Dear Doris,
The cactus-covered plains of Arizona are beautiful, but I heed them nothing when I remember your face. I will be returning soon. The cattle that we are bringing from Mexico are moving along just fine. My concern right now is to keep them safe from rustlers, which are plentiful here.
Last night we took the fight to their door and raided the ranch where we found some of their horses. Don't worry - I'm fine, and I won't be making a habit of it. You should have seen Billy in action...our boy is growing up to be a fine young man. I hope he remembers who taught him how to ride and shoot so well, and I hope it serves him in a better living than driving beef every year.
I'll write you again in a couple of nights. By the time you get these letters I will be in Wyoming, much closer to home.
With love,
Angus Redbot
It was bound to happen; and it will again...hopefully this addition to the saturation of coverage already received will not turn you off to this game. However, the game most prevalent to my attention right now is Red Dead Redemption, so it gets the Battlefield Report treatment. I apologize in advance if I don't shake it up a bit - I'd rather not use this monthly feature to hype a game that's still fresh on the shelves. Plus, our review is pending, so I won't go into what I like most about this game. Instead, I'm going to describe my first Gang Shootout and let you decide how much fun I had.
Shootout is essentially a deathmatch-style multiplayer versus mode for up to eight players. Gang Shootout is the team version. I initiated the match in Armadillo without having a posse ready - oops. Within about 20 seconds, a small posse of three random players were facing off in the street against...me. The game instructed me to draw and shoot whomever I could nail before they nailed me. I was ready, but my draw wasn't quick enough; I landed two shots on the poor bastard on the left before I was dead in the dirt.
"Naw, dang."
Upon respawning, I realized for the first time that the game had automatically assigned me as a U.S. Army soldier, and had changed my appearance and weapons loadout to match. I was a fat slob that took up 5% more screen space, I was outgunned, and had to use unfamiliar weapons. In other words: I was either going to have to fight hard, or suffer through the next ten minutes.
After a second to catch my breath and inspect my weapons, I figured my first and most immediate course of action should be to get cozy with some cover. I found a fairly secluded hay bale and commenced to peeking around the edge, watching for movement. Since sprinting marks you on the enemy's radar, all I had to do was wait for someone to sprint across the gap. Sure enough, the other team quickly overestimated their quarry and began scrambling for better position - their impatience would be their undoing. One of them - having grabbed a sniper rifle - stood by on overwatch, but until I started banging away with my repeater rifle they had no clue where I was. This helped me to get my first unimpeded kill of the match...at which point my position was compromised and I had to high-tail it out or wait for them to get into better position.