BitSnark

Where were you in 2005? No seriously, where were you? Well, in November 2005 I was at home with my semi-trusty Xbox 360 playing the underrated GUN – an open world Western by Neversoft, the folks that made the Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles.

Arriving on the scene a good five or so years before Red Dead Redemption, GUN thrust you into the stinky cowboy boots of Colton White, a gravelly voiced gunslinger whose brusque tones were handily provided by the original Punisher, Thomas Jane.

Set in the 1880s, GUN has you cutting about the place blasting bandits, prospecting for gold (it conveniently came in massively obvious chunks), herding cattle and completing missions and side-missions. In short, at the time, GUN seemed like The Good Shit and did the whole open world Western thing a good while before Red Dead Redemption was even a stir in the collective ball-sacks of Rockstar Games board of directors.

Most notably, you could also scalp fools too, which despite being all kinds of fucking grisly, was strangely satisfying in a way that I am sure won’t land me in an insane asylum.

I mean, sure, the ravages of time are such that GUN looks more like The Ridiculous 6, rather than The Magnificent Seven, but the fact remains that for its time it was a satisfying brutal Wild West odyssey that not only deserved a sequel, but perhaps also a contemporary re-release of some kind (if only because the Western is probably the most poorly represented setting in gaming right now – or at least until October 2018 rolls around).

I’d pay a Fistful of Dollars/Pounds for that shit – would you?