Call of Juarez

rooster

I'm on the last few levels now, and I have to say really enjoyed it..

for those who havent heard of it (not surprising considering I haven't seen a single ad) its a fps western game, kind of a linearish oblivion with guns (minus the rpg) You play a few levels as a half-mexican guy wrongly accused as a murderer, sneaking by bandits, and then a few levels as the ex-gunslinger preacher who's on his trail to kill him, then back to the sneaking. Its great fun sneaking through the environments, then playing as the preacher blasting through them killing everyone in sight.

best bit about the preacher is his 'bullet time' mode when you holster your pistols then draw them- two targets float across the screen, and you align them with bad-guys in slow-mo, popping off shots at each target using your mouse buttons, until the targets converge and normal time resumes, and everyone drops to the floor.. Its a recipe for some brutal headshots

anyway its a bit rough around the edges in places, but if you're in the mood for something different, check it out

I think theres a demo on their site: http://www.callofjuarez.com/

edit: just finished, and a satisfying ending with it too . forgot to mention the voice acting is pretty good, especially the preacher- who sounded very familiar and I just found out why- marc alaimo aka Gul Dukat!

Joseph Silverman

I tried the sp demo a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. I'll probabl only pick it up when it drops a bit in price, though.

doc rob

I really enjoyed the shooting part of the demo, but not the sneaking. It's a shame, too, or I probably would have picked it up.

rooster

if the demo gives you just the first few levels, the sneaking does get better/sparser. I hated the first level, but theres much less of it, and its less frustrating further on. he goes on to do a bit more climbing/platform stuff, and later a bit more proper fighting

SuperOstrich

I played the demo and the framerate was nearly unplayable on a pretty decent computer. Is the final version any smoother?

rooster

I had to run it on medium settings to get something playable, and on a couple areas with lots going on it did chug a bit.. comparable to oblivion I'd say, although not quite as nice looking. the game has a some sprawling environmnents which strained my system, but for the most part they are tighter and more managable

CheapAlert

I thought the multiplayer was horrible and played more of a cookie cutter than something innovative and fun like Outlaws

EarthQuake

I saw some people playing it at work and damn, for the horrible frame rate it looked like SHIT. And this was on a decent workstation too, at medium settings. If you're going to make your game look like ass atleast make it run at a reasonable frame rate.

Toomas

I have X2 3200+, 2 gigs of ram and X1900XT and it runs silk smooth on maxed settings at 1280x960.
I specially like the character faces and facial animations, one of the best i have seen. Well ok the female faces look little wonky from some angles and dont have nearly as much character as the male ones.

ebagg

I was worried it was my computer, the demo was choppy even when I set it at the preset "performance" settings. The shooting section was pretty fun. I also thought the stealth sections were weak, but they show the indian character with a bow and arrow, so hopefully later he'll be more of a "silent sniper" type...great overall, just hopefully a patch will fix the technical issues.

KeyserSoze

End the game for killing my own [stolen] horse? What the shit is that?

It's okay, I found a way around that silly little rule. Gallop toward a large hill (holding down the M key), jump the horse off the edge, then dismount in mid-air and watch that stupid animal fall to its death (most likely, just before you fall to your own death). Hah ha ha ha! AH HA HA HA HA HA! MUAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

LordScottish

I only played 3 hours and had some of the most amazing game moments. Burning down a saloon is something I always wanted to do, hahaha