Act of War: Direct Action demo scores half a million downloads

On the road to release, nothing pleases a publisher more than chalking up a slew of demo downloads. Atari today said gamers in the US and Europe had downloaded 580,000 copies of the demo for its forthcoming PC game Act of War: Direct Action since it was released January 14. Act of War: Direct Action is described as a techno-thriller written by military expert and author Dale Brown that puts players in control of counterterrorist forces. The 687MB single-player demo is taken from the game's sixth mission, set in Egypt, and is available for download at GameSpot DLX. The full version of the game is due on March 15.