Heroes and Generals, the persistent World War II themed MMORPG by Reto-Moto, is getting its largest content update to date, the company announced.

The new update is called ‘Patton’, and it doubles the amount of tanks by adding 9 new ones. This brings the total to fifteen tanks, three tank-destroyers, and twelve other vehicles, that range from  fighter planes, reconnaissance vehicles, off-road cars and half-tracks to even bikes.

“This is the largest and most ambitious update we have made for Heroes & Generals since we went into open beta last year.” said Jacob Andersen, Game Director at Reto-Moto “The community has been screaming out for more tanks, so it feels fantastic to double the amount with the Patton update.”

“By introducing personal vehicle loadouts, where characters can own and upgrade the vehicles of their choice, and at the same time offer players to play as infantry, tanker, pilot and even as a General commanding the troops, I believe that we have something very unique compared to other online wargames.” added Andersen.

Of course, there is a whole lot more to the update than just this, and the full extent of how thoroughly it changes the game can only be experienced by actually playing the game. So if you haven’t yet played Heroes and Generals, there has never been a better time to jump in before.

The game has come far now as you can see in the video and this patch titled Felber update is supposed to make it even better.

Multiple new features have been added to Heroes & Generals in the recent build called ‘Felber’. These include the addition of new tanks, motorbikes, a new game mode and a brand new map. Generals have also been given the ability to level up their Assault Teams and each faction now has a brand new musical composition from award winning composer Jesper Kyd.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

This includes a new matchmaking service, which allows for new players to seek out instant action without having to scrounge around for matches. Check out the videolog below to check out some of the other changes being implemented in the latest build.

Heroes & Generals is a free-to-play PC title and is currently in closed beta stage, with the only update being that Square-Enix was interested enough in the game to pick it up. Those interested in taking part in the closed beta can click here to sign-up for a beta key and join the action.

Heroes & Generals is a free-to-play FPS MMO and is looking pretty good based on our preview here. It was in the beta stage when we checked it out.

“Reto-Moto have done a good job so far with the build that I played, and hopefully the beta shows a lot more improvements tech wise. I hope the visuals are bumped up a little bit, considering it’s a PC game, and there’s nothing holding them back. So far from what I have seen, the game seems really promising, and it will be interesting to see how the final build plays like,” wrote our author Kartik.

Enough of the chit chat, read on for the full interview.

Shubhankar Parijat: A few years back, the World War III FPS genre was brimming with games and had reached a point of saturation. Was returning to the genre a risky and intimidating move for you?

Jacob Anderson: When we started designing Heroes & Generals we could see the market turning towards modern warfare settings, and knowing that we had a few years of development time before hitting the market, we figured that WW2 would be a good genre to be in. I’m happy that we didn’t listen to all the critics back then, because if we had gone with a modern warfare scenario we would have been in a very crowded place.

SP: How exactly does Heroes & Generals mix strategy and FPS elements?

JA: Heroes and Generals is an FPS game where the results of the players actions are tracked in a large real time war. The strategy game is basically a management game of resources that are consumed by the action games being played. Each time a player is killed in the action game a soldier is removed from the strategy game.

SP: Is it part RTS-part shooter?

JA: I wouldn’t call it an RTS, because that term is usually used to cover Command & Conquer type games even though they in my opinion are better described as Real-Time-Tactical games ;-). I usually describe the game as an FPS with a strategic top layer. You don’t play either the strategic part or the action part. You play both because they are connected. Some may want to play the shooter part only, but both parts are open to all players.

SP: We’ve seen how Heroes & Generals’ gameplay requires you to make use of something as simple as the terrain as well, and obviously, that adds a lot to the tactical nature of the game. Was that one of the features the game had to begin with, or did the idea strike you as the development progressed?

JA: We were very much aware that terrain plays a vital part in any wargame (and in real war ;-)) so it have been part of our design from the start. Being able to create large terrains is vital if you want to introduce vehicles to the game.

SP: How has the closed beta, or the “User Driven Development” as it’s being called, helped with the game’s growth?

JA: It have been a tremendous help to have an active community playing and criticizing the game. It is cool that we can implements features and have them tried out and tweaked ‘live’ (sometimes removing them again if they were crap), instead of relying on focus groups and internal QA. And sometimes we also pick great ideas from the community and implement them in the game.

SP: Have you been playing other similar military shooters on the market to learn what to do and what not to do with Heroes & Generals?

JA: Not really :-). Well, obviously we play a lot of games, for instance I played Arma quite a bit and liked it. Some of us have also wasted far too much time playing Counter Strike. I have also played a lot of the recent f2p shooters like Battlefield: Heroes and World of Tanks, just to see what works, what doesn’t work and what we definitely should avoid.

SP: Will authenticity play a huge part in the game? With it featuring so many vehicles and weapons, some players might even think authenticity is more important in a game like this than anything else.

JA: We try to be as authentic as possible regarding weapon balance and power, but we are not trying to re-create history. You can say that we are trying to re-create the rules of history, not history itself. Many wargamers have knowledge about particular weapons and vehicles and expect them to work in a certain way. We strive towards fulfilling that wish and that will bring some balance issues to the game, but we are trying to even that imbalance in other ways than aligning the weapons.

SP: Is there any particular FPS on the market that you regard as a direct competitor?

JA: Well not really. Most of our fans play a lot of different games and we think there is plenty of room for Heroes & Generals in this market.

SP: Do you plans for DLC once Heroes and Generals launches?

JA: Yes. We just don’t call it DLC but rather ‘expansions’. Players do not have to buy a new DLC for Heroes & Generals, it is just integrated into the game and you get the expansions automatically when we release them . It’s one of the really cool things about free2play games in my opinion! 🙂

SP: Do you have an estimated release date in mind, keeping in mind how the development has progressed and how the beta is coming along?

JA: Right now our goal is to stabilize the game enough for it to scale a lot. When we are there we’ll go into Open Beta. How long time we’ll be in Open Beta I cannot say. Even after the game is officially launched we will keep adding features and expansions so calling the game ‘finished’ is quite hard. 🙂

We appreciate Jacob for taking out his precious time for doing this interview with us.

You can check out our preview of the same over here.

“Reto-Moto have done a good job so far with the build that I played, and hopefully the beta shows a lot more improvements tech wise. I hope the visuals are bumped up a little bit, considering it’s a PC game, and there’s nothing  holding them back. So far from what I have seen, the game seems really promising, and it will be interesting to see how the final build plays like,” reads the preview.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Check out this new video from Heroes and Generals due for the PC. We recently previewed the game which you can check over here.

Heroes & Generals is a Free2Play Massive Online FPS with a Strategic Multiplayer Campaign, taking place in the European theater of war during WWII.

Players can choose to play as ‘Heroes’ fighting in the trenches or take a step back and manage battlefield assets, army units and reinforcements as ‘Generals’.

The war is fought out continuously across Windows, iOS and Android devices, and the result of every clash and battle alters the scope of the ongoing war campaign and might affect the final outcome.

Have anything to say? Let us know in the comments section below.

The images show everything from tanks and soldiers and two-man motorcycles to new weapons and screenshots of the intense action. Have a look above.

A video of the game’s ongoing closed beta is also given below. Have a look, you might find it interesting.

Heroes & Generals delivers an unprecedented multiplayer theatre of war: It’s fully playable in a PC browser with high level graphics and sound, featuring music by acclaimed composer Jesper Kyd. H&G seamlessly merges authentic first-person infantry and vehicle combat with a satisfying strategic layer as the Axis and Allied forces fight for European domination. Advance and personalize your characters to help turn the tide of a persistent online campaign.

Heroes & Generals releases on the PC “soon”. A release date is, as of yet, unspecified. You can read our impressions of the game here.

Stay tuned for more info.

So how does it work. First of, you need to download a plugin on your browser which in turn allows you to use a launcher. From there onwards, you can pick your side – either Axis or Allied, and yes, it’s a World War II based game. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that so the concept is totally fresh at least for me. You get to use authentic vehicles and wepaons, and shape the outcome of the game.

The game runs pretty smoothly which impressed me quite a bit since the preview version of the game was a pre-beta one. The game has finally gone into the beta stage, so try to get a key and check it out for yourself. Of course, the build I played wasn’t a definite version so I won’t pass any judgement on the same. But considering the fact that it ran smoothly on my i7, 570 GTX rig, it provided me an immersive experience.

The visuals are quite good especially when you are flying a plane and the lens flare makes makes the skies gorgeous to look at. It’s still work in progress, and they still need to fix a lot of glitches and basic things I encountered like broken animations and stuff, but for a pre-beta preview build, what I played was quite impressive.

The scale of the map is gigantic and does justice to the battlefield setting. The draw distance which was generous enables you to see large distances at a great visual fidelity, and this also gives an opportunity for people who love to snipe, as people won’t know what hit them. Killing people, however, was painful for me, and I had to struggle for kills, but that’s not the game’s problem, it’s mine. Heh, but the experience of playing as a soldier was quite thrilling, and you can also customize a bit.

The objectives are just to capture a point or defend it, and works quite well. And since I mentioned that the scale is huge, unless you have a vehicle nearby, be prepared to walk for large distances. This was one of my gripes with the game. Although, finding bicycles when I was desperate for some sort of vehicle was a pleasant feeling, and not to mention, it is a lot of fun to ride these things. Of course, there are also jeeps and tanks, but that depends on a lot of factors.

The handling of the vehicles is quite good, and driving the jeep is a pure joy. It can cover large distances fast and is also easily maneuverable. Along with plane dogfighting, which is a lot of fun, there’s also a lot of opportunities for some old fashioned skirmishes, and it’s very satisfying to kill enemies. There was a little lag that I faced but it could have been just the server load which hopefully won’t be there in the final game. As a General, you have the ability to manage your units and other things, so it brings a real strategic element to the gameplay.

Reto-Moto have done a good job so far with the build that I played, and hopefully the beta shows a lot more improvements tech wise. I hope the visuals are bumped up a little bit, considering it’s a PC game, and there’s nothing  holding them back. So far from what I have seen, the game seems really promising, and it will be interesting to see how the final build plays like.

Reto-Moto have today announced that Heroes & Generals has entered into a closed beta.

The highly anticipated Heroes & Generals is a free-to-play massively multiplayer World War II shooter from the original creators of the Hitman series. Featuring explosive online battles between the axis and allies in a ongoing fight for European domination.

Heroes & Generals attempts to eliminate the bland, shapeless baggage that weighs down the  genre by delivering both a satisfying strategic action combined with a full blown first-person-shooter experience.

Players are transported from the cushy warmth of their web browsers to authentic WWII battlefields, fighting alongside thousands of other gamers in a constantly shifting battle for military supremacy.

To be in with a chance of nabbing a beta key for yourself, head on over to the www.heroesandgenerals.com community site.

This videolog is the fifth in a series of videos, which takes gamers behind the scenes for a closer look at the development of Reto-Moto’s upcoming Massive Online Strategic Shooter: Heroes & Generals. The game is currently in pre-Beta-stage, so bear in mind that the graphics and sound shown here is still far from final.

The features highlighted in this Videolog are:

• Walkthrough of character selection and spawning
• NVIDIA surround gaming
• Updated lightsettings
• Installation and download
• Items in the in-game shop
• Support the development: Buy Warbonds!