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Probably Good If It Works

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Getting better and worse

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

I LIKE CC4

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Look, if you are looking for historcial accuracy, then i would go with 4. 3 is good and all, but it doesent present me with the historical aspect that i need, also the moral factor adds a need "realsim" factor to it. In three, you lost if all your dudes died, or if you fled. in 4 it relys on your forces moral which goes up depending how you fare in battle, and other factors. Yes, four does have its flaws, it is in fact a very different game than three, so i find it hard to compare the two and have it still be a "fair" comparison. If you are wondering whether to buy 4 or not, and you liked three, then i say do it, it really is a good game

A Good Game for War Strategy Fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The Close Combat series is a very effective tactical battlefield game. You command units to achieve your objectives. I could not get enough of the Bridge Too Far game (and still occassionally fire it up after three years of playing). Needless to say I was thrilled to hear about CC4. As prior reviewers noted, it is not up to par with CC3 but I still found it challenging and fun. I am sorry MS rights to the game to SSI. While SSI has a good pedigree for creating wargames, this time they seemed to spend as little as possible on the game. The box was cool, but the instruction book was poorly done and more reminiscent of cheap instructions from the Far East. I don't think they were too careful with the AI programming as well. Despite these concerns, I really enjoy playing the game and it still is head and shoulders better than most games out there today.

CC3 is better...this is...aggravating

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: September 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Good game with just a few setbacks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

BATTLE OF THE BULGE is a realm-time strategy simulator set in the historical setting of the second world war. You can choose to play as either the Americans or "szie Germanz" (the latter seems to be the most fun). The game sets itself apart from other alternatives in the genre (such as STARCRAFT and COMMAND & CONQUER) by focusing on realism. In BATTLE OF THE BULGE you order troops around and not single individuals (as is the case in real war), and your units won't necessarily do everything you tell them to if their morale falls too low (they might for instance decide that it's a better idea to retreat and find cover if they suddenly find themselves under heavy enemy fire). And it's no good sending infantry troops up against a heavy armoured tank division. The best strategy to deploy seems to be using your infantry units to spot the enemy (since they have a better visual range than your armoured vehicles) and then keep the tanks close by for protection.

The graphics of the game are good enough (explosions and smoke grenades look especially nice). But it can quite often become a painstaking job spotting yours and the enemy's units on the map (and your units don't always fire at will). The sound mixing is good. Whenever you finish off an American tank, you'll hear a satisfied German declare that the enemy is neutralized (and the Americans will be shouting "bailing out!"). Much fun. But if you're fresh to the series (like I was) you should be prepared spending a few hours getting used to the gameplay. So if you're after quick action this game might not be the pick for you. But if you're into strategy games with historical and realistic elements, then this game should be just right for you.

Try out CC-3 the Russian Front

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was kind of fun to play. Yet, it deserved a 2 star rating because it is actually worse than its predicessor close combat 3, the russian front. This is unforgivable as the gaming industry is probably one of the most competitive of all software industries. When I was playing this game I kept thinking about "why don't I just uninstall this game and go back to play 'the russian front' instead" The two sides are more evenly matched in the russian front. The role of the tanks and infantry are more realistically modelled in the russian front. (Sure it's no fun when you have 20 men chopped to pieces by a single tank when deployed improperly, but that's what happens even if your infantry got a couple of AT-rifles or Panzerfausts). You could actually tell what's going on in CC3. With battle of the bulge, most of the times you just send in your troops and hope for the best. Many of my favorite features in CC3, like requisition your own units is unavailable in this game. And the heavier German tanks rumored to be available to you in this game is actually not, well I haven't seen one King Tiger or Ferdinand yet.

as good as any other close combat game!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played close combat II (trial version only), III, and IV. I got close combat 3 a few years ago off of the internet and loved it i played it on and off ever since. One day I decided to get another one of the close combat games. I looked at many reviews on amazon.com and ign. And i finally decided to go with close combat 4. I also downloaded CC 2, i liked it but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. CC 4 has better grafics then all of the previous close combat games and better sound. you can see a puff of smoke come from a tank when it moves even. there are cut screens and they are real footage of WWII but the sound isn't original! i meen come on they use the sounds from the game for the guns. now it is great when you are playing the game but it just doesn't go at all with movies. your infantry has a chance with killing a tank if it has an anti tank weapon (ex. panzerfaust germans). the battles are real from WWII. you can create your own scenario but I found it tricky because I didn't get the manual with mine (I think it will come with it from amazon, I bought it from compusa. the maps are good, i know in other reviews they said that they got repetitive, well i have been playing it for a few weeks now and they are different despite all of them being covered in snow.

Historical accuracy in question from reviews

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: July 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Awesome simulation, but it lacks the depth that CC2 had.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game has it all plus more compared to all the other but Close Combat II. The combat system in CC4 is beyond all the others, especially the intelligence of infantry tank killers. The addition of artillary and air strikes is nice, but it is more of an optional plus than a real helper during gamepley. Tanks could still use more brains, and for some reason individuality was so cool in CCI and CC2 is almost gone completely. I remember the days when I would try not only to win, but also get one of my guys a CMOH or silver star. But thats almost impossible now. Another thing is that snipers were so effective in CC2, but worthless in CC4 unless used in an open area, whereupon they get blasted after hitting their first target. Otherwise, small complaints aside, I cannot stop playing CC4. That should say enough.

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