The new physics engine will put you in danger
I’m so glad that this has been tweaked, because it puts an end to you driving up to what seem like very minor slops or very subtle bumps
in the ground, only to find your tank stops dead. Now, with a bit of momentum, you can climb steeper slopes or force your way over difficult terrain.
You
can also go crashing down hillsides or fall into holes that were
previously inaccessible. This means you can get yourself into big, big
trouble if you aren’t careful, sometimes even immobilising your tank. I
guarantee you that being stuck in a ditch on the other side of the
battlefield will impress none of your teammates.
The new rendering engine runs the game much more efficiently
Not
only does the world look prettier, the game also runs much more
smoothly. I’m going to sound like an artist saying this, but the most
obvious impression is of a more subtle, gentle light to the game.
Depending on the map you play on, the environment genuinely feels warmer
or cooler. There are autumnal tones to the forests forests and even
something of a chill to the blue sheen of the arctic maps.
And while there are shiny new water effects and better shadows, an increase of a few frames-per-second is always welcome, too.
The maps have been beautified
Wargaming
have made some quite significant changes to many of the maps,
remodelling shores and mountains (as in the picture above) to give them more realistic contours
and a much greater level of detail. The results are quite impressive
but, again, also quite subtle. When you’re hunkered down in your tank,
trying to aim for the tracks of a tank that’s 400m away, you’re not
about to immediately notice the careful resculpting of a rocky lake
shore.
Wargaming
have been busy, too. The maps they’ve worked on are: Lakeville, Cliff,
Redshire, Himmelsdorf, Arctic Region, Westfield, Mountain Pass, Mines,
Sand River, Fjords and Karelia.
There’s a new radial command menu
Now
this I’m not so sure about. In place of the shortcut command menus
previously used, there’s now a large, mouse-driven radial menu that you
navigate using your mouse. It’s a little like the one in Battlefield 3, but much bigger. This appears right in the middle of the
screen and, of course, takes mouse control away from your tank while
you’re using it.
I’m
not sure why this has been added. It’s much more obvious, of course, and it’s an alternative to reaching for the F-keys or displaying a list of commands in the corner of the
screen, but it seriously interrupts the game.
There’s a much improved tech tree
This
I do heartily endorse. The vertical tech tree has been replaced by one
that runs horizontally and which is brighter, colour-coded and a little
larger. It’s much easier to read and to navigate.
There are four new Russian tank destroyers, while other tank models have been tweaked
They
have some unusual names, too. The SU-100М1 and SU-122-54 are tier VII
and IX respectively, while the strangely-named Uralmash is a Tier VIII
vehicle. Topping these out at Tier X is Object 263. You can check out
the new Soviet tank tree right here.
Depending on your powers of observation, you might also notice one or two cosmetic alterations to some of the other tanks in the game.
There are now in-depth battle reports
Rather
than losing the summary of the battle once the game returns you to the
garage, you’ll now be able to examine that breakdown again in the
garage, as well as get a much more detailed report of what you got up
to. The reports detail the damage you inflicted, the amount of shells
you fired, how many of your shots actually penetrated and even how far
you travelled. If you enjoy pouring over post-match stats, then this is
for you.