Mercenaries 2

[retiredgord]

Well I have to say first off the first Mercenaries was on the regular xbox.  I still have the old one and still enjoy playing the game (5 times now).
I was pleased with the new game and enjoyed my first time through.  The tanks and choppers are harder to hijack but it's still grat to finally be able to do so. I recommend Mercenaries as it has a great random wandering play area like FC2.  You have missons and can collect/buy weapons.
I enjoy it and hope other will also.

[PZ]

I recall seeing the box and it seemed like an interesting game - thanks for the recommendation!

[spaceboy]

Thanks, I'll check it out.  Hey if you are on PS3, let me know if you ever play any multiplayer games.  My two online games I play are Killzone 2 and Battlefield Bad Company.

[retiredgord]

I think I mentioned this game before in one of my posts, but I still regard it as a favourite. (tho not quite as good as FC2). The game is going down in price but I'm sure that if you to rent for a week (to get into the game you need several hours) some members might enjoy it. Your character gets to pick up loose money, vehicles and spare parts for vehicles and later get collegues to help in his/her missions. You're up against a Venezuelen dictator. You do missions for other factions for money/weapons can buy weapons, order air strikes, steal helos, tanks jeeps, bikes, all kinds of stuff. The game movement is only restricted to actual human  movemnet, cliffs to sttep to claimb etc.  It has agreat range of weapons to try.

[Ricamundo]

2 questions Gord. Is it a PC game, and is it First person?

[retiredgord]

Ricamundo I believe I've seen it for all..PS3, PC and 360. I was in the game stores today and they semed to have all 3 formats. The price is going down as mentioned. Some people will play it once then trade, but I being a rather cheap old goat like to keep and play the games a few times to get a real feel  for them. Yes FP single.  I'm not sure about MP ad I don't do mult-deaths well.

[Ricamundo]

THX Gord. MP isnt an interest for me wth shooters, but they HAVE to be First person, and preferably, not team based. I hate being responsible for other team members. I'm a lone wolf in cheap clothing, you might say. ;)

[JRD]

Ricamundo is an one-man army ;)
When I play team based games I always feel the burden of having my man killed... eventually I learned to live and let die ;)

[PZ]

THX Gord. MP isnt an interest for me wth shooters, but they HAVE to be First person, and preferably, not team based. I hate being responsible for other team members. I'm a lone wolf in cheap clothing, you might say. ;)

I like that phrase.... "wolf in cheap clothing..."

[Art Blade]

hehehe, funny expression :) I bloody hate team based multiplayer games. On the other hand, in SP, those team mates are usually not so bad. I'm just thinking of FallOut3 here. I don't mind them if "we" are a very small group. But I don't like it if my fellow comrades find the only door in a room and gather just around the door frame, blocking me off... if you can't move them lol

[Fiach]

What a site!  8)

I was going to make a thread about mercs 2, see if anyone here had played it  :)

Anyway, to make a long story longer, I'm going to get this and Turok today as they are having a may day madness sale here, so will be only €20 for them both!

My main question is about Mercs 2 (I have played the first Merc's on XBOX, so I know what the gameplay is like), is the environment as immersive as in Far Cry 2?

Thanks :)

[Ricamundo]

THX Gord. MP isnt an interest for me wth shooters, but they HAVE to be First person, and preferably, not team based. I hate being responsible for other team members. I'm a lone wolf in cheap clothing, you might say. ;)

I like that phrase.... "wolf in cheap clothing..."

That's actually a quote from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. ;) I'm a huge BB fan. 8)

[retiredgord]

Fiach..I think once you're into the game you will find it an immense and involved game.  I thorughly enjoyed both and still will play it again when finished second  time thru FC2.  It's a SP game but you have lots of interaction with other characters, and you get to blow lotsa stuff up. You collect money ,recruit help and use all kinds of stuff and weapons.

[Fiach]

Cool thanks, got them earlier, got a look at Turok, seems pretty cool, set on a prehistoric planet, lots of lush vegetation and bullets. I got it primarily for the bow action, but the knife in the game seems to have more "worth/use" than in other FPS games, will have a looksee at Mercs later on.

Thanks again :)

[retiredgord]

Well that was fun. I just hijacked an North Korean T62 tank and went on an urban renewal programme at some  fortified positions. Earned myself about 100 grand . Now at a total for game of 13 million. I'm down to my last card in the deck. The ACE of Spades (worth 100 mill alive, 50 dead). That evil young upstart North Korean that wrestled power from his father who wanted to embrace Democracy. Now the cad has nuke missles reeady to launch. My mission is to get to his heavily fortified fort (on my own) with little help. Once there blow up his jamming vehicles and try to stop the launch and then capture or kill him.  Sounds like alot of shooting ,blasting blowing up things...kinda like FC2. One run I had 5 enemy tanks, 2 APC, 2 helos and a whole lotta fun using them for my ends. I may try and take a pic or two  (with a different camera Art lol so the dates are correct) once in a little ways. May take 5 or more tries. It usually does. Wish me well guys.

[Fiach]

Urban Renewal..... LOL  :-X

[Art Blade]

hahaha, yeah, cool way to put it :)) And hell, Gord, you know me well! :))

[PZ]

Well wishing from my end Gord - keep us posted with your adventures  :-X

[retiredgord]

Just put two pics into the gallery. the first is of my 'Borrowed" NK jeeps and the second is when I "pimped" them with C-4

[JRD]

When I saw them at the main page I thought they were vids, retiredgord... can you come up with some footage of your playthrough? Just curious actually... but would be cool!  ;D

[retiredgord]

As an update I'm gonna write a little bit about the final card, the Ace of Spades. He's a dictator with nukes and is worth 100 Mill alive, 50 dead.  I'm sitting with an acc't of 14 Mill thus far. The final act takes place on an island with a road up between high ground, too high to climb up. The road is heavily protected by tanks, 10 in the first stretch and 3 Mig gunships. Those can be downed with shells from the M1 tank I drive. There are two other M1's but those guys are lousy drivers and get themselves killed a lot. The stretch beginning is thru a village where all this takes place and you need to take out 4 gun emplacements and 2 SAMs as well as the ground troops. It will get even better.
    After getting thru that mess I need to level an area behind a gate that opens to NK vehicles only, so I gotta sucker them into opening to come out or blow it up. Now I need to take out multiple ground troops with RPG's, 4-6 tanks, the tanks storage bldgs and  any enemy jeeps. Then it's time to progress ( usually on foot to snipe some bad guys at the 'top of the first hill. Around that corner, after sniping the MG emplacement  it's time to snipe the tower guards with RPGs so they don't blow up your tank(s). You can hijack any vehicle by killing the gunner and then killing the driver. That fun gets you in control.
Ther are about 4 APC that come out of the bunker here as well as some tanks, if you want to hijack them that can be fun. After getting down the stretch past the guard posts it's wise to blow up the bunker where the tanks respawn to slow them down. Some always get out later so you can hijack them and build up an inventory.
     Getting by this spot gets you to a prison where you take out the guards. When you enter you have a cut scene telling you this is the dictator's father who has been tortured to give up the codes. Now your job is to find the guy and kill or capture. Now you have some reinforcements but they only shoot at any NK stuff that enters their side of the gate. Outside is a very narrow pass that leads to an outpost that has about three small scout helos, one of which you'll need to get to finish the whole shebang. This pass is a funnel for a seemingly endless batches of tanks, I counted about 7 at a time and about 3-4 batches. Asurgical strike from the high ground to the right of the pass is a good spot. Also patrolling helos interupt your doings. To get a helo I have to get up this pass and get to a helo pad, fly it under all kinds of fire to get it back by the prison. I'm on the 10th or so try. I've done it 4 times in the past but I wanna get this finished sooner. There is a high ground outside of the gate that you can snipe and call in surgical strikes to eliminate some of the competition but you gotta watch for the gunships. Your load-out here is gotta be thought out well. Now you blow up stuff and people until you think you can get to a helo.
   Anyway, I digress a bit. After I get this helo I can carefully fly up the steep side by the prison to high ground and then hike up to the top to take out some SAMs. You take out some guards outside of the prison. I've started to go back down and bring up with the  helo's winch and maybe any crates of weapons or supplies I might need. Accessing the fort from the road past the helo area is about as long and more guarded than what I went thru to this point. So now I'm at the top and I walk around the base of the fort to get to and take out a SAM on the farside.
     This is near the end and very tricky. There are 2 SAMs INSIDE the walls that can be taken out with an anti-tank weapon that holds 3 rounds. After that I will need to get the helo and fly it into the compound. When crossing the wall I'm spotted and have to drop to the ground to enter the abort codes the old guy gave to me. If this is done and I'm still alive I gotta fly the helo to the front to intercept the dictator who will try to escape. The mission fails if he escapes in a gunship. This final few moments are where you really can mess up. Past successes have been due to shooting down that gunship afore he turns me into ground merc.
   If the gunship is destroyed and I can kill the guards around the dictator and throw a stun 'nade then he can be captured alive. If not and things are starting to go south, I kill him and take the lower pay.
       Aside from FC2 this final act and the looong process to get to the end has been my most fun AND YOU CAN'T SAVE ON ANY OF THE MISSIONS. They have tofinish or you hae to retry if you fail or get injured and returned to a MASH. Although I don't usually have a cheat  I found one the devs have put into the game.  It's a NK special weapons selection that's great for finishing fast. The kit has a pistol-like  weapon that 's called "The Street Sweeper" and carries 1k rounds, yess 1000. Another is  a portable artillery weapon that shoot small shells and is about like a small 'nade launcher with 900 rounds. BUT THE BEST is an Anti-air weapon that has 900 rounds and carries a spare of the same. This bad baby locks unto anything and fires a round that homes in on the target exploding like a small fuel air round. Quite a concussive field if I'm too close. But the thing packs a punch. I started to use it after the 8 th try so I can get on to another round on the PS3. You have to pay 800k for this puppy but it will shorten the game getting to the fort.
     Now I get the helo by clearing most of the helo area and then going up to the top and recuperating some of my losses by sniping tanks, planes artillery, whatever happens in my sight. I back off and use a anti-tank on the SAMs inside the fort as two rounds from the bad-a$$ whooper will blow up the 'puter I need to enter the abort codes. I found that out the hard way and had to watch the missiles  launch and then took too many rounds trying to get out of the fort. I died, the 6th time.
     Well I hope I didn't bore anyone with this update but I thought I'd put in some words to show I'm still around. I was asked if I could do some video but this is thru an old Xbox and the tv screen is older and shows some of the lines as curves making the pic very hard to see. I will finish, I think soon but who knows.  Haha.  This is the video game world, right.?

[PZ]

Interesting read as usual Gord - do you mean to say that you are almost through with the game?  i.e., what is the replay value?

[Art Blade]

intense, Gord :) :-X And whoa, no save games during a mission! Yuck!

Please tell me what NK stands for, Nude Killers? And what exactly is a helo? A Helicopter? And APC, Aggressive Pumpkin Clobber? :)

[retiredgord]

Yah Art, not even one during the last and it's WAAAAY long to do. It sometimes is about an hour of pretty intense play. My recomendations would've to be able to have one save, your choice. Mercenaries 2 doesn't seem to have a save on the last either, but they improved the caharacter by giving him a grapple unit for winching up to a helo, something like Batman's. The sequence of hijacking is the various shpes, circle square etc. on PS3 and in a particular order. If not done right you fail and drop or fall off a vehicle.  That's pretty cool as it gives the gamer  a better sense of the controller. Oh well, that's a mercs life.  Hahaha to the definitions Art, but to those new persons who don't know Art and his humour NK stands for North Korean, helo is a helicopter and APC is Armored Personnel Carrier (it has a small cannon so it comes in handy when there are no tanks to "borrow").
    I've enjoyed both games and in most parts they are pretty openworld as you are only held back by the physical nature as in too steep of hills to climb or terrrain to hard for vehicles. This last time is the first I've tried that cheat weapons box.  I like it and tends to help shorten the game. Last night I got up to the fort, aborted the missiles flew the helo to the front of the fort but dumbly tried to take on all the bad guys without first blowing the gunship into scrap. Needless to say my language was very bad when the gunners in that gunship wore me down till I was laid to rest. When the prompt for Retry came up I sadly had to say no and quit for the evening. The last board can be addictive and I had to get up REAL EARLY to take the missus to w@&k.
  I'll finish sometime soon but wish I had the means for a video like JRD wanted to see. I'd like to show off those new weapons as well as some of the first action before ordering the crate from the Russian mafia suppliers at the prison gate area and before that narrow pass.
  PZ as to the replay value I give it just a shade below FC2 as you have two other persons to choose from and start a new game with new attributions to the person
selected. I would go back and play Mercenaries again and again cuz everything comes up a bit different each play except the mission parameters and then play FC2 and then Mercs 2 and so on and so forth.  AS of this moment they are my top 3 games.

[retiredgord]

YESSSSSSS!!!! Just levelled most of the NK area outside the prison gates, got my , got my cheat pkg, cleaned house errr grounds and air, got my helo and went to top of cliff and had a shooting gallery at tanks, helos and anything that moved or didn't move in time. I then went back and traded the big bad airstrike for a LMG so I wouldn't blow myself up, took out the two SAMs behind the wall, flew over and entered the code to abort the missiles high up and then boogied by helo around to front to keep the bad boy from getting away. This time I remembered and took out the gunship first and then traded rounds with the dictator's (Song) bodyguard. Threw a concussion 'nade to slow him and then wrapped him up in those nice plastic ties. Healed up and called in the extraction helo and watched a beautiful sunrise. More beautiful was the 1oo mill i collected for anew personal best of 114 Mill.  Wooohooo.  Whewwww, now time to rest and start something else.