What really happens is that three maverick cops meet each other and embark on a 'hellish road trip' that spans 16 co-op missions. Presumably this is a subliminal attempt to induce the media-friendly soundbite: 'Clint Eastwood meets The Shield.' It's still a Western, we're told, 'a lawless world where good guys fight against bad guys and let the bullets speak for them.' Apparently, Westerns feature 'Real Men,' and to emphasise this we're shown a picture of Clint Eastwood and also one of hard-hitting cop show, The Shield. In gaming terms, the real controversy lies in the present day Los Angeles setting. The Call Of Juarez series probably doesn't have the profile or marketing budget for any major hullabaloo, but drug-related issues aside, there is also some treatment of Mexicans that wouldn't be out of place on Top Gear: at one point, a reticent suspect is asked, 'You got beans in your ears, asshole?' Lovely stuff. (By unfortunate coincidence, one of the major traffickers from Mexico to the US is called The Juarez Cartel). The game has already garnered some controversy due to the ongoing drug wars in Mexico, with some officials calling for it to be banned. Out go the Native Americans, in come the Mexicans, and we are literally told by a Frenchman - that Mexicans are the new Indians. Or as Ubisoft/Techland's somewhat clumsy tagline asserts: The Wild West Lives On In Modern Days. It's a neat conceit that prepares you for what's ahead, namely a modern Western. This is drummed home in the intro, which shows a clichéd view of the Wild West and its distinctive rock formations, before the camera pans out to reveal that we're looking at a poster and the real location is thick with traffic. Not so much A River Runs Through It, as a great big fucking freeway. Whereas the original game had you hiding in the bushes with a whip, the second had you wandering round frontier towns number three will see you careering down four lanes of traffic toting a machinegun. The Cartel is, to put it mildly, something a departure from the first two instalments. So what has Polish outfit Techland done with their slightly popular Wild West franchise? Turned it into an 80's action movie, of course.

With the runaway success of Red Dead Redemption, and, at the cinema, the Oscar-nominated True Grit, Westerns would be appear to be very much on the agenda in recent times.

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