Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge

Discount Price: $13.79

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	100 Military Leaders Who Shaped World History (100 Series)	Saving Private Ryan (Special Limited Edition)

Customer Reviews:

Getting better and worse [Posted on 2003-03-03]
I'll start by saying that the game play has gotten a lot better. Tank battles make sense unlike in CC2 where you could send 4 Shermans against a Panther and have them blown up even before firing a shot, it took them hours to load. The tank battles of CC4 are a good evolution on those of CC3. Infantry battles are also very good. In CC3 the infantry fell like vietcongs in a Rambo movie, in CC4 it is a lot more balanced. I have some reservations about the artillery, it never seems to hit anything, air support on the other hand is very effective.
For the rest the gameplay is excellent. From the military and historical point of view however, they have taken out several features. With tanks you never know the caliber of a gun or even the actual name of the tank, its just middle, heavy or light. If you are an expert the graphics allow you to distinguish them. They have also done away with the original names of the infantry units and the small arms that they carry.
Infantry tactics are absolutely realistic and they have also inserted the historically factual lack of fuel in case of the Germans. If you are playing for the first time nothing will save you from a shock when the first time your forces are wipped out but once you get used to it the game is just great.
The gameplay and the background are incredible and it remains the best WWII strategy game around.

Probably Good If It Works [Posted on 2003-07-05]
This would proably be a very good game, like the others in the series, if you can get it to run! I have tried it on two Windows 98 machines and my new XP PC. It will not run on any of them. Buyer beware...the online help is also useless.

Historical accuracy in question from reviews [Posted on 2003-07-21]
I haven't played this game, but I am something of an expert on the
Ardennes Offensive (Watch on the Rhine/Autumn Mist) and judging by the comments of other reviewers, the game has the Germans with lots of Tiger tanks (they didn't say which version). Regardless of version, none of the three German armies that were involved
possessed much in the way of Tiger tanks. Peiper's Kampgrup had
about three dozen, almost all of which broke down. Overall, the
attacking Germans were estimated to have less that 300. Nor did
lack of gasoline have a great deal to do with the halting of the German attacks - Peiper, for example, was waylaid and slowed down and eventually stopped by all those bridges the US engineers
blew up in his face, and US Armor and artillery. The Germans had
plenty of gasoline accumulated for the operation - over a million units - but trying to get it to frontline units was practically impossible - small road network and traffic jams (the Germans had
too much horse drawn equipment for mobile warfare). The old and
historically nonsensical Battle of the Bulge motion picture had
promulgated a lot of innaccurate beliefs about the battle.

CC3 is better...this is...aggravating [Posted on 2003-09-09]
I found this game more aggravating than enjoyable, and was constantly reloading maps to try and place my units in a more strategic area...which I wasn't very successful at. When my units did have LOS enough to "fire" they spent most of the time yelling about "no clear shot". Meanwhile, the Americans can do little to nothing to stop the German tanks, while in reality a well placed round from a Sherman, AT gun or even a bazooka could at least immobilize a german tank. The computer controlled german tanks have 100% comprehension of the terrain and even the layout of units they shouldn't be able to see, firing all the way across the map. The computer controlled mortar crews can knock out every half track and armored car you own, while in reality they shouldn't even be able to see them yet, while your mortar crews are useless most of the time. The player controlled units are slow, their turrets are usually traversing the wrong direction and they are always "aiming" and rarely firing. A target can come around the corner, its turret already rotating and knock out a sherman before you can even make its turret line up to fire. Very, very annoying when American armor is in such short supply...but it lacks punch anyway. Watching the historical accounts of tank battles, 5 shermans in real life could knock out even a tiger...in this game they can only draw fire to themselves while not doing a bit of damage to the enemy...can't I at least immobilize a panzer once in a while...throw me a bone here. However the infantry units are great, fighting a hopeless battle until the panzers show up to blow 'em to hell.

I found CC3 to be more forgiving to sunday gamers, with the russian T34's and tank destroyers being an even match for panzers. I would love to see an AT rifle score at least one hit on a tank though...some day maybe.

Is defense really necessary? [Posted on 2006-05-01]
This game was sooo aggravating. It's one of the most poorly designed WWII games I have ever played. During the real war, most casualties were caused by artillery. However in this game your artillery is little more than a fireworks show for the enemy. Your tanks and AT guns spend more time spinning around while the Germans always hit you right on the mark. What happened to the overwhelming superiority that the Allies had during the later stages of the battle? In this game, the Allies rarely get even a 2 to 1 advantage in tanks. Even when you do get an advantage, your tanks get picked off with ease while your crewmen spend their time rotating the turrets. What's the point of the "ambush"? You can start a battle with your AT guns poised , aimed, ready to go and on the defensive. However, the Germans still manage to get off a first shot and knock out your gun even though they are attacking. What a load of crap! What's the deal with the German Rocket artillery? They never miss and always seem to know where your main guns are no matter where you put them. Make sure you put a time limit on each battle. Otherwise you may be in for a battle that never ends. For some reason, the Germans will simply stop attacking and do nothing. I thought the Battle of the Bulge was supposed to be about a major German OFFENSIVE in 1944. Sometimes they will just sit back and wait for you to come to them. This is when they are supposed to be that attackers!! What a waste of a game.

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