preparing to blow shit up, then blow it up some more

[chronovore]

My copy of Mercenaries 2 (360) arrived in the mail yesterday from Play-Asia.com.

The first game is the first game which took GTA's formula and did it better. While GTA just added more bells and whistles to its core gameplay with each sequel (until GTA IV), Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction took the challenge of allowing players to sculpt their own means of gameplay, either completing missions stealthily and with minimal body count, potentially without the victim even knowing who was responsible, or tackling them head-on in a blistering, booming, destruction without discretion manner where nothing but the trees are left standing. (A joke in itself for Mercenaries veterans)

After 2 hrs. of playing, I can confirm that the game is basically MORE OF THE SAME -- which in this case I wholly endorse. It's Mercs, plus some resource management, full game co-op play, and TREES YOU CAN DESTROY.

Bring that noise. I want some.

Comments

[captainblack.livejournal.com]

My fave thing in GTA is to jump up on cars and ride them around like skateboards.
Ok, well, blowing them up is fun too.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, oddly that ability is gone from GTA IV; the car slides out from under you and you fall off, taking damage. Substantially less fun beating on the top of a car to cause the surf-panic-wave to begin.

[captainblack.livejournal.com]

My, that is disappointing. Good thing I got the chance to play III.
Though I must say that the larger selection of vehicles makes IV worth it. I quite enjoyed driving the chopper around.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

If that's what floats your boat, take a shot at San Andreas. It has more vehicles than any other GTA title, and still allows car surfing.

There's no co-op, though.

[captainblack.livejournal.com]

What is the co-op?
Please understand that I have only played GTA for a total of maybe an hour. : ) One pal has III and another has IV.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

"Co-op" is not specific to GTA, but rather a mode of play where multiple players both cooperate (co-op) to complete the game's goals. Many games support competitive mulitiplayer, such as deathmatch and team-deathmatch, but a few support co-op, which can be difficult to balance; the game parameters must be flexible enough to deal with 2 or more players while not becoming too difficult for singleplayer, which is the most common mode of play.

Apparently the code for multiplayer has been in GTA since III, but never implemented. When the PC version has come out, the fan community has hacked and re-enabled it, creating some interesting modifications to boot. However, other than some local multiplayer games (think "LAN party" instead of across the internet) on the PSP, the multiplayer in GTA IV is the first the series has seen.

[captainblack.livejournal.com]

wow. That's cool. So you can basically have a Shadowrun campaign within GTA IV?

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Um... huh?

Your game character, an avatar, can exist in the same game world as another player's. Several other players, depending on the mode. There's no scifi stuff though.

[captainblack.livejournal.com]

My apologies. Broadly speaking, I was using "shadowrun" to mean "crime gone wrong comedy of errors"...

[sdemory.livejournal.com]

You lucky bastard.

KILL THEM ALL! BLOW SHIT UP! HOO-AH!

That is all.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

When you get yours, I can join your campaign at any point and proceed to kick mucho ass there as well. A guy from the Gamers LJ community actually joined my game while the opening movie was still rolling. I was surprised -- Who is this other Merc in my game?!