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LucasFilm characters unlockable in Mercenaries

But since we're nice we won't spoil the surprise for you here. Want to find them for yourself? Don't read this item...

Players of Pandemic Studios' forthcoming GTA-ish Mercenaries for PS2 and Xbox, which is due out in Europe on 18th February, will reportedly be able to unlock a couple of classic characters from the LucasFilm canon along the way.

Han Solo and Indiana Jones are both available in both versions. If you'd prefer to discover them for yourself, look away now... Right - for the rest of you, the idea is to find 20 "national treasures" - Mercenaries' equivalent of GTA's hidden packages - after which you'll unlock Solo on the Xbox and Jones on the PS2. As for vice versa, we've yet to find out how to do that, but we'd expect to learn before too long.

Obviously the connection here is the fact that LucasArts publishes the game (even though it has nothing to do with Star Wars or Indiana Jones or anything else, and further confusion arises when you recall that Activision does its distribution in Europe), but we're not too bothered either way. As bonuses go, piloting attack helicopters with Han Solo at the controls will take some beating.

As will the game judging by all the furore surrounding its US release. We'll be bringing you our own verdict in due course.