Be Excellent To Each Other

Anyone getting this? I am sorely, sorely tempted. The last really good Western game I played was The Lone Ranger on the NES (I only had the demo of Outlaws, before anyone points that one out) and Damnation has been universally panned (despite the presence of underboob).

Might have one of my famous shopping expeditions to price it up... undoubtedly followed by one of my famous rants that I went to every shop in Cardiff and everyone was charging the RRP and hence have no concept of business or competition etc etc etc.

It's on my Lovefilm list. I don't think I'd buy it if I could.

I really, really wanted to like the first game, but there were too many bits where you had hit enemies miles away, who showed up as one or two dark brown pixels against a slightly darker background. I ended up having to treat it like an adventure game, sweeping my cursor over every part of the screen waiting for it to turn red, because there was no other way to see the bad guys. Eventually I just gave up. Shame, because the setting and some of the levels were really rather good.

I liked the adverts on the telly, and the guardian gave it a decent review, yesterday.

I'm waiting for Red Dead Redemption.

I don't think we've had a LIVE FROM CARDIFF.... SHOPPING post from you at any point in Beex's history. I demand they return. And using modern technology, I demand they are actually live for a change.

Yeah, we had the SHOPPING RAGE Gears of War 2 experience, if I remember rightly.

Me too, but that's not due until the fall at least. At which point loads upon loads of WIN is coming out (Borderlands, Dragon Age, and more!) which is just fucking typical.



You've had at least one proper one (when I was buying SBK08), possibly a second (Gears of War 2) and possibly a few mini ones (GTA4).



Oh right. Given the verbose posts these events require, I'd be spending an hour in each shop painstakingly typing it into my phone. With no line breaks.

Videocast, dude.

That's an interesting idea. Though I don't think I could improvise effectively enough (I need to let my anger ferment a bit on the drive home before I type it all up) and I'd need a cameraman.

And undoubtedly there'd be some great footage of us being picked up and hurled bodily out the doors of HMV as I start shouting about who they think they're fucking kidding still charging £39.99 for Call of Duty 4, it's not even that good for fuck's sake the lag just ruins it OMGZ.

I had a bit of a splurge on stuff in PC world the other day including picking up some PS3 clip on triggers and a print cartridge for my printer because I needed one sharpish (that's my excuse for going in there). The bloke that served me said "I've got a PS3 too" and told me he had bought the triggers as part of a pack with an HDMI lead that was "Miles better than my other one".

What I wouldn't have given for a bit of that old branch-me-do shopping rage magic then. Instead I said "oh right" and fucked off with my stuff.

AND? Was he expecting you to burst into tears and emrbace as you were obviously kindred spirits with a shared pain? (PS3 ownership)



He REALLY wanted to be your bezziest mate. And then when you weren't looking, he'd touch your bum. On the inside. With his willy.

Wait, so he was suggesting that his magic HDMI lead was better that your original HDMI lead?

Yeah, expensive HDMI leads have faster wire so the picture gets to the telly quicker.

Heh, fair enough. Maybe some sort of audio thing then (casted via pod) - you could do a bit of under-the-breath outraged muttering in the shop, some choice expletives in the car and then a full-on scripted rant when you get home.

Stopping making me want to do this.

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to the RSS feed of your forthcoming Youtube channel.

Also: I own a camcorder, dude.

Astonishingly, this isn't totally wrong. HDMI leads come in a few specs, right? And only the higher specs will carry a 12-bit-colour-per-pixel 1080p image (as opposed to the default 8 bit per pixel). This was the "deeper colours" option added in HDMI 1.3. Also, HDMI allows resolutions above 1080p for future displays, like those 30" computer monitors that run at 2560x12something.

Anyway, if you knock up a cheap HDMI lead out of 28awg wire you get something that'll carry 24bit/1080p but nothing above. But that's fine with most consumers, so the HDMI guys split the cable spec into two levels of certification: bog-standard, and fancy. The fancy one is also useful if you're planning on using more than about 5m of cable, like if you have a projector in the ceiling. So far, all this is reasonable.

Except the "fancy" spec is called "HDMI High Speed". Which I assumed was pure marketing bullshit, but is in fact a useful technical differentiator dressed up behind one of the worst names I've ever seen for anything ever.

Edit -- more details.

Get down to Cardiff by half past one, then.

Started playing this.

It's rather chuffing good, if very chuffing hard (but then, I *am* playing on 'Hard' so there you go). I'd be tempted to say it's like a time machine. The attention to detail and such is just right. The small farms and homesteads you encounter in the second chapter are absolutely spot-on.

The opening level (set during the Battle of Atlanta) is incredibly intense, and also shows what a First World War game could be like. Certainly, it's a good depiction of the Civil War, and it's a thrill to fire Gatling Guns and cannons.

I hope you like reloading, because you do a LOT of it... you'll go through a whole six-shooter in no time at all, and the lever-action rifle needs similar feeding lest it run dry.

Both brothers have special abilities... Ray can fire off twelve shots (you sweep the crosshair across the baddies and then he takes 'em all down) while Thomas, well, Thomas lets you feel like a real gunslinger. You hold the trigger, and then repeatedly drive down your right stick like it was the hammer on your revolver, firing off a volley at lightning speed. Seriously cool. Slightly annoying is that, once charged up, you have to use the ability within 60 seconds. So instead of storing it for when you suddenly need it, you find that the horde of enemies you could have easily felled with it tend to be mostly or entirely dead just charging it up (that's how you do it, killing people).

You can ride horses, and it's far more convincing (and fun) than it was in Oblivion, not least of all because you can shoot at other people while doing it. You can also maneuver artillery pieces and use them to blow the crap out of people or big targets.

There's a few annoyances, though. For goodness sake, keep Sticky Aim on as the fast enemies are often far away and you need all the help you can get hitting them. In the first level, more dynamite gets thrown than in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The icon for this is very confusing (because it seems to appear when the enemy lights the fuse) and when it lands next to you unless you know exactly where it is you'll likely not evade it in time.

The checkpoints are very far apart sometimes, and often you have to run back through an empty part of the level to the actual fight... I spent more time running back from the checkpoint location than I did actually fighting the soldiers atop the trench near the middle point of the first chapter. Likewise, the stagecoach checkpoint isn't where the shooting starts, but rather 30 seconds before so you get to watch Thomas stand there for several seconds before slowly climbing down and walking over to steal it.

Oh, and the cover system makes almost no sense. If you stand near a corner, your guy might decide to 'take cover' behind it. There's no indication which corners and objects let you do this, nor that you've actually done it. Once in cover, the controls change. In theory, you use the right stick to lean out and shoot people. There's several problems with this.

Firstly, you lean in and out very slowly, far more slowly than you would in real life. This leads to the second problem, which is that you have to lean out a long way to shoot people who are a long way around the corner. Which means a long time coming out, a long time going back in, bang and you're dead. It's actually quicker to just sidestep out normally and shoot.

But finally, and worst of all, if you're peering over the top of something (like a crate or barrel) then the Y AXIS REVERSES ITSELF. So up until now you've been pushing up to look up and down to look down (for example) but now you suddenly have to push down to look up and out of the cover. Or do you push down to look over? It makes absolutely no sense and is completely counterintuitive. Again, I just ignored the cover system and used the crouch button to duck behind the crates.

These so far are fairly minor issues. When I swirl the right stick to spin my lasso, hammer it down crazily to fire my gun, or gallop furiously down the road, shooting bad men in the face, I don't care. I'm a badass, hard drinkin', hard fartin', ugly ugly womanizin' an' cussin' outlaw.

Ja, just played through the first Act and a bit, and found myself getting sucked in as soon as the military bits were done with. Those early bits are a chore. I prefer Thomas of the two, just for his rifle skills.

I finished the first one last week and will definitely be picking this up at some point in the future - actually saw it in ASDA for £25 yesterday but I've got that much else to play right now I can't justify it.

I wasn't that keen on the duels in the 1st game - seemed to be a bit of trial and error and lots of reloading to get past them - are they back in this one?

I've been playing this the past few days and I think I'm nearly at the end... Here's what I think of it...

The cover system as mentioned above is rubbish and a waste of time. You won't use it but I won't let it get in the way because you don't have to use it. Instead, I would stick to crouching behind boxes. The actual shooty bits (which are few and far between because of the MASSIVE, boring cut scenes) are a bit lame. Most of the shooting ends up with you shooting little guys so far in the distance that you can't actually see anything apart from the red cross hair. If the cross hair wasn't so intrusive it would be better, but for me.. I didn't like it. I also found that my brother shot most of the bad guys before I'd even figured out where they were! He's good like that.

Now, the massive cut scenes... man, these were dull! I don't care about the slow, lingering love affair.. just let me shoot people! I found they really interrputed the flow of the game and the shooty bits, whilst being quite fun, were too few and far between.

Overall I'm going to conclude that while it looks lovely, Call of Juarez is boring.

Interesting stuff!

However, the PS3/xBox only output 8bit colour anyway, so the visible difference (unless you had over 5 meters of cable run) will be... nil!

Could always get a Denon 1.5m network cable for a bargain $500...

Excellent customer reviews.

The PS3 has deep colour support. It's part of the Bluray 1.1 spec.

Played some more.

The cover system makes a bit more sense, but it still sends the controls wonky and is disconcerting.

Weapon choice makes more of a difference than I thought... I picked up two 'quickshooter' pistols, swapping my Ranger and Classic. The Quickshooter is great - it breaks open allowing you to quickly reload it, as opposed to every other I've used so far which has to be painstakingly reloaded one bullet at a time.

More classic cowboy moments... storming up to a villain's house and shouting 'COME ON OUT!'. There's also the obligatory mine level, but so far it's been mercifully short.

The showdown mode is very annoying... you circle each other with the left stick, moving your hand with the right... when the bell goes, draw. Except, it's really tricky, annoying, frustrating and pointless (you're a freaking outlaw, just shoot the bastard Indiana Jones style and be done with it!)

Best tip on those I read was "the music stops two seconds before the bell tolls".

i picked this up today first level was a slog i find it hard to control

The first two levels are quite poor compared to when you're an OMFG cowboy yeehaw BANG BANG!

plus playing it on a 17'' CRT from hell, isnt helping.
Itll be better when im back in familiar territory of my own lounge and can see what m shooting at

Yeah, the first level especially is a bit incongruous and also pretty hard for a first level.

I was delighted... in the first chapter, they teach you that Ray can blow up barriers with dynamite.

You then never get to use this again until chapter FIVE, at which point I'd forgotten and blundered around for about ten minutes trying to work out what to do until, on a whim, I tried it.

Sorry, but that's shit. Dynamite is thrown around like jizz on a porn set in this game, and never does any damage to the scenery so I'd just assumed that I couldn't blow up this debris but instead had to find a way over/around it.

This game rawks. The openy worldy bits are great fun.

Incredibly rudimentary, though. Choose a task, ride towards the marker while being shot at by randomly spawning banditos, shoot a lot of baddies, and then suffer through another stupid quickdraw minigame.

Some of the scenery in this game is astonishing.

I think I'm going to wait for Red Dead Redemption.

I wish I had...

I'm waiting for that as well, I'm just considering this the Saints Row 2 to Red Dead Redemption's GTAIV.

Some of the comments are hilarious.

"Geez, brother, you don't hafta shoot every son'bitch five times, bullets cost money!"

I like its atmosphere. I love a gamey with a happy atmosphere. So let me take you there. And you and I'll be dancing in the cool night air.

I've just rolled out of bed specifically to get the High Noon achievement.

FUCKKKKK

I knew there was something I meant to do today. Instead I watched stupid Clarkson and stupid Hamster driving stupid fast saloons around some stupid track while (I was) eating soup.

Finished it. I fucking HATE that stupid 'showdown' mode. Hate hate hate. These are often men that have stabbed you in the back, betrayed your trust and up until that point in the level happily shot you in the face until you was 'deed. But now you HAVE to do the honourable thing and duel them?

FUCK OFF. This guy is evil. He's fucked you over BIG TIME. Nobody else is around. Just shoot the cunt dead where he stands and don't give him a fair chance.

It certainly is an epic adventure... but the story lacks an extra-special spark, and some of the checkpoints are in downright idiotic places (having to suffer through the same stupid dialogue or even entire conversations).

There's a few western cliches missing - there's no cattle drive, no train robbery/fight on the roof of a moving train, no horseback chase with mounting gunfighting, nothing involving a federal fort of wide-eyed soldiers from out east, no fixed card game, no brawl in a saloon and no grizzled prospectors. Which is odd, as they certainly seemed to be cramming as much in as they could. Indeed, there's almost no physical combat at all (save hitting people over the head with chairs, but unless it's in a saloon with a handlebar-moustached man playing piany... not as good) nor can you pistolwhip people (though enemies will happily do it to you)

Overall, an enjoyably gritty and ambitious cowboy adventure but it's a bit unfocused (you travel thousands of miles, for flip's sake) and a few dodgy game mechanics and scripted events let it down. Still the best cowboy game since The Lone Ranger on the NES, though.

I didn't like how PROTAGONIST WOMAN changes from feisty latina hardnut to Olive Oyl in the blink of an eye.

Yeah, she really pissed me off. I suppose it was like a movie of that era... totally pointless love story nobody cared about.

I loved the feel of the weapons. Matron. They did a reet good job of making you feel like an cowing boy.

Oh, and the period photography (no, don't be sick) you unlock as secrets in mostly awesome.

98% of my duelling enemies have died from intense clacker injury.

Hmm. Can't decide if I like this yet. Enjoyed the running around in the trenches bit and the clearing out the house bit, although it was very "move here, click this, do this, shoot this man". I guess it was a bit tutorially, so that's fair. The "being run out of town" bit was horrid. Awful on-rails rubbish that just kills you over and over for not being good enough at their weird little minigames (the duel, and the twin-stick slo-mo shooting). The cutscenes are painfully tedious, too.

I'm hoping it opens up in act II.

Just started my Thomas/Very Hard playthrough. Dear god, the first level was already horrifically difficult but it's nightmarish on Very Hard. I've gotten just past the first bit of the second chapter and just given up as standing up with full health and IMMEDIATELY being shot dead by a Union soldier is not fun at all.

The game is pretty linear - if you've come hoping for an open world experience you'll be disappointed, the two levels that allow you to wander freely just let you ride through a beautiful if empty landscape to little pockets containing more linear missions.

I didn't really see this as too much of a problem, though. The story is forgettable but the feeling of badassery is almost unmatched, and I just sat back, enjoyed the scenery, and shot some low down varmints in the face til they was 'deed.

I don't particularly want open world, I just don't want to be hand-held through a sequence of "look at the cool little things we've put in our game" segments. Like I say, I'm hoping I can put that down to Act 1 being a tutorial of sorts.

Tutorials are for losers. I just want a list of instructions.

I've got this on my rental list. I gave up on the first one when it just became a game of sweeping the cursor over the dark brown screen until it goes red, then fire.

Yes, then, that's mostly what it is. You get a chapter each as Ray and Thomas, and then a third chapter as a kind of 'final lesson' thing before you're out in the world good and proper.

There's still a few bits of trying to spot tiny men in the distance, Owen, but on the whole I didn't find it too much of a problem on my SDTV.

YOU MANKY SPACKY GAME! I have 88 out of 89 secrets and there's no facility to check what level the secret I'm missing is on.