Wild West Land Blog

Apologies all for the 2 month hiatus from the blog - I moved house again for the second time this year and have been slowly sorting out all the associated chaos that brings with it.

I’ve also been working hard to source a supplier for the Cowboy Country Owners Packs in NZ who can offer good quality veg tan leather to produce further portfolio packs for new owners. Despite the country’s reputation for lots of livestock it’s proven harder than expected!

So, as of tomorrow, I’ll be calling a pause to orders for 2009 and revamping the product offering ready for Feb 2010 (January is pretty much written off down here I’m told, much like August in France).

Many thanks to those of you who’ve ordered the pack this year - be sure to tell your friends or colleagues about the unique gift but please advise that ordering won’t be back up and running until the new year.

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Enough product promotion! The real topic of this post is news of a major new wild west themed computer game launching in 2010 - Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar Games, the company behind the often scandalous Grand Theft Auto series.

The London Times explains how programmers have to date always found horses and gunsmoke hard ‘to do’, well it seems from the trailer video below they have cracked that problem.

The game, featuring ‘John Marston’ - who looks a lot like a spaghetti western era Clint Eastwood - is due out on 27 April 2010 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I can’t say I’m a big console gamer but the video promo looks superb and may entice me into shelling out the dollars required. But which platform to buy? Recommendations welcome.

Red Dead Redemption video trailer

Like it? Love it? The game’s got everything a wild west buff could want: red butte landscapes reminiscent of Monument Valley; railroad trains with cowcatchers charging across creaking wooden bridges; dusty one horse towns; even Mexican bandits and pueblo architecture straight out of The Magnificent Severn.

Going to pre-order my copy come January. In the meantime, a Merry Xmas to all!

Another great find I stumbled upon today whilst Googling for wild west history resources, the online multiplayer game with an old west theme - Wild West Online: Gunfighter.

I signed up straight away and downloaded the plugin to allow me to play against others. Given how many attempts it took me to register a new character with a unique screen name there must be armies of gunfighters waiting to stare each other down.

What name did I plump for? Well all combinations of Zane were gone so I decided on ‘Jake Zelko’ for a little bit of western authenticity/Lee Van Cleef intimidation to start.

So far I’ve only managed the 3 tutorial lessons/duels and will report back on progress. I’d be interested in hearing tips from other players, just the array of items in the store alone confused me.

I’ve always loved old pinball and arcade style machines - how about this classic wild west design pinball machine for your games room? Oddly built before the days of flippers. Bid now!

Building on the gun-play in the previous western shoot-em up game, Old West 2 from Miniclip.com sees you chasing after a new set of bad guys.

This time you can arrest, challenge to a duel, or just plain blast away at the furniture in a western saloon. Your enemies this time around are Billy The Brute, Billy & Bob Thorntuns and The Carlton Gang.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another great western-themed Flash game to play thanks to the fine folks at Miniclip.com.

The ‘Old West Shoot ‘em Up’ sees you take to the streets of a one horse town and pit your wits, gunfighter-style with the dastardly Bartholomeus Black, Pigeon-toed Juan, Dimwit Dale and Stupid Grin Gary. If you can beat them at quick draw you walk away $40,000 richer. Read the rest of this entry »

Stumbled across this Cowboy Flash game today which made me smile on a slow Friday morning.

The idea is you fire your guns to fly through the air, avoiding obstacles and moving up levels. It’s very, very hard to avoid the prickly cacti and I love the way every time you die you leave another tombstomb behind.