Well once again I feel my masculine need to fly, bomb stuff and shoot people down.
Which of the above two free to play online games would people recommend I try and why?
I’m looking for something that I can pick up and have a quick 1/2 hour game or so.
Thanks!
I googled both, and took a quick glance at the websites. Looks like War Thunder offers more PVE options, while World of Warplanes appears to be almost exclusively PVP. Also saw some mention of War Thunder incorporating ground and sea warfare, but I did not look for more detail on that.
I’m interested. I think if I played, I’d very much want a joystick…not sure how much those cost these days. Hoping to see comments from people that have played either or both games…
I haven’t played either, but I seem to recall a time when the World of Warplanes people bought a sponsored link on reddit. Not only were the comments all heckling the product (as usual), but the praise for War Thunder was so great that the whole thread was basically an advertisement for War Thunder paid for by World of Warplanes.
I haven’t played either but am hideously addicted to World of Tanks, the sister game to World of Warplanes.
AFAIK War Thunder is the more established of the two plane games, with WoWP only going out of beta last November. So I’d say go for War thunder as the more polished product for now would be my guess.
Thanks for the answers!
edited to add: I think I’ll go for War Thunder, the alternative seems a little too lightweight and gamey, ie no cockpit views and mouse and keyboard control preferred.
I play a lot of World of Tanks, by the same company that makes World of Warplanes (and the upcoming World of Warships). I’ve tried both World of Warplanes and War Thunder, and found War Thunder to be a superior game (somewhat to my surprise, given my great fondness for WoT).
World of Warplanes seemed to be too much “just fly around and shoot things until someone blows you up”, while War Thunder seemed to offer quite a bit more in terms of strategy and teamwork. Which may be a reflection on the player base rather than the game itself…but with an MMO the two are pretty much one and the same.
I *believe *the end goal for War Thunder is to have combined air, land, and sea battles, while the World of Tanks/Warplanes/Warships folks plan to keep the three battle types independent of each other, if that makes any difference to you.
Thanks, the combined operations thing sounds interesting but I’m not sure how they square that with the max of 32 players at once mentioned on their website.
You might also consider Aces High, though it’s not free after the trial period.
I’m kinda shocked to hear Aces High is still around. I looked a few years back and it was already on life support then, with an average concurrent players of under 30.
If you’re looking for multiplayer combined operations, Planetside 2 is the best game around for that. Large, dense maps with ~600 players and every vehicle and solider player-controlled. It’s themed as “WW2…IN SPACE!” but the weapons systems wind up creating a battlefield with a lot of parallels to a modern layered air defense network.
It’s lightweight from a sim perspective, but the flight model is surprisingly nuanced and the fighters live in a unique blend of fixed-wing and rotary, and nothing else multiplayer even comes close to providing a similar environment. If you’re the type who liked Falcon 4.0 for its dynamic campaign, there’s quite a bit of meat to be found in Planetside’s air game.
I frikken loved Falcon 4, thanks for the recommendation Mekhazzio, I’ll give that a try.
Though a version of Falcon 4 where every plane and vehicle is human controlled would be pretty much my dream game…