Mercenaries 2 confirmed for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and PS2

news via pro-g

Pandemic has confirmed that Mercenaries 2 is coming to Xbox 360, PC and PS2 in addition to the previously revealed PS3 game.

Speaking with IGN, Pandemic senior producer Jonathan Zamkoff has revealed that, as had been expected, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is also coming to Xbox 360. More surprising is news that the PC and PS2 are getting a version of the game.

On the whole the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions will be pretty similar.

"So here's the scoop. We are shooting for true feature parity on the PS3, 360, and PC," said Zamkoff. "There will be small visual differences on those consoles due to platform specific texture compression algorithms and other platform-specific graphics implementation, but to the end-user the game experience will be nearly identical."

PS3, Xbox 360 and PC owners can look forward to online co-op play, but PS2 gamers will miss out on this feature. Zamkoff believes that the PS2 feature set is, however, "ambitious enough."

"For the PS2 we are taking a different tact. We're working extremely closely with Pi studios down in Houston, Texas. They're 100 percent focused on developing the PS2 game under Pandemic's direction," said Zamkoff. "They are using the Mercs 1 core engine and toolchain, coupled with modified Mercs 2 assets to create the Mercs 2 PS2 version. Due to memory and processor limitations we will not be able to have the exact graphical feature set (e.g., certain lighting models, etc.), but Pi has done an incredible job of having the PS2 game mirror its next-gen cousins as closely as possible."

Despite news that the game is now heading to multiple platforms, the previously announced PS3 game remains the lead SKU, although that doesn't mean the Xbox 360 version is to be treated like an unwelcome house guest.

"We started from scratch to program for the multiprocessors on both machines. They were both in mind when we were writing the text, so we didn't want to create a PS3 engine, which was and has been, and is, our lead SKU, but we didn't want to ignore the Xbox 360," explained Zamkoff. "Even though we're just now announcing the 360 version, we have been working on it for quite some time."

Mercenaries 2 is shaping up well and might well end up on your 'must have' list in the autumn.

screen via comment