The matches are structured in such a way that there is a place in the sky for any type of aircraft, be it a fighter, attack aircraft or heavy bomber. There are always targets for bombing on the map: ships, tanks or bases. The more ground targets destroyed by attack aircraft or bombers, the faster the enemy team's life bar decreases. And fighters, naturally, need to shoot down all aircraft that pose a threat to ground forces. In another mode, in the arcade, in addition to destroying enemy ground targets, you also need to land and capture airfields, thereby bringing additional points to the team. When a significant number of planes gather in the sky in one place, the picture turns out enchanting - shells whistling here and there, planes circling around, some of them are on fire, others are already falling apart. You can gather in the player’s house and just watch everything that happens.
Simulator combat, due to its low popularity, is a kind of showdown among experienced players who use joysticks (a gamepad will also do, but a mouse has nothing to do here). There are no large-scale or spectacular battles observed here. But after playing arcade combat for a long time, an interest in aircraft gradually develops and a desire appears to try something more interesting. Over time, arcade combat becomes just a way to upgrade planes that you want to use in a more serious matter. But as we have already noticed, the leveling process is extremely leisurely and pushes impatient players to acquire treasured cars faster than honest leveling would facilitate. This is where the question of how much all this costs comes up. Expensive. Inhumanly expensive. For example, a premium Spitfire, the famous British World War II fighter that is a joy to fly, costs about $45. Of course, no one is forcing you to buy it, but it is difficult and time-consuming to upgrade to an aircraft with the same characteristics. The process can take weeks or even months, depending not only on the amount of time spent, but also on the success of each individual match.
As for the tank part, as in airplanes, there are also three exactly the same modes, but the differences in the behavior of the equipment are not so significant. Is it the camera in the simulator? tank battle located above the turret and does not allow one to see the tank from the outside or examine it from the inside, and there is no view from the cockpit. Realistic combat differs from arcade combat only in that it adds planes (as in simulator combat). It looks something like this: at the beginning of the battle, the player can choose a plane or a tank in any order. The task of the planes is to bomb enemy tanks and shoot down those who bomb yours.�
Despite the conflicting opinions on the forums, there is still depth here. Various projectiles are upgraded along with other modules. As a rule, they differ in armor penetration and lethality. The more the first, the less the second and vice versa. There is also a difference in flight speed; the faster the projectile flies, the easier it is to aim at long distances (since it flies in a smaller arc, and there are no hit markers in realistic and simulated battles) and choose a lead. All these nuances make it possible to build tactics for close or ranged combat, as well as adapt to different opponents depending on their armor.
The vehicle classes are standard: tanks are light, medium and heavy. They differ in mobility/speed, armor and gun power. There are also self-propelled guns (self-propelled artillery installations) and ZSU (anti-aircraft self-propelled units). Features of nations are also present and quite specific, such as stabilization and others.
The management of the tank unit remained unchanged, the same circle. It is ideal for controlling an aircraft that is constantly moving at high speed, but for ground vehicles it seems slow, due to the low traverse speed of the tank's turret. Due to the low speed of movement of tanks and their easy visibility, the entire game process slides into positional camping, where he leaned out at the wrong time and got hit in the tower. However, over time, you come to the conclusion that simply standing closer to the base, shooting and winning will not work, since the entire map is not covered, the capture points are relatively protected from this, or are too far away, and it is their capture that is the basis of victory.
The combat vehicles themselves are presented in sufficient quantities. All are drawn in detail and differ from each other. The game also provides believable ballistics and damage systems. So tanks War Thunder may well appeal to fans of this type of technology. But you still won’t be able to play the maximum simulation without the participation of aircraft.
War Thunder is a graphically stunning game with deep gameplay that will keep you coming back to it again and again. It boasts good optimization of the flight part and will easily fly on medium-sized vehicles. U PS4 version has its own problems, and although the need for donation is present, it does not greatly affect the gameplay, so War Thunder can be safely recommended to fans of online entertainment.
The game was completed on PC. Version tested for PS4.