Mercenaries (Xbox, 2005)

Mercenaries is perhaps the most missed game in XBox history. This free-roam third person shooter is one of the deepest of it's genre, and just plain fun to play every time I pop it in.

Set in a (so far) fictitious military standoff in a DMZ between North and South Korea, you take the role of one of three mercenaries...airdropped into the DMZ to make as much money and raise as much dust as you can. In this area you will find and partner with several factions like UN Command, Russian Mafia, Chinese, among others. They form the basis of most missions, and anyone who has played the GTA series will be familiar with mission launch points as a start to the storyline. Peppered among those are challenges, triggered by entering certain vehicles or talking to personnel.

Weapons are very detailed and varied, no pistols but everything over and above. Anti-air, -tank, assorted rifles, snipers, and RPGs are among the offerings. But the coolest thing may be the PDA you carry...it allows you to check emails, maps, get target updates, and order supplies AND weapon strikes. You're never really alone, as long as your account has enough for a Cruise missile or laser guided precision bomb strike. Or some well-placed C4 can brighten your day. You can blow up pretty much everything, including hi-rise buildings and monuments. Too fun!

Vehicles are deep, too, and you can commandeer anything you come across - provided you don't blow it up trying to jack it! Various tanks, APCs, helicopters, and road vehicles scattered around can be had.

Some small gripes are there's no way to go prone and shoot, your Mercenary can't swim (duh!), and it features no shoot-from-cover...but otherwise, this game is solid and deep with great unlockables and growth of character. Definitel pick this one up, whether you fancy freeroam driver/shooters or any type of combat game.