Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will be receiving it's first ever title update on Monday, October 13th with the release of a "Total Payback" update that's aimed at connecting gamers from around the world, adding more variety and enabling cheaters to, well ... cheat.
The Total Payback update will add an additional six characters to the Mercenaries 2 mix, give players the ability to enter cheats and (this one's a biggie) enable cross-region support of Xbox Live multiplayer. Huzzah! Again, this is an update, meaning it'll be applied instantly and for free come October 13th.
Also, Pandemic revealed that they'll be releasing the first set of Mercs 2 downloadable content sometime this November. So, keep an eye out for that.
Three days after Pandemicannounced that a Mercenaries 2 demo was on Xbox Live Marketplace, it finally emerges. Where was it hiding? We're not sure. Venezuela perhaps. Regardless of where it's been, it's available now for anyone who wants to give its particular brand of open world destruction a try. Be warned though, the demo only lasts for twenty minutes, and the timer doesn't reset when you die, and it boots you back to the dashboard when time is up. Better get that destruction in while you can (and hope that you can figure the game out without a tutorial).
Last night, Pandemic sent word to the internets informing everyone that the promisedMercenaries 2: World in Flames demo was released to the Xbox Live Marketplace for download. And even though they sent word, it doesn't mean it's true, because it simply isn't there. We're sure the Mercenaries 2 demo will eventually make its way to the XBLM (probably sooner than later), but right this moment we aren't seeing it. Keep your mercenary eyes peeled and your mercenary ears perked ...
A new Mercenaries 2 developer diary has been released and it features lots and lots of destruction. Pandemic director Cameron Brown discusses all the various destructible elements of the game. Mercenaries 2 uses what Pandemic has dubbed "Crashable structures" which are objects that can be destroyed by a moving object like, say, a car. All that is just talk though. The highlight of the video is undoubtedly all the yummy footage of things being destroyed. Now imagine wreaking this havoc with a friend and we've really got something.
Those lucky jerks passionate journalists at Joystiq recently got a chance to try out the online co-op in Mercenaries 2. Not only that, but they were playing it with a member of the Pandemic development team. From the sound of things, it sounds like they had a blast. It was quite literally a blast actually, what with the hands-on preview mentioning inappropriate use of surface-to-air missiles, using a tank to punch holes in concrete walls and calling in air support to sink a ship. And that's only a handful of everything that went down. Head over to Joystiq to check out the full preview.
Posted Aug 13th 2008 1:45PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
IGN has a pretty decent writeup detailing their hands on time with two player co-op in the explosive Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Online co-op is presented pretty standardly, allowing two players to connect seamlessly where one player enters the others' world a la Crackdown. Meaning that any progress made during co-op only counts towards the hosts' game, but any weapons or money earned by the other player can be taken back to their game. What's nice to see too is the fact that the game doesn't "scale" the action based on co-op, which means that having a co-op buddy by your side makes dishing out the destruction a whole lot easier. Make the jump to get Mercs 2 learnified.
There are few existing licenses that can pull large scale, arena-style, battles off and it looks like Lord of the Rings has just joined the ranks -- so far. In the teaser trailer for the upcoming title Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Pandemic showcases the epic battle of good versus evil from both perspectives. Pulling inspiration from Battlefield and its own Star Wars: Battlefront franchise, Lord of the Rings: Conquest has shown great potential. Working closely with Peter Jackson's Weta Digital to capture the look of the award-winning films, LotR: Conquest looks to impress gamers when it ships this fall.
In a recent interview with Crispy Gamer, Pandemic got the chance to shed some light on their recently announced Battlefront-meets-Lord of the Rings title, Lord of the Rings Conquest. With the interview come a few details regarding the game and just what gamers can expect. Said details are as follows:
Three types of combat: Melee, Ranged, and Magic (expect warriors, archers, etc)
The game will play from 3rd person perspective
There will be several playable creatures and vehicles including ents, fell beasts, catapults, siege towers, trolls, battering rams and eagles
Much like the Battlefront series, players will be rewarded with playable heroes for completing objectives
Players will fight through the major battles of the film and a few that appear in the books. There are also battles included that were "hinted at" in the books.
The Evil campaign plays out as though Frodo failed in his mission to destroy the One Ring
No cross-platform play between PC and 360 (surprise, surprise)
Conquest features "a recognizable actor from the films" as the narrator (dare we hope for Hugo Weaving?)
The concept of mixing Battlefront with Lord of the Rings already had us intrigued, but this new info has us even more excited, particularly the news regarding the available creatures and vehicles. Hit the "Source" link for the full article.
EA returns once more to the golden money spigot that is The Lord of the Rings franchise with The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Currently under development at Pandemic, IGN states that Conquest is essentially the studio's Star Wars: Battlefront set in the LOTR universe. Players will take control of the series' many creatures and characters (no word on whether or not the game will feature heroes å la Battlefront) and wage war on some of the films' most famous battlefields. The game will also include battles not featured in the films (dare we hope for the Battle of Bywater?). Conquest will feature up to 16 players online, 4 player co-op (online and local), where players will fight battles that feature up to 150 characters on screen at one time. The game will include both a good and evil campaign, including a scenario in which Sauron -- the leader of the evil forces -- reclaims the One Ring. Expect Conquest to arrive in fall 2008.
According to an IGN post that has since been removed, Pandemic Studios is hard at work at a Batman game for release alongside the upcoming movie. IGN has been on the story for a while now and they were the ones who originally got wind that (then) current owners of Pandemic (Elevation Publishers) had acquired the rights to make Batman video games. With this latest leak it seems that a tie-in game for the Dark Knight movie is all but a guarantee, and rumors are that the team in charge of the game is Pandemic Australia (the same team who worked on Destroy All Humans). The actual post has been removed, but thanks to those intrepid posters at NeoGAF we have the full text, which follows after the break.
Ah, to remember the heady days when Electronic Arts was content to flood the world with Lord of the Rings titles. It seems that EA isn't quite ready to let its very lucrative license go by the wayside, as newly acquired studio Pandemic (Mercenaries 2) is working on a new title set in Middle Earth. And that's about it, really. The news was revealed in a recent analyst meeting (the same one that also seemingly unearthed plans for a new KOTOR title). The only thing known about the title is that EA plans to release it in their fiscal 2009, which runs April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. Could it be the resurrection of The White Council? Time will tell (and so will we, once we find out).
Electronic Arts has announced today that it will acquire VG Holding Corp. from Elevation Partners. VG Holding owns both Pandemic Studios and BioWare, which means the deal nabs both developers for EA. Electronic Arts will be paying up to $650 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding, with up to $155 million being paid in equity to specific employees. Pandemic is currently hard at work on the excessively violent sandbox title, Mercenaries 2, which is being published by EA. The deal raises questions about BioWare, as the company is currently developing the galaxy hopping RPG Mass Effect for Microsoft Game Studios. As the game is set to be a trilogy, we have to wonder what this deal means for the next two installments.
We'd love to make some sort of Madden RPG joke here (Madden Effect, perhaps?), but we just don't have the energy. Hit the "read" link for the full press release.
Posted Sep 24th 2007 3:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Online retailers have been hinting at it for a while and now developer Pandemic is fessing up announcing that Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has officially been delayed into early 2008. In an interview with IGN, president of Pandemic Josh Resnick stated that Mercenaries 2 fell back to a Q1 2008 release because they need some more development time and that the studio doesn't "want to slop out a game just to meet a deadline". Kudos for being frank and honest Mr. Resnick, sometimes games need to cook in the oven a bit longer to bring out their subtle flavors and lovely texture. We'll be ready and willing to snack on destruction next year.
The debut trailer for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has been released and we have it embedded above for your convenience. The action in the game looks pretty hot, and the graphics aren't too shabby either. The lighting and explosions are really impressive, and the destructive enviroments look really ... breakable? Either way it looks really cool, and a blast to play. Jacking helicopters looks completely crazy. Did you ever get your hands on the first Mercenaries, and are you ready for some new gen flavor?
Last night, Pandemic sent word to the internets informing everyone that the 
Online retailers have been hinting at it for a while and now developer Pandemic is fessing up announcing that Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has officially been delayed into early 2008. In an interview with IGN, president of Pandemic Josh Resnick stated that Mercenaries 2 fell back to a Q1 2008 release because they need some more development time and that the studio doesn't "want to slop out a game just to meet a deadline". Kudos for being frank and honest Mr. Resnick, sometimes games need to cook in the oven a bit longer to bring out their subtle flavors and lovely texture. We'll be ready and willing to snack on destruction next year.
