Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge

by UBI Soft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00003IF3G
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,333 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Edition: Standard

Amazon.com Review

Atomic Games's Close Combat series, now published by the war-gaming veterans at SSI and Mindscape, continues with its fourth title, Close Combat: Battle of the Bulge. Atomic Games stands by an old adage by not messing with success; Battle of the Bulge retains many of the interface and game-play elements of the first three Close Combat titles; only the scenarios and geography have changed.

For its latest installment, Atomic Games focuses the battles (across several dozen campaign and individual missions) and geography around the historical Battle of the Bulge. Players can command American or German troops and control a variety of military forces, including infantry, snipers, machine gunners, and flame throwers, as well as order air strikes and artillery deployment. Overall, the graphical detail of the terrain and pyrotechnics are quite good, but some players may struggle to locate the tiny military units on the murky mud terrain or bright white snow.

Computer-controlled artificial intelligence provides a formidable challenge during the single-player game. Along with the solo campaign, Close Combat: Battle of the Bulge offers both an Internet multiplayer option and a complex scenario editor for hours of additional playability. If you're a fan of the first three Close Combat games or searching for an in-depth military simulation, check out Atomic Games's Close Combat: Battle of the Bulge. --Doug Radcliffe

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good game, but I liked CC3 better, March 13, 2000

By 

Di Capitano (Paraiso, Kindom of Sahrani) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge (CD-ROM)

Evere since I heard CC4 was going to be released, I could't wait to buy and play with it. But once I got my hands on it, I immediately noticed some weak areas. Being a Close combat series Hard Core Fan, I had already bought all the previous three titles, and found some plus and minuses, especially if compared with "The russian front" (CC3). MINUSES Units: Your battle groups have fixed types of units, meaning you cannot adjust your forces from defence to offence posture (those shermans seem to be useless in defence against german armor). In the end it gets very boring to play in the same map with the same units over and over again! In CC3 every battle is different, since you can adjust your forces each time. The detail offered in CC3 is also more specific going down to the single soldier level. This used to be useful both during battles and during the plannig phase, where you coluld notice that a particular soldier or unit had been with you for even a few years. In the end I found a tendency not to use the older units because I feared they colud get killed! BATTLES: Strategic overview means you will be playing over some maps over and over again, having to go thru a complete cycle before you can move your forces again. AI: THE AI IS MUCH MORE STUPID THAN IN CC3. I played the first time on the german side, and won every single battle. It does not like to move very much, even if winning. PLUSES Graphics: Better and more ralistic. Air & arty support: You now can call in support during the game. It gives some more flexibility, but not enough to have a real impact on the game. Strategic level: You now have a strategic level where you can move your battle groups around befor playing single battles. This feature adds depth to the game, but sometimes prevents flexible movement. One unit per square is too few, and makes transiting battle groups thru controlled maps impossible. You first have to move out any unit that is controlling the area, reconquer it with the new unit and then you can move to the offence. A pain if you are in the rear areas, a nightmare if you are moving on the front lines. This feature looks like something out of an AMIGA 500 strategy game. MY SUGGESTION: If you are a CC series fan, BUY IT, since it gives you a completely new battlefield to play on. If you never played a CC series game before, BUY CC3, a much better game overall.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound effects are great!, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge (CD-ROM)

I've only started playing this game, but I immediately noticed the awesome sounds. Each weapon has it's own unique sound, with big blasts reverberating for several seconds. If you have good speakers with a subwoofer, you'll be amazed. The overhead view of the action helps to keep the player on top of things, however the graphics are rather small and it is sometimes hard to see damaged areas. I am not well-read on WWII tank strategies, but I have heard other people questioning the AI of the game. It seemed fine to me as a casual gamer. It is easy to learn the controls but very difficult in terms of strategy. Out of about 4 15-minute missions I've attempted so far on easy level, I've only won one and that was by a slight margin. Speaking of which the manual is very well written. It goes into tank strategies as well as a 5 page history of the Battle of the Bulge. Overall, it's a fun game with great sound effects. Also, my computer is a PII300 with 128MB of ram and a TNT2 graphics card and it runs fine.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great game, minor interface improvements make this game even, May 23, 2000

By 

MCExtreme - See all my reviews

This review is from: Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge (CD-ROM)

Before Close Combat IV, i used to tell people that i liked the Close Combat series (seeing as i had played the first one, and bought the second one). Now, i must say, that i love the Close Combat series, and that i enthusiastically recommend the fourth installment of the game. I skipped buying Close Combat 3 because it received bad reviews.

Where Close Combat II was cool in that it allowed you to customize what units showed up for each battle, Close Combat IV blows it away with bigger maps, smarter AI, artillery and air support, and the ability to move your units around a game-board of sorts. The game-board feature is great, because now i choose how i want my units to react to battles that i have won or lost.

In the battle setup screen (where you place your units before you start the fight) you can set which direction your guys will be facing when defending (an option that was severly needed in CC2), and you can see what their line of fire is (in CC2, you had to guess, because terrain and buildings obscure the distance that your units can shoot). Especially useful is the addition of the ambush setting where now you can hide your guys until you actually need them. Finally, artillery fire and air support can be crucial, but more often than not don't really affect the game in a significant manner.

Having said all this, i do have some gripes with the game. My biggest gripe is that the tanks controlled by the AI are amazingly smart at avoiding my Anti-Tank guns. So good in fact, that sometimes they are out of range of my AT guns by a mere millimeter on the map. I CHALLENGE any human player to be that good at knowing the line of site of the AT guns. Another thing i find bothersome is how to determine whether you're on a hill, or looking up a hill. It's especially annoying because most of the time now, i have to check my LOS by clicking the fire button and aiming at various objects (this is more time-consuming than just eyeballing LOS) because i cant tell whether the terrain will be obscuring or helping my units.

That said, i love this game. I LOVE THIS GAME. I havent even tried multiplayer yet (and i usually only play multiplayer games) because i love how well balanced this game is.

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