Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - Playstation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360 (360) Previews


	Platform Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Playstation 2 (!?!) Genre Action Publisher Electronic Arts Developer Pandemic Studios ETA Q4 2007
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Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

It’s been two years since the release of the original Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and we have almost a year to wait until its next-gen sequel appears, when we can finally explore a world massively larger than its predecessor’s. In fact, the “world of Mercenaries 2 is larger than all of the maps of the first game combined,” which is a statement I would have chuckled about if I wasn’t playing the sprawling, 360 exclusive Crackdown.

After Crackdown’s main loading screen, you don’t see another one unless you die and have to “regenerate” – you can run from one end of the map to the other (up and over buildings if need be) and you’re never hit with a loading screen. Next-gen graphics may be great, but creating these massive, open-ended,

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sandbox worlds with no loading screens should be the goal of every game developer out there, and that’s just what Pandemic seems to be doing (though the graphics are no slouch either).

One of the programmers on Mercenaries 2 calls their streaming technology “asset-block-streaming” which will allow gamers to “travel from cities to jungles to waterways [with] no break in the

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action.” Essentially it means that high-res objects are continually streamed into view, replacing low-res objects in the distance. If that weren’t a big enough challenge for the development team, Mercenaries 2 features highly destructible environments, which should also highlight the power and might of the mercenary arsenal that a gun for hire might need when doling out his services to the highest bidder.

Though Mattias Nilsson returns from the first game, Pandemic also appears to be including three other, unrevealed mercenaries, which will likely play a role in the promised two-player co-op during the main campaign (a là Gears of War).

As far as plot and setting go, Mercenaries 2 has come under fire from the government of Venezuela. The game is set in “near future” Venezuela and many of President’s Hugo Chavez’s supporters state that “the game aims to drum up support for a real invasion” since the game’s main plot point is officially summed up as “a power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela 's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a warzone.” Them’s fighting words! It’s not the same level of concern, but the same thing happened when the Mayor of Las Vegas got wind of Rainbow Six Vegas. At the time he was very concerned about the negative economic impact such a game could possibly pose (unlike the recent NBA Allstar game which only brought goodwill, economic growth, and a rash of shootings). But Pandemic is no stranger to this kind of controversy. The original Mercenaries was banned in South Korea because the game depicted a war between North and South Korea .

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames should be a stellar follow-up to one of the best action games of 2005. All the pieces seem to be in place, including the return of the Black Market, tons of drivable vehicles, including boats (no more drowning) and “relationships” with the various factions – layered into the kind of massive environments being promised, Mercenaries 2 will definitely be worth the wait for fans of the original and any fan of sand-box action games.

- Omni

(February 23, 2007)


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