Patch 3 is out and you can get it here : http://www.atari.com/us/support/newfaq/actofwardirectaction.php?browser=1&dlID=181&osType=WINXP&pageDisplay=DOWNLOADS

As many of you know the multi-player demo has been avilable for download. Just in case you might not have downloaded we're going to re-post the link here at the Union.

Enjoy!

Our friends over at Planet Act of War gave us a heads up that they are hosting a special event called the Act of War Opening Cup.

Info:
AoW Opening Cup in Cooperation with Ammonation
64 Contestants, Preliminaries with 8 players in 8 groups, best 4 of each group get qualified for Finals, Double-Elimination, Best of 3 @ 1/16 Finals

Prizes:
1. Place: TS2 200 Slot + 500 MB Webspace + 1 .de Domain
2. Place: TS2 100 Slot + 200 MB Webspace
3. Place: TS2 50 Slot

Start Date:
05.05.2005 @ 18:00 C.E.T.
(Sign-Up ab 30.04. @ 18 Uhr C.E.T.)

For Full details on the Act of War Opening Cup check out the link above!

My SRR, Harrisonmai and I from actofwar.org recently interviewed Screetch (who some of you may know from the UK Atari forums with his tech support help) about some aspects of Act of War. Just hit read more to see the full interview.

1: Who are you, and what is your position in the Act of War development hierarchy?

I've been a developer in the Act of War team for 6 monthes now, my main work isn't really visible on the screen. I work behind the scene to make the game load faster, I also work on the file packaging (the *.dat files). Oh, and I made the ducks :^)

Due to the overwealming demand for a multiplayer demo we will be relaeasing one this Friday April 29th.

FEATURES:

• Multiplayer modes: Online and LAN for up to four players.
• Singleplayer mode: Skirmish against up to three A.I's.
• Two maps: Fistful of Sand (2 players) and The Last Battlefield (4 players).
• Play as the U.S. Army against A.I. opponents from any of the three playable sides of the retail game (the U.S. Army, the Task Force Talon or the Consortium.) As a player, you're limited to Defcon 3 and 2 technology.
• Three different A.I. difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard.
• Options for team-play and Free-for-All with any configuaration of human and A.I-controlled players.
• Download size: around 600 MB + 100 MB for a European Language voice-over pack, downloaded and installed separately (optional).

Actofwar.org strat mod Scuddy was able to recently ask Henrik Strandberg "PqLear" of Atari some great questions!

Q: Hi PqLear, could you tell us about your job at Atari?
A: As producer on the publishing side, my job is pretty much to make myself redundant... My main responsibility is to ensure that everyone always has the information they need about the project, what their constraints are, that they know what they should do, when it has to be ready and who they should send it to, etc. I'm also in the middle between Atari's marketing people and the developers at Eugen, and in this role I channel information and requests back and forth to make sure everyone has the same vision and can do the best possible job. Plus I coordinate QA, PR, localization, manufacturing, the script writer, licensing, helped write the strategy guide, give input to marketing events and campaigns, focus testing, etc... It's a job that never gets boring, for sure!

To view the full interview click read more.

Our friends over at actofwar.org have announced they are having a replay competition featuring $75 worth of cash prizes!

The contest will run will from 18th April 2005 until the 18th May 2005.

For the full details check out the link above.

Greetings,

I am one of the new Act of war union officers and admin at Actofwar.org. I’m here to bring you the latest and greatest news from one of the biggest fan sites in the community along with Union exclusive information and features. Click Read More for info on the Act of War 1vs1 Replay Competition

Our Act of War Producer had a few more things to say about the second Patch. Check out what he had to say for those of you that have had some problems:

"Patch 2 for AMD 64s

If you have disc authentication problems (ONLY!) with Patch 2 AND an Athlon 64 processor, try downloading this and replace your Act of War executable AFTER you've installed Patch 2.

www.securom.com/support/customers/a..._P104_AMD64.rar

Please note again this is ONLY to resolve disc authentication errors, and ONLY for AMD 64 processors. Please also note it's not the complete patch, only the executable. You still need to install Patch 2 as normal, THEN substitute the installed Patch 2 executable with this one."

Our Second Patch went live today. Here is the goods directly from the Producers mouth...

Patch 2 is now live and can be downloaded in two ways:

• Launch Act of War and click "Online", log on to GameSpy, and let the Autopatcher take care of the rest.
• Make sure you have launched Act of War at least once, then open your browser and navigate to ftp://ftp.atari.com/patches/aow/ and download the file "ActOfWar_DirectAction_Patch2.exe", and double-click it.

The patch readme file contains more detailed info and a summarized version of the FAQ from the forums, here's a short summary of the new features:

As many of you know the first patch is already available for download. The first patch includes one new map that's exclusive to this download. So if you have not already downloaded the first patch, now you have twice the incentive to do so!

Click on the above link to download the first patch.

-The General

Here is what the Act of War Producer had to say about some of the issues people are experiencing:

Hi all, just a couple brief notes to keep you posted on the issues that some of you are still experiencing.

Firstly, I apologize for any issues you may have had launching Act of War, I perfectly understand how frustrating it is, these are things that unfortunately happen in the highly diversified PC environment -- every release has its own compatibility problems, and again I can only apologize to those of you that have been affected by ours this time around.

The Act of War Producer had some cool things to say about the upcoming patch:

Patch 2 is DONE!

Good news everyone, patch 2 is now ready and will enter QA first thing tomorrow morning. I'll get back asap with a more precise online date, expect a week or so unless something unexpected arises. This is the short list of changes/added features/fixes:

We here at Atari HQ are currently in the process of coordinating some of the cool things we're going to be doing. We asked this before but we want to create an environment where Union feedback is not just understood but encouraged.

Now that you've had a chance to get your hands on the game what would you like to see us do here in support of it?

Due your duty, and give us your feedback!

-The General

As a little kick-off to Act of War: Direct Action at GameSpot Union, we put together some basic “good-to-know” info about the game; there's always a bunch of things which for various reasons didn't make it into the manual or readme.

Before anything though, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all in advance for coming here and checking this out. Without you guys, the games industry just wouldn’t be very entertaining. We’re very happy with Act of War and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do. Feel free to come back and tell us about what you liked and what you think can be improved!

- The Act of War team

Real-time strategy titles weren't always games with intriguing premises that pitted huge, colorful armies against each other on highly distinctive battlefields. There was a time when they all boiled down to little more than collecting resources, building a base, raising an army, and then using that army to pummel your opponent into oblivion. Fortunately, recent strategy games have broken with tradition and still ended up being excellent, and in the future we can look forward to even more promising strategy games that will continue to buck the trend, like the upcoming PC game Act of War: Direct Action from developer Eugen Systems and publisher Atari. Act of War will take place in a
near-future conflict that involves top-secret military operations, powerful political factions affecting world events from the shadows, and at least one noted "technothriller" author.

For more, check out the rest of Andrew Park's impressions on Gamespot.

The New York Times best-selling author Dale Brown was one of the first major authors of the techno-thriller, the genre of books that explore the potential for high-tech weapons and equipment to transform warfare. As such, he was an ideal partner for Atari and developer Eugen Systems on their upcoming game, Act of War: Direct Action. This techno-thriller of a real-time strategy game is set in the near future and depicts the United States responding to high-tech terrorist assaults on its soil. In addition to helping plot out the game, Brown is coming out with a novel, Act of War, which will flesh out the story in the game even further. We recently had the chance to ask Brown about the game and get some of his thoughts on gaming.

For more, check out this story on Gamespot.