New WoW World of Warplanes

Sure, right now if you say "WoW" when addressing gamers they'll think you're talking about World of Warcraft. But, in a year or so when Wargaming.net releases the follow up to its super popular World of Tanks, that could all change. World of Warplanesbrings the same style of gameplay from World of Tanks, allowing players to take the sky in a game that's shooting for something between being a simulation and an arcade title. The best part? It's totally free.

World of Warplanes is a massively multiplayer online game where players take command of any number of classic aircraft that span roughly from World War 2 to the start of the Vietnam War. You start out with a relatively weak plane, fighting battles so that you can level up your account and earn a ton of in-game currency. Using this currency, you then buy new parts to upgrade your planes and eventually purchase even better aircraft. Of course there are micro transactions to help you out if you don't have the many, many hours needed to grind away, but the option to never pay a dime is there. After all, the company behind World of Warplanes needs people for the paying customers to shoot.

Takeoff and landing just keep players from the action, so World of Warplanes removes it entirely. Instead players drop right into the sky, ready to set up in squadrons and blast one another from the sky. Up to 30 players can participate in a match, but each round is single elimination. This means that planning and teamwork is especially prudent, and the developers fully expect clans to organize and thrive.

The challenge for Wargaming.net comes down to keeping flight controls accessible. To this end they're working on a number of control schemes, and plan on supporting joysticks, keyboard, keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepads. They're also working hard to tweak the flight physics, aiming to make them feel just realistic enough to appease simulation fans, while not so hard as to put off the odd person who just wants to see what WoW is all about. Hopefully the Beta that takes place later this year helps them fine tune it.

Wargaming also wants to ensure that the levels are varied. With World of Tanks it was easy since they could design levels with hills and buildings for the tanks to drive in, but with World of Warplanes the challenge comes down to crafting terrain that makes sense for aircraft. To this end they're creating levels filled with buildings, canyons and mountains, giving players plenty of obstructions to break up line of sight.

World of Warplanes sounds great, but the real test comes down to how it plays. They weren't allowing anyone to play it yet, but a Beta should begin soon, with a targeted release date of early 2012.