Wargaming.net has been hard at work making their splash hit World of Tanks a visual powerhouse lately, a far jump from its E3 appearance only a few years ago. Update 8.0 was the big update that did the job, with altered movement physics, updated graphics, new mini-map functions, and an overhauled user interface. All maps have gotten a lighting overhaul, water now shifts realistically, and many maps like Westfield and Karelia have had reworks for the new renders.

Additionally, several new tanks have been added to the USSR forces, the Matilda Black Prince marks the first premium British warmachine, and many have had gameplay balancing changes done to them. This is a pretty ambitious patch, and Wargaming has said this is only the beginning of the visual updates planned.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

World of Tanks held Ural Steel 2012 at CSKA Sport Arena this past weekend, and from the smoking carnage where European, Chinese, American, Japanese, and Russian players fought for the $77,000 prize, the top three teams emerged.

Russia's The RED: Rush Unity (playing USSR) came on top, with RED-Z GRA (also playing USSR) pulling in second and Virtus.Pro ACES (again, USSR) nabbing third.

Wargaming has been hard at work putting World of Tanks as a global eSport, with this grand tournament as the cap of those efforts. With the upcoming releases of World of Warplanes and more, this will only become more central to their eSport ambitions. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

World of Tanks boasts a large playerbase as part of the Wargaming stable of free-to-play MMOs.

Joining the array of games is World of Tanks Generals, a browser based, F2P, online collectible card game.

World of Tanks 7.4 has rolled out, complete with all the kickin' changes they've stored in it. Two new combat modes are entered into matches randomly, Assault and Encounter. New tanks come in the French TD and SPG classifications, tons of new medals, game mechanic balances, weaponry model changes and rebalances, and tons more.

With World of Tanks doing excellent, World of Warplanes out soon, and World of Warships still just a blip in the distance, now is a good time for Wargaming to unify under one banner. And that's what they did. All three games will be unifying under Wargaming.net late this year, which offers a laundry list of advantages and benefits, including increased account security and convenience. But possibly the coolest is how it will unify all three games under one world, introducing common economics and cooperative efforts between games to seek out domination. Have the coast of California taken over but need air support? Hop onto World of Warplanes and go to town. The possibilities are incredible. 

We've come a long way together, soldiers. World of Tanks is one year old today. To celebrate the event, Wargaming.net has put together this sweet new trailer to spread the word about their game's 24 million registered users and Guinness World Record held spot of "Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server." 

 If you're reading this, that means that the 7.2 patch for World of Tanks is now live. 

There's a slew of new changes behind the jump. There's two new maps, several new American tank destroyers, balance changes for the T34 and T30, new camouflage, 22 new skills, and more. If you haven't yet jumped into the world that may have many tanks in it, now might be a good time, as the game has a tutorial now for new comers. 

If you're into reading patch notes like me, the full listed changes are here. 

World of Tanks can now come with you everywhere you go with it's first mobile app, World of Tanks Assistant, available on the iTunes Store. The app is designed to give players access to in-game information like profiles, combat stats and global ratings, in addition to letting you stay in touch with friends and catch up on all the latest news while on the go.

Even Wargaming.ne CEO Victor Kislyi hopes this app will find a place in the hearts of fans everywhere, saying "What I like about the Assistant most is its convenience. Even if you're away from your computer, there's always an app at hand that will give you everything you need to know at any given time."

For now the app is only available on Apple's App Store, however, the Android version is coming soon.

World of Tanks has only been around for less than a year in North America, but in that time span alone this tank-based MMO has pulled in some serious positivity from players and journalists around the world. Of course, Belarusian developer Wargaming.net isn't content to just sit back and release more tanks over the coming years; instead, they've decided to expand their World of [insert armored Vehicle] franchise by spreading their wings and taking to the air.

Literally. 

This year, Wargaming.net is looking to the skies for their next MMO with the announcement of World of Warplanes. But how does one do a plane-based MMO? We sat down with World of Warplanes' Project Director Alexander Zezulin to talk about this new MMO and how Wargaming.net planes to take the aviation-based MMO world by storm. Let's get to it!

Some fancy new toys for World of Tanks fans, as Update 7.2 will be bringing in two new maps - Live Oaks and Campania - as well as two top tier heavy tanks - the T34 (tier IX) and T3) (tier X) - to replace the original M103 and T110. Additionally, more than 20 new crew skills are being added to the game, and the tutorial system has been revamped in order to better help ease newbies into their tank.

If all that sounds fine and dandy, be sure to check out the latest update 7.2 trailer (below) from Wargaming.net. They sure do love their trailers.