In case you missed it: Obsidian are making a F2P game about tanks called Armored Warfare, and no, we didn't make that up. The game was briefly shown at E3 with a not-very-revealing trailer, but now 27 minutes of footage has appeared online, thanks a Twitch stream recorded at PAX.
It's a free-to-play, tank-based multiplayer game that looks a lot like a free-to-play, tank-based multiplayer game, but with (according to Eurogamer—thanks Eurogamer !) a roleplaying seam running through it that will see you levelling up crews, forging relationships with dealers, and taking care of stuff back at your base. It doesn't look like my cup of tea, but I see no reason why a primarily RPG-focused developer can't try something new now and again. They may even bring something new to the table that will differentiate Armored Warfare from similar games made by more established free-to-play studios. (It would also be neat to see tanky lessons learned here being applied to an Alpha Protocol 2 or something.)
Anyway, here's what Armored Warfare looks like. The game will be entering closed beta within the first three months of next year, and you can sign up for that here .
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.