Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop

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Preview: Bulletstorm!

Kill with skill indeed!

The download became available through Xbox live for the demo of Bulletstorm. I got a few recommendations for this game from friends and decided to give it a try. Plus, this was made by the crew at Epic Games, who are responsible for Gears of War, one of my favorites.

Great hell, what a blast!(no pun intended)

The game revolves around a group of mercenaries, dropped onto an island of freaks and mutants. Your fearless leader is a grizzled, hard ass veteran who throws around curses like they're his first language. He gives you instructions on weaponry, which includes the popular Lancer, as you might recall from Gears of War, a grenade thrower, and a pistol on steroids. Each weapon can be hyper charged to produce, well, a big bang. The Lancer incinerates, the grenade launcher decapitates, and the little pistol fires a flare that propels bad guys in the air like a  firework.

Why would you want to shoot a mutant in the air like a firework? Glad you asked.

This first person shooter depends not only on survival, but style. As you pummel your way through this island, you rack up points by how well and how different you kill, maim, shoot, blow-up, and utterly massacre the enemies. Want to get more points? Use your laser whip, which is conveniently attached to your left arm, to grab a freak from across the room (Scorpion anybody? GET OVER HERE!), fling him toward you, give him a big boot to the stomach to send him slowly flying in the air, then mow him down with your machine gun. Similarly, lasso him into a wall of jagged rebar and metal to get a Voodoo Doll kill added to your point total. The crazier the kill, the better the reward. Be creative!

I played the demo about 16 times now, trying different "styles". There's nothing like slide tackling a mutant into a wall, using the pistol to flare it up in the air, then trying to aim for a headshot before it hits the ground. The demo has its own leaderboard, so you can see how your points added up against your friends. The full game, when it's released in February, will allow skill points to be spent on upgrades for your character.

All in all, Bulletstorm looks amazing, has a flawless feel (if you played Gears of War, then controlling Bulletstorm is like riding a bike), and brings a unique twist on a FPS. This should ease the anticipation to Gears of War 3. I'm also looking forward to the multiplayer mayhem and giant bosses, which they teased with a video at the end of the demo. Teaming up with your friends to accumulate points and survive against hordes of mutants sounds like a great Friday night to me!

P.S, I couldn't help but notice, between the F-bombs and d-jokes, the voice of your leader, Grayson Hunt sounds like a guy named Steven Blum. This gentleman provided the voice of Spike from Cowboy Bebop, played Wolverine in numerous games and cartoons, and more currently voice acted in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Dragon Age: Origins. Awesome!

About the Author

Mike writes rough, amateurish articles for www.castersfirst.com, a website about video games, hobbies, dungeons and dragons, and beer.

Falling - Cowboy Bebop

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Cowboy Bebop