Best of E3 06: PlayStation 3

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Publisher: TBA
Developer: Pandemic
Release Date:TBA

Giving players the chance to freely shoot and steal (or capture and buy) their way through a war-torn country made the first Mercenaries one of the best Grand Theft Auto rip-offs to date. The sequel takes the action to Venezuela, where you'll be able to take on missions from oil companies and a whole bunch of rival guerilla factions.

The "destroy everything" attitude that shaped the first game is back in force, albeit a lot more realistically, with characters able to drive through tin huts, create (and set fire to) oil slicks or wreak environmental havoc by bringing down full-sized oil rigs. More interestingly, hijacking vehicles has apparently been turned into a minigame. Oh, and it's stunningly beautiful. Yeah, this one has us excited all right.

We give you abold view into the worldof Mercenaries 2here.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.