So, I just finished Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.

I’ll admit that my main reasons for playing the game were only to hear exaggerated wild west accents, and to shoot pistols akimbo like the crazy Texan from The Simpsons.

BiB did deliver in both regards, but what really surprised me was the thought and care put into the story. The characterisation was a pleasant surprise, with a mixed cast consisting of a young preacher; a womanising lasso twirler; a headstrong and violent gunslinger; a deceitful Mexican bandito and his beautiful yet manipulative woman; a scorned Southern general; and an Apache brave. It’s a large list of characters to follow for a First Person Shooter, of all things, but the story is warm and chewy like well-made popcorn. It doesn’t require you to think too much, but it employs enough drama to keep you interested as to why you’re slinging guns and popping rifles.

Graphics and presentation are stunning, with a heavy emphasis on post-processing effects. High-end cards are the order of the day here.

Some nifty gameplay elements attempt to separate this from the numerous other shooters out there. There’s the option to choose one of the two playable brothers in the game, which usually means different weapons and abilities. There’s also a heavy focus on time-slowing, which is erring into the realm of cliche, but it’s relevant and it works, for the most part. The gun showdowns are something different, although the controls are a bit awkward when using the mouse.

It’s not so much essential gaming as it is comfort gaming. Well worth a second-hand purchase and definitely worth a look if you find it marked down.

I’ve been playing a lot of fighting games recently. It started off somewhat innocently, throwing a few carefree fireballs in Street Fighter 4 and thinking nothing of it.

And suddenly I felt like something more. Maybe it was the lack of gritty realism. Perhaps I just wasn’t convinced that a Honda, a sumo wrestler, could exhibit such a display of dexterity and agility. Or it could have been the fact that Seth was pounding my characters skull into the screen while stealing my credit card numbers and using my computer as part of his spam botnet.

So I moved on to UFC 2009 Undisputed and Fight Night Round 4.

Fight Night Round 4 feels a lot more sedate than FNR3. FNR3 was about big haymakers, dramatic counter-punches and chicks in bikinis. It was larger than life, so to speak.

FNR4 is more grounded. There’s a lot more focus on how inside work is done, thanks to the improved model clipping and counter system. Stray punches can get caught in the opponent’s arms and wild blows can be hit and miss. Counters are somewhat easier to pull off and are a lot more punishing. Leaning isn’t as effective as in FNR3 but the addition of Weaving is useful (if somewhat open to abuse). The controls are bit more accessible and don’t require as many buttons. Clinching is still pretty rudimentary, since you can just press a button to push the other guy off you.

Undisputed, on the other hand, makes FNR4 look like a tickling competition. Nothing says “mainstream lower-middle class society” than glorifying no-holds-barred fighting, and Undisputed is king of the hill in this regard. Within 15 minutes I was going Muay-Thai on some poor sucker’s ass, whipping his neck and driving my knees into the bastard’s face. The submission/ground work wasn’t all too intuitive, with a lot of stick and button mashing to get some kind of action going. (Not to mention that seeing two sweaty grown men writhing on the ground can easily give the wrong impression.)

That wasn’t to say that, after spending a session on it, I felt the urge to drink a glass of raw eggs mixed with protein powder and join a kickboxing gym so I could “defend myself” after I’ve had a few drinks and some guy was trying to steal the girl I’d been hitting on all night.

I also find it amusing that the Government elect decide to say one thing about how it’s bad that we’re jacking cars in GTA, and yet they decide to classify a game that involves two grown men beating each other to submission in a cage. But hey - I figure the youth of today need to know when to tower over someone and beat their opponent’s face in.