World Of Tanks 360 Preview (360)

Announced earlier this year at Microsoft’s E3 2013 press conference, World of Tanks (WoT) is the first free to play game available on the Xbox 360 – if you have a Xbox Live Gold account of course.

Wargaming have done a good job of bringing WoT to the 360. The game was always going to need adapting, having grown up and been designed for the PC platform with all its fancy graphics cards and keyboard/mouse controls.

First off, you’ll notice that graphics aren’t quite as good as the PC version but they are still impressive given that the 360 is now over 8 years old. There are some lovely smoke effects and pretty towns, villages and countryside to blow up and run over with your tanks.

The menu system has been simplified and streamlined making it easy to zip between your garage, tank upgrades, stats and premium features. You can also spin the camera around to your heart’s content to check out your tanks and any camouflage or decals you’ve previously purchased. Just like the PC version you can be in the midst of a huge tank battle in no time. Boot up the game, press A in the garage menu and you’re away into battle.

Battles are between up to 15 vs 15 players with no hunting for compatible matches or anything else to get in your way. Its quick and simple matchmaking automatically balances the various tank classes in each battle. You’ll always have a mix of tanks from light, heavy to artillery to keep each batlte interesting.

WoT has been perfectly adapted to the 360 pad. The dual sticks move your tank and control the turret and tapping the RB button puts your tank into auto aim mode so you can just shoot rather than worry about targeting.

This control system makes for some pretty dynamic battles with tanks firing all over the place while trundling around the map. Admittedly, I was caught out a few times by, of all things, a drive-by tank shooting.

I can’t say I missed mouse aiming either to be honest; I was that comfortable using a controller.

If you get killed during battle you can either stay around and watch your team’s demise or quit and go back to your garage and start another battle in a new tank. However, there is a cost to this as your now destroyed and abandoned tank will need repairing. More often than not, I’d stick about to watch my team to the bitter end anyway.

The tank upgrade system has undergone some changes too. The tech trees and all the in-depth information on each tank is still there but upgrades (turret, engine, tracks and gun) have been grouped together into different types of packages. Now you can buy a attack package that upgrades your turret and gun at the same time, or a speed package that focuses on tracks and engine instead of buying individual components. This makes it quicker and easier to upgrade your tank or research and buy a new one. There is also an option to train up your crew but at the moment this isn’t available in the beta.

Otherwise the game is untouched with gold, silver and experience points still central to expanding and upgrading your own personal killer tank army. Paid premium accounts – which give you extra perks like more experience per battle – will be available when the game is fully launched.

It’s time to grab a controller, lounge about on your sofa and go blow up some tanks.

World of Tanks 360 is currently in beta with a full release available to all Xbox Live Gold account subscribers coming soon.