War Thunder Rolls Out Phase Two For Closed Tanks Beta

War Thunder is gearing up to invite even more players into its second wave of the Ground Forces closed beta, complete with a trio of developer diaries to bring everyone up to speed.

Coming from Gaijin Entertainment, War Thunder is the steadily evolving combat game that began earlier this year with planes, is currently in the process of putting the final touches on the tanks expansion, and will finish up in 2014 with a dose of sea-based vehicles to round out the arsenal.

Originally only available on the PC, European PlayStation 4 owners are also currently enjoying the plane-focused version of the game with a U.S. launch expected sometime in the near future. But while flying around in the midst of dogfights, scrubbing enemies and bombing bases is all well and good, the grand design for War Thunder is actually a three-pronged attack boasting combat in the air, on the ground and through the water.

To help get ready for the rolling assault, Gaijin Entertainment has announced a second wave for the closed beta program for the war-torn MMO, which just so happens to go live today.

“Selected players, who participated in various daily in-game challenges during November, will continue to receive invites to closed beta during the second wave,” reads a press release from Gaijin. “For users that want exclusive content that will become collector’s items once the open beta for Ground Forces starts, there is an option to purchase one of the advanced packs at Gaijinent.com.”

Most of those packs will set you back a pretty penny, so newbies to the game might want to just hold off and see what the open beta has to offer sometime in the coming months. Otherwise, if you’re looking to cruise around in exclusive tanks, by all means, get to spending. It’s worth noting that all packs grant access to the Closed Beta so, if you simply cannot wait to try out the game, there’s always the option to buy your way in.

And for those of you who enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a game, Gaijin has unleashed a threesome of developer diaries that look at the Ground Forces expansion in great detail. Part One of the damage model series can be found here with part two available here. Finally, for those interested in visual customization, a guide to that very aspect of the game can be found here.

And that will about do it for now. Look for more info on the Ground Forces Expansion in the coming weeks or, if you’re in the mood to hit the clear blue skies, you can always jump into the cockpit of War Thunder proper whenever you like.