It's also possible to occupy buildings and use them to direct fire. Now players can be taken prisoner, or take prisoners of their own. The graphics are a main selling point, but "Act of War" also offers a couple novel features to the genre.
At least the cities look good as they slowly degrade into smoldering blocks. As do parts of San Francisco, Berlin and half-a-dozen battlefields around the world. Central London, for example, is a city of lush green parks and Georgian and Tudor buildings. But "Act of War's" scenes are scarily relevant.Īdding to the relevant factor are "Act of War's" finely detailed environments. News bulletins report on riots and recent terrorist acts.Ĭut-scenes break up video games and can often be as exciting as dirt.
We see oil executives debating conservation, China's supply and the glories of drilling the hell out of the world. Brown's work, but it's evident that the game makers believe they have a good story to tell.Ĭinematic cut-scenes, some lasting longer than three minutes, are interspersed throughout the game. The press release that accompanied my copy of "Act of War: Direct Action" boasted that Dale Brown, a "New York Times bestseller," wrote the original story. The enemies in the single-player version are the "Consortium," a shadowy army of terrorists who may or may not have a role in the energy crisis. You then use this infrastructure to create ant-like armies and tanks that you take to do battle against enemies assembling just beyond your field of view. Like "Command and Conquer" and "Warcraft," "Act of War" is a real-time strategy game where play revolves around using available resources to build a military infrastructure, including things such as factories and oil refineries. Three recently released video games have the action bouncing from Lima to unknown urban streets populated by crooked cops.Īs the title indicates, the energy crisis fueling the plot in this old-fashioned strategy game won't be solved with car-pooling. When it doesn't, well, it's still not as depressing as the evening news. When this works, gamers reap the benefits of a thrilling story and more exotic locations than a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue photo shot. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON of War: Direct Action" kicks off with videos of terrorist attacks, riots against high oil prices and slimy oil executives pow-wows.Īre we playing a game here, or watching the evening news? As the planet heads to hell in a hand basket, game developers, ever the optimists, are busily mining the bad news for game ideas. EA ONLINE TERMS & CONDITIONS AND FEATURE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER WITH EA ONLINE.
ONLY ONE REGISTRATION IS AVAILABLE PER GAME. TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES, YOU MUST REGISTER ONLINE.
Graphics: DirectX® 9.0c compatible video card, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better, ATI Radeon X800 or better.
Processor: Any Intel Core Duo machine XP: Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz or better, AMD Athlon XP 2100+ or better Vista: Intel Pentium 4 2.6 GHz or better, AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or better.