Close Combat III: The Russian Front
Close Combat III: The Russian Front is a 1999 computer wargame developed by Atomic Games and published by Microsoft. It is the third game in the "Close Combat" series. It revolves around the Eastern Front during World War II, and takes players from the invasion of the Soviet Union to the final battle for Berlin in 1945. Gameplay. Battles follow the general pattern of the "Close Combat" series. Apart from a difficulty slider, there are realism settings which disable the fog of war, unit initiative, difficulty of access to enemy info, etc. The Grand  Campaign follows the Eastern Front from the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), to Stalingrad and ultimately Berlin. Players can pick either side. Reception. The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. It sold 45,438 copies during 1999. Author James Dunnigan reported that it was the year's best-selling wargame. According to Marc Dultz of "CNET Gamecenter", the title was profitable and achieved total sales of "well over 100,000 units" by April 1999. The staff of "PC Gamer US" presented the game with their 1999 "Best Wargame" prize. They hailed it as the  strongest Close Combat" title yet", and wrote that it "vividly recreate[s] the fluidity and chaos of real combat without compromising playability." The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and "IGN" both nominated the game as their pick for 1998's best strategy game, but these prizes went to "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" and "StarCraft", respectively. Legacy. Following the release of "Close Combat III", Microsoft opted to discontinue the "Close Combat" franchise in early 1999. The game and its predecessors had been profitable, but "CNET Gamecenter"s Dultz reported "indications that the company is now only interested in publishing games that have  the potential of selling 250,000 units or more." Atomic reacted that April by splitting from Microsoft and migrating to Mindscape's Strategic Simulations (SSI) label, with the goal of creating a fourth "Close Combat" based on the Battle of the Bulge. Later that year, Zabalaoui said that Microsoft had been "a terrific publisher", and that Atomic had "parted company [with it] as friends who may some day work together again." "" was released in November 1999, followed by "" in October 2000. After Atomic's sale to Destineer in 2005, its new parent partnered with Matrix Games to create expanded remakes of  the "Close Combat" games, starting with "Close Combat III". The result was "Close Combat: Cross of Iron", released by Matrix and developer CSO Simtek in 2007. Remakes of "Battle of the Bulge", "Invasion Normandy" and "A Bridge Too Far" followed, along with the new titles "Panthers in the Fog" (2012), "Gateway to Caen" (2014), and "The Bloody First" (2019). Sales of Atomic's original five "Close Combat" games, including "Close Combat III", totaled 1.2 million units by the mid-2000s. By 2018, the series contained 17 entries and had sold above 5 million units. Close Combat III: The Russian Front Close