Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

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Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Game general and emulation properties:
ESRB rating: T (Mild Language, Violence)
PEGI rating: 16+
Widescreen patch available
CPU intensive game
Languages supported:
English: SLES-52588 & SLUS-20932 & SLUS-29137 & SLUS-20932GH
Japanese: SLPM-66465 & SLPM-65942
German: SLES-52590
French: SLES-52589
Spanish: SLES-53008
Italian: SLES-53008
Region NTSC-U:
Serial numbers: SLUS-20932
SLUS-29137 (Demo)
SLUS-20932GH (Greatest Hits)
Release date: January 10, 2005
Windows Status: Playable
Linux Status: ?
Mac Status: Playable
Region PAL:
Serial numbers: SLES-52588
SLES-52590
SLES-53008
SLES-52589
SLED-52979 (Demo)
Release date: February 18, 2005
2006 (Australia)
CRCs: 85931FDF
Windows Status: Playable
Linux Status: Playable
Mac Status: ?
Region NTSC-J/C/K:
Serial numbers: SLPM-65942
SLPM-66465 (EA Best Hits)
Release date: April 28, 2005
June 29, 2006 (EA Best Hits)
Windows Status: ?
Linux Status: ?
Mac Status: ?

Developer(s): Pandemic Studios
Publisher(s): LucasArts (US, EU, AU), Electronic Arts (JP)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Wikipedia: Link
Game review links: IGN9.1/10, Metacritic84/100
Game description: Inspired by real-world events, Mercenaries begins the search for the leader of a North Korean military coup who threatens the world with nuclear war. As one of the top operatives for a private mercenaries company, you have been called in to execute the general and his top military and scientific advisors. Hunt down all 52 targets--depicted on a deck of playing cards--with a variety of military weapons and vehicles. Earn cash from different missions to buy better weapons and vehicles, or sell your vehicles and weapons on the black market.
A "sandbox" war action game with open-ended gameplay in a gigantic world. Set against the outbreak of warfare spurred on a Korean dictator coup, players have free reign of a massive landscape to take bounties on the "Deck of 52" evil warlords and minions as you work towards taking down the general who started the onslaught.


Test configurations on Windows:


Environment Configurations Comments Tester
Region OS CPU/GPU Revision Graphics Sound/Pad
PAL ?
  • Core i5 2500k @ stock settings
  • MSI GTX 470 Hawk @ 758 core.
r4600 GSDX r4643 0.1.16 SSE4.1
  • SPU2-X r4600m 1.4.0
  • LilyPad r4510 0.10.0
BIOS: Europe v2.00, Goes ingame with GSDX11 HW mode, but has very bad visual glitches with the bloom effects and severe slowdowns. Runs fine in GSDX11 Software mode with 4 threads and aa1 enabled. Speedhacks used: INTC Spin detection, Wait Loop Detection, Fast CDVD, mVU flag hack, VU Cycle Stealing:1., Very demanding graphically, Relatively CPU heavy 178.167.246.121
NTSC-U Windows
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 Ghz
  • Nvidia GTX 260 896MB
1.1.0 r5754 GSdx r5752 SSSE3
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0 r5733
  • LilyPad 0.11.0 r5403
Game works alright (a bit slow) in Gsdx Software mode., Menus are absent in Gsdx HW mode. Also once ingame HW mode seems to be suffering from massive memory leak and almost hangs my pc. Use Gsdx software mode as most of the textures are missing with HW mode anyway.
NTSC-U Windows
  • I5 3570k
  • R9 290
1.5.gefc1274b2 GSdx SSE 4.1
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
  • ?
• Requires a cheat to remove banding issue without resorting to skipdraw: "23510F99.pnach / gametitle=<<your gametitle>> / patch=1,EE,204F318C,extended,00000000" (don't forget to enable cheats) (credits to Souzooka).

• OpenGL gave the best results after some tweaks. • Use Auto Flush to fix car light bug. • Audio Synchronization: either Timesync or nothing, to prevent skipping audio lines. • Turn widescreen patches off for proper proportions. • MTVU gives fps boost without side effects. • Mipmapping should be off (forgot reason). • Blending Unit Accuracy on High (forgot reason). • Couldn't get 60FPS cheat to work, shows 60FPS but runs at 30FPS.

Tobie-08
NTSC-U Windows
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 Ghz
  • Nvidia GTX 260 896MB
1.1.0 r5754 GSdx r5752 SSSE3
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0 r5733
  • LilyPad 0.11.0 r5403
Game works alright (a bit slow) in Gsdx Software mode., Menus are absent in Gsdx HW mode. Also once ingame HW mode seems to be suffering from massive memory leak and almost hangs my pc. Use Gsdx software mode as most of the textures are missing with HW mode anyway.
NTSC-U Windows 7 x64
  • i5 4670k@4Ghz
  • GTX 1060 6g
1.5.0-dev-3025 GSdx AVX2
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
Works with only what i did set up in settings. Maybe it was added in fixes etc for this game in this release. I think with better gpus higher resolution is doable. Everx7
NTSC-U Windows 7 x64
  • AMD FX-6300 6-Core
  • Sapphire Vapor-X R9 270X OC
v1.5.0-dev-3389 GSdx SSE4
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
Finally able to run the game without having to use OpenGL using the 1.5.0 dev. The apparent memory leaks when using HW mode to have been fixed. This is good news for AMD users as their drivers do not play well with OpenGL. The game plays and looks great, except for the odd slowdown or momentary freeze. AndrewWithTheBeard
NTSC-U Windows 1909
  • IRyzen 3600X CPU @ 3.6GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
1.5.0 dev build 3400 GSdx 1.1.0 AVX2
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
  • OnePAD 0 2.0.0
Game runes well. 60FPS with minimal slowdown.
  • Other similar issues as noted by above tester.
Lord Xeb


Test configurations on Linux:

Environment Configurations Comments Tester
Region OS CPU/GPU Revision Graphics Sound/Pad
PAL Solus, kernel 5.2.2
  • Intel Core i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2 GB
1.5.0 (0814690) GSdx 1.1.0 AVX2
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
  • OnePAD 0 2.0.0
Playable full speed with the specified settings (unspecified settings at default value).

• There are occasional momentary slowdowns when looking around while on foot. • There are sound/speed issues during FMVs. • The button icon does not always appear next to the text in prompts. • The sky is darker than in Software mode.

Ratchet66



Test configurations on Macintosh:

Environment Configurations Comments Tester
Region OS CPU/GPU Revision Graphics Sound/Pad
NTSC Monterey 12.2.1
  • Intel i7-9750H
  • AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Nightly build 3-21-2022 Metal Renderer (Hardware) N/A MTVU enabled, fast CDVD enabled, EE Cyclerate set to 1. Near as makes no difference 100% speed with constant 30fps (cyclerate necessary for FPS, otherwise the game's internal frame rate will drop, but still perfectly playable like that). The only visual glitch I've found is that sometimes button prompts don't show up properly. DigitalMajestic

Trivia

  • Original names: マーセナリーズ (SLPM-65942) & (SLPM-66465)
  • Also known as Mercenaries

Known Issues

Lights Always Visible Through Vehicles

  • Status: Active
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: Vehicle headlights are always visible through the vehicle itself.
  • Workaround: Go to Config > Video(GS) > Plugin Settings. If using Software Mode, enable "Auto Flush". If using Hardware Mode, enable "Enable HW Hacks", click "Advanced Settings & Hacks", and enable "Auto Flush". You have to have both Auto Flush and Native resolution enabled for this to work. One or the other on its own won't fix anything. Tested on 1.5 dev 3242.

The gallery

Public compatibility forum links