Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review (Xbox 360)

Here it is! The review of the week: "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood" in honor of last week's announcement of the new sequel in the franchise. Read it, love it, talk about it and as always, thank you for reading!

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

If there are two things I love, it's westerns and video games and when they come together like white t-shirts and water I’m as excited as kid who just got his first happy meal. That’s why I was so excited when I got my hands on Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood developed by Techland. To give you some history, this game is actually a prequel to Call of Juarez which was released in 2006 on the PC and Xbox 360.

Developed by the same company the game was a decent first person shooter (FPS) but had some elements that ruined the fun. The game had a great story along with having players control two characters by the name of Reverend Ray, a gun-toting, bible quoting priest and Billy Candle, a whiny teenager that has to hide and sneak around for most of the game. After the death of his father and mother Billy is on the run the law that suspects him of killing his parents. When Reverend Ray hears this he grabs his bible and six shooters to bless and kill everything in sight as he hunts down Billy. Players were switched between characters getting two sides of the story and enduring different styles of gameplay. Ray is a strong character running into the fray blasting left and right while Billy was weaker but faster and focused more on stealth. Some players didn’t like this switch because the stealth element felt incomplete but I liked the change. The other faults were that everyone walked like robots, the shooting mechanics weren’t perfect and some graphical problems hindered the game. All in all, even with the online multiplayer, the game didn’t have lasting appeal.

Well, the developers at Techland saddled back up to fix these problems with a prequel. Released for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, this game planned on taking everything great from the first along with some new elements to give us players a better experience. And by golly they did! The game is a major step up from the original and enhances our understanding of the great story this series has. Sure, there are some things that could’ve been worked out a little better but we’ll get into more detail very soon so keep your trousers on straight and your gun hand ready as we ride through this western tale.

The story of Bound in Blood goes a little something like this. Brothers Ray and Thomas McCall begin their journey by fighting in the Civil War… on the Confederate side. And yes, that’s the same Ray from the first game but he isn’t the cuddly bringer of heaven’s wrath and fury upon the world, priest/gunfighter we know and love from the first one. No, in this one he is a shoot first; ask later, trouble starting, horny man. But he is still is awesome. Suddenly realizing their home will be overrun by the Yanks, they leave their post to protect their family. This in turn causes their commanding officer, Colonel Barnsby, to vow revenge against such deserters. Ray and Thomas succeed by saving their younger brother William, a priest, but their mother had already passed away. Shedding a quick tear the McCall brothers go on the run getting into fights and killing a lot of people. They plan to return and rebuild their home once they have to money to do so. This in turn leads them to hunt for the treasure of Juarez; a treasure that is said to be cursed and bring torment and suffering to any who search for it. Not caring about that they head down to Mexico to begin their treasure hunt. Now, the one thing Ray and Thomas fight about more than actual gunfighters is women. Ray and Thomas have obviously never heard of bros before hoes because they threaten to kill each other over a woman. So, when they meet Juarez and his lovely girl, Marisa, all hell breaks loose. First, Ray wants the girl then she tricks him and falls for Thomas, it’s a whole mess that you need to play the game to find out how it unravels. Of course this is all going on while Colonel Barnsby is playing man hunt with the brothers because he wants to use the treasure to restore the Confederacy. Throughout the game, William will whine and complain to them about righteous ways and sin. I don’t mind him spreading his religious outlook on them because religion is a heavy aspect in both this one and the original, I just wish his voice wasn’t so damn annoying! It’s like shoving a crow’s beak into my ear and letting it sound off as loud as it can every three minutes. But he kind of warmed up to me since he manned up a bit toward the end of the game. I won’t say anymore because I don’t want to spoil anything for you all but don’t think that the story is complicated or confusing. It’s actually a really well thought story that I can’t really explain without spoiling it so trust me when I say the story is interesting.

In Bound in Blood you have the ability to play two characters but not like the first game which automatically switched you back and forth. In this one you are allowed to choose who you wish to play as at the start of each level. Unlike the first game, the stealth element has basically been completely removed (except for the part where you can shank people silently in a corn field). Ray is still the crazy, run in and stuff your face with lead gunfighter he was in the first game, only he doesn’t have his bible this time. That made me tear a bit but I fought through it. Thomas is the more agile, whip using, long ranger gunner. This is a great idea as the game allows the player to choose whatever play style suits them in order to complete the game. Now through almost every level except one, the brothers are together. They help each other climb ledges, flank enemies and work cooperatively. The sad thing is that there is no co-op. This game seems like it was built for that aspect with the fact that two brothers work together throughout the game. It’s too bad really. This game could have received major kudos for some co-op play.

Bound in Blood is a level based game. Once you complete a level you see a cutscene and shift to the next one. But there are some free roaming sections to the game where you can take up side missions if one so chooses. This is great but I feel we were taunted with what we could have had: a complete, free roaming, FPS western game. Oh, Techland, you tease. The gameplay is basic FPS style gameplay. What’s different about this game is that there are no heavy machine guns (except the turret) or lasers or mines and whatnot. These are classic late 1800 weapons such six shooters, rifles, bow and arrows, and shotguns. All take a certain time to reload and will have normal FPS players taking a slight learning curve. But that was the west and the sooner players can get over that the fun will begin. There are horses to ride which are a fast way to get around but you won’t need them in most levels and they never look too good (design wise) anyway. You can also buy weapons from the various shops in the game that are much better than any you will find atop a corpse you just created. Remember, the better the weapon, the faster the reload and the stronger the damage. Once you get over the weapons, the shooting mechanics work great. You aim, shoot, and the people die. Flawless. There is a small cover system where you Ray or Thomas will latch onto a wall or a chest high wall and you can control how far they stick their heads out but the two or three times I used the cover system I found this to lead me to my death more than it ever helped me. You can also zoom in, dual wield, and go into bullet time. Bullet time will really help out as you clear out all enemies on screen in just a couple moments. Just point your reticule at each of the enemies and watch Ray or Thomas pour out lead faster than a chain gun and the best part is that every bullet will hit. Awesome.

Two things that both characters will have to face off with are boss fights and duels. The boss fights aren’t hard but they can kill quickly if you get caught off guard. They’ll hide behind cover frequently can deal heavy damage in only a couple hits so keep your eyes open when you face them. The duels on the other hand are all about reflexes. You have to try to keep your character’s hand close to the gun while keeping your enemy in your sights. Then, when you hear the bell, draw your gun and shoot. This seems really easy but throughout the game I never understand exactly how to work this. I’m used to Red Dead Revolver’s way of pulling down the joystick to grab the gun, push back up to draw the pistol and then shoot. How I completed this game I have no idea because I found myself randomly jerking the right joystick and luckily completing the duel. It’s really obnoxious because it seems the enemies move back and forth in the duel just to annoy you. I mean, when was the last time you saw a duel and both gunslingers walking around in circles? Every duel I’ve ever seen they stood in place. I mean, they may have walked around a bit to get themselves pumped up like Jada Pinkett-Smith at a concert but they always planted themselves like banzai trees before the actual draw. Nonetheless, I beat the system and showed the man that I am a true geek.

Next to the single player is the online multiplayer. There isn’t any splitscreen (another tear) but the online play is fun. There are a good amount of modes and maps which is what online play needs. Like normal, we have the twenty four player deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and a fun mode titled Wanted where one player is considered wanted and the others hunt them down. These are fun and necessary for any type of online play but the one I found my self playing the most was Wild West Legends. In this mode each team has to complete objectives in order to win the match. One team will have to destroy a mission objective while the other team must protect it. These objectives range from famous western stories many may have heard about such as the hunt of Billy the Kid to the Magnificent Seven’s stand against the bandits. Each map features a different legend but my favorite is the bank robbery. The Outlaw team must break into the bank, bust open the safe with dynamite, steal some horses from the barn and ride out of town while the Sheriff team must stop them from completing any of these. This is the only game where I have ever played a good ol’ western bank robbery and it’s a blast (literally! (bad joke, I know). An interesting feature is the fact that the game doesn’t keep track of kills or deaths. Instead the game deals with bounties. The more kills you get the higher your bounty and the higher chance of people trying to kill you. When you kill another player you receive the amount of money their bounty is, giving you the incentive to try to take out the more experienced players. With this money you can buy upgrades for your characters (for that match only) or unlock more playable characters online each with their own advantages. The online play is fun and should last quite awhile as players try to claim more and more bounties. The only problem that I truly have is that you can’t duel anyone online. I would love to show how fast my random jerking of the joystick is against other players (One more tear. My last one, I promise. I’m not a wimp; I’m just in touch with my inner self).

The sound in the game is amazing. The voice acting blows so many games out of the water. Sure, William may get annoying and I want to give him a backhand at times but all the voices fit game. Listening to two brothers bicker has never sounded so good. The music is pure western and works with the fast paced action. You won’t find your self humming the themes after you shut the game off but they fill a void in order to give a complete experience. All the weapons sound powerful whether it is a meager pistol or movable turret. All the clicking and the little trinket noises that come with each gun from reloading to making the bullet leave the chamber add to this western outlook.

The graphics also stand out and surpass the previous game. The character designs look outstanding especially Ray and Thomas. Even the run of the mill enemies look pretty good. People don’t walk like robots anymore or move around awkwardly from the first person perspective. Like I said earlier, it never looks good when you ride a horse and the design of the horse looks pretty bad too. The back of their head looks like a mesh of expired cottage cheese. But that’s only a small portion of the game. The environments are absolutely beautiful. You’ll travel through towns, battlefields, gold mines, hideouts, open deserts, and forests, all looking unique and detailed. Each area feels fresh and different from the previous which will help make the experience last longer. Fans of the first game may even recognize a couple places.

Overall, this is a great western game. The first may have been a disappointment to some but this prequel fixes many of the problems while keeping all that was great and adding a couple new gameplay elements to blend it all together for an enjoyable game. Some things need to be fixed or designed better but this game delivers on its promise. It has a great story that should pull almost all gamers in and the acting only increases the odds of that happening. Everyone needs to at least rent this game and give it a try. It will not refine the world of gaming as we know it, but it will give many gamers something really enjoyable. So, I beckon to y’all. Saddle up them horses, pull out them ol’ six shooters and get yourself ready for showdown.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Review (Xbox 360)

Well, here it is... My "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand" review. As I stated in my last post, I took a more comedic approach to this review than I did in my "[PROTOTYPE]" review. I hope you all enjoy it. Don't forget, I write reviews as I play the games so if you have any requests, let me know. As always, thank you for reading!

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Review

Yo, what up everybody?! How my dogs and homies doin’ in the hood? I’m just poppin’ a deal over hur in my crib. Yea, what you know about that? Damn, homie… (Shakes head and enters reality) Wow… I’m sorry about that. I’ve been playing 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand developed by Swordfish Studios and I kind of lost track of myself. That’s right, I’m reviewing 50 Cent’s latest attempt at making money, his new video game. This isn’t his first game, however. Sometime during November in 2005, 50 Cent: Bulletproof was released for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. Critics called the game mediocre at best but I never played it because… well, I didn’t really care for it and I couldn’t imagine paying two cents to play it, let alone fifty (drum roll, please). But when I was bored one lonely afternoon and I was searching the racks at my local movie and video game rental store, I saw this game on the shelf and decided I wanted to be "In da Club" for a couple days. I’m not going to lie, I feel hip hop has rotted away from the core it started as. When I’m parading around in my happy-go-lucky lifestyle I don’t want to hear about how someone will put seventeen bullets in my head and beat their whores while shoving a pound of cocaine up their nose if they are even squinted at the wrong way. But I do listen to hip hop. It just happens to be the kind where there’s actually a purpose behind their lyrics.

So, the big question: is 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand any good? Well, before I could even play the game I had to prepare my self for what I was about to see. So I hopped onto the world wide web, surfed over to Youtube and listened to some tunes to get in the mood. One moment please… Aww yeah! I get money, I get money! … ‘Cause I’m a motherf****n’ P.I.M.P.! … If I can’t do homie, can’t be done. I’m a let the champagne bottle pop, I’m a take it to top, sure I’m a make it hot baby! … You can find me in da club, bottles full of bub. Look mami I got the X if you into to taking drugs. I’m into having sex, I ain’t into making love so come give me a hug if you’re into getting rubbed! … Alright homie, I’m black! I mean back. I’m back and now I can play the game.

The story of the game is very simple and ludicrous at the same time. Basically, it’s one of the most comical storylines in a video game that I’ve ever seen. After the full-combat-gear ready 50 finishes his concert somewhere random in the Middle East, him and his G-Unit homeboys want their payment. But what a surprise! This war torn country doesn’t have the money to pay these gangstas. Instead, our lovable action hero is paid with a crystal skull that Indiana Jones must have lost track of. It could’ve have ended here but 50 Cent hasn’t shot anybody yet so not a chance. A few moments later, 50 Cent’s skull is stolen by a mysterious woman and 50 wants it back. This in turn leads to 50 Cent tearing up this country even more to get back what probably isn’t rightfully his. And that’s the story. 50 Cent will accomplish what George Bush failed to do by ending as many human lives possible in the Middle East to get his "ice." What this game does correctly however, is that it knows the story is ridiculous and sticks with it the whole time. The game makes sure you never take the plotline seriously and tries to make sure you enjoy the game for what it is, a third-person shooter.

The first thing I want to say about the gameplay is this: this game is incredibly easy. I only died twice on hard difficulty and even that was only because I was messing around. The game even has an achievement (no gamer points come with it, however) called Not Bulletproof which is gained by dying on easy (I made sure I unlocked this achievement). Basically, anyone can plow through this game whether you are a hardcore gamer or not.

The second is that this game is incredibly short. You remember how I said I wanted to waste a couple days being a P.I.M.P.? Well, I meant more like three and a half hours. Yes, I beat this game in three and a half hours. And the worst part about this is the fact that there are no other modes to play besides the story mode. There is no competitive multiplayer or minigames or whatnot. Sure, you can play the story mode with a friend via online (one person plays 50 Cent and the other plays Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks or DJ Whoo Kid) but that gets old after the second play through. The only reason one would play through the game more than twice would be to attain piece unlockable content which consists of music videos, stills and songs to make your playlist (more on that later). Once I was finished, I was left with an empty feeling inside just like how I feel after I’ve eaten some Chinese food.

Nevertheless, this game is (and I can’t believe I’m saying this)… fun. The controls work really well and never feel sluggish. There is a cover system that will really help you out during the many, many shootouts the G-Unit will endure. It might get tedious going from gunfight to gunfight but you can’t help having fun at some points. Another fun gimmick is the melee combat you can pull off by getting close to an enemy and performing a small (and very easy) quick time event for an instant kill. There is also an arcade style mode, inspired by "The Club," in the game that keeps track of your score. Your score will consist of kill combos, finding collectible posters and shooting targets scattered around the levels. The higher your score, the better your medal at the end of the level and the more unlockables you receive. You can also buy taunts, new melee attacks and weapons from certain payphones with the money you find in boxes or what you pick up from 50 Cent’s reign of death upon the nation. Like my appendix, I never understood the purpose of the taunts nor did I really try to use them because it usually left 50 Cent in open resulting in damage being taken. The melee attacks are fun but the sad part is how you end up doing the same three attacks over and over again. But this game isn’t about melee, it’s about guns, and they’re great. The weapons are fun and plentiful consisting of assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, pistols, and rocket launchers. The shooting mechanics work well with all the guns as well. You aim, shoot and create dozens of corpses in front of you; the way any third-person shooter should work.

Like I said earlier, the game has a coop mode that you can play with a friend. But this leads to my biggest complaint. There is no split screen coop! Online is awesome when you have no one to play with, but what if I want to play with my friend who is sitting right next to me? Now I know some of you selfish people out there want your 50" screen all to yourself but I love playing with my friends in the same room! I’ve lived through the days of Goldeneye focusing on one tiny corner of the screen and I loved every part of it! Why, you ask? Well, because I have friends who come over my house and we like to play video games together in the same room, that’s why. There’s no need for me to say, "Hey buddy, would you like to play 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand?" "Why yes, I would love too! I’ll head home right now!" Also, if you’re going to try and whip out the system link argument, not all of us have the money to buy a bunch of 360’s and televisions for everyone to play with.

The music in the game, well, fits the game. The soundtrack is compiled of 50 Cent songs so I can’t say the soundtrack to the game is bad. I don’t like 50 Cent’s music but there are some tracks I remember back when I was in my "wannabe gangsta" phase. I’m actually glad they didn’t try to bust out some poor version of Arabian music. What you can do with the music is create your own playlist to listen to while you decimate bad guys. Finally, a game where I can headshot someone’s penis head while listening to "What Up Gangsta." Sadly, they don’t have all of his music in the game. I would have liked to shank some poor Middle Eastern enemy while listening to "21 Questions." … Could you love me in a Bentley? Could you love me on a bus? I'll ask 21 questions, and they all about us… Umm… yeah, so the weapons sound great! Explosions go boom and cars go vroom. In other words, they don’t sound your shooting a pellet gun. The voice acting is… different. Everyone from the country sounds like they could’ve starred in a rip off of "The Kingdom" movie. That’s not technically a bad thing because they’ve got the accents to make us feel like we are in the Middle East. What twists this all around is 50 Cent busting down doors like Rambo but spitting out every profane word that one can think of. For example, you might hear, "I am a god and nobody, especially him, will bring a god down," and 50 Cent runs in and says "Yo, gimme back my skull, b***h." It really messes around with the atmosphere but I’m not going to lie, it is entertaining to listen to. Though there are some times when 50 Cent opens his mouth and he sounds like Billy Mays trying to advertise some Clorox.

The graphics in the game are next-gen graphics. They aren’t the prettiest I’ve ever seen, but there’s been much worse out there. They nail the detail of the war torn Middle Eastern country and the landscapes overall look pretty good. The character designs of 50 Cent and his homies look really good but I can’t say the same for the enemies. It’s just the same four or five different models popping up all over the country. The CG cutscenes are ridiculous as they are entertaining but they all look pretty well and pass for today’s video game technology.

Overall, the game is a fun and I recommend as a rent to anyone looking for a decent third-person shooter to spend some time with. Sure, if you’re a hundred percent against the two quartered man, you won’t enjoy it but if you don’t mind him, you’ll have fun. If you have a fancy for 50 Cent, well you probably already own this but if you don’t, you might want to pick this up next time you’re out. Hilarious story and dialogue, good gameplay, a fitting soundtrack and some pretty good graphics come together to make and enjoyable third-person experience. Also you’ll get a hefty amount of easy-to-earn achievement points.

Wait, I’m not done yet. I have one question about this game. This topic didn’t make sense to me so I’ll ask you. In the game, the dialogue of 50 and his gangsta friends along with some of the baddies contains profanity to rival Bad Boys. However, when you watch the unlockable music videos, they cut out the profanity making it sound like you’re listening to some poor kid with a stuttering problem. What’s the deal? Is listening to a non-pixelated 50 Cent swear bad for the youth and fans? Or do they think we would overlook all the profanity in the game because of the gunfights? Oh, well, I guess it’s just another mystery unsolved.