Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s a genuine relief that Ubisoft gave Massive Entertainment a new home, they’re a development studio I’d hate to see disappear. I’ve spent the past few days getting back into World In Conflict, and I’ve enjoyed it enormously – particularly the multiplayer, which is as rapid and engaging as ever. My thoughts are expanded in wordy fashion in this Eurogamer review. I should stress that this is a review of World In Conflict: Complete, rather than just the Soviet Assault add-on, which is tough to recommend to anyone who has played the original campaign. If you haven’t played this most beautiful of RTS games, however, now is an excellent time to pick up the full thing. I believe World In Conflict: Complete is out now in shops and on Steam.

I’ve posted the unlock cheat for opening all the campaign missions in Soviet Assault (and therefore getting straight to the new stuff) beneath the cut.
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The launch cinematic for World In Conflict (below) amuses me. No game footage, but we had plenty of that here. In other news, the console versions of the game have entered a hazy “no comment” realm. Have they been disappeared? Possibly, as Ubi seems to favour Massive as a PC developer, if this piece on VG247 is to be believed. “Our priority is to the work excellent work that Massive has done on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC,” says Ubi. And maybe they’re right to focus on that, as PC RTS games do seem to be the games of the year, it’s true.

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Massive Entertainment have released quite literally several videos showing in-game action from current World In Conflict relaunch-and-not-expansion-as-such, Soviet Assault. As you’d expect from this most beautiful of real-time strategies, it’s heaving with detonations and incinerations. Having spoken with project lead Mr Jansen over the weekend, I’m actually pretty keen on getting this out again around the time of the next patch, and getting some multiplayer going. Anyone find the love in WiC multiplayer games?
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In this interview World In Conflict lead Magnus Jansen talked to us about how Soviet Assault is more like a relaunch or “director’s cut” of the original game than a traditional expansion. He discusses how online RTS games need “silent communication” and announces that all WiC players will receive an big content update to bring everyone in line with the new materials from Soviet Assault. Read on for a tip of the hat to Ground Control, and the inside perspective on Soviet Assault.

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Massive Entertainment have turned up the trailer of the year so far: perfect for the voyeur of utter destruction who wants to chill out while surveying the impact craters. It’s hard to say what makes the correct juxtaposition of music with explosions so palatable, but I’d say this was the most entertaining since that Far Cry 2 trailer last year. Good work, Ubi. World In Conflict: Soviet Assault is out later this month, so I guess I should install this preview code that is lingering next to my keyboard.

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Secretly we were always on the side of the Russians in the America-invading alterna-history of World In Conflict – take that, Seattle! Ahem. New missions from the Russian perspective, multiplayer maps, and other bits for World In Conflict are, happily, going to arrive at last with the Ubisoft publication of Soviet Assault in March. The trailer, which we overlooked last week because we were too busy looking at the sky for signs of Armageddon, is after the jump.

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Obama might be shutting down Guantanamo and opening negotiations with Iran, but he’s not addressing the real threat to Western society: those bally Commies. Thank goodness the lost World in Conflict expansion pack, Soviet Assault, has finally been unearthed – the true tale of this Red menace will be told at last.
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Ubisoft have bought Swedish studio Massive Entertainment (of beloved Ground Control and World in Conflict fame) from ActiBlizzard. Hooray! The studio will live to create another base-buildingless RTS with splendid visuals, which will probably be in-progress WIC sequel Soviet Assault, which was also purchased.

Ubi executive director Christine Burgess-Quemard had this impeccable comment: “Massive has put together a group of some of the most confirmed and recognized creators in the industry and I know that their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios.”

Hopefully they’ll make some more games with fat explosions and oh-so-clever timed resource/reinforcement multiplayer mechanics too, eh CBQ?

You know what’s funny? Being IP-blocked from accessing your own website.
You know what’s not funny? Being IP-blocked from accessing your own website. Also, Garfield.

Anyway, I return from 24 hours of infuriating blacklisting to find Kieron’s done a splendid job of managing the place while Jim and I have been offline and Walker’s been away snuggling with Gabe Newell, so why bother posting? Oh, alright. Here’s an enjoyably epic new video for Soviet Assault, the upcoming World in Conflict expansion. I’ve not played WiC for a while, but this has convinced me to dig it out again. Shamelessly ripping off Gillen’s video-autopsy shtick, I’ve stuck some blow-by-blow commentary beneath the cut. Yes, Saturday is RPS is Hungover So Fobs You Off With Trailers day.
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We’ve only mentioned the forthcoming World In Conflict: Soviet Assault in passing, but as I noticed a new trailer appearing, I went back and discovered further recent details. Soviet Assault’s advances primarily come for the forthcoming console release, but they’re funneling these changes back into the PC version. The new multiplayer elements will cost you exactly no money, available to anyone who bought the original and includes elements like the voice-activation for a-nuking. The new soviet campaign will be available as an purchasable download, apparently at a price beneath an expansion pack. So, disappointing to comment-threaders, not an expandalone. Because they do like the opportunity of saying “Expandalone”. Hell, don’t we all?

The new fancy rendered trailer with macho Russian music and some impressive spangly grabs are beneath the cut.
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