Armored Warfare gets IDF tanks, new commanders, and much more

Armored Warfare might be struggling in expanding its user base, but the latest update might finally push this title in the right direction. After all, it has a lot of modern vehicles — not only tanks — and also features a rather challenging PvE mode that the very popular World of Tanks is lacking.

Armored Warfare 0.26 was introduced earlier today for Russia, but it seems that unleashing the update upon North America and Europe is taking longer than expected. Anyway, all the details are official, so European and North American gamers should be able to take the new Israeli tanks for a spin in a few hours, maybe tomorrow in the worst-case scenario.

Next to Solomon Schreiber, the dealer that comes with a full branch of tanks fielded by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces, if contemporary military history is not your thing), but also including some "what if" design elements that are still being tested or barely in the concept/project stage, these are the highlights of Armored Warfare 0.26:

• four new premium commanders
• in-game Armor Viewer tool
• Salzburg, a new PvP map
• a Special Operations mission that comes as the conclusion of the Black Sea Incursion story in the Armored Warfare storyline (more details can be found on this page)
• overhauled four older PvE missions
• a major engine optimization that should bring a performance increase of up to 20 percent for Medium and High settings (10 percent average increase)
• game mechanics improvements (low-tier vehicle overhaul, including the replacement of the PT-76 with the PT-85, changes to the smoke system, crew skill, ammo rack, and HE shells)

Considering all the above, it should not be surprising that the update is quite large, weighing about 3.9 GB. This update might bring some old players back, push some of the existing ones away, and also lure some newbies to the digital battlefields of Armored Warfare. Remains to see what will happen in the long run, but for now — especially if World of Tanks and/or War Thunder fail to meet your expectations — you might want to give this title a chance.