So are you only playing on a PC?

There's definitely some advantages here - even with the absolutely crappy underbrush that you could never get through in the first game - you can burn it now (although up close the textures look just as bad as the first one).

Being able to drive through pretty much every tree is also very handy.

The health respawning helps a LOT, but I still died like crazy playing through - more frustrating trying to get all the way back from base for some of the far-off HVTs - but at least none of the buildings respawn once they've been destroyed.

I had a disappearing helicopter as well but at least I wasn't riding in it at the time.

Another big plus here (compared to GTA4) is that when you have to restart a "contract" after failing or dying, you have the same amount of $$$, air strikes, supplies, etc in your inventory as when you initially took the contract - as long as you haven't canceled the contract. That was a major hassle in GTA4 - miss one little thing, blow up the wrong guy - bam, gotta drive 1/2 way across the island to buy some more body armor or ammo.

Finished it with Nillson, but didn't get 100% on anything or capture all the HVTs (killed most of them) - next time I'll try and complete all the races - as well as finishing the game for the Chinese instead of the allies.

edit - and once you get the thermobaric RPG (fuel-air), there's no going back. It's awesome being able to take out a barracks with a single shot without having to get close enough to chuck some C4 at them - especially with 5 guys all firing RPGs at you at the same time.

I think the game looks pretty decent most of the time, but the pop-in is insane. I have motorcycles appear suddenly a mere few feet in front of my speeding car and I'll get dinged for killing the rider.

As I often tell my insurance adjuster -- that guy just came out of nowhere!

I got this last weekend for the 360, I'm about 25% of the way through based on the Save menu.

Negatives:
Pop-in is definitely noticeable.
Voice acting is pretty bad and repetitive.
Some of the enemies seem unfair (come on, apparently unlimited guys in a bunker shooting RPGs at me, and I can't destroy the bunker?)
No offline co-op.

Positives:
So far there's not a hugely diverse set of missions, but between Blow Up Building, Find Target, and Siege, it's enough to keep it interesting, and if I get stuck, I can try something else. It's linear in that there's a progression, but getting stuck at one point doesn't end the game.
Your character (at least mine, Nilsson) automatically heals when not taking damage.

Biggest positive: It's just fun. Driving around, shooting bad guys, and best of all, making big things go big boom. Sometimes I like a long, indepth, strategic, storyfilled game like some RPGs; and sometimes I just want to destroy stuff. Mercs2 lets me, much more so than GTA4 did for me.
I did kinda like the "deck of 52" thing from Mercs, but the progression of 2 with the checklists is just as good.

I'm enjoying it so far.

I definitely remember unlimited bad guys with RPG's in bunkers, but every time I encountered them the bunkers were most certainly destructable. Some just took more C4/RPGs to destroy than others.

Of course immediately after posting that, I played and got the hint loading screen "If the alarm goes off and there's a bunker with grenadiers the only way to defeat them is to destroy the bunker."
I swear I tried that in one mission (one of the seize-outposts) and it said I failed because I had to leave the area intact. I'll try again, blowing those SOBs up, they're frustrating me on this one mission.

I finally got around to playing the demo. I thought it was really fun. I didn't know what I was doing at times, but I sitll completed the missions (I didn't really follow any instructions). I will eventually pick this up, but I have a stockpile of games to play as it is.

Once you get the Chinese Fuel Air RPG, the rocket buildings are way easier to deal with.

I am indeed playing it on a PC. The game has great graphics and i can understand why it might be running like crap on some peoples computers. This takes a bit of power in order to fully appreciate. I just managed to complete the main segment of the game and the last 2 missions were pretty damn hard. I still need to getting round to killing/capturing a lot of the wanted bounties, demolishing the buildings and doing the races. Also getting the parts boxes is on the list of "to do's" so a lot more game time ahead. But i am having a blast. By the way, i notice the mushroom cloud still hanging over the Chinese base.....does this disappear over time? I get the feeling its there for good now.

I did encounter a pretty funny bug the other day. Going across a bridge i noticed a sizeable ship that was on its side and rotating 360 degrees. I am actually enjoying some of the bugs as it is giving me a laugh.

I've started blowing up the rocket bunkers, either with C4 or RPGs. That does help. I think the first time I did it, I accidentally blew up, or caused to blow up, another building in the complex, that needed to stay whole, so I failed the mission.
There's definitely lots of bugs, I almost got stuck behind a bush the other night. The last two missions may be harder, but so far I'm pretty satisfied with the challenge level. It hasn't gotten too frustrating yet (except for the third drive-test-car bonus mission, which is ****ing me off.)
I just saw there's an update coming midOctober for the console versions; some cheats, more playable characters, cross-region co-op (still wish there was offline co-op.)
Which is the better weapon, assault rifle or automatic rifle?

I like the auto rifle, but the assault seems to be used more by the enemy.

Automatic rifle has more ammo, more damage, but less accurate. You're better off with the carbine for the early part of the game though (more accuracy even if less overall damage means you can take 'em down quicker - at least with the head shots) - till you can get the advanced rifle (XM8 equivalent) or the Light Machine Gun (M249).

One thing here, unlike the first game, you can totally destroy all the brush, even the low-res crappy stuff - "Everything Burns!" Of course, a single grenade won't always set it off, but a burning vehicle might ;p Better than getting stuck in the first game and not being able to do anything -- so glad swimming is in this time around too.

Pandemic has a rather presidential patch coming soon...

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That's hilarious. Will that actually be released? If so, can we have another skin that turns a PLAV soldier into a moose?

If it's not real, it's a well done fake.

Will Mercs 2 ever get trophies for the PS3?

It looks fake, but yeah it is cool.

Um, why would you think this is fake?

Here's the statement from Pandemic, the Mercs2 developers:

These should be available to download in a week or two.

It just looked fake in some of the pictures.

I traded Mercenaries 2 in awhile ago. It was a really fun game, but there are just too many better games out there.

There's a free add-on pack in the Playstation Store now. New game modes, missions and playable characters, iirc. Nothing for us 360 owners yet -- hope it's coming soon.

Anyone still playing this game? I picked it up a few weeks ago from Best Buy for $10 ... I'm having a blast just mindlessly blowing everything up! I want to pick up some of the co-op achievements ... I have the day off tomorrow if anyone is up for it ... let me know

Looks like nobody plays this game anymore ...

I will be playing it later. Got it for $10 (PS3) but have such a huge backlog itll be a bit.

The demo was alright and I love blowing shit up. Taking down a building sold me.

Was there ever additional DLC aside from the 4 vehicle-based missions? At least for 360.

Same, except for Xbox. I liked the first one.