E3 2002: G.I. Combat preshow report

Strategy First will be showing off G.I. Combat, its World War II strategy game for the PC, at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. G.I. Combat is being developed by Freedom Games, a studio that consists of alumni from TalonSoft and from Atomic Games--the former being the creator of the Operational Art of War series, and the latter being the developer of the highly acclaimed Close Combat strategy series.

G.I. Combat will combine elements from both classical wargames and conventional real-time strategy games. In fact, the developers are trying to break away from stereotypical PC wargames, which are usually slow-paced, tend to seem overly complex, and generally have simple and thoroughly outdated graphics. Instead, Freedom Games is attempting to make the game as accessible as possible while providing the same exacting level of detail and information that might be expected of an orthodox wargame.

The game will let you engage in tactical battles in Europe during World War II with squads of tanks, armored cars, and infantry troops--which may contain specialist soldiers, like snipers. Each of the game's armaments, including infantry rifles, submachine guns, and hand grenades, will be carefully modeled after their real-life equivalents. Freedom Games is taking care to remain just as faithful with G.I. Combat's 40 different vehicles, antitank artillery, and Sherman tanks. And as in the Close Combat real-time strategy series, squads won't just be faceless pawns to be directed this way and that; each battalion will have a morale rating that may deteriorate under pressure. When a squad's morale is depleted, it may panic, break formation, and retreat. The game will let you manage your squads, your equipment, your tactics, and morale from either a traditional overhead view or from a close-up 3D view of the battlefield.

G.I. Combat is scheduled for release later this summer. We'll have more information from the show floor.