Pandemic pres confirms Mercenaries title News • News • Eurogamer.net

News Xbox

"Project Y" is actually an Xbox-exclusive third-person shooter.

Pandemic Studios president Josh Resnick has apparently confirmed reports that the developer's secret "Project Y" is an Xbox-exclusive third-person shooter called Mercenaries, set in the not too distant future, in which you get to pick sides during a four-way scramble for the remnants of a devastated North Korea. Resnick, who also founded the Full Spectrum Warrior and Star Wars: Battlefront developer, reportedly told GameSpot that current code "looks stunning".

A similar report from 1UP (based on a preview from the pages of US-based Xbox Nation magazine) offers slightly more detail, revealing that players will get to back any of the North Koreans, Chinese, UN or Russian organised crime forces picking over the tattered country. 1UP also says that Mercenaries owes more to Grand Theft Auto than Ghost Recon, with fully destructible environments and jackable vehicles including jeeps and choppers.

Although online play has not been confirmed, each mercenary squad will apparently consist of three characters, and Pandemic does have a history of dabbling in Xbox Live, having ported the almost-remarkable Star Wars: The Clone Wars to take advantage of Microsoft's most excellent online games service. Whether or not these things are any indication of what to expect is another matter, but the smart money does seem to be on Live options.

Finally, Resnick confirmed that Mercenaries would be published by LucasArts in the States this fall (so, autumn), implying that we'll be able to look forward to it getting on towards Christmas. We'd also be hugely surprised if the game didn't make an appearance at E3, although as yet publishers haven't really begun announcing their line-ups in concerted fashion.