March 20, 2005

Stop The Terrorists

Act of War: Direct Action (**** out of four) is a DVD-ROM PC game based on the techno-thriller novel Act of War, by Dale Brown, a New York Times best-selling author. The storyline of both the novel and the game are similar, with the United States floundering amidst global chaos. During this confusion terrorists, bent on furthering the unrest, are striking targets in the U.S. Task Force Talon, created as a U.S. joint military/civilian effort, must stop the terrorists. Talon has at its disposal a wealth of high tech weapons and support, but lurking behind the scenes is the well-equipped Consortium of multi-national industries with their own agenda. They are suspected to be at the heart of the terrorist activity.

In addition to the compelling, sometimes frightening storyline, high tech military weapons are available for use in your missions. This realtime strategy game uses detailed graphics, animation and scenes filmed with live actors. You’ll have control over building camps to support the forces and deployment and placement of the forces and their support in the action scenes. A small on-screen video display shows the action while your forces are interacting with the terrorists. The rest of the screen is your playing field, with numerous controls situated along the bottom of the screen. An original Dolby 5.1 surround soundtrack enhances the experience.

You can play the game controlling either U.S. Forces, Task Force Talon or the Consortium, and the computer takes the other parts (except in multiplayer mode). You’ll first have to set up your player profiles with easy, medium or hard levels of difficulty. Choose an Operation Mode to go chapter by chapter (sixteen of them) through the game, or jump around if you want, but the storyline makes more sense if you go in order, and you’ll get more experience in controlling your force(s). There’s also an Engagement Mode for getting into the action quickly with single mission skirmishes.

The many new technological innovations used to create the graphical and audio realism present in the game play show in the results: structures damage in a realistic fashion, soldiers enter buildings and move up and down stairs realistically. The graphics are stunning and very detailed, with some based on satellite and aerial photos of the White House, Capitol, Golden Gate Bridge and more. A wealth of command options and camera movements make game play complex, and you’ll need to use serious thought and planning to handle your limited resources in a safe but effective way. The program is rated "T" for TEEN because of language, blood and violence.

We were able to interview Dale Brown, the author of the novel upon which the game is based. "What sets Act of War: Direct Action apart from other games that are based on novels is that Act of War: Direct Action is not a clone of my book because the game immerses the player in a different experience from the book, which includes expanded hi tech weaponry and other pluses," said Brown. "Anyone buying the book because they had the game won’t be disappointed, because although the storylines are similar, the novel provides a different, more personal experience," Brown added.

Dale Brown interview

Family Tree for Dummies (**/***) lets you record family information you already have and also helps you to search for family and ancestor information you may want to find for your family tree. The program starts with a tree containing blanks for three people: a couple with one child. From there, you can add information about your entire family by entering that information in a series of boxes joined by links. Each box relates to a specific person and provides access to whatever information you want to include, such as birth and death dates and places, marriage and other events, profession, addresses, phone numbers, photos and the like. Each person can also be linked to a spouse, siblings, children and so on. There’s also a place for notes for each person, so you can add observations, remembrances and more, and there’s a place to cite the source of information.

Once the information is entered, you can choose the format for displaying it, including type of tree, font and other text information, and there’s even an option for making name boxes display differently for female and male members of the family. You can also select the number of generations to display, change the appearance of the boxes, and print reports showing whatever information you want.

The program has options for saving or exporting information in the universal GEDCOM (.GED) format for sharing with users of other programs.

If you want to search for relatives, ancestors and other family members, the 116-page reference manual offers a comprehensive section on how to conduct a search and also lists a vast number of resources available for help. The rest of the manual offers help in using the program.

We found navigating this program sometimes confusing, and the options for displaying the information are somewhat limited, but Family Tree for Dummies offers the basic tools for recording family information and for help in finding members of your family, and its reasonable price makes it especially attractive.

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