Yesterday Paradox Interactive announced the shipping date for their next big PC strategy release, Combat Mission: Shock Force. Developed by Battlefront, Shock Force is a modern style military simulation set to challenge the standard of current wargames on the market. It is scheduled to ship to stores in North America on June 11, 2007 and will ship to stores in Europe on June 15, 2007. The game will retail for $39.99/€39.99.

The computer games series Combat Mission has received much acclaim from the gaming community for its simulations of tactical battles. Its fans span the globe and Combat Mission: Shock Force is described as the pinnacle of the series where the developers have poured years of experience into the game and its entirely new engine.

This tactical military simulation depicts a hypothetical near future conflict between NATO and Syrian forces in Syria. A highly story driven semi-dynamic Campaign, from the US perspective, offers a completely new experience for Combat Mission fans. Each battle include a detailed Mission Briefing outlining specific Objectives, which can range from taking a particular spot on the map to retaining force cohesion. The Objectives for each side can be different, allowing each side to fight according to its own goals rather than a single set common to both.

The current plan is that after a few months post CM:SF release he'll start experimenting with movnig the code over to OSX. The post release demands on us are always huge, which means effectively nothing else gets done for a period of time (probably 1-2 months). He wants to program on the Mac as his primary machine, like the old days, so it's worth investigating at least. If it seems to be too much of a hassle, we'll probably try to find someone to do the port for us. That's an iffy thing for many reasons, but theoretically viable.

If everything goes right there should be a native MacOS X (universal binary) within 4 months of CM:SF's release. So for those of you who G5s or Intel Macs without Windows will likely (not assured) eventually have a universal binary CM:SF. Lower end machines, almost certainly G4s and absolutely G3s, are going to be out of luck no matter what.

Combat Mission: Shock Force

Battlefront Forums: CMSF OS X Discussion

IGN: CM Shock Force Preview

Battlefront.com (add to watch list)

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