Might as well add one more computing and technology obsession onto the pile. The flavor of the month this time is a brilliantly polished naval combat simulator for the PC called World of Warships. I must say, I’m very surprised by how much I am taken with it after picking it up a little over a month ago.
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Battles involve 12-24 players, divided into two teams and placed out of sight from the opponents in a wide variety of richly-detailed maps. It’s usually a mix of destroyers, light and heavy cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers. All ships are based on actual historical warships from the world’s primary seafaring nations, each unique in its characteristics, advantages and limitations. Battles lasts twenty minutes, making the game very easy to pick up and enjoy even when time is scarce.
World of Warships is a free download and I was skeptical when I first heard about it for that very reason — free and quality don’t usually go hand-in-hand. This title, however, is brilliantly polished, boatloads of fun (get it?) and based on painstakingly accurate, historical ship recreations. The more battles you fight and the more skillfully you perform, the better the ships, captains and upgrades you can afford.
The publishing company makes its money selling premium accounts for players that want to accelerate that growth and premium ships for those that want an immediate edge over their rivals. Even though most players are freebies like me, the publisher does quite well. The USS Alabama, for example, will set a desperate gamer (or historical buff) back $54. I ran down the hall to retrieve the credit card twice over the past few weeks after a few frustrating, late-night defeats, but relented each time. It’s wild fun, but I don’t know how long it will last. I do have that half-completed map of the Little Colorado to finish…
Anyhow, I have taken an interest in demystifying the powerful but little-documented 3D recording and replay features built into the game’s core engine, and then rendering snippets of past battles and encounters to HD video. It is daunting but I do love this sort of stuff — at least for a month or two, anyways.
I rendered a video successfully for the first time last night, attached below. Every time I roll into one of these simulated naval battles, I think of that helicopter arrival scene in Forrest Gump. Hell, I’ve even played Creedence on the loudspeakers a few times, drowning out the sound of the game, at least until the first shells started flying. So the song choice for a first video on this engine was a no-brainer.
I think there might be one or two more videos like this in my future (and the several hours of battling required to generate those moments) but after that, I suspect this latest pursuit will have mostly run its course. It’s been a slightly self-indulgent month and I don’t feel guilty about that in the slightest.