Mercenaries 2: Huge Preview with Pandemic

Join us for a detailed look at open-world destruction-gasm Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, as we chat with Pandemic Studios' Jonathan Zamkoff and Cory Lewis.

Page: 1  2  3  4  5 

Page 3

With its juxtaposition of solid central story and wide-open world, Mercenaries is naturally drawing comparisons to Rockstar's big hitter, Grand Theft Auto IV. But Zamkoff is keen to play down any association. In fact, he says, the team looked to other games for inspiration, a list that includes Infinity Ward's well-received Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which was just as much of a wellspring of ideas as Rockstar's game, and 2D classics such as Missile Command.

"If we ever try to take those guys [Rockstar] head-on, the lifestyle thing I don't think would be our core strength," Zamkoff says. "What we try to do is focus on the things that we're really good at."

"We think our sandbox game is a ton of fun to play. We're not a lifestyle game. You're not going to be eating chicken and lifting weights and doing a lot of the stuff they do in GTA. But by the same token, GTA is not going to take down an 80-storey building, they're not going to blow up bridges, they're not going to have huge airstrikes. We're kind of that hill between GTA and Halo where action meets lifestyle, and we do it well."

So, is Mercenaries the propagandistic threat the Venezuelan government seems to think it is? "I think that's a little over the top," says Zamkoff. "We're a videogame. I wish we had that kind of clout."

"We have no intentions [with this game]," he adds. "We're not angry people, and we're not out to get the people of Venezuela."

To the 26 million residents of the South American nation, that will no doubt come as a relief.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is coming to PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 from the end of August.

For more on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, read on for our full interview with Cory Lewis, producer on the game at Pandemic Studios.

Page: 1  2  3  4  5 

NEXT PAGE >>