Company of Heroes 3
Company of Heroes 3 is an upcoming real-time strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows. The game is set in the Italian and North African theaters of World War II, and features new mechanics and modes. As the sequel to "Company of Heroes 2", the game is set to be released in late 2022. Gameplay. In "Company of Heroes 3", the players take the role of Allied Forces during their invasion of North Africa and Italy. The game has features new to the series such as the Tactical Pause  system, which allows the player to pause a battle and queue up commands to be done after the game is resumed. "Company of Heroes 3" also has an improved destruction system that gives the title more granular destruction, such as individual tiles and bricks crumbling off buildings. Italian Partisans are allied NPCs that can either be used on the map or be called in during battles. The story is dynamic, and the player's interactions with the game's various commanders can affect the narrative's ending. Development. The game was officially announced in July 2021. The team chose the  Mediterranean theatre as the setting allowed the inclusion of a variety of environments, which is a feature frequently requested by players of older games. In addition, the team added that the Italian areas in the game offered "broader palette for environmental gameplay" and players can make use of verticality of the maps to plan their moves and attacks. At the beginning of development, the studio recruited modders and competitive players to form a player council. The council worked with Relic during preproduction to determine what the new entry should focus on mechanically and where the game should take place. The  executive producer commented on how it was chosen: "And we all agreed that we wanted a new theatre, we didn't want to revisit the Western Front or the Eastern Front. So really, the only two things left were the Mediterranean and Pacific. We put them both on the board, and it was just 10-0. Mediterranean over Pacific." Player testing for "Company of Heroes 3" started in prior to the official announcement through Amplitude's Games2Gether program. A demo for the game was available for a limited time shortly after the announcement.