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ORIGINAL: SeanD

New “2.0” releases, a mega-update for existing customers and a new contest breathe fresh life into the classic real time tactical series

Matrix Games, Slitherine and Black Hand Studios are thrilled to announce that they are nearing completion of a new relaunch of the Close Combat series, representing countless hours of hard work from the developers and based on community feedback to greatly improve unit pathfinding, friendly and enemy artificial intelligence and more! These new “2.0” releases address some of the most significant issues that have been on the wishlists of Close Combat fans since the original games were released.

In addition to relaunching the Close Combat line with these improvements, everything that’s new will be available at no cost to customers who already own the Matrix Games Close Combat releases in the form of free mega-updates, which have been tested and hailed by many gamers in the community over the past few months.

These new versions mark a fantastic overall improvement to the gameplay of the Close Combat games and show the astonishing distance the series has come since its original form many years ago. If you played Close Combat but haven’t tried the re-releases yet, this is the best time to get in on the action!

To mark the relaunch of the series, Matrix Games is also thrilled to announce the Hoffa’s Body Easter Egg Contest! For all the veteran Close Combat commanders out there who remember finding Hoffa’s body in the classic Close Combat games, we’ve placed Hoffa’s body somewhere on the battlefields of Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem. The first person to find Hoffa’s body and send us an in-game screenshot of his location along with their serial key will win a free digital copy of any game in the Matrix Games or Slitherine store!

Relaunch and Mega Update Improvements (CC: Cross of Iron, CC: Wacht am Rhein, CC: The Longest Day)

• Major improvements were made to the way vehicles and soldiers travel to way points and reach the end destination of both simple and highly complex, unhindered paths with a very high degree of success.
  
• Soldier pathfinding was improved so that when soldiers fall behind (heavy weapon or momentarily lost) they plot their own path to successfully rejoin their team.
  
• Vehicle driver and soldier decision making was improved to help them deal with unexpected obstacles (vehicle moving into their way , or wreck that was knocked out in the course of battle to block a path that was already determined), and get out of dead-end locations.
  
• AI improvements were designed in concert with the re-designed pathfinder.
  
• The "Bee Dance" of CC2 that was related to conflicts between the AI for the vehicle driver and the AI that tried to keep the team moving along the team's path that would result in a conflict about which portion of the AI to follow or "which way to go” is resolved.
  
• Many other minor improvements were made and reported bugs were fixed.

CC: Last Stand Arnhem-only Relaunch and Mega Update Improvements

• The mechanism for borrowing teams from the reserve battlegroup was redesigned.
  
• The Grand Campaign was redesigned for improved play balance

Get more information on Close Combat - Cross of Iron, Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem, Close Combat – The Longest Day, and Close Combat – Wacht am Rhein from their official product pages.