We learned that Microsoft was bringing Wargaming’s insanely popular World of Tanks franchise to the Xbox 360 during its E3 press conference, and now we have more specific information on how the game works.
World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition is free to play for Xbox Live Gold members. Silver members can play the game and access all of its content for seven days, though they’ll need to upgrade if they want to continue playing beyond that introductory period.
Once they’re in players participate in 15-on-15 player battles. The game is essentially the same as the PC version, with no respawns, XP-draining repairs, and a wide array of tanks and other tank-like vehicles. The UI has been given an overhaul, with bar graphs replacing numbers for various armor ratings and other stats.
In the demo, we saw how a heavy tank fares against a diverse spread of opponents. There are five classifications of vehicles: light, medium, and heavy tanks, as well as the sniper-like tank destroyers and the artillery-packing self-controlled guns. Our tank took out a low wall, exposing an opponent. Its turret swiveled to face us, and we moved to the side to avoid its fire. At that point, both of us waited for our ammo to recycle. Once it did, we fired on the opponents’ tread, crippling it. Rather than wait for another reload, we took the absurdly aggressive approach of ramming the enemy, destroying it.
Players are still able to purchase items such as special ammo and new tanks with real money, though the developer says that a core design mantra is that it’s free to win. In short, as long as you pay attention to your opponents and the surroundings, you should be able to hold your own on the battlefield regardless of whether you decide to crack open your wallet.
The game is due out on the Xbox 360 this summer.