Atari commits Act of War in early 2005

By Patrick Garratt Published 15 December, 2004

More PC shenanigans from Bruno's old house. Fighting, this time. Brand new shots inside.

Atari confirmed today another PC title for early 2005 in Europe following the recent unveiling of its deadly serious racing simulation, GTR.

Act of War: Direct Action will apparently take the player on a "techno-thrilling battle around the world," according to the publisher today, in what looks to be a suitably pretty RTS title from the new screenshots released earlier.

Developer Eugen Systems is weighing heavily on attention to architectural detail as a hook for creating believability around its Clancy-like thriller, with environments ranging from Russia to North Africa, taking in a smattering of Europe and the US of A on the way. Cities include San Francisco, Washington, Moscow and the good old streets of London. We're hoping they've modelled the crisp bags and dog faeces accurately.

"Warm" lighting is also being touted as an innovation. "Act of War uses a 'warm lighting' system that includes high resolution real-time depth shadow maps for bright and sharp sunlight and pre-computed radiance transfer (part pre-computed / part real-time radiosity) to provide a warmer feeling in shadowed areas," explained an Atari spokeperson.

Crazy destructibility is also promised, including smashed walls, burning trees flattened lamp posts and crushed telephone boxes. All the fun of the fair, in fact.

We'll have a solid release date for you soon. Have a look at the shots in the meantime.

Picture of Patrick.

About Patrick Garratt

Read more articles from Patrick by visiting the Patrick Garratt archive page.

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Comments (2) Latest comment 7 years ago

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  • magicpocket #1 7 years ago

    Get in! I can't wait for this. First thing i'm going to do is blow up the White House!

  • Eldritch #2 7 years ago

    ""Warm" lighting is also being touted as an innovation. "Act of War uses a 'warm lighting' system that includes high resolution real-time depth shadow maps for bright and sharp sunlight and pre-computed radiance transfer (part pre-computed / part real-time radiosity) to provide a warmer feeling in shadowed areas," explained an Atari spokeperson.

    Crazy destructibility is also promised, including smashed walls, burning trees flattened lamp posts and crushed telephone boxes. All the fun of the fair, in fact."

    Aah, who needs an actual game if you can have "a warmer feeling in shadowed areas" (which actually reminds me of 'Playboy: The Mansion').

    Then again, it's always been easier to throw technology (and marketing blah) at people than producing something that's fun to play.

    To quote a (marketing) guy from an undisclosed publisher seeing nVidia's little tinkerbell demo: "Awesome! Which game is that, dude?"