On October 3, 2011, the Hearts of Iron The Card Game collectible card game (CCG) officially went live online, to the joy, presumably, of serious wargame fans everywhere. The card game is loosely based on the Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy PC games that simulate World War II (WW2) in exceptional detail.

This October (2010), Electronic Arts’ will release its latest Medal of Honor (MoH) game, for the PC, XBox 360, and Playstation 3. The biggest change for the series is that it will finally leave the World War II theater and head for a modern world area of operations: Afghanistan.

It might be a bit unsettling, after all, coming home from fighting in Afghanistan and loading up a game to play as an actual Taliban member, shooting at animated characters wearing the uniforms of US military personnel.

Looks like this won’t be an issue, as a recent interview with nine troopers revealed that all of the interviewees have no difficulty separating what goes on in a game, even a violent and…

PC game publisher Matrix Games has announced the late 2010 release of Panzer Command: Ostfront, the latest in the Panzer Command series of war games. This incredibly flexible series of 3D turn-based games based on World War II tank battles handles operations from the smallest of scales up to full warfare campaigns.

Ostfront will be available free to owners of Panzer Command: Kharkov, as it replaces that and Panzer Command: Winterstorm, including the content of both as well as new battles and many bug fixes and rules tweaks.

Videogames offer the unique chance to not only learn about past generations but the chance to walk in the boots of those who have fought and died for this country.

While there are a lot of shameless war games on the market, more than a few have gone above and beyond offering a more realistic experience (in as much as a videogame can).

Click through for at look at three war-based video games that have influenced the industry and those who played them…