It’s no secret that I love westerns. When the first Call of Juarez came out on the 360 I was so very excited, and then after playing it I was oh so very disappointed. The story was clunky, the controls were clunkier, and the graphics left much to be desired.

Well after two years and a newly revamped PC, I find myself really enjoying the prequel Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. While the controls are still a bit clunky at times, this game improves on just about everything that frustrated the hell out of me in the first game.

This time we start off during the American Civil War, something I, being a big fan of first-person shooters, have secretly wanted to do since I started playing Call of Duty a few years ago. The first chapter follows a younger Ray (Reverend Ray from the first game) as he makes his way through a battle to find his brother, Thomas,  and ultimately desert the Confederate army so they can return home and protect their family. I immediately noticed 1) how much the graphics have improved, and 2) how much more detail they have put in to the appearance and mechanics of the guns. Awesome.

Cut to a few years later, Ray and Thomas are outlaws and along with their younger brother, Billy, they flee to Mexico in search of the Lost Treasure of Cortez. They eventually hook up with Juarez, the most notorious criminal in Mexico, and decide to help one another find the treasure with the Pinkertons and their old Colonel hot on their trail — and that’s about where I am in the game.

Now it’s by no means perfect, but so many aspects have been improved upon that it makes the overall experience so much more enjoyable than the first. I can actually see what the heck I’m shooting at now, so that’s pretty nice. Again, the guns look and behave more realistically and there’s a better selection — in fact, there’s even stores where you can upgrade your weapons now. Swanky.

I also like that you can choose to play either Thomas or Ray instead of being forced to play different people. Ray sucks. I didn’t like playing him in the first game and I’m not a fan here either. Thomas is more agile and better with ranged weapons, which is more my thing. The showdowns no longer make me want to smash things and I thank them for that.

Better graphics. Better gameplay. Better story. Yeehaw.

Frustrating shortcomings in basic functionality. Take this friend request for example. It has a message attached to it.

There are three actions I can take here: Confirm the request, Ignore the request, and Send a Message.

However, clicking on the Send Message link doesn’t actually give you the option to message this person back, it just opens a blank message window where it’s also impossible to enter this person’s name. If I go to their profile, there is still no option to message them.

I realize this is likely due to this user’s privacy settings, but the thing is — they initiated the contact, and I should be able to reply to them. It’s incredibly annoying that I have to confirm this request in order to have any chance of responding to this person. While this respects their privacy settings it infringes on my own privacy because I have to friend this random person in order to reply to a work related question. Thanks for thinking of me Facebook.

Short trip to San Francisco for Macworld. I wish I had more time to walk around and take pictures. Next time.

The screeners I get from Allhorrorfilms are usually pretty humorous, though this is the first time the film was surprisingly watchable.

Little ucker isn’t necessarily a film you should have high expectations for, but on the other hand, if you have high expectations (wink wink cough cough) you just might find yourself enjoying this silly little film. Directed by Michael Muscal, Little ucker hearkens back to the B-Horror films of the ’80s giving it a distinct, almost Troma-like feeling. Since the film aspires to be nothing more than a B-film, this means that when it stumbles it fortunately doesn’t have far to fall…and it does stumble.

Read my full review at Allhorrorfilms