Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (360)
The Xbox 360 community is that obsessed with Halo and Call of Duty that sadly when really top-notch shooters like this come along they seem to fall in their shadows and not get the acclaim they deserve.
This is a very playable title taking place in a genre that I feel has been somewhat crying out for some Varmit to saddle up their horse, strap on their sherrif's badge and take control of the genre.
Ubisoft is that there sherrif, they strode in the saloon chewing their tobacco and have delivered a superb rooting tooting Wild West shoot-em-up, there was a previous Call Of Juarez game - scrub it from your memory, it bears no comparisson or significance to this title.
As the McCall brothers, you make your way through the wildest West ever depicted, using their gun slinging skills and killing all of those that stand before you.
The Spaghetti Western setting is a joy as it should be, the graphics on the game are fantastic, frame rates are great, characters are well founded and the mechanics of the gameplay - particularly the shooting is a lot of fun.
It's not all antiquated pistols and shooting though, there is a really useful and effective cover system, horse-back gun fights, face-to-face duels, cannons and lassoo control - what more could you want!?
I am working my way through the single player mode, I haven't tried the multiplayer and legend modes yet - but I hear they are good, for the record the single player mode is gripping, a really engaging storyline and some great cut scenes.
The thing I most liked about this game is the atmosphere, this feels like a Western game in every way imagineable, graphically, gameplay etc, authenticity is high on the agenda.
This is a hugely violent game, packed with action and going back to my original post - far closer to the market leaders than many realise.
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Authors
Steve Wollaston - Sunday Mercury games reviewer Steve has been writing about video games for donkey's years. In fact he is probably far too old for it now which is why you will see a lot of reviews been done by kids... He has been nominated three times for Regional Games Journalist Of The Year at the Games Media Awards, but never wins. His major love is sports games and rates Sensible World of Soccer circa 90's as the greatest game ever made - closely followed by Championship Manager 2. Skyrim has currently taken over his life.
