A Whole New World (Of Tanks): WoT's Massive 8.0 Update
Back in my day, you could rely on certain things - ravages of time aside - to stay largely the same. Sure, times may change and people may come and go, but one shining beacon of stability has always kept me feeling warm and cozy. I'm speaking, of course, of World-War-II-era tanks. But now - at least, in World of Tanks - they're getting gargantuan sets of new guts and fresh coats of paint. I ask you: is nothing sacred anymore?
So that's the graphical part of Update 8.0. In a nutshell, it'll retool ten maps, entirely redoing lighting, shadows, and a whole host of tiny details - or "brushstrokes," as what may very well be the best videogame trailer narrator ever calls them. Because there is something that's simply perfect about unironically pairing language one might hear from an art museum tour guide with treaded metal death machines. Eventually, every map will receive the same treatment.
Most impressively, however, the revamped graphics will actually improve your framerate. From here on, World of Tanks will be rolling out a new renderer that's able to do heavier lifting in a far more efficient fashion. So you get prettier things, but without the steamrolling typically associated with trying to wage precise, highly methodical war through a slideshow. Hooray!
And that's just one aspect of Update 8.0. Also on the docket: "realistic" physics, a smattering of new Soviet tanks, a better tech tree interface, and tons of other tweaks. For now, a drop date's all that's missing from this picture, but since Update 7.5 only just hit its mark last week, we might be looking at a bit of a wait.