Electronic Arts announced today that it is closing Pandemic Studios, developers of such co-op titles like Mercenaries 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest.  With the closure comes around 200 layoffs as well as Pandemic founders Josh Resnick, Andrew Goldman, and Greg Borrud leaving the company.  The studio's last game will be The Saboteur, releasing in December.

All of this is being done under a cost cutting and streamlining measure by Electronic Arts, one in which their workforce will be reduced by some 1500 employees by April, 2010.  Pandemic was acquired from VG Holdings group as part of the Bioware acquisition in 2008.

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Bring it!
 

Some games just seem to be made for messing around. Storyline and missions will be cast aside from time to time, since everyone wants to throw a truck at someone some days. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a game perfect for such a day. Sure, the story is plenty amusing. After all, you'll be shot in the gluteus maximus before long. It's just nice to cast all those "mission" responsibilities aside now and then. Especially when some silly person hands you a rocket launcher without the "play nice" disclaimer.

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Pandemic has announced a brand new content pack for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames called the "Blow it up Again" pack.  The new pack is FREE and is now available on the PlayStation Network for download, with the Xbox 360 version coming out Tuesday, December 16th.  But it will only be free until the end of the year, so make sure you snag it ASAP!

The DLC pack comes with a collection of new game play modes including Urban Rampage, Death Race, Arms Race and Mercs Blitz, as well as some patriotic characters to choose from.  The new vehicles look VERY co-op friendly. 

There's a trailer up over at the official website.  You can view it right here.  And don't forget to check out our official review.
 

Source: Link

An impossible duo are going to save the world in Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.  Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is going to be featured as downloadable content.  But what about running mate Joe Biden?  No dice.  What about his opponent John McCain?  Too old.  But McCain's milftastic potential VP, Sarah Palin, well she'll fit into the war torn world of Venezuela just fine.  

Both characters will be available soon for the game, though there's no word on whether this is premium or free content.  Personally, I hope I can make them a co-op couple.

We also hope we'll see more political figures in Mercenaries, perhaps Mercenaries 3?  According to Kotaku, the folks at EA already have a sequel in the works, and you'll have the entire Senate to choose from as your cast of characters.  Ok, we made that last part up.  But what we aren't making up is the fact that EA wants to have a Mercenaries 10.  No official word is 4 through 9 are required though.

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Good news Trophy whores!  And I mean that in the nicest possible sense.  Pandemic Studios has released a patch for the PlayStation 3 version of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames adding full trophy support!

There are 40 total trophies available (posted after the break) including some co-op specific ones!  In fact, just for TRYING co-op you get a trophy.  

The only bad news is the trophies aren't retroactive, so if you've already completed the game you are going to need to run through it again.  Still unsure about Mercs 2?  Perhaps you should check out our co-op review!  Just watch out for flying trophies.

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Mercenaries 2 has been covered many here at Co-Optimus. Having played a bit of the game, it seems like a decent mercenary simulator. Well, for those of you clamoring for an update for Mercs 2, your prayers are being answered. According to Shacknews, an update for the game will be coming out on October 13th for the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. The update will add cheat codes to the game (essential for a game like Mercenaries 2) and several new playable characters.

On the co-op front, the update is supposed to loosen restrictions for playing with buddies from other regions. So, sounds like everyone's getting a bit of what they want.

It's no secret that we really like Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.  We've been playing the co-op mode, enjoying blowing things up like it's going out of style.  Dropping a bunker buster on a building (or a teammate) never gets old.  And despite the fact that there's still tons of game to play, the folks at Pandemic have put together a "stunts" video that shows off some other things you can attempt in the game.  A lot of the really cool stunts they show off require co-op play to complete (like above) - and I gotta say, I'm pretty pumped now after watching the video.

Want to act like a daredevil?  Hit the jump for some ideas.

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The folks at Pandemic Studios are back with their sequel to the hit PS2 and Xbox game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.  We take a look at the new title on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and give you the goods on the aftermath.  Are you ready to blow stuff up with your friends?  We think this game might be for you.

Pandemic Studios has announced that from September 5th to September 12th you will be able to collect on the 50 point "Everybody Wants Some" achievement by playing with a Pandemic developer.  Here is some of the info below with more after the break:

Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will provide the arena, as the developers battle it out with Xbox LIVE® members. Pandemic will be on hand from September 5 through September 12, giving you a chance to be one of the first to get the 50-point "Everybody Wants Some!!" achievement!

More after the break...

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We've got a double co-op feature this week.  First up is Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for the Xbox 360.  The title features a recently announced 4 player co-op mode for both online and offline play.  The game is similar to the Animal Crossing series from Nintendo, but has some zany humor and plenty of gardening goodness with pinatas to pop and populate.

Next up is Mercenaries 2: World in Flames which is available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PC.  The game features 2 player co-op for online play including drop in and drop out support.  The game is an open world playground of destruction where you'll complete missions in a war zone as a mercenary.  I've been playing a good bit of this and it's a total blast, the co-op has a solid Crackdown vibe to it.

Both games should hit store shelves tomorrow, September 3rd.