In our culture we have a profound, and often mysterious, attraction for those who like to break the rules. The movies, books, and games that feature such ne'er do wells as pirates, gangsters, hit men and the like seem to back this claim up. Game design firm Pandemic Studios has taken note of this attraction for the independent souls who fight for themselves and not much else with their 2005 release of Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction where players could choose from one of three different mercenary characters from the private, not to mention fictional, military company ExOps. Apart from the initial objective, which is to collect bounties on 52 different NPCs for a specific monetary value, players could interact with several other factions such as North Korea, South Korea, China, and the Russian Mafia.

For those of you who haven't seen quite enough of that sort of play yet Pandemic is again coming to your aid with it's second installment in the Mercenary series titled Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

You can already tell this will be an exciting ride, can't you?

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 somewhere in the third quarter of this year. The geographical location for the game is set in the country of Venezuela where your mercenary while have to take down the forces of the country's as yet unnamed dictator who is doing something very bad with the country's oil supply that leads to military intervention. For a profit that includes you. The game will still feature it's unrestrained aspect from the previous game; if it flies, drives, or in this latest version travels across water you can drive it or buy it. If you've got the cash your suppliers have the goods or you can simply invoke your right to swipe it for yourself.

You can go anywhere and work for everyone, but what you do will influence how others think of you. If you do a job that annoys one faction it could mean the difference between them opening up their wallets for you or opening up their guns at you. Luckily you'll have guns too and plenty of them to fight back with; we're not sure what they are yet, but we're informed they'll number in the dozens so you'll have plenty of firepower to spread around on land, sea, and in the air. When things get really sticky, of course, you can always call for help but this too might come with a price tag. In this game the saying reads there's no such thing as a free launch.

There are also some new features to the the game, besides the amazing graphics it'll feature due to the PS3's power in that regard, but for one thing you will no longer drown the minute you hit water. It took a while, but the characters finally learned to swim. There is a co op mode available so that you can pla with your friends along with the ability to set fire to anything that is flammable which is more or less everything. One example is that you can knock a hole in a fuel truck, watch it puddle underneath what you're trying to blow up, and then toss a match on the spill and it's burn, baby, burn. Another new item is the grappling hook which, when thrown onto a helicopter, can be used to climb up into the chopper and take it over. Pretty neat, huh?

In this game you're the boss and, as a result, you can decide to employ new mercenaries that you encounter in the game as you go along. The more talent you have on hand, the more you can do, so keep your eyes open. Sadly, though, that's all the info we at MyGamer have, but keep coming back for more info as we get it.

Nick McCavitt at nmccavitt@forumwizard.net