World in Conflict

DX10 Showcase - Great Game! on February 25, 2008

Last year, I installed Vista Ultimate x64 in anticipation of the rash of DirectX 10 games I was sure would follow in Vista's wake. I was sorely disappointed when nothing worth the aggravation of switching was released for a while.

Then World of Conflict went gold.

This game is incredibly fun, challenging at higher levels, and is visually beautiful. The level of detail is amazing as you can zoom from a satellite-like view all the way down to a single Humvee and platoon of soldiers.

However, the detail goes up even further when you enable DirectX 10 (which is only possible with Vista). In the DX10 version, landscape becomes deformable, which means that your artillery strike actually forms craters and such, causing infantry and vehicles to bounce around. In fact, infantry can take cover in those craters if necessary. Explosions look more life-like thanks to the enhanced capability of the DX10 graphics engine, with tiny particles flying everywhere.

This is not a base-building, resource-gathering game. You pick your forces and they are "deployed" to your chosen drop point. You have a certain amount of reinforcement points and they slowly regenerate up to a point cap determined by the map or type of game being played. As your forces are destroyed, their points are returned to your bucket and accrue faster. Forces that survive battles get promoted, earning bonuses to health, damage dealt, or other capabilities.

Instant action, beautiful rendering, interesting storyline, online multiplay, and nukes! What else can you ask for in a WW3 game?