War Thunder - A Sim, a Chat Lobby an Institution? Is War Thunder Worth it in 2023? 

Crunched for time? Play war thunder now with my link, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters, and more: playwt.link/enigma

I played for WT for several years, but the grind became insufferable. WT, with each upgrade, just racked up the grind and the things I really wanted just kept getting farther and farther out of reach. WT was a ton of fun at first, the snail became increasingly greedy.

As somebody who has played air sims and other "war" games since the late 1990s, I can say that far too many people give WT too much shit. Does it get things wrong? Of course. But it also gets a lot of things right, and some aspects of it put other games within the same niche to absolute shame. I think this was a well-balanced discussion. Also, an adult with full-time commitments (and then some), War Thunder is great to easily hop in and out of. No long start-up procedures, no fucking about with settings for a week to get one or two extra frames. Just log in and go. I like that.

I think the appeal of study sims is that you also enjoy everything that's not actual flight hours... I rarely have more than an hour to play during week days so instead of flying, I'll often use this time on the study part of the equation by reading, watching videos ect. about a plane Im currently learning. And enjoy that time just as much. I spent most of my 20s playing online poker and it was the same deal... It was around a 80/20 study/playing ratio and I found the study time just as enjoyable. I havent played WT enough to have a real opinion on it, but I tend to lean towards study sims like BMS and DCS specifically for the amount of study required.

Fast food has it's virtues at times. Dipping in and out of WT will always be easier and involve less friction than DCS & IL-2 etc. And I still maintain that Air sim has a lot going for it, if only Gaijin would just make better use of it.

I had never thought of WT as you have explained it here Enigma and you are correct. I too had life long friends but being 10 or so + years ahead of you, many of my friends have passed away as I was one of the youngest in the group. Enjoy your friends no matter what the game/sim is.

I LOVE how you kept on ragging on the splash damage model in DCS.

I fully agree there are tons of deficits in DCS even when compared to WT. While it isn't a definitive solution, I do like that you can build missions yourself and use scripts in DCS, so we can for example fix the splash damage issue. The main issue I have with WT is simply the crazy grind and, funnily enough, the accessibility. I find it crazy difficult to get into it and not just get spanked over and over again by players who play longer, know every edge of the map etc.. In DCS, I play PVE, custom-made missions only with scripts that simulate IADS etc.

The aging parents part struck me hard! God damnit, Enigma! Earlier today I was on my way to work while talking to my mother, she was telling about her health situation and how my dad now needs a new medication. They are good, no need to worry, but you describing it in your video hit me hard. Great video, as usual. I don't like War Thunder that much but I still play 30 or 45 min once you every 2 nights while talking to friends.

Damn, the first minutes of the video really hit me. I think most of the points you bring are valid. Warthunder will always be a more casual "sim". It really offers better accessibility and time to play compare to DCS. Of course, as long as you are really not grinding to unlock everything. That said, the "free to play" model really affects the experience, and the economy changes have made the game more grindy compared to years before.

The production quality gets better and better everyday. Enigma, you may be the best military sim RU-vidr, your takes are seldom wrong and are some of the best and most thought out consistently

I played WT for 4 years now, the grind is simply unbearable without premium. Buying a top tier premium vehicle is like buying a DCS module, but with War Thunder quality

Part of the reason why I like your server so much is because its a better version of War Thunder Sim EC. I swear, if the snail put more effort into developing Sim Air (not air RB like most people play), they'd be sitting on a gold mine. The ease of aircraft operation like IL-2, coupled with like you mentioned the huge variety of airframes, a large player base, and a multitude of air, ground, and sea AI targets makes it so much fun. But of course, the sim economy is gimped so its nearly impossible to progress the tech trees (even with premium), and the BR balancing for Air Sim could be significantly better. The game mode has so much protentional. If they fixed the economy in Sim Air, I could see myself rarely starting up Il-2 or DCS again. Can't find any other combat sim so far where I can fly my beloved P-61, then in a heart beat jump into a whatever model of Harrier or MiG 21 my little heart desires. Great video as always Enigma.

War Thunder was my gateway drug to combat flight sim. I made the slow transition from arcade, realistic, then to sim battles before taking the plunge into IL-2 and DCS. It’s a game I will always have downloaded and updated because it’s easy to hop in and out of. I stopped playing IL-2 and pretty much use the time I have available as a husband, dad of a toddler, and a day job to play DCS but sometimes that literally means 30 minutes just to hop into my favorite jet and shoot down some Ai and stay familiar with my keybinds and procedures. But War Thunder will always be there for me to jump in without having to remember a bunch of buttons and procedures to shoot some guy out of the air and that’s nice to know.

I'm basically the same. Though funnily enough I met the guys I play WT with through DCS. I work shifts (and no regular schedule since I work for the railroad) and my main DCS buddy also has weird working hours. So it's quite rare sometimes for both of us to be online for the same time with hours to spare for a proper DCS session. It happens, but oftentimes both of us are tired and short of time and we end up playing War Thunder. As horrible the grind is sometimes, it gives you a purpose. And when you are again wasting 1-2 hours fiddling with DCS settings, agreeing on server (that is not full or close to restart) and the module you want to fly is viable or available, you can't help to think you may have had more fun getting blessed by the snail. Excellent video, anyways!

The biggest gripe most people have with WT is the economy is dogshit and encouraged dogshit mentalities and playstyles. I literally got into DCS just so I could fly the Su-25A without having my Warthunder Account go fucking broke from repair costs. Otherwise...? I fucking love the game lmao.

This is such a good topic to discuss. That said, if I had time and didn't want to invest in DCS flying, I would just play another genre. War Thunder might be nice in some aspects but I can't bring myself to grind to unlock vehicles. I think that sim developers these days don't have the right priorities anymore. but I think this argument can be made for many games across different genres. I'm just surprised that no one decided to mod 1946 in order to refresh it and host online servers for that title. As for social connections, I got into sims too late to make connections anywhere other than ECW/DCS.

Enigma love to see you getting some sponsored content! You deserve it!

I know, once the vehicles run out, there is a chance that the game will start getting improved by the developers, instead of them pushing more vehicles.

I'm a youngling in DCS. I'm currently 21 years old, born after 9/11. I got into World of Tanks when I was 9, and immediately switched to War Thunder for the "realism" it brought to air combat. I sucked it dry for years, and it did me. I loved, I laughed, I seethed. I woke up, grabbed cereal, watched PhlyDaily, BaronVonGamez or DevilDogGamer. I'd spend the school day dreaming of my next unlock. In the evenings and weekends, I made unreasonable purchases on ingame stuff and put every minute I could into the game. A year ago, I reached a pivotal moment in my life. A turning point. To mark a new beginning, I did what i'd been wanting to do for a couple of years, but only ever dared to dream about. I grabbed all of my savings, bought middle of the line flight sim hardware, upgraded my PC to feed the Eagle, and got into DCS. DCS has taught me. DCS has let me learn. It let me join a group in which I was able to take on responsibility. When friends come over, I show off my skills and hardware while trying to maintain humility. When family ask me what I'm up to, I let them know I contribute to the fuctioning of a group of 50 active members in a top-of-the-line flight sim. I hook my brain over to my computer and soar in the skies in the aircraft 5 year old me was in awe of when I was deafened by its engine, on the days when those would pass above my grandparents' house. And that is the key difference in my experience between War Thunder and DCS. War Thunder made me ashamed. Ashamed of my resource spending, both money and time, and how little I got back from it. Ashamed by how well the F2P economic system had sucked me in. I understood, through my own tribulations, that these convoluted multitudes of currencies were a way to force the money out of my wallet. Saw these graphs of exponential time required to move up in the game, and get more and more advanced vehicles, presented as more fun and more rich. I understood that what giving me what I loved was a means to take time and money from me. That my addiction was engineered. DCS was comparatively expensive, but the major difference is that I know what I'm paying for. I'm paying to learn, and put skills in application. I am paying once, and then am free to enjoy content. There is no system to push the carrot away, only my passion to set it where I want it to be. My spending brings me pride, not shame. And that is why I will never, ever go back to War Thunder.

Moral of the story: Only traitors get girlfriends and children. Did the MW2 Quickscope days not mean a thing to them? Were the Halo 3 legendary multiplayer runs worthless to them..? Disgraceful..

In my personal opinion war thunder is not worth it if you want to fly Jets. I have played WT for 2 years now and then and I just managed to reach the 1st Gen Jets. The grind in this game is insane and you are better off buying a fully simulated aircraft in dcs than spend 60€ (or your soul) on an f14 in WT

I really like War Thunder as a game, the easy hop-in and hop-out type gameplay is really nice! And it serves nicely as a more casual pvp experience, a break from the hardcore sims, especially so when you're low on time and just want to play a quick game with aircraft, or even tanks or boats if you're into that! My main gripe with it is the grind in War Thunder is very difficult to get past for me. Especially because I wasn't too terribly interested in WW1/2. I was really interested in getting to the early cold war, the very early jets, but it feels like the time required to get there is absolutely absurd. Maybe I'm just bad at the game and if I got better I'd get there faster. I'm not sure. But I do know I find myself in a cycle of liking War Thunder, wanting to play it to relax, but then I barely make progress towards the aircraft I want to fly, and that gets a little discouraging to me. (Also the grind being multiplied per faction does not help, since I'd love to try out different factions, but I feel stuck to one, otherwise I just wouldn't make good progress.) I'd like to say it's not me giving up too easily considering I've learned a LOT for DCS, but I don't discount the possibility for it either. I really want to enjoy War Thunder, but for some reason, the grind to get to the aircraft I want feels more intimidating than learning a new DCS module.

You hit the nail on the head. Time is the biggest constraint as an adult. That is what keeps me from diving deeper in DCS and learning all the avionics and other crap. So me and my friend basically do guns only dogfights, maybe add Fox 2 missiles to the mix. Do formation takeoffs and landings. We get about 30-40 minutes every other night or so. But at the same time, I can’t really get into War Thunder. I have tried it but the relaxed flight models etc just teach me bad habits flying wise and it affected my DCS flying. Same reason I stay away from dcs MODs.

Yeah you hit the main points pretty well to be honest. I've been playing for a little over 9 years and this game is something that I can play within 25 minutes of my busy day at school and in between study sessions. Even as a real world pilot, I still enjoy having some laughs with my buddies who have been playing with me since middle school😂This game will always have a spot in my heart and when I finally can't play anymore and move through an aviation career I hope it continues to live on.

The mean age at the birth of their first biological child for men (15-44 years old) in 2011-2015 is 25.5 years old. Following that stat, if you were 18 when War Thunder came out, in 2012, that means your first child was born in 2019. If you match the average, that means your child is 4 years old today. Many of my personal friends, lag slightly behind this average, and have kids that are slightly younger than 4 years old. They are busy and are limited by having only 24 hours in a day. This video is dedicated to them. They are gamers at heart and want to get sweaty but they don't have the time to do it and they play war thunder to get their fix and I am happy to hop in WT to have some laughs with them. While people have their preferences and their agendas, we need to remember that things exist beyond the screen. I hope this video is well received, not because I care about getting flamed, but more that I hope people believe and understand the mathematical truth in having only 24 hours in a day. War Thunder does a good job of making an accessible bite size game that is available to these people who are crunched for time. I thought this was a really interesting thing that I do not see people talk about War Thunder. Every game has its faults but finding some things that make this game unique and compelling was an interesting thing to think about and I feel that people will find it interesting to think about too.

I'm a college student but I honestly have a lot of free time, so I bought IL-2, DCS FC3 and a headtracker to get into sims. I still haven't used the tracker for more than to set it up and I haven't learned a single DCS module because honestly it's very demanding, even for the simple FC3 planes. It's just easier to launch war thunder, suffer for 20 minutes and then go play something else

I’m just waiting for MAC to come out so WT can have some more competition.

Yep, I've got all the vehicles that I want/like over the last 9 years I've played and just hop in custom battles for an hour or two to unwind and chill. Definitely the itch that the snail scratches.

Main problem in war thunder....i don't want the grind. I want to buy the vehicle. No grind, that's it. That is my main issue with it.

Actually, you make a good point in stating that there are many different apps out there currently that offer different experiences and they all do something well. I try to experience as much as possible because I think that's the fun of gaming. Trying different stuff.

The way I see it, it's far from a sim but can feel immersive because of the good graphics, sounds and mechanics. But I agree, even WT has some mechanics that are much more realistic than DCS.

It has a fast matchmaker and good damage models. It does IR right. Does that make up for the atrocious flight models? Planes being unplayable if they're not meta? They have bombers, but are they even given a reason to exist? I genuinely think War Thunder would be better if it had less vehicles and focused on giving them the opportunity to fill the role they would have IRL. But right now it's constant deathmatch and there are such obvious issues with each game mode that it is impossible to overlook. It's fine if you like fast food but don't kid yourself saying McDonalds makes gourmet burgers

Echoing pretty much everyone else: WT is fun when you take it at your own pace, take breaks and play with friends. Get too focused on it and the game will absolutely destroy you with its balancing and economy issues but used as a "fast food" type game or as a way to keep touch with friends it can be quite enjoyable.

This actually makes a lot of sense- I, young gamer, never enjoyed WT because of the lack of fidelity and depth of realism, and I am able to enjoy DCS because of its singularity of depth when it comes to modules simply because I have the time and ambition. It makes sense, then, for War Thunder to occupy a space for casual gamers who don’t have the time like I do but want to experience a military simulation. Props to you, Enigma, for having the balls to do a *sponsored* video over this. I think your honest takes are very important in the military sim scene as a whole, and I am grateful for the impact your Cold War server has had on ED- essentially forcing their hand to pay attention to the Cold War scene, the most unique and fun era imo for military aviation.

I should mention even famous DCS players like sungho/Ace are a good example: He still revisits war thunder every now and then, especially the recent patch with the F-16/MiG-29. He started off playing war thunder and grew up doing war thunder tournaments learning from a one russian aaron freeman who taught themselves to dogfight and was said to be the best 1v1 duelist in war thunder, even though they haven't touched WT since 2021. Where is Ace now? He does DCS tournaments. Appeared on TV and got to fight a DARPA sponsored AI project. And he still revisits WT, a game that the DCS community loves to shit on.

I agree, the short battles are perfect for people with not a lot of time. However, as you said in the video, the lack of a dynamic campaign with larger maps is depressing. We're so close to having the game that everyone wants, but they have not updated the overall gameplay since it was released. That's my issue with it.

IMHO WT is actually good breeding ground for new sim players. I started with WT arcade, then went to realistic battles and then sim battles. Ended up playing DCS and IL2. Also I do not think that WT can easily do high fidelity machines. It takes crazy amount of time to make high fidelity module.

Not sure I'd say WT stops people from "graduating" to sims any more than Call of Duty or Battlefield stop people from playing ARMA or Squad. It's just that hardcore swimming is just niche, and you're probably not getting AAA money behind anything so niche. Which also adds to this: emergent gameplay doesn't leave you wanting to spend more money in the product and that is ultimately the current driver of new developments. This is why dynamic campaigns that before were great selling points are now forgotten; they'd rather have you but some new DLC rather than being content with what you have.

I met one of my IRL best friends through warthunder after I heard him talking about it in middle school and asked him to add me. Been friends with that guy for like 9years now and still play sometimes.

I think you really nailed the time required aspect of the game, but something I feel you missed is the insufferably long grind to get into late ww2/Cold War or above. Me and my friends have been playing war thunder off and on for several years now and we still have not reached Cold War. With each update the snail brings, this gives us more things to research, but also increases the barrier between low tier and high tier. All in all you did do justice to war thunders game loop, nice video!

You sir keep hitting the nail in the head, this is a point for point expression of my thoughts on the subject. The more time you spend on these "simulators", the more you learn how flawed they are ( im talking mostly about DCS), and the more disappointed you become with their lack of interest in fixing core things like bomb damage or IR/RADAR/EW simulation. We can only dream with the day Gaijin decides to go into more detailed simulation and/or starts a dynamic, constant war mode.

Great video tho as someone who plays WT and DCS a lot big fan of how war thunder models missiles and also how the dev related to missiles and radar is pretty communicative with the community and while some changes take time they tend to almost always come eventually Also each nation has a passionate team of players who are source providers who use their countries version of FOIA to bring sources for bug reports to push the game to accuracy. Especially the British who managed to pull Skyflash SuperTEMP docs and info right in time for the Tornado F.3 when it was added when before there wasn't even any unofficial sources on them available. I think much like DCS relies heavily on 3rd parties to make entire modules, war thunder relies a lot on passionate players to provide sources and information on new additions to fill in any gaps they may have.

Great video. I definitely fall in to not turning on DCS because I dont want to spend 20 minutes from deciding to play to getting in to contact with my first opponent. Then spend a bunch of time going back for fuel and ammo between fights. I just want something quick and fun to use my hotas with sometimes and I'm hoping this can be it.

War Thunder is...a mixed bag. Sure, it's accessible, it has a wide range of vehicles to play and it models some things pretty well, but you also have small things like bomber cockpits, still using extremely low poly placeholder cockpits in 2023 that have been there since the vehicle came out, and continues to be a thing with new prop bombers. It really takes away from the sim experience when all you have in your plane is 3 or 4 dials and the rest is just a solid grey texture. That and the fact that bombers have a ridiculous repair cost in sim mode (like 29,000 silver lions for the Canberra) while rewards are continuously cut makes Simulator mode a very non-enjoyable experience at higher ranks. The elephant in the room is the grind, it takes a long time and lots of dedication, and most likely money, to reach the jets that the game advertises. I still play War Thunder in both Realistic and Simulator, but it's not a game I can enjoy for long periods of time anymore. I'm required to take long breaks from the game just to keep myself from getting severely burned out. I believe there has to be a series of sweeping changes (to Simulator especially) to keep it from dying out, or else more and more people will either move to IL-2/DCS or just stop playing sims altogether due to a lack of accessible options. I'd love to see War Thunder grow into a respectable game, but the way it's going, I just don't think that's a realistic view to have for the time being.

I have 3.2k hours and this is what i have to say. If you are new to this game : I highly recommend you get used to the controls and the game mechanics. I highly recommend go into Arcade first and once you feel more comfortable go into realistic where the rewards are higher but the skill gap is bigger. If you are going to spend money in this game I highly recommend you get the highest BR vehicle as it can research from rank 1 all the way to the rank right above the vehicle is on. While using that vehicle try to go to certain areas or spots where you're most likely to get kills and focus on getting capture points where the rewards are greatest. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PROS/CONS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Pros : * Vehicle models are very nice and crisp! * delightful and clean Visuals * Game-play can be what ever you choose! Ex : you can play slow in a heavy tank or fast paced in a fighter jet. * Constant updates : New content added or updated (every 1-2 months) * Skill gap : you can out smart/play your opponent with your experience and knowledge (No significant Pay To Win since you can out play them) * most "Realistic" arcade style game on the market Cons : * BRs are too compressed for Ground Realistic Battles (range of BRs is too small 1.0-11.3) * BRs for early jets is too compressed in Air Realistic Battles 8.0-10.7 (The jump from 1 Br to the next changes too much in technology). * A lot of grinding (must use IRL currency to make the grind more bearable) * WW2 vehicles go against vehicles post WW2 (Tiger II can face STRV 103A as an Example) * Maps are unbalanced (Spawn camping is too easy) * Some stuff is clearly under Battle Rated (Too low in BR)

To be honest, I find Il2 fits the just play for an hour niche far better than war thunder. The issue with war thunder are mainly a combination of its game modes and monetization. The issue primarily is that their monitization has resulted in a game that is frustrating to play. Now the game is fun early on when they are in the getting you hooked stages, however once you get past the 1943 aircraft, you find that the prices just go up and up. By the time you get to jets everything is so expensive that you start to have to make intentional grinds for silver lions just to play the aircraft or tanks you want. This means all of the neat things like modeled IR missiles do not matter at all. Because you cannot play it without constantly paying. The premium tanks are another massive issue. They will release a premium tank like the cobra king and class it so it is essentially invincable and the best tank in the game at its tier. And then after everyone has bought it because it is deliberately overpowered they will modify it so that it is functionally useless. Same thing with the with several vehicles. And every new vehicle they add they do the same thing with. They add it in overpowered but make you pay for it and then nerf it. And we are not talking about a small amount of money. These tanks and planes cost the same as a DCS full fidelity aircraft and conveniently they make sure that nothing is even so you always have a surplus of the snails brand of money. The gameplay issues are by design to ensure you pay money. There are many fun game modes that people would love to have. The dynamic war mode did exist, but only as sim battles, and then after it started getting popular war thunder went in and made it frustrating to play ruining the game mode. The reality is that this game could replace il2 or DCS in a heart beat if it wanted to. But it will never do that for 1 reason. It isn't as profitable as their fremium model they currently use. The game has incredible potential and I know the snail knows how to make one of the best mmo war gaming games of all time. But t hey choose not to because of how much money they are making with their current model. For me I want a larger il2. Il2 is the simple to get in and have a match that war thunder has, but with the better fun game modes that war thunder is missing. It has a respectable amount of aircraft and I think if il2 is able to get its act together and start getting high altitude bombers in and sacrafice some fidelity then they would have a banger on their hands. The original il2 battle of stallingrad game was not meant to be a high fidelity game. That was by player demand comparing it to DCS rather than its intended audience war thunder. At launch the game had all kinds of issues including a massive amount of russian bias and 20 fps max framerate with a gtx 680 which was a crazy card for the time. Its a game I have played since day 1. And I liked their original intent of not going full fidelity but instead going with the original 1946 approach of decently realistic planes in numbers but with a bit more realistic physics. To be honest even as just AI bombers, we need more plane variat for il2 and it would be solid even of those AI are not full fidelity. I mean look at the B-17s in DCS world. They are laughably bad in terms of fidelity, but they are fantastic for what it was made for. Being a target to protect of shoot at. Here is hoping jason williams pulls a rabbit out of a hat and gives us what we want with his new simulator.

I can answer that. No. Play DCS instead. I only play one Simulator match every 3 days just to keep up with my Squadron. If not for that, I'd never play War Thunder ever again

You got me on BMS and I’m too sweaty to do anything else 😅

I've been playing WT since the beta, on and off. It was my first real jump into PvP air combat that wasn't ace combat or HAWX. The biggest issue is the grind imo, the fact they artificially lengthen it so often just to suck more of your time to get the vehicle you want, sucks. As well as the stock grind at top tier, it's painful. However, there is some really cool and unique stuff and until we get a mig23 in dcs I'll still jump into battles 💁 Ground forces is a bit of a different story for me, top tier in two nations but the real fun is found up to about 7.3, 4.0-6.3 is a golden range of tanks.

Same, a lot of my friends branched from WT, most of us only play this game now as we all walk different lifes now, such happens

I know this video is 3 months old, but I use to play warthunder, it was my gateway into combat flight sims from there I went to IL2 cliffs of dover then to DCS. I cant remember why I stopped playing WT because despite its monetisation model, its a really good game has the right level of detail for a quick drop in and drop out kind of game. I use to play DCS a lot until 2019, I got made redundant then I went back into education and I had no time for anything else and I always had this air combat itch that I could never scratch, looking back I should of just played WT during the days where I have maybe an hour to myself. Also the time constraints we adults have is half of the reason why I fly cold war aircraft in DCS, because they dont take a long time to learn and their systems are simple so when I have a week or more gap in playing I dont forget how to fly and use the aircraft.

No matter what they decide to tackle or not, with their grinder of a business model, i won't be touching it. It's hard to keep one job IRL, the last thing i need is another, especially one that i don't get payed for.

I agree with the points you are making, lovely video. Tho the use of APCR on the Jadgpanther triggers me immensely

Love the intro and the shill moment counter lol great video !

It's crazy you were playing World War 2 Online probably around the same time and same age I was. I was always the youngest in our Unit's Teamspeak too and everything you said was spot on. I'm sure we flew against each other a few times (I was RAF high command).

6:42 War Thunder doesn't need to simulate anything. Every aircraft/vehicle is the same with different stats, they are just different generic numbers. ED is slow with the updates and DCS needs a lot of things to be corrected but each aircraft is unique. And when you learn to use every single tool of the aircraft you can do very interesting and complex things.

I used to play WT back in time it brought realistic damage/penetration as compared to more arcade WoT. Later I tried the navy which was fun for some time, until battleships came and ruined everything. Destroyers were quite fun to fight at long distance. Planes never quite made impression on me. If I want to chill with guys on a short session, it would be IL-2 Berloga.

brooo I don’t wanna get old now

i play dcs and war thunder as well. i agree with a lot you say, but it cant replace dcs. i really enjoy the fidelity. sometimes i just enjoy a easy game in warthunder tho. jumping in dcs takes at least 1-2 hours.

I've played war thunder since middle school back in 2016-17, I have over 3500 hours, probably spent more then a couple hundreds and I still don't regret it, although I suffer playing it is still the best game to fill the crack in the industry and I don't think any other game will come close to that in a long time

I treat WT more like a toxic relationship, or drugs...

That Ding. That goddamn Ding of "Target Destroyed" is so goddamn good...

its a game that HAS a sim mode...its most certainly not a sim

As you said we "older" people know that the most precious thing in the world is time and not money. That said doesn't mean we can sink a lot of money into games, as we have to feed family and pay bills, as you mentioned. And having obligations and kids can cost you a fortune. But even companies like Gaijin don't understand fully that the circumstances makes us casual gamers with limited resources (time & money) to spend on games. I was always a simmer guy, played MSFS, IL-2, Falcon 4.0 BMS, DCS and so on, until I realize that most of these companies either not target the casual gamer or became a money hungry monster that needs feeding every minute, that try to screw you whenever possible. And now I found my F2P game, made for me as a casual gamer, that exist for 12 years now and still going strong, where I can meet nice, cooprative people, play a game or two with them without all that clan bullsh*t, has PVE, PVP and a story mode, a moderate grind for skills or vehicles and doesn't force me into P2W or try to press me out like a lemon. And I honour it, by investing when there is a sale to support them financially. This is what game companies need to learn. Make a F2P game that is casual gamer friendly, has all the aspects that casual gamers want with PvE (aka dynamic campaigns), PvP (for the more competitive among us) or a story mode, don't have excessive grind that frustrates casual gamer, and refinance itself with content that isn't P2W and attracts collectors. And I still enjoy MSFS for that reasons for more than 40 years now as I enjoy my 12 year old F2P game where I meet my friends. I hope that DCS will release Modern Air Combat one day with exactly the casual gamer features that I described and learn from MSFS how modern configuration of input devices is done. That is exactly what drove me nuts with DCS World, War Thunder and other "Sims" (Yes, Elite Dangerous, I'm looking at you here!). I can't fly planes with mouse and keyboard, because I'm not that kind a guy. And I don't have the time to configure 100+ input device options every time as I'm a casual gamer that want to hop in, have fun after a demanding work day and get away from it all, until the family demands their right to get attention. But there is still hope that some day someone in the gaming industry realizes this and builds a game that offer all what I have said. I hope that day will come sooner than later, because I'm not getting any younger and the world is not getting less demanding. And if that happens I will add a third game to my all time favorites.

I was playing war thunder many years and i did enjoy it. I mainly played air sim battles, usually enduring confortaition. I think that i would be still playing it but it is always the same operation. If there was more variation on that game mode (and less grind and better silver lion balance) i would be still playing it. AB or RB modes are not for me, but sim mode was otherwise good enough for me, just more diversity into EC and i could be in again. Now i fly in il-2 and dcs, but having also trouble to find the time to play them. Snail doesnt seem to want spend resources on sim air to make it better.

I love tanks and this might be a way for me to scratch that itch. I play DCS for realism, even though I agree with many of the parts of the sim that can use improvement, splash damage being a big one for me. Being an older guy, I try to dedicate my time to DCS, I fly all types of modules, so I don't have to jump into a highly technical aircraft every time. I will try to check out WT for the tanks.

I never really considered playing WT until your interview last week with the BMS folks and bit about busy dads toward the end. I might have to give it a try now. Side note: I got blasted by P-51s while hiding in the clouds in DCS and it was infuriating.

Well Engima I'm sorry but you are wrong in many cases. 1- WT IR stuff is based on binary system 2- Clouds does not effect IR, it does effect IIR 3- War Thunder does lack a consistent gameplay due to B.R. changes that sıbject of change in any update, ratings are not in a good shape, there is a huge problem with "balance". 4- Gaijin does not care about experience, it does care about money, currently they make most money from Russian vehicles, that's the reason why people likes to play Russian vehicles, it has that "Russian bias" that helps them to not simply die and punch so hard you instantly regret grinding any other nation. 5- It does takes time to grind higher tiers, for top tier it's even worse due to economy is broken in WT. 6- It does takes your money with premium accounts and vehicles. I've played WT for long enough to take it from "what is this" level to "this is the game of my life" then "well time to move on" War Thunder is a good idea, I hope I can return it with all the joy I had back in the days with my friends. But Gaijin has to take actions on their bias for as playerbase claims "own nation" but I think it's bias caused by "money" Now I do understand you can not point out the obvious due to sponsorship but in 2028 WT will be something like "Russia has the Armata while Leopard 2A7 is still in dev blog" No matter what plane they bring, it'S going to be just 3D model while every aircraft in DCS is unique, WT charges same for their premium vehicles and offering just a grind tool while DCS offers a whole experience. And we can not ignore what they are doing to core. It's still slow but better than money grinding like Gaijin does.

Hey Enigma, been watching a lot of your DCS content recently so maybe that's why what you said about life is a little bit heartfelt to me c= I hope you don't let preconceived notions of what it means to be an adult with responsibilities shape and characterize how you see yourself, and their correlations with the things you do It might sound far-fetched and it can be tempting to credit this to a certain degree of naivety but, in the end many things that we see or assume as given really does come down to how we choose to see those things Are you sure you're really not able to enjoy things the way you could, or are you just convincing yourself that that's the case? ♥

A game for people with less time? What the hell? The grind in that game is ridiculous! I'd rather study every Chuck's Guide at work than play for *years* to reach the plane I want. You're really shilling out on this one. Disappointed.

If the Snail wasn't this insanely greedy WarThunder would easily be my favourite game of all time, with only nostalgic stuff coming even close. But as it stands i tend to actively shout warnings and discouragements about this game into the void of the internet wherever it is mentioned, just because of how mind-bogglingly frustrating WarThunder, and a lot of the things surrounding it are

I wish it were more of a game than background noise. WT's gameplay is fun in the same way the daily car commute is fun. Bring plenty of distractions, and maybe some "medication" for extra fun. Their "Enduring Confrontation" thing is ok, but it hasn't really been iterated on past it's initial version in 2015 or so. There's quite a few outstanding bugs that have persisted for years. That aside, it's nice because the sorties are usually 15-30 minutes and there's time for chatter. Get in, make a contribution, leave and get on with the day. The no-lag dogfights in WT have kept me around. Sad that there's no tank version of it. Not even advance and secure. The multi-hour bomber raids in old MMOs like Aces High were cool... but I'd have to find a few consecutive hours again if that game was still kicking, which is a challenge. :v

A lot of great points here. I wish i could spend some time to write a lengthy response but I got to go to work :P

2:43 I'm so glad DCS has splash damage. Its like the most important things, the flight model is so good, so I'm glad we have splash damage in a digital combat simulator because otherwise it would just be a flight simulator, right?

I sometimes play WT, but after 10 years of playing Domination Style game mode without a single change in it, it just gets as sterile as DCS PVP Experience

you bastard I was off the sauce since 2020 (about 2k hrs between '15 and '20) and now I am downloading it again. I remember when my Lavochkin 15 was one of the kings of the tree. I remember grinding ships to the top of the Japanese DD line- now it's nothing on the current trees. I have to say this video really made me think, fantastically done. I suppose I need some variance between years of cycling every few months between the helicopters, ww2, and cold war jets in DCS. I suppose my snobbery must end.

I just realised that we've probably traded kills in WW2OL A2A a few times. I remember seeing the name engima on my CSR report.

Well, I downloaded WT and tried your link. Flew a few arcade battles. The core game seems fine enough, but the tech tree is just too daunting to want to sink time into it. The monetization of WT is essentially everything I hate about video games with limited time offers, multiple types of currency, the need to grind to get the "good stuff", and daily chores.

i love that intro!! 😂

you forgot to mention a few things: -there are bugs, they dont do justice for helicopter PVE -they screwed up volumetrics in ground RB -the grind is long and if busy adults will play it they will probably get more busy, not everyone has the money for premium items to boost their grind. -the premium needs real money, the purpose of the long grind is part of gaijin's marketing tactic to make players buy premium items to boost the grind -the chat in the game is not useful, wholesome moments are rare as most people will be toxic or just silent -this game is inconsistent, thats why it gets hated on, some vehicles will get realism, some dont. and you get to be paired with both -in 2028, new 5th gens or 4th gens will be released and new players will be stuck at ww2 forcing them to again, buy premium -massive game = massive grind -the leaks, doing something illegal for something or someone isnt loyalty, its being stupid. the more players do the leaks the more war thunder or gaijin will have risks of shutting down due to the player base being encouraged to do crimes, for this game or company i agree in the end, all games have an itch, all games have their problems, but when you are gonna make a video bringing up the upsides of something(this was thought to us in senior high) you do not bring bias or opinions to it. i can easily say that roblox is the best because me and my friends can play it. i can also say its the best since its got lots of content to give, for free. which war thunder doesnt do for all of us, you want to play the tanks you want? start throwing your life away and start grinding full time or buy premium items and get there easily. war thunder is inconsistent, id rather just treat it an on and off game, something that you will rarely play. as its inconsistency is its big flaw

after 2k hours in the game i can easily say that out of all my 4 friends who got me to play the game i am the only 1 left playing it simply because the game is so frustrating at times. i keep in touch with 2 of them as we do other things together but the other 2 i haven't spoken to in over a year. also a lot of vehicles in the game have a insane repair cost that means only the best of the best will be able to play them and make money. the german starfighter costs 24k to repair and you ear about 2k per kill. its a terrible plane to top it off

I do get your point, but I have to say, that with less time on my hand, I want to spend it with higher quality. And the gameplay of War Thunder has been too frustrating for me. So to have 1 evenning in the week planned for a session of 2hrs is the best way for me to go. Especially with friends, who write secenarios and briefings. And if it doesn't work out well (i.e. the splash damage), or if there is a bug, you can still act as if had worked out. It's like a pen&paper game with a game master. But everytime I played War Thunder, I feel like I had wasted my time.

As a war Thunder player, I really appreciate you putting a spotlight onto the game but I do feel like you missed the opportunity to call out some of the issues that plague air simulator battles. Gaijin has an untapped goldmine with sim battles but without a fire under their ass, they refuse to address the litany of issues keeping it from reaching anywhere near its full potential. 1) Awful AI. They fly into mountains, into the ground, randomly disappear, will be immune to cannon fire or missile locks. Only one type of AI will respond to a player and attempt to shoot them down--all others fly along a path with zero regard to bullets, missiles, or players playing chicken with them (they win). The ground AI is equally atrocious. Spawning radar SPAA’s inside of buildings or on roads that zigzag nonsensically up vertical cliff faces-completely defying gravity. The regular de sync between client and server means hitting a moving ground unit with anything other than splash damage is a roll of the dice. 2) They are always the same. Bases and ground battles always appear in the same places. AI aircraft and ground units spawn in the same locations and take the same paths. 3) A literal “wtf” economy. An average game at top tier will cost a player around 50k-100k SL (and that includes the rewards for playing). A player will literally need a 5:1 k/d *with premium* just to break even in silver lions. Players who are teamkilled are still forced to pay the full price for a new aircraft. Players have to first buy their aircraft to spawn in sim battles-despite going into the battles with 100% repaired and battle ready vehicles. Destroying AI ground and air units gives next to nothing in silver lion or research rewards. If they fix or even attempt to address these issues, sim battles can be so much more.

Loads of great points and quite a good tip of the hat to WT. I uninstalled it some 5 or 6 years ago but, like you say, if I went back in I'd be right where I left it!

I love this game, but I really think that they need to fix the grind and silver lion problems. In tanks, volumetric makes shells do no damage, and in top tier for aircraft, it feels like a tdm. I feel like this game would be so much better if they added an objective based game mode, while fixing the problems I mentioned earlier.

The more premiums that are added to get to top tier when they said they would never put them in the game, it's definitely a kick to the balls. Jets at higher jet tiers is fine but when most people have bought the F-4S and I'm still grinding stock jets it's a bit tiring. Besides that it's definitely a unique game where there's no other like it. I don't mean that in praise or a stab at it, but it is truly its own arcady realistic mesh that is open to everyone. Anyone can find something they enjoy there and it's a good place for friends to catch up as I do regularly. I enjoy it a lot for what it's provided, as long as the snail doesn't get more greedy.

This might get my brain to understand the difference between World of Thunder and the War Tanks franchise

please continue these style of videos. its very interesting listening to your sometimes controversial thoughts on WT. you should continue and showcase maybe War on the Sea or Sea Power when it releses.

7:10 I still remeber bug where you couldnt take off in a prop...

The issue with war thunder is you always have to pay to stay competitive with other players by getting better Planes, Tanks and Ships its literally madden ultimate team with military hardware one massive cash grab

War Thunder is only good for busy people if you either don't mind playing vehicles you don't actually like or you have ludicrous amounts of money to bypass the grind. Otherwise the time commitment is actually significantly greater than DCS. Let's say you're a huge fan of the F-16 and that's *the* plane you want to fly. It takes exponentially more time and effort to fly the F-16 in War Thunder because you have to spend countless hours grinding just to unlock it, and then many more hours grinding to unlock all the upgrades, AND you have to spend a bunch of time playing other vehicles, either low tier or premium, to make enough in-game currency to pay the exorbitant repair costs of high-tier vehicles. If you want to fly the F-16 in DCS or BMS, you just buy it and can start learning instantly.

ED should just make more FC3 level aircrafts

I played before post-war jets came out. I would go back but the thing is I might someday need a security clearance to get certain jobs (majoring in physics) and I know that one of the things they check for is if you play War Thunder. It just is not worth losing a security clearance over. I know it is probably overreaction but I would need to know more about how the feds handle it before I consider playing.

Watch Enigma trigger a gaming community in 15:41 minutes

I used to try "everything", loose 10 hours in a game before even deciding it was good... Things change I cant do that anymore, I might give war thunder a go ! Some times I only have 1hour of free time before bed , and boy let me tell you .. there's nothing worst that waiting for dcs to load , start up taxi etc to then have a game crash.. and looking at the clock and you realy can only play another 15 mins otherwise you are not gonna sleep enough and be tottably miserable the next day .. so I end up playing nothing at all. Loved the intro song btw!

I been playing this game for 8 years and I can’t stop playing it is the first online game I ever played and I can’t help but love it after all theses years I’m almost done with my military career and will get married soon but wt will always be in my heart

WWIIonline was my first fps online game we have a really similar story asd, but you skipped Red Orchestra and Project Reality? when they released Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 it was the beginning of the end for Battle Ground Europe and since then I've been around tactical shooters for years at the expense of simulators which in that period of time were really bad, and thinking about it, was Warthunder who made me fly again when planes were the only thing usable at the time in game. i also have a WarThunder premium account which i never use but I always keep active because I still believe in the project and I'm mad so excellent considerations!

War Thunder is the only Game I play that has something important broken every Update

Hahaha love this video. I haven't played war thunder in years but I might go check it out again