A new game, a new bar

In contrast to a certain recently released console title that may have overshadowed its release, World in Conflict deserves all the hype and praise it has received. As a package, the game is great value with a well-written single-player campaign on a fresh topic: even if you're buying the game for online multiplayer, you should try the single-player campaign - it serves double duty as one of most enjoyable tutorials in the history of gaming. The real meat, however, is in the game's multiplayer mode, which sets the bar high for a new breed of online team strategy games. World in Conflict rises like a mushroom cloud over a flat gaming landscape of mediocrity and repetition.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	2.0GHz or faster (2.2GHz for Windows Vista)	2.5GHz or faster
Memory	512 MB (1GB for Vista)	1024MB (1.5GB for Vista)
Graphics Card	128MB video RAM, DirectX 9.0c compatible	256MB video RAM, DirectX 9.0c compatible
Graphics Card Example	DX9: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT and above \| DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT or above	DX9: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT and above \| DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT and above
Free Disk Space	8 GB	8 GB
Net Link	Cable, DSL or better	Cable, DSL or better

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 3400+ / Intel Pentium 4 550	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Memory	1024 MB	2048 MB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X1650 256B / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 256MB	ATI Radeon HD 2900 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 640MB
Free Disk Space	8 GB	8 GB
Net Link	Broadband for online play	Broadband for online play

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	95	Described by the developer as a "combination of FPS and RTS genres", World in Conflict not only merges game types but truly innovates in creating a great, lightweight, accessible online multiplayer strategy game. The single player game is a mixed bag of great storytelling and basic scripted gameplay with limited challenge from the AI.
Graphics	92	World in Conflict is a sight to behold: no other RTS game has an equal combination of expansive landscapes and minute detail. The only real negative is a lack of facial detail in cutscene close-ups during the single-player campaign. If there's an RTS title you should upgrade your computer to play at full settings, this is it. Unfortunately, you may well have to.
Audio	90	The game's intro and cutscene music sets the mood nicely, and audio production values are generally high - news reports and eyewitness interviews during the opening screen are a great touch. In-game audio cues suffer from some technical problems.
Technology	80	Realistic system requirements for World in Conflict are prohibitively high for many, and it's too bad to see that the graphics couldn't be scaled down as well as Massive intended.

OVERALL

Overall: World in Conflict is a solid game that might very well be the Counter-Strike of RTS games: long after the novelty of its innovative gameplay is worn off, and its beautiful graphics long since dated, it's played and respected as a pioneer.

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