May 22nd, 2008

World in Conflict

According to Einstein, if I am not wrong, the 4th World War is going to be carried on with sticks and stones, if the 3rd one is started. Fortunately, the wars all over the world didn't turn into a world wide conflict, despite the so-called "war on terrorism" and its consequences. About six months ago, the 3rd World War was unleashed on computers, and this Fall will also start on gaming consoles. What am I talking about here? It's about World in Conflict, of course!

World in Conflict air strike

The action is set a bit back, placing the conflict in 1989, during the social, economic and political collapse of the Soviet Union. We all know this happened peacefully for the entire world, despite various local conflicts, but in the game, the plot uses an alternate history scenario where the Soviet Union pursued a course of war to remain in power.

While being generally considered a real-time strategy game, World in Conflict is a RTS which also includes gameplay typical to real-time tactical games. The part I like most is the lack of base-building and resource gathering parts you find in most RTS games, because I usually suck at those, and I end up beaten really bad by the AI. Anyway, back to Mr. Parker, now.

World in Conflict Tanks

Who is Mr. Parker? Well, you are! In the game, I mean. First Lieutenant Parker is an United States Army officer, under the command of Colonel Sawyer, who was on leave in Seattle, when Soviet forces launch a surprise attack against the US.

During the single player campaign, you get to defend various key points, while the Chinese also enter the war, on the Soviet side. Well, this is not something to talk about, really - you have to experience it, and World in Conflict is a game you have to play, not read about!

World in Conflict Assault

While the initial release didn't allow you to play the Soviet side, a new edition, called World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, is going to solve the problem. Now you can finally invade the US and, hopefully, have a successful invasions. Oh, I miss Panzer General 2 and the invasion of the US in that game!

If you were wondering about system requirements, the official list says a 2GHz processor with 512MB of memory and a video card with 128MB video RAM and DirectX 9.0c support should be enough to play the game in Windows XP, I think at least a decent dual core CPU, 2GB of memory and a high end video card are required to allow a gamer to fully enjoy this game which deserves a Perfect 10 score, especially if we consider the upcoming Soviet Assault edition...