Steam announces the Mac & Linux versions of Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is now available for 25% off. If you bought the game already both are free. Here are the details.

We are proud to announce that Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is now also available for MAC and Linux platforms. Ported by Bigmoon Studios using Unity engine, the game will now let you free Arulco on OSX and Ubuntu just as well as on Windows. The best thing about it: Everyone that already owns Jagged Alliance: Back in Action on Windows will automatically get access to the two new versions as well. Just log in to your Steam account on your MAC or Linux system, download the game and start playing! New customers will also automatically get all three versions.

Kalypso Media announces a Mac & Linux version of Jagged Alliance: Back in Action.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action gets Mac and Linux Digital Distribution Release

Bracknell, UK, 7th February 2014 – Kalypso Media is pleased to announce that Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the latest in the much-loved series of military-themed tactical games, will be available for Mac and Linux via digital distribution on 14th February 2014 for £24.99/€29.99/$29.99. Ported by Big Moon Studios using the Unity engine, the game will now let you liberate the island of Arulco on OSX and Ubuntu as well as Windows. Players who already own the Windows version will automatically get access to the two new versions when they log onto their Steam account and download the game.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action puts players in control of a private military corporation that has been hired to depose an evil dictator, who has taken over the tropical island of Arulco.  Sector-by-sector, inch-by-inch, the player’s squads of mercenaries will recapture the island using their wits, willpower, tactical skills, and of course – plenty of guns.

Watch the  Jagged Alliance: Back in Action trailer on YouTube here

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action takes players to the fictitious country of Arulco, where a ruthless dictator has seized power and only a small group of rebels stand to resist her. Tasked with freeing the island from the dictator’s iron grip, players will command rebel and mercenary forces while using tactical and economic tools to keep troops supplied and ready for the next flight, all while commanding them directly in nail-biting battles.

Back in Action’s innovative “plan & go” combat system combines real-time strategy (RTS) with turn-based elements to guarantee that the intricacies of tactical warfare are rendered in dynamic, exciting gameplay. This challenges would-be commanders to master not only strategy and tactical combat, but also to maximize their team’s capabilities through RPG-like character advancement.

Key features of Jagged Alliance: Back in Action:

• Engage in a massive non-linear ground campaign to free the oppressed people of the gorgeously-rendered fictitious country of Arulco, assembling your own motley crew of mercenaries to get the job done.
• Prowess in strategy and tactics is not enough; can you master the intricacies of RPG-like character development, a challenging economy and the logistics to keep your troops supplied – and strike at the right time with the right skills and proper weapons?
• An innovative “plan & go” combat system combines turn-based planning with dynamic RTS execution. 
• Assemble your own combat squad from over 40 unique mercenaries, each with a detailed personality profile, including likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness and character flaws.
• Simultaneously control multiple squads to flank the enemy from multiple sides as you try your hand at advanced combat tactics

We've sunk many hours into bitComposer's and Coreplay's squad tactics & RPG mix. Here's a brief excerpt from our review:

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action's release was accompanied by a lot of emotions. The JA community was stunned by a variation of the standard real-time with pause combat and the game's generally more mainstream direction.
Since then publisher bitComposer and developer Coreplay added some key features requested by the community, most importantly optional fog of war, a sector inventory and a high difficulty level, and polished things up quite a bit with dozens of small improvements [...]

To read the rest please click on the link to article.

GameBanshee have a review up for the Crossfire Addon to Jagged Alliance: back in Action.

As I mentioned before, Crossfire didn't change anything in the game engine, but it does include all of additions from Back in Action's 1.13 patch.  That means if you're like me, and you played Back in Action before the patch came out, then Crossfire will have some new improvements.  These improvements include sector inventories (which mean you don't have to run around from container to container to pick things up after capturing a map); difficulty levels, including "hard" (where enemies have more health and you have less money) and "tactical mode" (where enemies only show up when you can see or hear them); free stamina on captured maps (so it's easier to run around and talk to people); and shopkeepers who update their stock and increase their money over time (making it easier to go shopping).

Coreplay also made sort of a bizarre change.  For some reason tanks can now only be destroyed by rockets and not with grenades like before.  When I reached the lone tank in the campaign on Day 6, I tried using grenades on it to no avail, and then I ferried over a grenade launcher (since I had one in storage), and it didn't make a dent, either.  Finally I ordered a LAW (light anti-tank weapon) from the game's online store (which requires two days for shipping), and by the time I finally took out the tank it was Day 12 and I was irritated.

We haven't exactly kept up with the reviews of Jagged Alliance: Crossfire, but here is a recent one from Vagary.tv scoring 3 out of 5.

Squad based tactical combat games seem to be getting a bit of a resurgence. This fall we’ll be seeing the turned based X-Com: Enemy Unknown, and early next year, the turn-based Omera: City of Gangsters. Jagged Alliance: Crossfire, though, travels the more realistic real time path. While it’s not perfect, it is the rare game that allows you to manage your own mercenary company, and the addition of light RPG elements make the game more engrossing and tie you more closely to your team members. If you’re wondering what it would be like to command a company of mercenaries, striking back against the forces of terror, Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is an excellent bet.

Kalyspo announces a boxed retail edition of Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is now available in NA. Of course, the Steam release was several weeks back but now you can grab the box for those who prefer that. The feature list as a reminder:

• Tactical combat at its finest, using the enhanced “Plan ‘n’ Go” system of plotting your team’s moves strategically, then executing them in nail-biting real time
• 10 new mercenaries round out your team, offering a roster of more than 50 unique combatants with unique skills, weaknesses and quirky personalities
• 10 new maps, set in the unforgiving, frozen mountainous countryside will challenge your planning skills – rocky mountain terrain, narrow valleys and icy cliffs will provide new cover opportunities, chokepoints and offer optimum ambush points
• 15+ hours of gameplay across a brand new campaign with a broad variety of missions
• New weapons, enemies and equipment – supplies are scarce, and your mercenaries will have to make the most of outdated weapons, limited supplies and equipment
• Enjoy the Jagged Alliance series as never before with vastly improved graphics, enhanced AI behavior, a polished interface and numerous performance and gameplay updates 

The standalone expansion Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is now available on Steam:

Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is a stand-alone expansion to the hit tactical RPG – Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Crossfire adds new mercenaries, new environments and new weapons to challenge the player’s battlefield planning skills, while offering the combination of humorous dialog and realistic combat fans have come to expect from the series’ decade-long history.

Key Features

• Tactical combat at its finest, using the enhanced “Plan ‘n’ Go” system of plotting your team’s moves strategically, then executing them in nail-biting real time
• 10 new mercenaries round out your team, offering a roster of more than 50 unique combatants with unique skills, weaknesses and quirky personalities
• 10 new maps, set in the unforgiving, frozen mountainous countryside will challenge your planning skills – rocky mountain terrain, narrow valleys and icy cliffs will provide new cover opportunities, chokepoints and offer optimum ambush points
• 15+ hours of gameplay across a brand new campaign with a broad variety of missions
• New weapons, enemies and equipment – supplies are scarce, and your mercenaries will have to make the most of outdated weapons, limited supplies and equipment
• Enjoy the Jagged Alliance series as never before with vastly improved graphics, enhanced AI behavior, a polished interface and numerous performance and gameplay updates  

Kalypso announces the standalone expansion Jagged Alliance: Crossfire will launch in September:

Grab Your Guns! Jagged Alliance: Crossfire Arriving in September

Ridgewood, NJ, August 1, 2012 - It's time to put a team and a plan together and get ready to hit the battlefield, as Kalypso Media USA will release Jagged Alliance: Crossfire, the tactical military RPG, this September. Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is a stand-alone expansion to Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, and features all new maps, mercs and missions to challenge players' tactical prowess. Hire and equip new teams of mercenaries, drop them into the snow-swept landscapes of the fictional nation of Khanpaa, and put two rounds in the faces of the oppressors of the people.

Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is a stand-alone expansion to the hit tactical RPG Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Crossfire adds new mercenaries, new environments and new weapons to challenge the player's battlefield planning skills, while offering a combination of humorous dialog and realistic combat that fans have come to expect from the series' decade-long history.

Khanpaa, a peaceful and tranquil nation, is being held in the terrifying iron grip of a group of paid mercenaries…yet the United Nations looks the other way. UN ambassador Behnam Atiqullah tries to help his home country, but there is not much he can do. Military intervention from a major world power seems not to be an option and Khanpaa appears all alone…

That’s where you come in! As the strategic genius behind your own personal Private Military Corporation, you’ve offered to help by bringing in your team of skilled mercenaries to retake the tormented nation of Khanpaa! Help the oppressed people by hiring a team of hardened guns-for-hire and prepare for battle in treacherously frozen mountain badlands. Along the way, discover why Khanpaa has been turned into a bloody battlefield and who aims to truly profit.

bitComposer has been busy with Jagged Alliance: BiA, releasing a new DLC today titled Point Blank:

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action follow up DLC

The second DLC “Point Blank” is now available

Bracknell, UK, 14^th June, 2012 – Following Shades of Red, the second DLC, titled Point Blank, was released today as the next addition to the successful strategy game Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. The new downloadable content is now available from Steam for £3.99 GBP/ €3.99 EUR.

Point Blank takes place in a government district where the US ambassador John Gaiden is being held hostage. Renegade ex-CIA agent Rygor Manson is behind the kidnapping, and this means that freeing the ambassador will require real pros—Gus Tarballs, Robert James “Scully” Sullivan, and Donna “Spider” Housten are on the way…

This completely new story from the Jagged Alliance world gives the player a deeper insight into the past of these three mercenaries — all of their experience will be needed in harrowing urban battles in the maze-like government district. The three can rely on the support of a new recruitable NPC in rescuing the US ambassador. In addition, Point Blank has four new Steam achievements in store for the player.

For more information about the game, please visit www.jaggedalliance.com/ en and http://facebook.jaggedalliance.com.

Kalypso and bitComposer have announced a standalone expansion for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action titled Crossfire:

In Crossfire, players are transported to Khanpaa, a peaceful country suffering under the brutal attacks of mercenary troops. To save his country from these bloody massacres, Ambassador Behnam Atiqullahs has no other choice but to hire his own mercenary teams to get to the bottom of these inexplicable and bloodthirsty attacks and to put an end to Khanpaa’s agony.

Features of Jagged Alliance: Crossfire: 

The first completely new story in the Jagged Alliance universe in almost a decade

Unique mix of tactics, RTS, RPG and economic simulation gameplay

Optional line of sight mode and fog-of-war

New location, new enemies, new weapons, new threats!

Ten new M.E.R.C. mercenaries, bringing the roster up to 50 mercs

20 new achievements

15-20 hours of additional gameplay

BitComposer have released the massive patch 1.13 for Jagged Alliance: Back in action. As far as I can see it includes everything mentioned in the temporary patch two weeks ago. Highlights are fog of war, sector inventory and more options for the militia. The final log can be found in the official forums.
Here's a video introducing the new patch:

A bitComposer rep posted a temporary patch log for the upcoming big Jagged Alliance: Back in Action patch. All the promised things are in: Fog of War, sector inventory and more militia options.

Greetings,

As you may have seen the Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is now available at the Weekend Deal with 40% off (until Monday evening). With that said I'd like to pre-release the changelog for the upcoming patch which will (hopefully) be available by the end of this month. Testing has already started. And if everything works out fine it'll be released very soon Please note: It could be possible that the patch will be released in May, but right now everything is planned for April. Please also note: This is not the final changelog. Things still could change due to tests. Please also note: This time the changelog is not as long as the last time. The main focus was on the new features and I can confirm that they really, really took a lot of work. Nuff said. Here you go:

Added Features
• Added hard difficulty level as option on game start. Modifies enemy strength, income and starting funds.
• Added tactical mode as option on game start.
- Enemies have to be revealed via line of sight in tactical mode.
- Sound sources are marked in tactical view as well as on the minimap

• Added two new achievements for tactical mode and higher difficulty.
• Added option to level recruited militia via location UI on the world map.
• Added options to distribute militia via location UI on the world map (evenly across all locations, focused on single location)
• Added sector inventory, accessible via Character Detail Screen
- Always accessible in friendly sectors
- Automatically includes all containers that have been opened and all enemy drops that have been spotted by the player
- Accessible for militia recruitment and trading with NPCs

• Added item exchange via Drag & Drop in Character Details Screen. Illegible mercs are marked red. Within hostile sectors mercs need to be within 5m distance to be able to exchange items.
• Stamina is reduced when returning to the strategic map when squads travelled great distances in the tactical view
• Current ammo saved for each weapon, weapons are unloaded when being handed over to militia. Militia will hand weapons back unloaded to prevent players cheating ammo via the militia equip screen
• NPC Traders restock their inventory over time (rules can be modified via characters.txt)
• Targeting line indicates best range of weapon and chance to hit via color from green (good) to red (bad)
• Camera scrolling possible by moving the cursor to the border of the screen
• Polnish language added

Bug Fixes
• Fixed some exploits that allowed to duplicate items via item exchange
• Fixed bugs in squad selection via list on world map
• Fixed regeneration of HP on world map, HP lost due to wounds takes longer to regenerate
• Added missing text for Raider’s hiring dialogue

Balancing Changes and Tweaks
• Added grenade launcher ammo to containers in some locations in the world
• Added grenade launcher ammo to the stock of some local traders
• Slightly decreased accuracy of snipers when prone
• Tweaked enemy attributes to adjust aim time in combat
• Tweaked enemy perception to accommodate introduction of Line of Sight
• Enemies do not drop additional ammo but only the ammo they have left in their weapon
• Enemy area defenders swap random positions to make the game less predictable in tactical mode (interval can be modified via templatesAIdescription.txt)
• Reduced chance of friendly fire between enemies
• State of tanks is stored outside of levels
• Destroyed tanks only respawn if the location still belongs to the enemy after 24 hours
• Location of Limited Edition DaHonko Flakes is now randomized

Kalypso sent through this press release announcing AMD Eyefinity support for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action supports AMD Eyefinity Technology

The ultimate game experience on up to six monitors

Bracknell, UK, 12^th April 2012 - Eschborn publishers bitComposer Games are working on their recently released strategy game Jagged Alliance: Back in Action with AMD. PC players can now use AMD Eyefinity technology to play the game on up to six monitors (2x3) to offer the greatest Jagged Alliance game experience ever. To unlock the full potential of AMD Eyefinity technology, the relevant PC should have a recent AMD Radeon™ graphics card. You can find more details at: www.amd.com.

bitComposer released the first of two massive patches for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. It fixes many minor annoyances, the kind of stuff which costs a few seconds here and there without adding to the fun, and tweaks a lot game elements. The hinted new features are now official for the other big patch:

The latest update has been dispatched to Steam and hopefully it will be implemented shortly.

Attached you find the changelog.
 [...] I’m going to hint at the next update with these bullet points:

visibility of enemies
sector inventory
militia

 ################################################
Changelog (final):

V1.11
- Added translations for new features added in 1.10
- Further improvements to targeting enemy body zones with the cursor
- Fixed bug where wounds would result in mercs not being able to recover stamina anymore
- Fixed some recruitable characters not displaying legs when their pants were removed
- Grenade launcher now launches grenades instead of shooting them in a direct path
- 40mm grenades added to be used by Grenade Launcher
- Color of line drawn to target now indicates ideal distance for shooting target (green = ideal)
- Changed melee base damage to prevent some melee focused mercs from one hitting enemies of level 3 and above
- Fixed bug where tanks could not be hit with rockets fired from rocket launcher
- Fixed unreachable enemy spawn position on map Overland11
- Open or closed state for all doors in Drassen Airport are saved now
- Fixed explosive spot in Alma prison on which wall was not correctly removed on both sided

V 1.10

General Bugfixes
- Fixed some enemy using wrong combination of pants and shoe meshes
- Fixed Sightcones not being cleared properly when leaving a level
- Fixed Sightcones displayed in wrong direction when moving in command mode
- Shader bug fixed that caused incorrectly colored objects
- Fixed bug where tank had impact on performance
- Fixed smoke grenade (blocking sight and its visual effect duration were slightly different)
- Fixed bug where recruitable PCs like Ira became not recruitable after leaving the map
- Fixed bug where AI coud become unalterted again after saving & loading

Modding
- Added additional Weapon and Ammo IDs
- Sight distances made more easy to modify
- Noise made more easy to modify

Achievements
- Fixed bug where "She's dead, Enrico" achievement would not unlock correctly
- Collect achievements are not anymore received when game has been modified

Visuals and Graphics Options added
- Launcher does not anymore check for vertex shader texture fetch, prohibiting older cards to start the game although they feature SM 3.0
- Added Distance based culling for small objects
- Added "Very High" terrain quality option in ingame menu
- Added View Distance as option in ingame menu (determines distance fog position)

Gameplay Fixes and Changes
- Civilians and potential militia recruits do not trigger mines anymore
- Children will try to maintain a minimum distance from player characters to ensure they do not clog doors or passages when following the player around the map
- Noise perception influenced by objects that cover the origin of the sound
- Enemy perception tweaked, enemies can now see and hear slightly better which will make it more likely that they use their weapon range to full extend (e.g. enemies with rifles will open fire from a greater distance)
- Enemy sight cones in 2D displays in addition to 3D Cone to make more clear what an enemy can see and to make lag of 3d cone calculation on slower machines more bearable
- Durability of clothing or items worn is only reduced when they actually prevented damage
- Armor is reduced only by 10% for each time it can fully prevent its protection value (e.g. if armor can potentially prevent 30 damage and only prevents 15 damage since it is hit in an already existing weak spot its durability is only reduced by 5%)
- Stamina is not reduced anymore when the whole map belongs to the player (all enemies are killed)
- Bobby Ray‘s Inventory only restocks after 3 days
- Bobby Ray’s express delivery now takes 24 hours, standard delivery takes 48 hours
- Laserpointer attachments reduce time to aim
- When a merc is hit while aiming the time to aim is reduced in relation to the damage received
- Targeting has several points of origin to become more flexible, further reduced chance of a small objects preventing a shot
- Picking improved, should be easier to select body zones when targeting
- Militia is always on the map even if the map still belongs to the enemy and can be recruited directly after liberating a map
- Reloading always reduces the smallest stack of ammo in the inventory to ensure that inventory space is cleared more quickly
- World Map: Travel speed is reduced when stamina is low
- World Map: Squads are forced to rest when stamina is close to 0 stamina to prevent squads reaching their target location with 0 stamina
- Explosives Skill also influences time for grenades to detonate after being thrown (e.g. a merc with higher explosive skill will “cook” grenades longer before throwing them so they explode more closely to their impact on the ground)

UI
- SHIFT+ RIGHT CLICK on target orders merc to repeat the attack until the target is dead
- Merc names are displayed on mouse over
- Time to shoot is displayed as a countdown on each merc when attacking to make it more transparent that a merc is actually trying to shoot and how long it will take the merc to fire his shot
- Closing the inventory when a merc has been selected who is currently selectable in game will not reset selection to previous merc
- Added „Loot All“ Button in loot UI
- Added “Select Whole Squad” Button to Squad name
- Minimap: Left Click jumps camera to cursor position
- Minimap: Right Click orders selected merc(s) to move to cursor position
- Worldmap: Added „Enter Map“ Button to Squad UI to allow “fast travel” via the world map to be more flexible (e.g. player can also enter a map outside a combat zone)fast travel
- Worldmap: Clicking enemy squad displays level of squad members to allow the player to make a more educated guess on wheter or not he should intercept the squad or leave the defense to militia
- Worldmap: Squad UI displays slowdown or resting via status icon

Sound
- Sound played after last enemy on map has been killed

GameBanshee has a review of Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. No score as usual for them but the reaction was lukewarm, with "sloppiness" and "neutered mercenaries" taking their toll:

In theory at least, Back in Action should work, as it uses mostly the same formula as Jagged Alliance 2, just with some nods to current conventions.  The problem the game has is that bugs and sloppiness abound, to the point where I wonder if it was even playtested.  Consider something "simple" like the camera controls.  You can only rotate the camera by pressing the alt key and moving the mouse, and you can only change the pitch by zooming in.  That makes adjusting your view awkward at best, and because you can only target enemies you can see with the camera (as opposed to see with your mercenaries), it becomes almost impossible to issue orders when your mercenaries are outside and enemies are inside, which happens all the time.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has been reviewed at GameSpot. They weren't terribly impressed, as witnessed by the score of 5.5/10, but do acknowledge there's potential in there under some "aggravation":

Going back to improve on older games can sometimes muck up what worked rather than fix what was awry in the first place. That's partially the case with Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, a remake of the second game in the series that attempts to freshen up the old-school formula. It still looks and plays like a relic from the past, which may be a selling point for some, but the transition from turn-based strategy to quasi real-time combat is a bumpy one. Back in Action can be fun to play, despite the fact that it bogs you down in excessive micromanagement and bludgeons you with some mind-boggling design choices on the battlefield. It's a game that longtime PC purists will want to love, and you just might if you can tune out the frequent aggravations it throws at you.

A temporary changelog posted by a mod in the Jagged Alliance: Back in Action forum, more precisely. This upcoming patch is offers a lot to look forward to: dozens of UI and gameplay tweaks, better graphics, bugfixes and some help for the modders. I've underlined a couple of interesting details.

 Greetings everybody.
The first of two major upadets is nearly done. However this does not mean the patch will be out in the next few days. Reason? Testing. The patch will go through an extensive testing which means it still can take some time.

What follows now is the temporarily Changelog. Note: There might be things not yet listed or things which will change again. The fixed changelog will be released with the patch itself. But for now this should be enough:


General Bugfixes
- Fixed some enemy using wrong combination of pants and shoe meshes
- Fixed Sightcones not being cleared properly when leaving a level
- Fixed Sightcones displayed in wrong direction when moving in command mode
- Shader bug fixed that caused incorrectly colored objects
- Fixed bug where tank had impact on performance
- Fixed smoke grenade (blocking sight and its visual effect duration were slightly different)
- Fixed bug where recruitable PCs like Ira became not recruitable after leaving the map
- Fixed bug where AI coud become unalterted again after saving & loading

Modding
- Added additional Weapon and Ammo IDs
- Sight distances tweaked and made more easy to modify
- Noise values tweaked and made more easy to modify

Achievements
- Fixed bug where "She's dead, Enrico" achievement would not unlock correctly
- Collect achievements are not anymore received when game has been modified

Visuals and Graphics Options added
- Launcher does not anymore check for vertex shader texture fetch, prohibiting older cards to start the game although they feature SM 3.0
- Added Distance based culling for small objects
- Added "Very High" terrain quality option in ingame menu
- Added View Distance as option in ingame menu (determines distance fog position)

Gameplay Fixes and Changes
- Civilians and potential militia recruits do not trigger mines anymore
- Children will try to maintain a minimum distance from player characters to ensure they do not clog doors or passages when following the player around the map
- Noise perception influenced by objects that cover the origin of the sound
- Enemy sight cones in 2D display in addition to 3D cones to make more clear what an enemy can see and to make lag of 3d cone calculation on slower machines more bearable
- Durability of clothing or items worn is only reduced when they actually prevented damage
- Armor is reduced only by 10% for each time it can fully prevent its protection value (e.g. if armor can potentially prevent 30 damage and only prevents 15 damage since it is hit in an already existing weak spot its durability is only reduced by 5%)
- Stamina is not reduced anymore when the whole map belongs to the player (all enemies are killed)
- Bobby Ray‘s Inventory only restocks after 3 days
- Bobby Ray’s express delivery now takes 24 hours, standard delivery takes 48 hours
- Laserpointer attachments reduce time to aim
- Targeting has several points of origin to become more flexible, further reduced chance of a small objects preventing a shot
- Picking improved, should be easier to select body zones when targeting
- Militia is always on the map even if the map still belongs to the enemy and can be recruited directly after liberating a map
- Reloading always reduces the smallest stack of ammo in the inventory to ensure that inventory space is cleared more quickly
- World Map: Travel speed is reduced when stamina is low
- World Map: Squads are forced to rest when stamina is close to 0 stamina to prevent squads reaching their target location with 0 stamina
- Explosives Skill also influences time for grenades to detonate after being thrown (e.g. a merc with higher explosive skill will “cook” grenades longer before throwing them so they explode more closely to their impact on the ground)

UI
- SHIFT+ LEFT CLICK on target orders merc to repeat the attack until the target is dead
- Merc names are displayed on mouse over
- Time to shoot is displayed as a countdown on each merc when attacking to make it more transparent that a merc is actually trying to shoot and how long it will take the merc to fire his shot
- Closing the inventory when a merc has been selected who is currently selectable in game will not reset selection to previous merc
- Added „Loot All“ Button in loot UI
- Added “Select Whole Squad” Button to Squad name
- Minimap: Left Click jumps camera to cursor position
- Minimap: Right Click orders selected merc(s) to move to cursor position
- Worldmap: Added „Enter Map“ Button to Squad UI to allow “fast travel” via the world map to be more flexible (e.g. player can also enter a map outside a combat zone)
- Worldmap: Clicking enemy squad displays level of squad members to allow the player to make a more educated guess on wheter or not he should intercept the squad or leave the defense to militia
- Worldmap: Squad UI displays slowdown or resting via status icon

Sound
- Sound played after last enemy on map has been killed


Info for the second major update? Not yet. A little tease: three core elements will be changed. One will be optional since it will create a complete different gameplay. The others will improve special things.

The last point is probably another hint at Fog of War. It's an open secret that the second patch will bring it back.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a group verdict on Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, with Alec and Adam concluding the game is a "missed opportunity":

Adam: Yeah, there could be a lot more done with the RPG and strategy aspects on that front. One of the neat things in JA2 was having a trainer character and leaving them to buff up the militia. Not only making them stronger over time but also becoming a kind of leader for that group. I never felt particularly attached to the mercs, in terms of their individual skills and some of that goes back to those c4 spots as well. The maps feel more like puzzles – a merc of this type would be useful for this part, this sort of equipment would help to unlock this room and so forth. Despite all the dialogue, they felt more like tools than people. And the militia felt more like numbers.

Alec: yeah, I didn’t have any sense of my guys’ personalities. Just ‘The One Who’s A Bit Better At Shooting’, ‘The One Who’s A Bit Better At Healing’ and so forth. But then it does have assorted fun customisation like hats and glasses, so you can at least design them to suit your own weird urges. I enjoyed that there was one guy who was crap at any kind of range unless you’d stuck a pair of glasses on him.

Eurogamer has a review 6/10of this game

Back in Action is a scrappy affair though, both as a tribute and as its own game. Plain to look at, crude yet fussy of interface, and saddled with AI that falls somewhere between remote control vacuum cleaner and stoned cat, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action doesn't quite meet its own noble ambitions. Yet it still manages to feel meaty and thoughtful. Most of this stems from the management of your mercenaries: recruiting, controlling and upgrading a motley crew of hired guns, each with their own specialisms and weaknesses. You'll need stealth guys, you'll need explosives experts, you'll need medics, you'll need someone who can repair broken weapons and most of all you'll need men and women who are really, really good at shooting people.

Game Reactor also has a review 6/10 for this game.

According to the press release, courtesy of Gamebanshee, you can now get this game at retail stores across North America.  I'll quote a bit from it as it too long to post in its entirety, a snip from it:

Ridgewood, NJ, February 14, 2011 – Kalypso Media is pleased to announce the release of Jagged Alliance: Back in Action to North American retail outlets today. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the latest in the much-loved series of military-themed tactical games will challenge players to run their own Private Military Corporation, managing everything from recruiting and equipping mercenaries to commanding troops in boots-on-the-ground combat. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is available for $39.99 USD and has been rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB. For more information about the game, please visit www.jaggedalliance.com/en. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action takes players to the fictitious country of Arulco, where a ruthless dictator has seized power and only a small group of rebels stand to resist her. Tasked with freeing the island from the dictator’s iron grip, players will command rebel and mercenary forces while using tactical and economic tools to keep troops supplied and ready for the next flight, all while commanding them directly in nail-biting battles.

Only 24 hours after the last patch bitComposer updated Jagged Alliance: Back in Action to v1.06.

 V 1.06

- Fixed tank explosion played in a loop
- Fixed target for repair / heal not being accessible for mechanic / healer
- Cone preview is visible when changing stance or turning merc in command mode
- Additional target points on torso and head added to make aiming more flexible and critical headshots being less likely
- Fixed locations being inaccessible when defender count is zero
- Fixed crashes on combat start due to level loading without adding player squad
- Enforcing low terrain quality mode when free graphics card memory in high quality mode would be below 128MB
- Fixed tooltips on character portraits and quickslots
- Fixed blocked path on Overland_11

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has been examined at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, with a moderately positive result:

The conclusion I’ve come to is that it feels, oddly, much more like a stealth game. Instead of creeping forward, always ending a turn in cover, it’s possible to sweep across maps, choosing the best position of assault on enemies who are blissfully unaware of the approaching doom. It’s the set up before an attack that determines whether or not it is successful, much more so than the movements throughout it. In fact, the most successful battles are the ones in which there is barely any movement from the mercs at all.

It’s a fun game to play, this part, a cat and mouse interplay in which your squad are always the cats. The mice bite back, sure, and some of them have massive guns, but they are definitely the ones being hunted. It’s like being a team of Predators, except much easier to kill and only capable of cloaking when around fifteen feet away, which seems to be the limit of an average soldier’s awareness.

bitComposer and Coreplay released the next patch for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action.

 V 1.05
- Fixed some doors still not being open after loading a saved game that was created in command mode
- Updated Spanish world event messages
- Fixed crashes on worldmap in french, italian and spanish language
- Loading a savegame that was suffering from the invisible location bug (V 1.00 and prior) fixes display of location icon
- LOD for ground texture baking, reduced required video memory for texture baking
- Killcam option is saved globally, not in savegame
- Material of metal fences does not block cursor anymore

 A content patch is in the pipeline, but no release date is known yet.

From the rumor mill: The possibility of re-integrating FoW is being looked into. A decision for or against it will be made within a week or so.

Hooked Gamers takes a look at Jagged Alliance: BiA, for a score of 8/10:

The change from turn-based to real-time, pausable combat proves not to be as drastic a game changer as was feared. I would still prefer the game to be turn-based as I loved spending time micromanaging my mercs’ action points, but the Plan and Go system works quite well. It took an hour or two for the ‘Pause and Go’ system to lose its somewhat unnatural feeling but then I started to enjoy pausing the game to set targets and queue actions. Another advantage of Plan and Go is the line-of sight overlay which shows streaks of green indicating which areas are visible to your mercenaries, allowing you to quickly gauge the optimum position for your mercenaries.

Strategy Informer has the first full Jagged Alliance: BiA review that we've tracked, with a score of 7/10:

The underlying fact though is that Jagged Alliance: Back In Action is a hugely addictive and time-gobbling strategy game, if not currently a completely polished one. When things go right the adrenaline rush is incredible, but when things go wrong several times in a row you’ll want to rage-uninstall immediately. Constant checkpoint reloading and team micro-management is what Back In Action’s all about, and some strategy fans won’t get on with that. Conversely, Jagged Alliance fans will hate the move to real-time (despite the friendly Command Mode) and more especially the lack of tension and slow pace that characterized previous games. I also can’t imagine anyone being satisfied with constantly taking down enemies so devoid of personality or believability. 

bitComposer's & Coreplay's squad tactics and RPG hybrid Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has been released via Steam today. Boxed versions are available now (Germany, parts of Europe) or will follow within a few days (NA).

For the release day patch please check out the other newsbit nearby.

bitComposer made a release day patch for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action available. Steam should update the game automatically.

According to the patch notes quite a few of the demo's small issues have been worked on:

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Update Released
Product Update - Valve
V 1.03 Changes

Combat

- Fixed AI not being able to target player that was prone within a certain range

Camera / Visuals

- Tweaked Camera distance and angle to be less restrictive
- Some minor tweaks on the sight cone calculation to improve performance

General

- Increased video memory reserved for ground texture baking to reduce texture popping in with camera max / min distance
- File system load order fixed
- Fixed autopause options not being saved globally

Save & Load

- Game checks if game files have been modified and saves modification flag in savegames
- Open doors are fully open after loading

Worldmap

- Wounds and overload do now reduce movement speed of world squads
- Fixed bug where locations would be invisible after combat

UI

- Added cursor changes on portrait when trade/repair/heal action is activated
- Explosive spots can now be accessed from both sides of the wall
- Item swapping in lootscreen added
- i key toggles inventory
- Inventory shows all squad members in tutorial
- selecting player of different squad changes UI in pause mode correctly
- Access to former global inventory removed
- Plants and some other materials are ignored by the context cursor

Combat / Plan & Go

- Preview and actual position of mercs now fits 100%, thus allowing all shots if they would hit while planing
- Tweaked explosion times for grenades to be shorter
- Emmisions of grenades prevent combat reset
- Roofs are revealed if enemies below them attack player
- Tweaked weapons RPM so it’s more consistent throughout different weapon types

AI

- Fixed: change in combat position caused bug in AI attacking behavior - they changed stances very often instead of firing
- Fixed: change in melee attack caused AI to remain in present stance even if they do an emergency melee defense
- Human player enemy detection events should fire correctly again
- Building defenders that are inside a building didn't rush at snipers. now they should do it if the sniper has LoS on them.
- After enemy contact, AI with medi-equipment all started to heal each other instantly. this is randomized now.
- Fixed: enemies planned their paths through tanks, ending up walking against the tank.

With Jagged Alliance: Back in Action due for release in only a few days, Gorath brings us some first impressions. What can we expect from bitComposer's reboot of the classic franchise? Here's an excerpt from the article:

Let's get it over with: Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is not turn-based! Instead it uses a custom-built version of the well known and generally totally mediocre (read: mass market compatible) real-time with pause (RTwP) called „Plan&Go“. Everything happens simultaneously. There's no fog of war. All enemies can be seen as soon as you enter the sector, only enemies inside a building are displayed as one bigger cluster representing an unknown number of troops.

So much for the bad news. Here is the good news: Plan&Go works well and it's not primitive at all. The player not only has a lot of control, he actually should pause the game to plan his next steps and coordinate his squad members. Going into RTS auto-pilot and casually shuffling mercs around will lead to a rude awakening. JA:BiA is neither an RTS nor an action game, it's still a tactical game which requires slow and careful play. A hasty course of action will lead to frustration. Effectively, the RT in RTwP will only be used to move quickly from A to B.

Read it all here.

Publisher bitComposer surprisingly released a demo their upcoming Jagged Alliance reboot called Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Maybe they were a bit worried when Steam fumbled their 1 week exclusive on the demo. Anyway, the demo is only 354 MB small and the usual suspects should have it every minute.

So, the Demo is released. Contains: Tutorial. Laboratory in the Orta-Swamps. Weight: 354 MB. Voices: German and English. Text: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian. Will update the list as soon as I have more links to share.

WARNING: The demo is REALLY, I mean REAAALLLY, hard. The Level included is on maximum level of units.

 edit: The last sentence is new. ;) At the beginning of the demo level you should move away from the enemy and analyze the situation. There's a lot of work to do in the secured base ahead of you.

Kalypso sent us a press release announcing a new trailer to show off the Plan & Go tactical system in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action (link at the end of the release):

Jagged Alliance Goes Tactical in New Gameplay Video

Video showcases new ‘Plan & Go’ system of unit control

Bracknell, UK, 24^th January, 2012 - Kalypso Media is dropping players into the thick of tactical combat today with the release of a new trailer for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. In today's video, viewers will learn firsthand how the innovative new "Plan & Go" system works when it comes to managing troops on the battlefield. Along with a new 3D graphics engine, Plan & Go is one of the key new features in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, and will challenge players to craft the ultimate battlefield strategies as they coordinate actions between mercenaries and mercenary teams, as they fight to free the island of Arulco. Kalypso Media will release Jagged Alliance: Back in Action in the UK on 10^th February, 2012 for Windows PC.

- Stream the trailer (Youtube)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-2K8Ca6FpQ

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has been previewed at Worthplaying in a positive article:

How do you modernize this sort of gameplay without dumbing it down? Jagged Alliance's developers are trying to do just that with the Plan 'n Go system, which focuses on waypoint management, along the same lines as the original Rainbow Six games. Forget about action points; P 'n G is about timing and skilled planning. Want to swap a weapon? That's going to take time, and in that time, the enemy may have finished reloading and put a round in your team leader's skull. An example we were shown was setting up a simple op to take out a guard. First, a sniper slowly crawls to his position behind a crate, stopping a few times along the way to ensure nobody's spotted him. While this is going on, our stealthy killer, trusty knife in hand, drops to a crouch to reduce visibility and slowly stalks an unwary guard.

At the bottom of the screen, a timeline for both characters appears, much like a filmstrip editor, which lets you set up sequences such as, "After A moves to his second waypoint, move character B to his first point," and so on. It's all done through simple point-and-click and drag-and-drop. Pretty soon, we've set up a situation where our melee fighter takes a swipe at a guard and if he misses, the sniper pops up from his hiding place and fires a shot at the now-aware guard's head. If the melee attack succeeds, our sniper stays in hiding, monitoring for any other guards who might stumble into our ambush.

Kalypso sent over this press release confirming a 10th February release date for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. This is a Euro/UK announcement but Kalypso previously announced a "worldwide" release for February, so presumably other regions have a similar date. There's also a link to a new trailer in the statement:

Release Date Set and New Trailer Released for “Jagged Alliance: Back in Action”

Bracknell, UK, 12^th January, 2012 – Kalypso Media is pleased to announce that Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the next installment in the much loved Jagged Alliance series of tactical role-playing games, will arrive in UK and European retail outlets on 10^th February, 2012. Kalypso Media have also released a brand new trailer for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action which previews gameplay and provides more insight into the tactical gameplay.  Jagged Alliance: Back in Action puts players in control of a private military corporation that has been hired to depose an evil dictator, who has taken over the tropical island of Arulco.  Sector-by-sector, inch-by-inch, the player’s squads of mercenaries will recapture the island using their wits, willpower, tactical skills, and of course – plenty of guns.
View the new trailer on You Tube here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF-kROIKBgE

Hooked Gamers has penned a review for this game.   A quote:

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is a remake of Jagged Alliance 2. Rather than making a sequel, it would seem that Kalypso and bitComposer are testing the waters, determining the viability of a full sequel. The series still has a very vocal and dedicated following, but how big? No one really knows but they sure have been modding the crap out of Jagged Alliance 2 for over a decade.

The remake also paves the way for a number of changes and improvements, not in the least in the graphics department. Despite those changes, Back in Action will feel very familiar to anyone who has played the original 1999 game. The player is contacted by Enrico Chivaldori, former ruler of a small tropical island called Arulco. Enrico tasks you to remove his oppressive ex wife from the throne she stole right out from under him through deceit. Queen Deidranna, of course, isn’t going to respond well to you pounding on her door telling her to scram. You will have to fight for each and every inch of Arulco’s jungle, swamp and desert areas. As you get closer to her seat of power, the enemies will get tougher and ever more determined. You have your work cut out for you.

Adam Smith at Rock, Paper, Shotgun has penned a hands-on look at Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. It's reasonably positive, though Adam doesn't see any reason not to just play the original:

The move to simultaneous movement and controlled rather than enforced pauses hasn’t diminished the level of control provided. Stances are selectable, altering movement speed and accuracy, and the ability to synchronise commands is an addition that could make this most significant alteration worthwhile. Having Grunty open fire at the enemies inside a building just as Ivan opens the door, goes prone and unleashes a hail of lead and Buns lobs a grenade through the window is satisfying, no doubt about it. Setting up the mercs like a bickering SWAT team is a pleasure. That is, until the enemies’ reactions come into play.

The first time I played, after the initial shock at the fact that I recognised every line of dialogue, every hole in the fence around Drassen airfield, and the positioning of almost every tree and rock, I decided I’d take the landing strip and then write down some thoughts. It’s the initiation into any Jagged Alliance 2 campaign, the first step toward establishing a force in the country and marching on to a terrible defeat.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action will use Steamworks. Here's the pertinent part of the press release, courtesy of Bluesnews:

Ridgewood, NJ, December 21, 2011 - Kalypso Media and bitComposer Games are pleased to announce the integration of Valve’s Steamworks functionality in the upcoming tactical-RPG, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Kalypso will release Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the latest title in the much-loved Jagged Alliance series of strategy games, in North America in February of 2012 for Windows PC.

As part of the Steamworks integration, when players buy Jagged Alliance: Back in Action on DVD, they can use the code supplied with the packaging to activate the game online via Steam, which unlocks the ability to play the game without having the DVD loaded on the PC at all times. The Steamworks integration will also provide for automatic game updating/patching, voice chat and Steam achievements.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has been previewed at GameSpy:

One area of the game that has changed (that we've talked about before) is the "Plan & Go" gameplay system, designed to replace the classic turn-based strategy mechanic from the original. To say that gameplay change is controversial would be an understatement, judging by the community reaction on the game's official forums. Honestly, I think the Plan & Go system is a nice compromise between action and strategy -- there's still a significant amount of thought involved to determine the routes and actions for each of my mercenaries, much like the original Rainbow Six from an overhead perspective. There's even an option to swap to a real-time strategy mode at any point during a mission. 

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a short trailer for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Once you cut out the logos and cinematic stuff you probably get a whole 20 seconds of gameplay but it's a start.

BitComposer let us know that Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is on track for a global release in February next year. Here's the PR minus the company blurb:

“Jagged Alliance: Back in Action” set for global release in February 2012“

 Eschborn/Worms, November 29, 2011: The long-awaited latest part in the Jagged Alliance universe, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, will finally be released next year. The Windows PC version of this strategy spectacular from bitComposer Games and Kalypso Media will arrive in stores worldwide in February 2012. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action will be distributed by NBG EDV Handels & Verlags GmbH priced €44.99 (RRP) in the German-speaking territories.
You can find more details on all the Jagged Alliance products on the new website: www.jaggedalliance.com and on Facebook http://facebook.jaggedalliance.com

 Back in Action takes players to the fictitious country of Arulco, where a ruthless dictator has seized power and only a small group of rebels stand to resist him. Tasked with freeing the island from the dictator’s iron grip, players will command rebel and mercenary forces while using tactical, diplomatic and economic tools to keep troops supplied and ready for the next flight, all while commanding them directly in nail-biting battles.

 Back in Action’s innovative “plan & go” combat system combines real-time strategy (RTS) with turn-based elements to guarantee that the intricacies of tactical warfare are rendered in dynamic, exciting gameplay. This challenges would-be commanders to master not only strategy and tactical combat, but also to maximize their team’s capabilities through RPG-like character advancement.

 KEY FEATURES

• The Jagged Alliance series achieved numerous awards and is considered to date as milestone in the genre of real time strategy
• Unrivaled mix of combat (tactics), roleplay, business and strategy
• Innovative "Plan & Go" combat system combines RTS gameplay with turn-based elements
• Liberate a fictitious island from a dictator
• Realistic war setting with authentic-looking firearms
• Laptop/computer menu as a central anchor point for the player
• Assemble your own unit of mercenaries from over 60 unique mercenaries
• Simultaneous control of multiple squads using a strategic map
• Every mercenary has a detailed set of likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses
• Convincing characters who interact with and comment on the game events
• All the dialog has audio
• Train your mercenaries to improve their effectiveness
• Acquire resources by capturing mines and encampments

Blue's has a dev diary for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action that explains the "Plan & Go" system. This turns out to be realtime-with-pause, basically like Baldur's Gate et al, but with an extended command queue:

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action

Developer Diary Part 7: Plan & Go

Having spoken at great length in the previous diaries about the technical basics of the game and in particular the level design, we’ll now turn our attention to the slightly less dry aspects of the game: the gameplay.

We’ll talk first about a new feature in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action: the Plan & Go system.

The Plan & Go system could be described as an extended “real time with pauses” system. Back in Action essentially runs in real time, but the game can be paused at any time. The player maintains control of the game events even during the pause, and can input more entries which can only be implemented when the pause is removed.

This will already be familiar from other games, e.g. tactical RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate or Dragon Age: Origins. But what is new in Back in Action is the action timeline, whereby all the commands issued by the player while the game is paused are retained and listed. While in Baldur’s Gate players generally pause the game to issue an order, i.e. for the mage to make a fireball incant magic, and then continue the game only to pause it again several seconds later and issue a command to a fighter, in Back in Action you can issue a sequence of orders to several mercs to devise complex plans, so we like to refer to pause mode as planning mode.

Elmar Grunenberg, the Head of Development for bitComposer Games, has been interviewed at Gaming Nexus about Jagged Alliance: Back in Action.

The “Plan and Go” Combat system we saw at E3 was really impressive, could you talk about how you came up with the concept? How many permutations of the interface did you go through before landing on the final one?

We’re actually still making tweaks as we go. The E3 build was great, but we’re able to keep refining it as we go. As far as coming up with the concept, it was mostly to modernize the game – which has offended some of the fans, but when they actually get their hands on the final product, we’re pretty sure they’ll appreciate Plan & Go.

Were there things that you couldn’t bring over? To help set expectations with fans of the original, what’s the biggest thing that was in the original that’s not in the upcoming game?

It’s unfortunate, but we couldn’t bring in the original voice acting. We will have all theall the comedic dialog that the original had, but we had to find all new voice actors to re-act the whole thing. There was just no feasible way to track down the people who did the original work.

The Armchair Empire has a preview up for this game.   It is based on an alpha build of the game. A quick snip:

As the demo continued, I admired how the developers had gone beyond the tile-based maps of JA2 and were working with more organic structures and landscapes. While JA2 didn’t look bad, and still doesn’t, there were some inherent limitations which occasionally led to some problematic issues relating to line-of-sight and target identification. The new maps will certainly feel less cheesy than their predecessors when it comes to hidden enemies. More than that, however, the maps bring Arulco to life all over again.

VoodooExtreme has some screens for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, which I assume are new.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action will be released this October. Here's the press release:

Grab Your Guns and Prepare to Go “Back in Action” this Fall

Official release date for military-themed tactical-RPG announced

Ridgewood, NJ, June 8, 2011 -- Kalypso Media and bitComposer games are pleased to announce the official release date for their tactical-RPG, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, today. The game, a modernized remake of the world famous 1999 strategy classic, Jagged Alliance, is scheduled to land in retail stores on October 18 on Windows PC.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is a contemporary remake of the latest title in the much-loved Jagged Alliance series of turn-based mercenary-themed strategy games. Designed from the ground up to offer a modern gaming experience, Back in Action showcases an updated isometric 3D look and interface, highly detailed character models and a variety of new gameplay features.

Back in Action takes players to the fictitious country of Arulco, where a ruthless dictator has seized power and only a small group of rebels stand to resist him. Tasked with freeing the island from the dictator’s iron grip, players will command rebel and mercenary forces while using tactical, diplomatic and economic tools to keep troops supplied and ready for the next flight, all while commanding them directly in nail-biting battles.

Back in Action’s innovative “plan & go” combat system combines real-time strategy (RTS) with turn-based elements to guarantee that the intricacies of tactical warfare are rendered in dynamic, exciting gameplay. This challenges would-be commanders to master not only strategy and tactical combat, but also to maximize their team’s capabilities through RPG-like character advancement.

For more information on the Jagged Alliance series please visit: www.jaggedalliance.com.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has noticed some "early Alpha" video footage of Jagged Alliance: Reloaded.

Worthplaying says Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded has been renamed Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, which sounds reasonable to me given the changes.

Alrik writes in to say bitComposer has released their third Jagged Alliance Reloaded newsletter, available in German and English.  You'll be pleased to know they still don't know how to appeal to their core audience:

Below is an update on the latest status regarding the “Fog of War/Line of Sight” feature:
We have again discussed the “line of sight” issue internally, and have finally decided to show all the enemies right at the start, as we were worried that a pure “line of sight” on the complex game maps could represent too great a challenge for beginners, particularly as our maps are, to some extent, larger than in the original game.
But there’s no problem with the basic logic of showing enemies when they are spotted by your own mercenaries. We already have some ideas on how to keep both players new to the game and the “old hands” among you happy.
We haven’t yet decided quite how we will do this, and have left all the options open. In any case, the veterans among you should be able to make all the enemies invisible until they enter your mercenaries’ field of vision.

We will only be able to finalize the details during development when the combat system is far advanced and we can assess how it will impact on the overall game experience. Ideally of course, we want to find a single solution that fits all! 

In their second newsletter the Reloaded team addresses the current debate on the combat system and the first impressions of the Meduna missile base.

Dear JA Community,

In the second issue of our newsletter we are voicing our opinion on the current discussion on the combat system.
We are also delighted to announce that we are giving our website and forum a brand new look.
Last but not least, the first screenshots of the Meduna missile base are also available.

Discussion on Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded – turn-based combat system 2011

We are sorry to have caused a furore in the discussion on a modern combat system for 2011. We admit our choice of words at the start of the thread was somewhat unfortunate, which led to the discussion developing in a direction that ultimately focused on the detailed refinements of the system and less on a vision for a modern game version, which was our intention, and we would like to thank you for your contributions.
We recently explained our Plan & Go system and we will now release regular updates on the combat system and answer your questions as best we can for the time being.
We would ask for your understanding if we are unable to go into every question in detail. There will certainly be some changes to our concept of the combat system during the development process, as the theory can often work out quite differently in practice. We would also ask you to bear in mind that the game will not be released for at least a year and, for this reason, everything is far from being set in stone.

Redesign of the website and forum

We are in the process of overhauling the website and forum. To ensure a successful switchover, the website and forum will soon have to go offline for several hours, and we will notify you of the exact time very shortly. All the entries and user data will remain unchanged.

Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded – first impressions of the Meduna missile base

A classic game will be totally revamped next year with Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded. In Q4 2011 we anticipate that you will again be using the M.E.R.C. and A.I.M. mercenary agencies to form powerful troops of mercenaries to topple a malign female dictator in the fictitious country of Arulco.

The Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded "media" section now contains a series of screenshots that provide the first glimpse of the Meduna missile base, and you can compare these with the corresponding images from the 1999 original.

Click here to see the screenshots on the Jagged Alliance Portal

Thanks Alrik.

Uh oh.  bitComposer's "faithful" remake of Jagged Alliance 2 has taken a big step into the mainstream and away from faithful after deciding to ditch the original turn-based combat for a realtime-with-pause system.  Here's the full post on their forums:

Dear Community,

Many thanks for your many proposals and suggestions. This has obviously sparked off heated discussions that have provoked a wide range of opinions about how we could change the combat system, if we should change it and, if so, what changes would be best suited to the game.

To ensure that Jagged Alliance 2 makes a successful transition into 2011 and that the remake is as attractive as possible to players who know the Jagged Alliance series and to those who have yet to play it, we will simply make a few changes to the existing JA2 combat system. We are calling the new combat system the “Plan & Go” system. It is based more on real time, and represents a departure from the original combat system in Jagged Alliance 2. We would like to outline the significant changes below, and hope that you, the official JA2 community, will be as excited as we are about them.

Basically, the overall strategy in the combat system remains the same! The player has to identify strategically advantageous positions on the map to minimize losses to his own side as far as possible.

In the “Plan & Go” system we have omitted the “Fog of War”, which covered most of the map in JA2. Enemies positioned outside buildings are permanently visible, which enables the player to establish a strategy from the outset without having to constantly save and load. In addition, the world looks much more animated and lively as the hostile forces patrol in the meticulously detailed 3D backdrops.

The “Plan & Go” system removes the turn-based structure. If the player wants to react to an incident, he can pause the game at any time or allow the game to pause automatically by carrying out a particular activity (e.g. if a mercenary has run out of ammunition).

The real-time elements in the “Plan & Go” system also add new and exciting features such as “Timing” for example. As the enemies are patrolling all over the map, the player must time his movements very precisely to defend himself against his enemies. Here, the need to quicksave/quick load is greatly reduced, as the risks and challenges are more easily identified and the effect of the risk is reduced to a much shorter time (e.g. a character is sighted before he has reached his target, so the shooting starts earlier than anticipated).

The “Plan & Go” system also enables players to specify the conditions under which his units can attack independently; they can therefore open fire when enemies enter their range of vision. This offers players the same tactical depth in terms of decision-making, and also intensifies the combat experience, because more experienced players have to pause much less frequently and, for the most part, can let the game progress in real time. In particular, this speeds up battles with large numbers of fighters and which seemed like they would never end in the original game!

The advantages of the “Plan & Go” system opposed to the turn-based original are:

• It is dynamic, as it allows combat in real time.
• It introduces timing as a new element: it enables the player to spot and assess enemy movements, so he can either cleverly sneak past, or lie in wait and choose the right moment to attack.
• It avoids the situation where you get mixed up in a battle while your mercenaries are some distance from the front. JA2 was very time-consuming in this respect, because players had to lag behind for several turns while they moved all their mercenaries to the front.
• Combat with large numbers of enemies happen more quickly; in JA2 it took ages for the round to finish when numerous mercenaries and enemies were involved in the battle.
• The new system also allows us to incorporate new AI functions such as cutting off and flanking enemies, that only work when actions are carried out simultaneously and not one after the other.

Your bitComposer Team 

Spotted at GamersGlobal.

Alrik sends word of a newsletter for Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded (well, it's not much more than a link to a forum discussion) asking for input into a "modern" turn-based combat system:

Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded - Discussion: Turn-based combat system 2011

We would love to receive your suggestions and ideas for a modern, turn-based combat system for Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded. What do you think a modern version of such a combat system should look like? What is wrong with the existing JA2 combat system, what annoys you about it and what must be retained without fail?
We look forward to hearing your proposals, suggestions and ideas.
http://jaggedalliance.com/index.php?id=35&tx_mmforum_pi1[action]=list_post&tx_mmforum_pi1[tid]=101

bitComposer has announced a remake of Jagged Alliance 2 with a modern isometric engine, titled Jagged Alliance 2 Reloaded:

Eschborn, August 20, 2010: Jagged Alliance 2 - Reloaded will be released next year, and this multi award-winning classic will appear as a totally revamped version. German publisher bitComposer Games is currently developing a remake of Jagged Alliance 2, which will retain the tried-and-trusted game principle, but will have a totally new game look and which will address the weak points of the original. Jagged Alliance 2 - ReloadedReloaded will therefore have a contemporary 3D graphic syle in an isometric view, the user interface will be totally redesigned and an extensive tutorial will ease the player into the complex game rules system. Find out more about Jagged Alliance 2 - Reloaded and about other titles here in the Jagged Alliance universe on the new product website.http://www.jaggedalliance.com

Screens here at the official site.