Ripped from today's headlines, Act of War is a frightening and believable tale of suspense, international intrigue and geopolitical military conflict. Through a techno-thriller story constructed by best-selling author Dale Brown, this real-time strategy experience puts you squarely in control of counterterrorist forces to defend cities of the world. It's the first look at tomorrow's war. No place is safe!Get the Act of War demo off WP (668mb)
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1. MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS
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* Windows 2000/XP
* 1.5 GHz processor (2.5 GHz recommended)
* 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM)
* 64 MB video card (128 MB video card recommended) with full hardware T&L support (not GeForce 4 MX)
* DirectX 9.0c
* sound card, mouse, keyboard
* about 5.5 GB free hard drive space (5 for the build, 500 MB as scratch space)
Please scroll down to the end of this document for a full list of known compatibility problems. These specifications and known problems are not representative of the retail version of the game.
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2. INSTALLATION
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1. Double-click "Act of War Demo.exe" to extract the build components to your Hard Drive.
2. Double-click "wmfdist.exe" to ensure you have Windows Media Format 9 Series runtime files installed (required for video playback).
3. Double-click "actofwardemo.exe" to launch the demo.
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3. NOTES
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* The first time you launch the demo, the loading times may be very long. This is normal.
* When you first start launching your airstrikes, click the airstrike satellite tracking icon (or press alt-' apostrophe) to follow the strikes in progress.
* Even if you do have control of the game immediately after the fullscreen cutscenes are finished, we recommend you don't start calling in your airstrikes until the instructions given in the smaller ("pop-up") cinematics are finished (=when the F/A-18 pilot acknowledges they're ready for action).
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4. THE DEMO - MISSIONS
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* This demo contains one operation only. It is normally played as operation 6 of the full game and focuses heavily on the use of aircraft and of infantry to clear buildings.
* Mission 1 is to bomb the beach using F/A-18 Hornets from the USS Truman, in order to prepare a beachhead for your Task Force Talon troops. Once completed, V-44 rotorcraft will land on the beach and provide some ground troops and constructor units that will automatically build a base for you.
* Mission 2 is to build four Global Hawk drones and use them to destroy an enemy vehicle convoy north of your base.
* Mission 3 is to eliminate an SA-12 SAM battery using infantry; once completed, you get access to F/A-35 Joint Strike Fighter fighter-bombers.
* Mission 4 is to eliminate the enemy's radar tower, to prevent him from launching more MiG-21 airstrikes at your base.
* Mission 5 is to eliminate the enemy stronghold in the northeastern corner of the map. You can do this either by sending in ground troops, or with a large number of airstrikes.
* There are also a couple secondary missions that if completed will help you achieve your primary objectives.
* All throughout the operation, you will fail if Sgt Major Jefferson dies.
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5. THE DEMO - VARIOUS GAMEPLAY HINTS
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* There is no resource harvesting in this operation, and a minimum of base building. You will start with a considerable amount of money to fund the deployment of your Task Force Talon aircraft, but if you should run low you will have to rely on capturing enemy prisoners of war.
* Together with your aircraft, your heavy snipers are your most effective anti-tank units.
* You can call in more infantry reinforcements in your Barracks. Attach a Prison Camp to accumulate money from captured enemy troops.
* Use Global Hawk drones and buggys to scout the map and locate enemy resistance pockets. Once upgraded in the Barracks, your Task Force Commandos can also launch GUOS drones that are excellent to scout ahead.
* You should keep a small defensive force to guard the eastern entrance to your base.
* Your snipers can snipe at enemies inside buildings. Your Task Force Commandos are better at storming buildings.
* If you click the aircraft icon several times before designating your target, you will send several aircraft to the same destination.
* To get a better overview of the map, launch an aircraft to the area of the map you want to reveal, and then click the aircraft tracking icon to attach a chase camera to that aircraft. If you have built a prison camp attachment to your Barracks, you can also interrogate prisoners to reveal areas of the map.
* Your Global Hawk Drones are highly effective weapons against vehicles only, whereas your F/A-35 fighters are effective against vehicles, buildings, and enemy aircraft. Note that all bombs and missile are guided; they will not be dropped unless there is a valid target.
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5. COMMANDS (US KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION)
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' chase camera on selected unit
alt-' activate aircraft tracking camera
ESC pause game
F5 quicksave
F8 quickload
Backspace recenter on HQ
ctrl-[number key] assign hotkey to selected unit(s)
[number key] select hotkeyed unit(s)
[number key]x2 recenter camera on hotkeyed unit(s)
C capture
A attack
S stop
rotate mouse wheel zoom in/out
press mouse wheel rotate camera
ctrl left-click select all units of same type on screen
shift left-click add/remove unit from current selection
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6. KNOWN COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS IN THIS BUILD
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* All ATI Radeon 9200 video cards and below: Randomly, during gameplay, regardless of video settings, the game pauses.
* Matrox P750: Consistently, during gameplay, regardless of video settings, after several minutes of game time have elapsed, the game will randomly freeze.
* Matrox P750 and Parhelia: Consistently, in the main menu, the background video doesn't play.
* Nvidia Geforce 3: Consistently, during gameplay, regardless of video settings, there is a noticable pause that occurs randomly during gameplay.
* All GeForce FX series and XGI V3XT, XGI V8: Consistently, during gameplay, regardless of video settings, at any texture setting, gameplay performance can be choppy. Workaround: Set lighting to low.
* XGI V3XT: Consistently, in the main menu and during gameplay, the background and console appears black
* Turtle Beach Santa Cruz: Consistently, during gameplay, with 5.1 speakers, with 5.1 speakers selected in Windows Sound options, there is no audio being played from the center channel.
* Realtek ALC650; Consistently, during gameplay, with the sound driver set to 3D the audio is distorted. Workaround: set sound driver to Stereo.
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