Mar 20 2013
War Thunder v1.29.27.0 Continued
After going off on that recent patch the other day, I figured I’d give an update on the gameplay.
I was very critical of the changes they made. The flight models and controls were changed quite extensively, as was bombing. I’ve had a little more time to play War Thunder and I have to say that even after playing the game some more, I have to stick by with what I originally said.
The new models fly like city buses, wallowing through the air. I realize this may be realistic, but it’s not nearly as fun as it used to be. And yes, “easy” does mean “fun” sometimes. One of the things that I liked about War Thunder when I started out was how relatively easy it was to fly the planes.
Gaijin Entertainment, the game’s developer and publisher, probably could have left the old controls and users wouldn’t have become unhappy. There’s no doubt that they lost a few customers. And when you think about it, Gaijin is a business. Why not try to appeal to as many customers as possible? That’s often the approach businesses take, willing to sacrifice certain things in order to make money. So the difficulty changes do surprise me.
I didn’t touch on the game economy before so I’d like to mention it. Even though you get lots of little bonus notices when killing multiple targets in a row, for instance, I find myself getting far fewer credits (Lions) at the end of the battle than before.
Bombing is still a chore now, especially if you’re in a true bomber and not an attacker or fighter which just happens to carry optional bombs. True bombers, at least in my experience, have to fly almost perfectly horizontal to the ground. You can’t drop your bombs in a dive or while turning sharply (banking). If the older, unrealistic method were to be brought back and properly credit bombers with more XP and Lions, bombing could be fun again.