The first Call of Juarez game is a decent Westerns, but it's definitely a B-tier 'play it by the books' sort of shooters. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger not only shakes things up for the franchise, but for the genre as well. You play as the legendary bounty hunter Silas Greaves who recounts his many feats to his fellow bar mates. This may seem like a rote storytelling trope, but the amazing thing here is Silas’ unreliability. He may claim he faced off against a hundred bandits when a patron will call him out on it and the game will literally change before your eyes. The shooting is outstanding, and the cel-shading is like icing on the cake. At max, it’s only $15 too so go on Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live and grab it

Both Red Harlow/John Marston fit the narrative perfectly; both were men born of the west and knew only a certain way of life. This solidified their stories even more. While Red Harlow sought to seek out the killers of his parents, John sought out closure for a life he had perpetuated on to himself. These stories have western tale written all over them and succeed by showcasing these separate tales in realistic ways, while still playing in to the western tropes people know and love. While there were some bigger set pieces show casing these tropes, i.e. certain shoot outs, they kept the west relatively tame. Especially Red Dead Redemption.

Until Rockstar reveals more, though, I will keep being nervous over just what Red Dead Redemption 2 is. A lot of rumors are floating around that it’s a prequel. If it is, they could knock it out of the park, I just don’t want them relying on The Magnificent Seven to do it. Give us an American classic, something steeped in our own mythos, while keeping it fresh. Running and gunning is fun in Open world games strategy, but you can get that anywhere ( GTAV /any shooter ever). Let’s see a western tale more in truth with reality than Hollywood. There are so many other stories out there that get overlooked. If it is a prequel, the fall of John Marston's gang could be done with style. How cool would it be to build up a bandit posse only to have it all ripped away (or in Marstons case, walking away)? Usually in games where the player must form a crew ( Mafia III /GTAV), it’s to set out on some serious mayhem and succeed. To have a game where the player forms their crew only to have it taken away would be the ultimate middle finger to that style of storytelling in gaming. Especially coming from Rockstar. Not only would it flip the script, but it would show Rockstar can even go against their own grain, while not borrowing from Hollywood.

Westerado started off as a browser game before becoming a bigger thing on Steam and Xbox One as Westerado: Double Barreled . Remember my wish that Law of the West’s mechanics would be transferred into another game? This is it! It’s a basic plot revolving around avenging your family’s murder, but the culprit changes with every playthrough. You gain leads by talking to townsfolk and going on missions. At any time you can pull out your gun in the middle of a conversation. Sometimes this will help get more information while other times it will probably cause you to die especially if you are in town. It may have pixel art, but the game beneath it all is very ambitious, and it nails everything it sets out to

December 2014 was a terrible time to be a gamer. Not only did we have to contend with the buggy launches of DriveClub, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, but we also had to deal with Lizard Squad who sought to ruin Christmas for so many gamers. With no purpose or intent, Lizard Squad bombarded PSN and Xbox Live servers with DDOS attacks. This crippled PSN and Xbox Live throughout the month, but also on Christmas Day when thousands of new PS4 and Xbox One owners were unwrapping their consoles. These consoles need firmware update to properly function, something that can’t be done if the consoles can’t connect online. We hope that in 2015 this malicious group stays away from PSN and Xbox Live.

When it comes to Westerns, many people's first thoughts center around cowboys, outlaws, and rebels. Many people forget how influential Native American lore and folktales are to the same time period in which many of these Westerns took place. It was really interesting to see how many references to Native American culture were included in the teaser trailer. There's a scene where two unidentifiable characters are traversing a river in what seems to be a canoe. If you pan up and to the left, you can clearly make out a dream-catcher in the tree that's placed in the foreground. Native American tribes played a huge part in the history that shaped the American Mid and Southwest. Rockstar understands this and we wouldn't be surprised if one of the major protagonists ends up being a Native American bad

During certain missions, you are prompted to cover your face with a bandana, which is typical of Westerns. It looks cool. This is to keep your identity hidden, right? Well despite this, somehow you always get fined with a bounty. It doesn't make any sense. I tried wearing masks too and that doesn't do anything either. It feels like Rockstar put them in as an obligation to the genre. They didn't want to implement it as a real disguise. It might have broken the game otherwise, or someth