Mercenaries 2 Q&A

By Eurogamer staff Published 5 February, 2007

We pin down Pandemic to talk about the move to EA.

Following on from last week's announcement that Electronic Arts will publish Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, we tracked down Pandemic Studios president Josh Resnick for a quick chat about the move, and how the game will improve on its critically acclaimed predecessor.

Eurogamer: Can you explain why this sequel has moved from LucasArts to EA?

Pandemic: Lucas was a great partner for us on Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and EA will be a great partner on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Each partner has their strengths, and EA is the best fit for Mercs2.

Eurogamer: How will Mercenaries 2 improve on the first game? Is it built on a new engine?

Pandemic: We joke that Mercenaries 2 is a true sequel of mass destruction, blowing the crap out of everything in the first game had and a lot more. We've built a new engine from the ground up. Mercenaries 2 is built on a totally new next-gen engine that will allow our bad-ass Mercs to take the action to a level that wasn't possible on earlier platforms. Aside from dealing with the scale and detail of next generation games, the engine has a fundamentally different architecture to deliver a much bigger open-world experience. The sheer number of things that you can grab, shoot, drive, fly and blow-the-crap-out-of is astonishing.

Eurogamer: How is the next-gen development going? Which platform are you finding easier to work with?

Pandemic: It's going well. It's taken a lot of effort to build a game this big, but we're incredibly excited by all of the things we're able to let the player do and the visceral thrills you get from all of the next generation chaos and destruction.

Eurogamer: Will you be going for the "deck of cards" system again?

Pandemic: The 'deck of 52' device that we used in the original game was topical and worked well, but we've decided that moving to a different story and mission progression paradigm will serve us better for the sequel.

Eurogamer: What online multiplayer features can we expect?

Pandemic: Nothing to announce at this time, but we'll have a lot to talk about when the time comes.

Eurogamer: The original wasn't lacking in gameplay time, but arguably got a little too challenging for some. Have you smoothed out the kinks in this one? Will the game length still be as expansive as most openworld games?

Pandemic: We've done a lot of research on the last game and are moving forward with those lessons. This is still a massive game, but we've got some new ideas on how we make it work better for a variety of skill levels.

Eurogamer: The game was set in North Korea last time - what's the setting for this one?

Pandemic: This time the setting is Venezuela. It's a great location with a wonderful variety of terrain and a really distinct look that lets us design the most exciting gameplay possible around it, and we've been able to tap into the cool vibe of the area. Other than being totally insane, there wasn't much cool in North Korea.

Mercenaries 2 is due out on PlayStation 3 later this year. Despite persistent rumours, neither Pandemic or EA has confirmed whether the game will appear on Xbox 360.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Donny #1 5 years ago

    No comments???

  • madcrazy #2 5 years ago

    Hardly. At least two comments.

  • Steroyd #3 5 years ago

    Mercenaries 2 is announcement Exclusive to PS3.

  • theindustrialone #4 5 years ago

    "Eurogamer: How is the next-gen development going? Which platform are you finding easier to work with?"

    Hang on, has this been announced for the 360 then?

  • daedalus2 #5 5 years ago

    No, I think that was just EG being cunning.

    They sidestepped the question rather neatly, but it was a good effort. ;)

  • Aysir #6 5 years ago

    ""Eurogamer: How is the next-gen development going? Which platform are you finding easier to work with?"

    Hang on, has this been announced for the 360 then?"

    I think the question means between next-gen and last-gen platforms.

  • Eraysor #7 5 years ago

    They will be killed if they don't release this on 360.

  • Chtulie #8 5 years ago

    How old is this interview that a question regarding the setting was part of it?
    It's been on the news where it took place on account of the Venezuelan goverment and especially it's president protesting against this game for choosing their country for it's setting. Hell, it's been on the news on this site. Or do eurogamer writers not read the site on which they are published?

  • Sko #9 5 years ago

    Maybe they didn't want to assume all readers had?

  • dllord #10 5 years ago

    Worst interview EVAR!

  • Viktor #11 5 years ago

    Come on guys! Softball! Just ask them directly: are you working on the 360 also?

    We all know they are, of course.

  • mkreku #12 5 years ago

    I loved the first Mercenaries. I mean, Peter Stormare as one of the voices, how cool is that?! :p

  • Drakron #13 5 years ago

    " ... EA is the best fit for Mercs2."

    Right, it have NOTHING to do with the fact they started the game without any publisher being involved and after the "Venezuelan incident" nobody seems to want to touch it.

  • Chtulie #14 5 years ago

    "Maybe they didn't want to assume all readers had?"

    It's the sort of thing you'd find in an intro to an interview. Giving a bit of background on the dev, the game and what we know before delving into the new stuff. So we can believe it to be actually new stuff rather then have the interview appear to have been taken months ago.

  • Triggerhappytel #15 5 years ago

    I like the way EG blatantly asks about multiplatform development and he addresses the issue by not answering.

    Which is a good as a flat-out confirmation that this will be on 360.

  • Realtime #16 5 years ago

    Come on it's being published by EA, you'll see it on the Wii and the Xbox 360, after the PS3 1 week exclusivity.

  • Poorandugly #17 5 years ago

    I demand more controversy in interviews!

    EG: Will there be a hot coffee mod in mercenaries 2?
    Dev: We're working our asses off for it, believe me...

  • penhalion #18 5 years ago

    This is EA and let's face it (I've worked there and seen their thought processes first hand) they don't do single platform. Minmum of two is the EA rule. Timed exclusives...well that's another story.

    Edit: Oh and I call bollocks on the ground up engine thing.
    Edited by 1 at 06/02/07 @ 09:06

  • spongebob #19 5 years ago

    penhalion is just not man enough to admit that some devs can do a lot more than others :)

  • Kon #20 5 years ago

    "Worst interview EVAR!"

    I second that.

  • mike_mgoblue #21 5 years ago

    Mercenaries 2 will appear on the Xbox 360; you can bet on that.

    Let's not forget that Fight Night Round 3 was announced as an exclusive Playstation 3 game...and it ended up on the Xbox 360 FIRST!!!

    Let's not forget that Virtua Fighter 5 was announced as an exclusive Playstation 3 game, but it has now been announced for the Xbox 360, as well.

    Let's not forget that Unreal Tournament 2007 was originally announced only for PC and Playstation 3, but we now know that the Xbox 360 and PC versions will be released first using the name Unreal Tournament 3!

    Let's not forget that Assassins Creed was originally announced for the Playstation 3, but we now know that it will also be released for the Xbox 360, and the developers at Ubisoft have publicly stated that the Xbox 360 version will be superior, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence, because the Xbox 360 uses a tri-core CPU design that allows them to devote an entire CPU to artificial intelligence, while the PS3 only has one CPU to work with, and its outdated parallel processing design makes communication with the subprocessors very difficult.

    Do you see my point?

    It's also worth remembering that the first Mercenaries game appeared on the original Xbox.

    That is also a pretty good indicator that this Mercenaries 2 game will also arrive on the Xbox 360, likely with online play not found in the Playstation 3 version...similar to the way that games like Virtua Tennis 3 and Tony Hawk Project 8 do not have online play for the Playstation 3, but they do on the Xbox 360.