War Thunder

[HPriller]

In the end they really are two very different games.  It's just one has hundreds of thousands of active accounts, and the other...

But as far as Pay2win is concerned, there are varying levels of this.  All of these Free2Play games have some form of in game currency that you unlock the content with.  The better ones make only aesthetic stuff (stuff that doesn't affect gameplay, such as cosmetic skins and such) accessable through premium paid currencies, while the rest of the content can be had with the gameplay earned currencies.   War Thunder mostly follows that tune though they are pretty greedy with how slowly you are doled out the gameplay earned currency.  When I first started playing it really wasn't too bad, but when they made the major overhaul of the system for the console release, they got significantly more greedy about how they let you unlock planes and such.  It does happen at a pretty slow rate, significantly slower than before.  They also used to have a constant stream of holiday or history related bonuses that were really cool that helped in this regard, and most of these have been discontinued.  Fortunately for me, I had made a lot of progress in the game before then, and since then even under the new system I've managed to still unlock many of the higher tier planes and their upgrades without having to resort to opening my wallet.

One other thing about War Thunder that raises an eyebrow is the fact that friendly fire is modeled 100% with teamkilling.  I always thought Aces High handled this much better with killshooter.  In War Thunder even with the penalty system they have for friendly fire, teamkilling is *very* easy to abuse for griefing.  I find myself quite often partaking in this abuse just because I find it hilarious, particularly with how easy it lights the rage fuse for some people.  For some people this might be a deal breaker of a game flaw, though to me it's quite entertaining, in the end it's probably bad for the game.

[BuckShot]

And what is a 'deftone'?

(Yes, I know I could google this, thank you )

check them out. Looking at your music list, You might like them.

[Patches1]

Actually, comparing War Thunder to Aces High is really a moot point simply because War Thunder has Arcade, Realistic, and Simulator skill level modes, where Aces High has only a single skill level mode.

What we are actually talking here is the difference between Free to Play (F2P) versus a monthly subscription of $15.00 USD, or, simply, $0.50 per day. Quite frankly I don't know of a single teenager in my neighborhood who doesn't spent more than fifty cents per day on his/her sugared and caffeinated "energy" drink, not to mention the single "latte" consumed daily by adults! The Free to Play (F2P) crowd can crow all they wish about their favorite game being "free-of-charge", but that just isn't the truth. Only a miniscule of a percentage of worldwide F2P players never spend any money upgrading their weapon of choice.

 

[JimmyD3]

They gotta make their money somehow, but WWI vs. Korea/Vietnam is a gross exaggeration.  The planeset encompasses a roughly 20 year range from the early 1930's to the hard cutoff at 1953.  At lower tiers it doesn't take very long at all to unlock the planes and their upgrades.  The matchmaker also keeps things reasonably tight thru their battle rating system.  There's really a lot of fun to be had in the lower tiers without having to pay a dime.

As for waiting times, this is War Thunder's biggest advantage by far.  For arcade battles the matchmaker will typically find a match in seconds, it's air start with teams only a few miles apart.  Sure you can put your plane on the runway almost instantly in Aces High.  But first you have to look over the map and try to find a fight to begin with.  Then you have to find the closest airfield (that isn't vulched out) and then take off, climb to altitude/speed and fly out to the fight sometimes 30+ miles away from the closest airfield.   In the time it takes you to do that the fight could already be over.  And you could end up cruising around the enemy base just waiting for someone to challenge you before you run out of fuel.  When it comes to getting fast action War Thunder beats Aces High's snails pace by a wide margin.

As far as buying/repairing planes, unless you are terribad at the game you're almost always going to make more than enough silver lions in a match to cover your repair costs and put most towards whatever new plane you intend to get.  Not all planes are always available in Aces High either, anything with a perk cost has to be earned too and you only earn it for one flyout unless you successfully land it back for your rebate.   So, for example, if you had your heart set on flying C-Hogs, tempests, 262s or whatever perk plane it's significantly more limited use than in War Thunder where you unlock the plane once and it's permanently available for you.

The main idea here is that there is a significant advantage to the free2play model.  A much larger playerbase for starters.  You can pay as much or as little as you want and yet still be able to play the game.  It's far from perfect but the difference has left me still playing War Thunder without having spent anything on it in several months and still retaining all the things I've unlocked.  With Aces High, the last few times I had an active subscription, I got so little playtime and action out of it, due to the abysmal online numbers at the times I had available to play it, that I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.  Any friends I tried to bring into Aces High to play with didn't want anything to do with it and barely lasted a day or two of their free trials.  They laughed at the relatively poor graphics and were frustrated by the extremely steep learning curve for new players and the relatively huge of amounts of time that have to be spent finding and flying out to a battle.  The other issue here is stagnation, in the past several years very little at all has changed in Aces High.  For a subscription based system, there typically is an expectation of a constant stream of new content/updates.  Aces High hasn't really lived up to this as of late.  I honestly think the subscription has become a dated concept in online gaming and Aces High has suffered retaining it.  For the game to have a brighter future, personally, I think a free2play model should be considered at the very least.

Another member of the "Instant Gratification" crowd.

I enjoy AH because of it being closer to what the WWII flyboys had to deal with. Every sortie was NOT an ace making endeavor. The other aspect is the strategic battle against your opponent, while I have only been on WT a couple of times, they have nothing to compare to AH in that area. Besides AH cost $180 a year, we all spend then much on toilet paper ( amongst other things), F2P? Nothing is free, you either pay up front or you pay on the back side.

[tunnelrat]

Are you guys still going on about War Thunder?

That's soooo last year.

Here's your new game to practice your self-delusions over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLnWtLwJmWI

http://youtu.be/q3jH7NcZf7c

(Watch it in HD, obviously.)

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Are you guys still going on about War Thunder?

That's soooo last year.

Here's your new game to practice your self-delusions over:

http://youtu.be/q3jH7NcZf7c

(Watch it in HD, obviously.)

Uh like how? The video is available only in 360p.

[tunnelrat]

Uh like how? The video is available only in 360p.

Both go up to 1080p.

[Mister Fork]

If Aces High ever changed their pricing model similar to War Thunder, they would bet setting up a class system of gameplay.  Those who can afford to spend the money to upgrade quickly can and always will be ahead of the curve.  Those who cannot afford the constant death-of-a-thousand-cuts payments, will be constantly behind the curve of those with money.

And unfortunately, when it comes to a 'level playing field' - there isn't one with WT is there?  I mean, you could earn your own way through with the free stuff - just like a lot of games with Apple - micro transactions. $1 for a chest of 10 diamonds. 5 diamonds per upgrade.

If I have say, $200 disposable income a month to spend on the game, that's a whole lot of upgrades.  If I have say $15 a month, then it's not really a level playing field is it? 8 million subscribers -

Does this kind of system reminds you of the old CompuServe days where you paid $$$ for your connection time? I remember paying a lot of money to get connected to Air Warrior that way (or was it Warbirds).  The more money you had, the more time in the air, the better the pilot.

Here at AH - $15 a month. Everyone is the same.  I like that better. And perk points are earned - not purchased.  But with all games, I'm open to a better experience if it'll cost $5 -10 more a month...

Just saying...

[tunnelrat]

Just watch the first minute of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDW2X2cgLno

I promise, regardless of what game you are loyal to, you will be impressed by the effects.

[Mister Fork]

Just watch the first minute of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDW2X2cgLno

I promise, regardless of what game you are loyal to, you will be impressed by the effects.

- yep IL2 is definitely a gold standard for single player WWII sims.

[tunnelrat]

See Rule #4

[Saxman]

See Rule #4

[GScholz]

See Rule #4

[zack1234]

Who the heck is Kanye West???

He was a bloke who used to work at the local ferritt grooming clinic

Battle of Stalingrad looks good lets see, ROF is good but multiplayer is a bit dull

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Both go up to 1080p.

Weird last time I opened it, it was only 360p now it shows all the way up to 1080p.