Free-to-play games must strike a fine balance to have long term value. Putting too much behind a paywall causes the experience to fizzle out quickly and fragments the player base. Conversely, not giving players a reason to pay for anything means that no money is going to the developer and the long term support of the game is in jeopardy. 
Wargaming has had  a lot of time to find this balance for their tactical tank shooter aptly titled World of Tanks. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because the game has been around for a number of years, starting its life in late 2010 on the PC in Russia, and subsequently coming to other countries and platforms over time. This latest PlayStation release is far from a simple port of the PC version, something I detailed in my PSX preview, as well as my write up from my visit to Wargaming Chicago. If you haven’t read those, I encourage you to. I’m going to try to avoid subjects I already covered there.  When you first start up World of Tanks, do yourself a favor. Play the tutorials in the Proving Grounds portion of the game. There’s a lot more here than just “drive a tank around and blow shit up.” The tutorials are a new addition for us impatient console gamers who don’t have the time to jump in, browse all of the forums, and figure out the nuances on our own. It’s a welcome feature considering the complexity of calculations that go into things like armor thickness, critical zones on ea...