Any Wild West Video games?

[Cikomyr]

Beside Red Dead Redemption, which was awesome.

[Flickerdart]

There's The Town With No Name, which is, uhh...well, technically a game.

Probably also a Wild West mod for Mount and Blade somewhere.

[Brother Oni]

Age of Empires 3, Assassin's Creed 3, Call of Juarez, Desparados and Oregon Trail all spring to mind. Wikipedia has a page of these as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Western_%28genre%29_video_games).

[Gaelbert]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a good one. The other games in the setting are Western as well, but I didn't find them quite as good.
Fistful of Frags is a multiplayer Western shooter. I haven't seriously played it in a year now, but back then it was quite fun.

[The_Jackal]

I don't know if I would call AoE3 a wild west game. It's more of a 'world-spanning european colonialism' RTS. Great game, but the heart of the game is Napoleonic Era warfare, not six-gun toting cowherds. I will concede it does have plenty of native Americans.

[Mando Knight]

Yeah, AoE3's time period ends about half a century early for the Wild West at best, and has little to do with post-colonial America.

Fallout: New Vegas has a bit of a Western vibe to it, but it's more in a "Knights of Cydonia" manner... so if "The Good, the Bad, and the Robots" isn't your thing, then I'd stay away from A Fistful of Bottlecaps New Vegas.

[Brother Oni]

I don't know if I would call AoE3 a wild west game. It's more of a 'world-spanning european colonialism' RTS. Great game, but the heart of the game is Napoleonic Era warfare, not six-gun toting cowherds. I will concede it does have plenty of native Americans.

I would have thought the final chapter of the game where Amelia Black was building part of the First Transcontinental Railroad would have been smack bang in the middle of the Wild West period, but I'm not very familiar with that time of American history.

I concede that the skirmish mode is entirely European Colonialism RTS though.

[Cikomyr]

I do love New Vegas, its just that i was hoping for something a little more.. westerny, less science-fictiony.

I heard Call of Juarez is good, but isnt it a plain FPS? Nothing like a good RPG?

[Gaelbert]

I do love New Vegas, its just that i was hoping for something a little more.. westerny, less science-fictiony.

I heard Call of Juarez is good, but isnt it a plain FPS? Nothing like a good RPG?

Gunslinger is pretty much a straight FPS (albeit with a skill tree and upgrades) but the earlier games felt more RPGish. Maybe a blend between action RPG and FPS, although I didn't play too far into them so I could be wrong.

[007_ctrl_room]

Age of Empires 3, Assassin's Creed 3, Call of Juarez, Desparados and Oregon Trail all spring to mind. Wikipedia has a page of these as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Western_%28genre%29_video_games).

Call of Juarez +5 GREAT GAME!!

[Cheesegear]

Desperados, which plays like Commandos or Jagged Alliance, but western-themed.

[Cespenar]

Desperados, which plays like Commandos or Jagged Alliance, but western-themed.

It plays like Commandos but nothing like JA. /nitpick

Though still a pretty fun game.

[Cikomyr]

I know i disliked Commandos when i was young. But maybe because i was a noncerebral hothead.

[Cespenar]

This is almost an eye-opener, though. One would expect the Wild West theme to be milked just as much as, say, WW2, but it turns out that's not the case.

In video games, at least.

[Cristo Meyers]

This is almost an eye-opener, though. One would expect the Wild West theme to be milked just as much as, say, WW2, but it turns out that's not the case.

In video games, at least.

They were more populous back in the Nintendo-era and before, but by the time Red Dead Redemption came around the genre was considered pretty well and truly dead. Redemption's predecessor, Red Dead Revolver and GUN were the only two other Wild West games to come out post Playstation-era (and possibly post SNES era).

[The_Jackal]

I would have thought the final chapter of the game where Amelia Black was building part of the First Transcontinental Railroad would have been smack bang in the middle of the Wild West period, but I'm not very familiar with that time of American history.

I concede that the skirmish mode is entirely European Colonialism RTS though.

Yeah, I never played that far into the Campaign, it got really tedious really early for me.

[The_Jackal]

This is almost an eye-opener, though. One would expect the Wild West theme to be milked just as much as, say, WW2, but it turns out that's not the case.

In video games, at least.

Westerns have been decidedly out of the public vogue since the 1960's. In 2010, 80% of America lived in urban/suburban areas, and the remaining 20% live in rural areas. The last time more than half of Americans lived outside cities and suburbs was 1910, so you've now got a state of affairs where the majority of American consumers don't even have relatives who live a rural lifestyle.

[Cikomyr]

Westerns have been decidedly out of the public vogue since the 1960's. In 2010, 80% of America lived in urban/suburban areas, and the remaining 20% live in rural areas. The last time more than half of Americans lived outside cities and suburbs was 1910, so you've now got a state of affairs where the majority of American consumers don't even have relatives who live a rural lifestyle.

Still... I'd figure a Total Conversion project of a system like... Shadowrun Returns would lend itself damn well to a Western RPG, don't you think?

[Cespenar]

Westerns have been decidedly out of the public vogue since the 1960's. In 2010, 80% of America lived in urban/suburban areas, and the remaining 20% live in rural areas. The last time more than half of Americans lived outside cities and suburbs was 1910, so you've now got a state of affairs where the majority of American consumers don't even have relatives who live a rural lifestyle.

That's actually a good explanation. Probably would explain the outbreak (heh) of zombie related stuff in the last years as well.

[t209]

They were more populous back in the Nintendo-era and before, but by the time Red Dead Redemption came around the genre was considered pretty well and truly dead. Redemption's predecessor, Red Dead Revolver and GUN were the only two other Wild West games to come out post Playstation-era (and possibly post SNES era).
To be fair, Red Dead Redemption is set in end of Western frontier era.
- Majority of native americans locked up in reservations.
- One of the settlement is a city in its own rights with movies and auto-mobile.

[Gaelbert]

Westerns have been decidedly out of the public vogue since the 1960's. In 2010, 80% of America lived in urban/suburban areas, and the remaining 20% live in rural areas. The last time more than half of Americans lived outside cities and suburbs was 1910, so you've now got a state of affairs where the majority of American consumers don't even have relatives who live a rural lifestyle.

You have a good point but I don't think it's quite that simple. Westerns were pretty popular during the 1950s and probably peaked in public support during the late 1960s into the mid 70s before basically dying off. A solid majority of America was urbanized by 1950 and that trend only increased in the postwar era. While the original support for Westerns probably did derive in some way from nostalgic imaginings of the country, I'd also argue that they were tied to Americans' perception of international trends. The Westerns from the 1950s were pretty much standard Western morality plays with pretty simple lines of "who is right and who is wrong." The Vietnam era saw a resurgence of Westerns but those were significantly more gritty and less "go team, shoot them baddies." And the end of the war saw the decline of Westerns as a genre. I'd need to do more research to back up these claims, but I've always seen Westerns as the mirror of the noir films of the time.

[Flickerdart]

I've always seen Westerns as the mirror of the noir films of the time.
Now I really want to see a film noir style Western, complete with gravelly self-narrating cowboy protagonist.

[The_Jackal]

Now I really want to see a film noir style Western, complete with gravelly self-narrating cowboy protagonist.

Unforgiven.

[Tiltowait]

There's "Gun.Smoke" for NES, and if you want to go even further back, Shigeru Miyamoto's "Sheriff" arcade game.
And "Time Lord" had a level where you travel back in time to the Wild West, though I don't recommend actually playing that game :smallsigh:
"Tin Star" for SNES was a Wild West-themed shooter of sorts.

[heronbpv]

"Wanted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_%28video_game%29)" for the Sega Master System as well.

[GloatingSwine]

To be fair, Red Dead Redemption is set in end of Western frontier era.
- Majority of native americans locked up in reservations.
- One of the settlement is a city in its own rights with movies and auto-mobile.

Thematically, Red Dead Redemption passes through the three main periods of the Western. The first third of the game (before Mexico) is the classic era, good guys and bad guys are clearly delineated and the setting is the small town frontier, pioneering spirit abounds and people are building a new life and it's generally got a positive view of the future.

The middle third (Mexico) is the spaghetti western era, loyalties are complex and heroes are tarnished, people are fighting over what's there now and dreams of what could be are the source of conflict not what happens after it.

The final third, after the return from Mexico, is the "end of the west" era of The Wild Bunch, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance, and Unforgiven, now there aren't any heroes at all, or at least they aren't what they look like. There are bad guys and worse and the era of the frontier spirit is over, the view here is retrospective, trying to escape what was not build what will be.

(And then Jack Marston is a ****lord and we all stop playing)

Hell, even the dominant colours of the gameworld change to reflect the different moods of the three periods, the first third is oranges tempered with the greens of the scrubland, the middle third is harsher with less green and the sharp white of the buildings, and the third part is positively melancholic (especially Marston's farm) with dull greens and browns.

(This is why RDR2 will never be as good, the first one did it all when it came to encapsulating the Western genre)

[Brother Oni]

(This is why RDR2 will never be as good, the first one did it all when it came to encapsulating the Western genre)

I really need to get back to playing RDR again. I remember I got up to the gatling gun raid, then my children hit impressionable age and gunning people down from horseback was not an acceptable activity while they were awake.

[Cikomyr]

I really need to get back to playing RDR again. I remember I got up to the gatling gun raid, then my children hit impressionable age and gunning people down from horseback was not an acceptable activity while they were awake.

Come on!

https://4chanmemeandmotivational.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/fatherhood_-_if_you_kill_that_hooker_you_can_get_your_money_ba ck.jpg

[Brother Oni]

Come on!

https://4chanmemeandmotivational.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/fatherhood_-_if_you_kill_that_hooker_you_can_get_your_money_ba ck.jpg

I've already mentioned in another thread how I tried once with my daughter, playing Halo: Reach co-op. She started giggling 'Boom! Headshot!' after every time she got one.

Even something less gory like World of Tanks isn't immune - my son made a model tank out of sticklebricks (complete with rotating turret) at kindergarten after watching me play, which lead to ALL the children wanting one. This resulted in a VERY interesting talk at the parent/teacher consultation since armoured warfare tactics aren't on a school's curriculumn outside of the Girls und Panzer universe.

Tying women to train tracks, being able to lynch people and other general GTA: Wild West antics is seriously going to make my wife unhappy. :smalltongue:

[Cikomyr]

But you would teach her that live bounties are worth more!!

[Hazzardevil]

We have the occasional Western genre thing now, but hardly anything at all.
Cowboys and Aliens (arse)
Django Unchained (Apparently good, I haven't got to watching it yet)
12 Years a Slave (In the era, but not focused on cowboys)
Wild Wild West.
And now we get onto older stuff that you can't consider the same as now.

Why is Clint Eastwood wasting his time on American Sniper...

[Kasparius]

Now I really want to see a film noir style Western, complete with gravelly self-narrating cowboy protagonist.

I'm a huge western fan (and noir fan), there are absolutely some western noirs, I have a list I compiled on Imdb from various sources, but I can't post links yet as I'm new here. Google Western Film-Noir by KasparM and you should access it. It's worth your time if you love westerns.


Some of these are noir in theme, others in style, or both. Great examples are Pursued, Blood on the Moon, The Furies, Day of the Outlaw, Winchester 73, Ox-Bow Incident, Ramrod, Rawhide (1951), and then some.

I also love Western themed video games:

obviously my favorite is Red Dead Redemption which is the closest to a time machine I'll ever get, but here are a few others I dug:

Sunset Riders
Gun
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger & Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Westward games (especially III & IV)
Steamworld Dig: Fistful of Dust (Great Metroidvania title, steampunk western)
Oddworld Stranger's Wrath (cartoonish western, but good)
Gunman Clive I & II (platform games similar to Mega Man)
Gun.Smoke (arcade or nes)
Red Dead Revolver (the gameplay has aged poorly)
Pioneer Lands (fun RTS)

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I think there's a new X-COM-inspired game called Hard West. Turn-based tactics with cover-shooting or something like that.

[Cespenar]

I think there's a new X-COM-inspired game called Hard West. Turn-based tactics with cover-shooting or something like that.

Yeah, Hard West is good. Plays like the new X-COM, mostly, but with Weird West aesthetics. There are demons and cultists and infernal pacts and whatnot. Pretty fun.

[Pronounceable]

All this but not one mention of Outlaws? Cmon, you're all tanking your grogcreds. Alone in the Dark 3 is also rather westerny.
...
But the giant gaping whole in gaming industry where western games should be is a mystery. They could make rad RPGs and strategeries with wild west trappings but instead they're cranking out the bahujillionth WW2 or elfland game. Not even indies are pouring into the obvious opening; even if there are some indies doing it, they're drowned out by the swarm.

[TaRix]

If you're willing to stretch the western definition, there's kinda-sorta the Wild Arms series for PS1 and 2. Definitely more a sci-fi/fantasy than a western, though, but many background details are inspired by westerns.