World of Tanks creator Wargaming has announced that patch 9.1 to the incredibly popular franchise is coming. The major features of the patch include two new historical battles and a new map for the players to unleash tank-based destruction upon one another.
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The historical battles, which are just a clever ways to teach kids about history, being added are the 1942 Bryansk Front in the USSR, whose historical analogue suffered greatly at the hands of Hitler's war machine, and the the 1941 Siege of Tobruk in North Africa which pitted the Allied forces, mostly under Australian rule against the might of Rommel, Germany's top panzer commander. The siege itself lasted for nearly eight months and resulted in almost 4000 casualties on the Allied side. It also represented the first time the unstoppable Nazi armored division had been brought to a halt. The new map is called Kharkov, which is a major city in the Ukraine and home to several conflicts during World War II as well.
The patch will also update the graphics capability of World of Tanks: 'The Public Test will use a new graphic technology called "physically based shading" that is planned to be the basis for the future graphical changes in 2014, such as HD tank models.' High definition is good. Tanks are good. That's a win-win for Wargaming.
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A bevy of test notes, none of which are a lock for the game, can be found at the Wargaming site. Kursk and the Battle of the Bulge historical battles have been removed, other maps have been updated for performance issues, new awards have been added and the interface has been adjusted to streamline a number of issues. Several bugs have also been identified and correct, making for a smoother experience.
The public test is available only to players who had signed up before March 1 of this year. Which is a shame, as I would like to get in on some of this.
Head over to Wargaming and follow the instructions to sign up for the test.
