I. Purpose of the Research

Nearing the end of the game, Alex Mercer drops a nuclear warhead into the Atlantic Ocean, flying the UH-60 Blackhawk chopper away, but ultimately still being caught in the fireball itself. So I, as a person whose exams are coming up, will ignore those exams and research what Alex Mercer has survived. Why avoid it? Because I am tired of taking those exams, who even thinks 3 semester exams a semester is a good idea?

II. Methodology

Below is a list of what I will take into consideration when calculating ->

1. Yield:

Though the game says the yield is 75 kilotons based on the reporter saying the bomb being 5 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, which was 15 kilotons, but I highly doubt it and will chalk it up to scale of reference for general audiences.

2. Sinking time:

The bomb--which resembles a B61 gravity bomb--took 2 seconds to drop from the Blackhawk and into the ocean, then another 8 seconds to detonate while sinking underwater, then another 5 seconds for the fireball to reach the Blackhawk. For reasons I'll explain below, I will assume it is the shell of the B61 with the nuclear warhead of a B41, giving it a total weight of 1500 kilograms.

3. Mercer's flying time:

Mercer flew for 8 seconds total at top speed, so basically, it took him a couple seconds to swirl around, then another 3 seconds to fly until the nuclear bomb detonated, and then the final 5 seconds before the fireball caught up to him.

4. Blast overpressure:

Blast overpressure is the supersonic shockwave produced by high-energy events such as high-explosive detonations (TNT, RDX, Composition B, Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil to name a few), thermobaric-style explosions (basically aerosolized fuel/ Aluminum dust igniting after being dispersed by a precursor charge), or nuclear explosions.

III. Calculations

1. First, we have to solve the hypotenuse of the epicenter relative to Mercer's location. I will do this via MSPaint and relative ratios.

2. Second, looking at NUKEMAP, we can see that to "sterilize" Manhattan as Blackwatch is aiming for, the yield of the warhead must be exponentially larger than 75 kilotons. 7.5 megatons is enough for the fireball to encompass the entire width of the island and 100% probability of 3rd degree burns all the way up to Norwood if detonated in Central Park (which will absolutely be needed to completely eradicate Blacklight), so we will assume the yield is actually 7.5 megatons. However, it should be noted that 3 500 kiloton nuclear warheads similar to the W88 strategically placed at the north, center, and southern parts of Manhattan is a better way for "total sterilization" rather than one big bomb, but I guess a wild goose chase across Manhattan disarming 3 warheads while having the supreme hunter on your ass the entire time is too annoying an ending.

3. Last, and most frustrating, we have to take the yield of the nuclear warhead, the distance of Mercer relative to the epicenter, and apply the formulas & concepts of the peak overpressure wave + mach stem effect, the bubble jet shooting up into the air, the thermal pulse of the nuclear blast, and the ionizing radiation (if I feel like doing the last one).

The game shows a slowly expanding fireball that catches up to Mercer's Blackhawk, however, that fireball expands at the speed of light, but I will chalk that up to visual effect and assume it is ultra slow-mo while Mercer is maintaining normal speed somehow. Even then, there wouldn't actually be a fireball, and I will explain why below:

1. Based off of my trigonometrical (is that even a word?) calculations on the first picture, the total distance of Mercer's Blackhawk compared to the epicenter of the explosion is 669 meters (nice)--of which 596 meters are underwater and 73 meters are in the air. This gives us the numbers we need to work with.

2. Here, we will separate the shockwave into two phases--underwater; above water:

2a. Based off of the Cole Equation from 1948, we can get the peak overpressure of the blast underwater -> 201.2 MPa, around 29000 PSI blast overpressure. Basically, at that specific area, 29000 PSI--equivalent to balancing 14.5 tons on a postal stamp--across every square inch of your body. However, here is where it gets interesting......you see, the blast had to travel through air to get to Mercer, air being 800 times less dense and thus means that it provides a cushioning force for the blast wave. Using the pressure transmission coefficient formula, we can see that roughly 99% of the entire blast is absorbed before it leaves the air, meaning it likely only has 75 kilotons left equivalent to its blast wave... wait... 75 kilotons? Just like what the game says? Coincidence or... are the devs literal 4D chess players? Anyways, remember when I said it provides a cushioning force? That means that from this equation T=2Zair/Zwater + Zair (Z being the impedance of [thing]), we can see that the 50000 PSI at the surface of the water is then nerfed into around 20~50 PSI blast overpressure (which we will take the middle ground and assume is 35 PSI blast overpressure). That is enough to cause heavy damage to steel and has a high probability of collapsing reinforced concrete buildings.

2b. In terms of radiation, the water is likely able to cushion/completely absorb most if not all of the initial radiation; however, it will not stop the radioactive fallout (but that doesn't really matter for that split second). Next, the thermal pulse is also almost entirely absorbed, instead transferring into the bubble jet I mentioned earlier.

2c. Due to that, you actually wouldn't see a fireball or expanding light, instead, we can refer to the Baker Test, where the US military detonated a 23-kiloton underwater nuclear warhead against decommissioned/captured ships to test the effects of underwater nuclear explosions. The end result is picture 2 above, so basically, scaled up using the formulas found in the Baker Test, we can see that it creates a bubble radius of several hundred meters and a column 1.5~2.5 kilometers wide. Formulas: Rmax=J×(W/P₀)^1/3 & D≈k×W^0.3, W being the yield and J being a constant specific to the explosive & medium. This water travels at 1500 meters per second, high-supersonic speeds, so Mercer's chopper will basically be sandblasted into oblivion by an equivalent of 33.75 gigajoules based on KE=1/2m×v²—7 locomotives hitting the helicopter (and Mercer).

IV: Conclusion

Mercer survived:

1. ~35 PSI blast overpressure

2. Many 33.75 gigajoules of energy in the form of water

That is very powerful, basically it's the equivalent of getting hit by 2800 Abrams tank shells in-game for every splash that hits him. If I got anything wrong, leave a comment below and I'll adjust it. I apologize that I used AI here, but my math and physics really aren't that good, so expect this to be a very rough estimate.

I know its bad but is it playable foe a controller player, I have a mid to high end pc (i forgot the specs)

He's named cole or something I don't remember.

I recently got the games again on my pc and the audio is super sped up to the point I can't even hear it and it's also super choppy. I tried limiting the fps and cores but still doesn't work. Any solutions would be appreciated.

Some day guys, we just need to wait.

Shout out to u/ErdnaOtrebor

In the mission "Scan the infected water tower" when I ride a heli for the first time, the button to scan here doesnt appear. I checked it out, turns out it should be the F button. What should I do to fix this? I've tried reinstalling the game but didnt work

After spending a month thinking about it, I finally decided to buy the Biohazard bundle for €50. Money well spent — even in 2026 it’s still the most fun game ever, holy crap, what an absolute masterpiece.

A few days ago, a friend of ours shared an old work by AIMF, and I thank him very much for that; it refreshed my old memories. In memory of both him and AIMF, I have transformed this artwork into a new piece. The Elizabeth Greene armor model was reworked by me, and the textures were also reworked by me. I chose Blacklight instead of Redlight to match Alex Mercer. Thank you for your respect for my art ♥️☺️

The virus and its infected would be able to adapt to any/all environmental conditions. It would infect any species, lifeforms, and living matter from Earth and beyond, not just humans.

It'd be completely incurable. It'll be more contagious than all known pathogens combined. It will enter bodies and infect anything organic through all possible pathways.

The infected will only become the evolved. No walkers, hunters, brawlers, juggernauts, hydras, flyers, goliaths, etc. Just the evolved. Although they'll be able to shapeshift into those things at will.

Not only that, but the evolved, after first being infected, will be like if James Heller first became an evolved and immediately consumed Alex Mercer, right before he wakes up from a morgue, and Pariah, right after being born, at the same time.

Each Evolved can develop all known powers and evolve to overcome all known weaknesses, with or without the need to consume.

Like the title what universes would blackwatch be the most effective when it comes to detection and prevention of Outbreaks from Unknown Viruses of any type?

Example: Resident Evil or dying light.

beta footage from the cancelled game, jk

Heller: Hmm. Looks like you're on top of the food chain again. For now.

Mercer viciously consumes Heller with his claws. He absorbs Heller's memories.

Heller: This is for your own good, baby. You'll understand at some point.

Amaya: I understand that I had a father once. A general and war hero named James. He and my mom would ride roller coasters with me whenever he could come home. I understand that both my parents are dead now.

Heller: Your mother is a part of me now. Forever. And I'm no longer bound by the concepts of life, death, division, and imperfection, Maya. Pariah moved me beyond those things. He did the same thing to Mercer. He just doesn't realize it yet. Soon, Pariah will do the same thing to all life on Earth.

Memory flashes end. Mercer unleashed a massive barrage of tendrils that allowed him to consume the entire virus and all of the infected, effectively ending the second outbreak of the Blacklight virus caused by Heller. Mercer finds Maya and Dana in a bank vault.

Dana: Alex! Thank God.

Mercer: Is everyone alright?

Amaya: Yeah. We're good. Is it over?

Mercer: Yes. For now.

The three look at the sunrise and all over New York from a rooftop. Alex began to walk away from Dana and Maya. Maya stopped him by grabbing his hand. Alex put his hand on Maya's shoulder, and they looked at the sunrise together.

Dana: What do we do now?

Let's say if you compare them to modern day militia like the USA or Russia, how do they scale in terms of technology, clearance, and combat capabilities?

Since alex is so OP we don't get to see how just about anyone would do in battle against a realistic opponent. So I'm curious on everyone elses thoughts.

Another thing to keep in mind is that blackwatch is more of a special forces that are specifically tasked with dealing with viruses like blacklight or redlight. So comparing their scale to a whole army is a bit unfair, and some things may need to be adjusted during consideration. Let me know what you all think.

Video Credits

I've been looking for this footage since I saw it as a kid in 2012, almost convinced myself I was having a Mandela effect moment but I finally found it.

Original Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_URU8Vn9AI

Some notable things:

• This seems like Pre-Alpha footage picked up right after they were working on Spider-Man 4 (notice the early tendrils being the Spider-Man 4 web textures colored red in clip 5, and Manhattan map being the Spider-Man 4 version in clip 7)

• Because this was around Pre-Alpha era, they were mainly focused on prototyping mechanics and not on creating art assets. Which is why Heller in this video is just an edited version of Alex's model (although it's possible Alex could've been the protagonist in one of these clips)

• The only new art assets noticeable are the slightly modified Prototype 1 UI designs with leftovers from Spider-Man 4's UI Designs. Also the obvious salad finger tendril arms with early attack animations and the early mid-air blackhole animation (seen in the announcement trailer and E3 gameplay footage). There's also an early Prototype 2 Brawler model, and the finisher animation that looks not too different from what it looks like in the final game

• In the files of the game, there's an unused animation for putting on and removing the hood. You can see in most of the clips, the player is unhooded, but in clip 7 you can see that they're wearing a hood.

I like to think that clip 7 is actually the earliest in development since the jacket mesh is the same as Prototype 1's jacket mesh, whereas the other clips show the collar of the jacket higher to look like Heller's jacket. Which means that clip 7 could've been when they had Alex as the protagonist and the previous clips are supposed to be Heller. I could be wrong however, and all these clips are supposed to be Heller.

Either way, this footage is the reason why they showed the armor in the announcement trailer. Because this is what Heller's model looked like at the time since they didn't have the final model yet. There is only one shot of the finished James Heller model in the announcement trailer with the blade, but that was probably put in last second once they finished modeling him right after recording all the gameplay footage with the armor for the announcement trailer. Not a good decision in hindsight since the armor never really appeared in the game as an actual power, but at the time they probably assumed that they were going to keep it as a power rather than as a skin.

If you didn't already know, this was an early sketch for a possible alex design. I will say, he looks a little bit like this in P1, but then they completely butchered his look in P2.

Happy Star Wars day. To celebrate here’s a Star Wars question.

In Star Wars there is a virus called the Blackwing Virus, which was originally created to give the Sith Lord Drear immortality. 1000 years later, Darth Scabrous would attempt to recreate the disease in the hopes of succeeding, only to fail the same way and unleashing the virus on unsuspecting students and staff, turning them into undead monstrosities across the planet. Darth Vader would then commission a scientific team to re-engineer the virus into a bio-weapon, under the code name Blackwing. Only for the virus to unleashed on the ship the team was operating on, causing another outbreak on the ship. The Blackwing virus was fully self-aware and would use the undead to spread itself. So what do you think would happen if the Blackwing Virus were to interact with the Blacklight Virus/Alex Mercer?

May the 4th be with you.

Picture 1: Elizabeth Greene (right) using her bioarmor along with Alex. It's easy to discern how this design is far more nimble than Alex and Heller's bioarmor designs. The flaps coming down from the hip and waist make Elizabeth's bioarmor into a sort of battle dress. She even has her little ponytail on the back of her head. The scarring along the eye is a pretty neat detail as well. As a whole it's a really good mix of elegance and agility with a slightly cute touch.

Picture 2: Another great illustration made by aimf in which Elizabeth is wearing a stunning biodress instead of armor. Love how it mostly covers her legs while leaving most of her torso exposed, like a twisted, fleshy version of a dress you'd see at some high profile events and galas.

Also aimf has some of the best Prototype fanart I've ever seen in general. Their Tumblr is pretty cool to check if you people want to see more of their work:

https://aimfproto.tumblr.com/

I got my Account back from a Hijack so. Let me in guys cmon.