World in Conflict launched on the 18th and while I’ve been really excited about the game but I held off on pre-ordering it due to my experience on getting burned with Command and Conquer 3. Based on my investigation, I have to say that the number of people who have appeared to buy the game and play it online is less than encouraging. Heading over to Massgate, the battle.net of Massive Entertainment you can see the number of players that have currently played the game online by scrolling through the ladder to the end. As of today, the number of players who own the game and have played online is roughly 5,200. ** edit(9/24): its now over 28,000 **

Call me jaded but after playing games like Counter-strike, Starcraft and World of Warcraft this number seems a little low for a game that got 93% in PC Gamer.When I played Command and Conquer 3 the game basically died when the number of active ladder players shrunk to below 10,000 due to the 1vs1 nature of the ladder. If 5-10% of the playerbase is online at any given time the number of people to play against is 260-520. The 5-10% of 5200 number is reinforced by going online with the demo and looking at the server list where I counted 360 people at 8am.

Don’t get me wrong I really want to play this game, I think its fun and its probably the perfect blend of action and strategy. I enjoyed the demo a lot but if the player base isn’t there to play against then I don’t really have much interest in investing money on the game. If the game doesn’t take off Massive should think about making the game free to play online with limited graphics so that the player base increases and makes the value added features of the game more appealing.

The multi-player aspect to the game appeals to me and I really want to try out the tug of war mode. Once you get used to the camera and can find a few people that know how to work together the game is a blast. If the user base increases to around 50,000-100,000 I will probably pickup the game but I don’t feel like paying 50 bucks to play on less than 20 active servers.

So World in Conflict open beta came out, you can sign up here and play for free. The game is probably the most fun I have had in a real time strategy game. There is no building or teching in this game, just all out brutal combat. Basically its the best part of any RTS. Losing because you chose to build a tank instead of upgrade something is never fun. Probably the most refreshing part of the game is that you get all the tools required to find a game and engage other people in combat in under a minute. Massive set a new standard for how a games menus should act. One of the most amazing parts of the game is the off map support abilities. You get everything. Paratroopers, nuclear weapons, artillery, a10 strikes, nalpam, carpet bombing. The graphics are lovely even on medium from nukes to napalm. I played so much that I was ranked #3 out of everyone playing online at one point.

I think the best thing the game has going for it is the team work element. Your teammates can work with you very easily. The game has built in voice chat and a menu system to request help or abilities at certain points on the map. WiC is so good that it made me not even want to complete the WCG qualifier. The tourament was by far the worst I’ve ever played in. It was a joke. 20% of the people who signed up played and then whoever was running it didn’t bother to advance people on to the next stage. I got an email 3 days after I was supposed to play the last game asking me to show up that night and play. Then the command and conquer 3 patch came out, which total fucked over the ladder. The game is draining on anyone that plays it. You have to deal with lag constantly. Who thinks that both players should get a disconnect? Not me. The disconnect problem is make worse by the fucking menu system thats tied to the frame rate of the OTHER player. You cant even quit a game in under 20 seconds. Who thinks that being able to take control of any unit, even your opponents isn’t worthy of a quick fix? I sure do. I’m never buying another Electronic Arts game again. I was going to praise the story line but I remember the only decent actor they had in the cut scenes was Kane and the 3rd campaign was 4 missions and just some jellyfish yelling at you.

World in Conflict isn’t without faults though. The most annoying thing is when you tell your infantry units to get inside a transport the game will select the transport when the first unit enters and then select the transport again when the last unit enters. Basically it makes you select it 3 times so if you want to tell another unit to do something you cant because it will tell the new unit you selected as well as the transport to move, canceling the infantry from getting in and unloading them again, aggravating. I think the camera system needs a little work too, its not as smooth as I’d like it while moving around the battlefield. The maps could be bigger too. They need more ambush points to hide infantry in and tanks behind. Its to easy for artillery to just pound known hiding spots, killing everything before you have a chance to fight. I also wouldn’t mind if the UI would allow you to force move everywhere if you couldn’t attack the unit you clicked on.