This is where the game got interesting, launching from a short introductory meet-and-greet between Colton and Jenny to a full-on shoot-out in the bar seamlessly, with everything delivered in real-time (Neversoft promises the entire game will stream for no load times from the very start). Literally dozens of characters threw punches, rolled around, fell from banisters and dodged incoming fire before returning their own.

During all of this Colton was able to use cover and deliver precision shots to build up something the developers are calling "Quick Draw Mode", which allows for a first-person zoom in of a bullet-time-speed viewpoint, allowing for some amazingly violent and satisfying headshots or tactical dis-arms (y'know, by just taking out the whole arm).

While the length and pacing of Quick Draw remains to be tweaked, it's entirely possible that Neversoft, in their tireless quest for the ultimate combo, may make it something you can string together for a huge stretch of slo-mo. This applies to the horseback controls as well; we got to see a scene later in the game where Colton could mount and dismount at will as he blasted away at dozens of enemies riding on horses of their own.

We got a glimpse of a couple different types of levels, including a fort shootout that culminated in a portable cannon that shot out massive cannonballs at enemies and a huge assault on army forces by local Indians. Neversoft promises hunting missions, opium den clear outs, stagecoach escort missions, engage in ambushes and, we're told, plenty more.

One of the cooler (and quite often used) moves was an Unreal Tournament-style one-two attack where sticks of dynamite were thrown and then shot to explode in a delicious slo-mo explosion for fantastic effect. It also showed off some of the physics in the game, and Quick Draw hits -- especially those from a shotgun -- just plain feel powerful and look great as Colton sends people soaring into the air for multiple in-air hits.

After seeing the genre really gain traction with the admittedly atmospheric and awesome Red Dead Revolver, it's nice to know the Wild West is still an area rife with options -- especially when a free-roaming aspect is called into play. The face that Neversoft is so committed to not only delivering an open-ended world to play around with, but that they have no qualms with showing the more visceral side of things means we could be looking at the first game to really deliver the feeling of interacting with some of the toughest moments in American history.

There's still plenty of work that needs to be done tightening up the player models, some of the animations and the overall physics model, but the sheer amount of promise the game offers is more than enough to get us salivating all over again. Provided Neversoft can nail the immersive story, engaging characters and mix up the gameplay enough to keep things going for a couple dozen hours, we could be looking at one of the biggest games to come along in years. We'll have more as soon as we get it.