Best Of

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - 6/10
Nothing really special here, a typical linear run-and-gun. The only difference is the setting. This game is the second in the series and a prequel to the first game.

The story was decent enough. It starts with a flashback to the two main protagonists in the Civil War. They desert their post and go back home to save it from Union troops. Things aren't good there, and since they're now deserters they head to Mexico to find a legendary treasure with which to rebuild their home. They team up with a notorious criminal that knows how to get it, and will give them a cut if they help him. Then there's some murder, some betrayal, and all that good stuff.

The gameplay was okay at best. At the beginning of a stage, you choose one of the two brothers to play as, Thomas or Ray. Thomas is more agile, Ray is stronger. Thomas uses throwing knives, can shoot enemies further away, and use a rope to get to high places. Ray can dual-wield, use a shotgun, and use dynamite. In one of the opening levels, the player is taught that Thomas can sneak around and use knives to take out enemies silently. That's the only time I used it. It's worthless after that.

The combat is fairly straight-forward. You shoot, take cover, then shoot some more. The cover system in this game was really awkward. Go up to a wall(or barrel, or box, etc.) and then move the mouse to look out or go back into cover. I tried to avoid using it. After killing enough enemies you can use concentration mode. Concentration mode stops time and allows you to target and quickly take out a group of enemies on the screen. It's useful, but I found it was rarely as helpful as I wanted.

One of the worst parts about this game was the showdowns. Showdowns sound awesome, right? They weren't. Keep your enemy in view, by walking left or right, and keep moving your hand back towards your holster. Once a bell rings, draw, wait for the reticle to move up to your opponent and fire. It gets infuriating after a few times.

Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4+5 - 7/10
The last two chapters of the Tales of Monkey Island series were pretty good, like the first three. They don't quite match up to the previous Monkey Island games in terms of humor, but it still got a few chuckles out of me. The puzzles were also fairly simple and shouldn't give anyone much trouble.