Game News Close Combat: Panthers in the Fog slated for release in November

This sounds sort of interesting, but I can't remember any situation in CC3-5 where I wanted to mount a gun on a vehicle. Or troops.

This is where the AI budget went.

I suppose if the maps are large enough it might be kind of cool to tow a gun back or move troops around via vehicles, but otherwise it sounds like more of the same which at this point is getting a little ridiculous. The AI alone should be enough to focus on in order to keep this series rolling, but at this point Matrix is just taking advantage of die hard fans. Or maybe I'm speaking too soon and the AI is improved, but I doubt it.

It'd be nice if they got into some new theaters, like North Africa.

if they just improved the ai and sold all the games again the series would be worth paying full price for again.

Fuck this shit. A Bridge Too Far is the only truly notable Close Combat game, IMO. It has everything. Actual "close combat" with lots of infantry action, resource management that really matters down to the smallest of decisions, and most importantly it has that stressful layer of time both tactically (capturing bridges before they explode) and strategically (linking the army up with the paratroopers before they're overrun). One of my all-time favorite gaming moments comes from ABTF, when I defended Arnhem to the last man, battle after battle, while the army struggled to make the link. The Arnhem battle map was played so often that, by the time the Brits got overrun, every building of value had been turned into rubble and the streets had become a smoldering graveyard of blown out German tanks. Fights consisted of mostly injured British troopers in half-squads running around with very little ammo. An MG-squad was there to counter the aggressive and numerous German infantry and a PIAT-squad, perhaps the most heroic unit ever, spent every fight maneuvering, ducking bullets, and destroying German tanks. The army failed to show up and in the last battle the paratroopers, having utterly ran out of ammo, either surrendered or died in brutal hand-to-hand, spades-to-the-head combat.

The game should die already.