Boy, slow news day. Despite the fact that it's cold as hell almost everywhere in the country and there's nothing better to do, even gaming goes through a serious lull at the start of the year. That may be why Ubisoft chose it to announce the sequel to the mediocre western FPS Call of Juarez. An announcement like this would get lost during a busier time of year, but right now we've got little else to discuss, so hey - Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is coming out this year!

For those who didn't play it (which I assume is all of you), Call of Juarez released for PC and 360 in 2007 and tried to do many, many things - poorly. I should know. I actually played all the way through the damn game in the hopes it was anything like Rockstar's excellent Red Dead Revolver. It wasn't. Developer Techland threw everything they could think of into Call of Juarez: analog duels, physics puzzles, collectibles, first-person platforming, steath, degrading weapons, timed segments, horseback riding, whip-swinging and (of course) bullet time. The result was a game that did many things poorly and almost nothing well. In fact, the only thing that Call of Juarez did right was one of its characters: the insane bible-quoting Reverend Ray. Sadly (spoiler!) Reverend Ray dies at the end.

I have a feeling Techland realized that Ray was the best part of the first game. Bound in Blood is a prequel, so the good reverend is going to ride again. That's young Ray in the black duster.