Electronic Arts has caused what's being reported as scenes of anger by giving away £20,000 of free petrol at a London petrol station to promote the release of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

The give-away kicked off at 7:30am and has resulted in queues of up to 30 cars backing out of the Finsbury Park in London petrol station. Drivers on the other side of the road were less than chuffed, with car horns sounding as they got ensnared in the resulting congestion.

A local woman, who asked not to be named, has been quoted by the BBC as saying, "What an extraordinary thing to do, it's totally irresponsible. I can't believe they've been allowed to do it.

"This area is usually very quiet but look at it now, there's cars queuing everywhere. It's just creating unnecessary problems."

It sounds like that might have been all part of the plan, with Louise Marchant, an EA rep, saying it mimicked parts of the game. "It's set in Venezuela, you play a mercenary and fuel is used as a currency", she said.

Electronic Arts described the set-up as follows, "The entire forecourt of Last Stop Ltd near Finsbury Park, North London will be completely transformed into that of a military style bunker, with jeeps, oil barrels, sandbag walls, and fully costumed actors on hand to pump the petrol for the customers."

Predictably, punters enjoyed the free fuel. One recipient, Prince Davis, said, "This is a genius idea, whoever thought of this should be promoted. I'll definitely be buying the game, you're never too old to play computer games." It would seem the way to a man's heart is through his petrol tank... although Hugo Chavez, the population of Venezuela and everybody not in bloody London might think different.

Next week: EA gives away free parking spaces in Kilburn to pimp Dead Space.

You can find out more about Mercenaries 2: World in Flames over on SPOnG's dedicated game page.