Obsidian Entertainment Announces Free-To-Play Armored Warfare Tank Sim

[Andy Chalk]

Obsidian Entertainment Announces Free-To-Play Armored Warfare Tank Sim

Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Pillars of Eternity, is working on a free-to-play PvP game of armored combat.

When I think of Obsidian Entertainment, I generally think of RPGs, and some pretty good ones too, from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II to, hopefully, the Infinity Engine-inspired Pillars of Eternity. What I don't think of is a World of Tanks-style online armored combat sim - or at least, I haven't until now.

In defiance of all (or at least my) expectations, Obsidian has announced a partnership with online communications and entertainment company My.com to create Armored Warfare, an "online multiplayer modern tank combat game." The My.com website says players will take command of their own private military corporations, develop bases, collect and upgrade modern military vehicles and take them into PvP battles against other players. It also hints at some kind of PvE action, saying players can "team up with friends to take on challenging missions."

It's surprising that a studio best known for making RPGs would be involved in a project like this, but it might prove to be financially lucrative. My.com is part of 75 million registered users [http://corp.mail.ru/en], the bulk of whom are Russian.

Armored Warfare is still listed as "coming soon" on Obisidian's site [http://games.my.com/] suggests that the beta process will begin soon.




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[BrotherRool]

So the question is, was there a game they were less likely to make?

A studio whose never done online multiplayer, never made a game involving modern warfare, has almost exclusively made slow methodical RPG mechanics, is famous for writing intricate (non-tank) characters and story focused games...

At least a Call of Duty clone would have had actual human people in it. I would have been less surprised if they announced they were making Peggle 3

 

[Barbas]

How unexpected. I shall be very interested to see how this pans out.

 

[Haakmed]

Can we make this game not nearly as boring as tier 7+ games in WoT?

 

[Kyber]

Can we make this game not nearly as boring as tier 7+ games in WoT?

Hey now, Tiers 7-9 are the best in terms of player skill/excitement, below are a lot of 1k-2k players and Tier X matches are usually a slugfest.

 

[TKhanman]

Sounds like an interesting idea, as long as they don't completely rip off WoT I'd try it.

 

[FalloutJack]

To be honest, I can see myself piloting a big ole' tank while blaring this theme [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO5-hM6xKt4] all the time. Tanks are just...fun. Free tanks are, therefore, fun-times-ten.

 

[Astalano]

How are they going to make a modern tank game when half of tank armour today is 'classified'? I also assume it's going to be an arcady shoot-em up, rather than battling over kilometres.

I like World of Tanks and War Thunder Ground Forces, so I'll keep an eye on this, but I don't have high expectations.

 

[Andy Chalk]

IT'S ON

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/worldoftanks/status/446719840091668480]

 

[Agent Monocle]

I can't see this going well at all... There's a reason why Wargaming and Gaijin stuck to the Pre-1970 era of tanks specially the MBT (Main battle tanks). There's not many different tank types after that point of time and in my opinion will become plain and boring at some point. I think Obsidian really limit themselves at choosing modern era tanks couple with the fact Wargaming already has the arcade tanks play style while Gaijin has the more hardcore sytle. Obsidian is fighting a uphill battle and must bring something new to the table to an already niche gaming community and modern era tanks is not it to my reasoning.

Also I hope they have an actually research team otherwise people in that tank hobbyist community will cry fowl, which I assume that is what they are catering to. Sure, not the entire player base are tank historians or whatever, but I think they would be at least a tank enthusiast to want to play this game. There's expected degree in accuracy especially the tank model itself to point Wargaming get people to take real measurements of the tank. There's a lot more to this genre than most people think. I just think this sudden jump into this market feels like a cash grab to me.

To say at least I am very interested how this plays out especially in Russia where World of Tanks is currently dominating the free to play market.

 

[Zontar]

IT'S ON

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/worldoftanks/status/446719840091668480]

Shots fired.

In seriousness though, I'll be interested in this when it comes out, but it may have the same problems as Gaijin where, being new to it, there are a long slew of problems. Wargaming has its own, but they also have a long lead in terms of experience with their tank game. In any event this can't end badly for us gamers, with a third contender in the market now.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

oh god....so many russians.

GIFF ME MANA

I can only hope servers don't get flooded like they do in dota.

I would never have dreamed obsidian to do a game like this, but until I see any kind of gameplay or descriptions, can't say if I'm interested or not

 

[Smooth Operator]

I'm guessing the game came in that My.com purchase package and it's actually a completely different team that was working on this.

Well it certainly can't hurt to be under the hell of someone experienced, and I do hope they steer them more sci-fi then realism otherwise things can get real dull, WoT for all it's good parts is stuck in this awkward semi-realistic setting where each tank comes in one proper setup and no room for customization, and no special tricks either... you can shoot shells and ram people nothing else.

 

[Haakmed]

Can we make this game not nearly as boring as tier 7+ games in WoT?

Hey now, Tiers 7-9 are the best in terms of player skill/excitement, below are a lot of 1k-2k players and Tier X matches are usually a slugfest.

I liked the lower tier game of movement more than the higher tier game of spotting for arty rounds. But I'll be honest, it was the grind fest that really killed that game for me, not the gameplay itself.

 

[Dragonlayer]

World of Tanks with moral choices?

 

[Strazdas]

All above the money train tank!

I know WOT is popular and has tons of income. I know War Thunder is praised as a second coming of christ by now because "lol Realism" (which in tank combat means long camping in bushes and sniping targets that are hardly larger than a dot, in real life average distance of tank battles were over 2 kilometers. to put it to scale, the WHOLE MAP of World of tanks battle is half of that).

And now we got a third competitor testing waters. This can either be a good 3way competition or a total failure. only time will show. All i know is that WOT is sweating and basically giving credits away now.

 

[MrFalconfly]

unexpected for Obsidian...but not the emergence of WoT competitors.

it has always somewhat amazed me that, given WoTs popularity, there hasn't been a rash of competition because the game is for all intents and purposes just a (some would say exploitatively) monetised FPS mod with a lobby and matchmaking...

and there is, quite pressingly imo, a much better iteration sort of just aching to be made...


also


apparently the game will also have PVE content and will run on the CryEngine

Spoiler: some lovely pics

PvE and being able to roam around in the latest iteration of the German Big Cats in glorious CryEngine visuals?!

Well sign me up then. Sounds frikkin' awesome!