Begins and ends with online play. the scenarios in HCE are interesting, but the bottom line is the AI should never beat you,and the AI should definitley NEVER beat you the second time through a scenario. As a result, the game has a finite amount of playability. Like many other games, one will gain experience, "beat" the game, and then lose interest. Online play changes all that (just ask the folks running the Call of Duty franchise). It seems ironic to me that ancient AOL could host HC in 1991 and 1992, but we cant this going in 2010??
What would it take to make this happen??