World in Conflict Preview

I managed to survive only because I mastered how to use flying units. It was an effective combination of weapons that kept me on my toes. Medium-class choppers, for instance, fired 'Sidewinder' anti-air missiles against oncoming helicopters, while my heavy helicopters kept using 'Hellfire' anti-armor rockets to take care of tanks and so on.

My chopper will never surrender.

What's that mushroom thingy on the horizon?

The cool thing about WiC is going through a well-balanced selection of units. Each unit is equipped to counter a specific type of enemy, which requires a decent strategy and, above all, coordination with your teammates. Using helicopters, for instance, gives you a good shot at covering a great portion of the map in no time at all. Scout choppers, in particular, are an excellent choice for this task. Other aircraft, like heavy helicopters and medium choppers provide ideal support for ground troops, especially against certain infantry units and armored vehicles. Unfortunately, if your squadron happens to run into enemy medium anti-air units or artillery, be sure to get the hell outta Dodge before each chopper gets blown to bits. Such unfortunate encounters happened often in the beginning - duh, that is, until I learned not to rush into enemy territory without adequate ground support. So, well-coordinated attacks, using all four classes, is the key to victory.

On an overall note, we were quite pleased with the World in Conflict multiplayer. The game is heading for a September 2007 release and at this stage things are looking good. The game never crashed nor did it treat us to any unwanted performance issues. Granted, we did experience rare lagging or two, but nothing serious. (Mostly due to our crappy ISP to be honest. - Ed)

Taking part in the World in Conflict closed beta was time well spent. We've only seen but a morsel of content, so we are rather eager to check out the full game after spending several days in intense online matches.

Important note: Since we weren't entirely sure if posting in-game screens is allowed or not (the e-mail we got with the closed beta is unclear about this, and the official site is mentioning that NDA forbids posting of in game screens), we had to refrain from publishing any at this time. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Rest assured, however, that the game looks very nice for a strategy game, as did Ground Control so many years ago (Massive's first title).