Hello everyone,
no doubt you have already noticed the “Let’s Battle” Wargaming Magazine. For some weird reason, Wargaming decided to distribute it only for Android and iOS – not sure why, personally, I don’t use my phone for any kind of such crap (plus, the download has like 130 megs, fun on mobile connection). It’s possible they did it so as to have control over its distribution. Fear not however, you can run the magazine on PC too (thanks to several FTR readers who suggested it).
First, install Bluestacks application. In it, register your google account and then download the magazine (it’s all pretty automatic, even a barbarian like me managed to do it). The magazine itself is graphically pretty, but seems hard to use – I had some problems finding what’s where, but maybe it’s the clumsy PC interface
So, what’s in the magazine? Is it worth downloading?
- first, there is a foreword by V.Kislyi. “We’re the best, 75 mil accounts, have fun.” Bla bla bla. Next.
- next, there is a letter from an editor. Like I give a damn. Next.
- some pictures from Kursk and Parola museums. Interesting, but not new.
- a nice Battle of Kursk feature. “Russia stronk” and all that. Nothing new.
- e-sports stuff, no mention of the screwed up finale at Tychy. No wonder.
- some “funny” videos, next
- interview with P.Bityukov – quite interesting, how he started and all, worth reading, but no new info, very generic
- interview with some WoWp guy from Paris
- interview with Storm (M.Zhivets) – very short, absolutely nothing new
- Japanese tank introduction, quite generic, the guy who made it mentions Girls und Panzer for some reason, he translates “Panzerfahren” as “Tankery”. Ugh.
- World of Warships stuff, nicely done actually, there is a Battle of Philippines Sea introduction
- tactics, guides, nothing new
Conclusion
I don’t know. Graphically, it’s very pretty and I think it will appeal to people, who are really into the mobile tech and all that. I am not, I use my phone only for… you know, calling. And SMS. And reading e-mails. I guess I just have a personal problem with not being able to use my primary gaming platform (PC) to read gaming stuff, I like to have everything on one pile.
Installing Bluestacks fixed the issue for me partially, but some of the pages didn’t work properly. Either way, for how big the magazine is, there is surprisingly little info. I can only guess it’s meant to appeal especially to western audience (American?) and new players. It’s shiny, but for experienced players, apart from the historical articles and the life stories of Storm and P.Bityukov, there is very little of interest. Even the historical articles are quite… I don’t know… bland. Stuff you can find on Wikipedia mostly.
If I was asked, whether it’s worth downloading for a FTR reader, I’d probably say “no”, but feel free to check it out. It’s not THAT terrible, but the fact it’s not distributed via PDF (which would probably not be so hard to do, given the fact the only “not compatible” element with PDF are the videos) hurts it a lot I’d say.
My personal taste would be less graphics, less programming thingies (interactive windows etc.), more text. MUCH more text.
