Worth a Look - June 2013

I didn't do a Worth a Look last month, so here's a bit of a catch up.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Developer:	Techland
Publisher:	Ubisoft
Platforms:	Xbox 360 XBLA/PC/PS3 PSN
Price:	Around £12
Demo available:	Yes

On the face of it, Gunslinger is a cut down slice of Techland's so-so Call of Juarez first person coyboy shooter series, however, after 5 minutes any arcade throwback will be reminded of classic shooting gallery games, like Operation: Thunderbolt or Time Crisis. The game does give you the freedom of movement you'd expect from a FPS, but the maps are quite small so you frequently find yourself pinned down behind some barrels or an abandoned cart or the shattered frame of a window. The game also has some really fun mechanics, like the ubiquitous bullet time, which comes in two flavours. Kill enough enemies and you can trigger Concentration Mode, which is your traditional slow-down-to-shoot sort of bullet time. Then there's Sense of Death, which triggers automatically and lets you can dodge incoming bullets. It's a fun little game and definitely blurs the line between modern and classic gameplay.

Pinball FX 2

Developer:	Zen Studios
Publisher:	Microsoft Game Studios
Platforms:	PC/Xbox 360 (Android/iOS/PS3 PSN as Zen Pinball)
Price:	Platform dependant
Demo available:	Yes

Pinball FX2 (also known as Zen Pinball) is not a new game, however it only came to Steam last month and for many PC owners when it comes to digital downloads, Steam is the only platform that matters. Each version of this game has a different selection of tables and none have as many as the Xbox 360 version, however they all seem to have the Marvel tables and the recently released Star Wars trilogy. As much as I love what Farsight Studios are doing with Pinball Arcade's collection of real tables, Zen have become masters of the video pinball genre. It's just a shame there's no cross platform purchases (not even between Xbox 360 and Xbox Games for Windows Live). PC gamers, get on this.

Thunder Wolves

Developer:	Most Wanted Entertainment
Publisher:	BitComposer Games
Platforms:	PC/Xbox 360 XBLA/PS3 PSN
Price:	Around £12
Demo available:	Yes/No

Back in the 1980s, there were two big helicopter TV shows (one of which was also a movie), Blue Thunder and Air Wolf. There was also a series of helicopter games by Sega called Thunder Blade. Now we have a modern game, brimming over with 80s kitsch called Thunder Wolves. Coincidence? I doubt it. As a retail product it's rather lacking in quality and polish, but if you fancy spending 3-5 hours blowing sh*t in spectacular style, then you'll probably get a kick out of this one. Like all the games I include in these round-ups, this one would be a perfect fit in a modern arcade.

Usually I include a trailer, but for Thunder Wolves I'm going to include Demonik Mayem's Never Player video review, because he's very funny. I can't decide if he's being sarcastic or he really did enjoy it as much as he appears to, but either way his enthusiasm is infectious.

MTW