When I think of skillful explorations of the violence, the rugged spirit and the moral ambiguity of America’s Wild West, the natural choice for such an endeavour in video game form is Swedish gaming companies Paradox Interactive and Fatshark. Yes, Swedish.

Paradox Interactive makes their first foray into console gaming with the newly announced Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West, a team-based third person shooter set in the wildest of the Wild West.

Lead and Gold promises to use a unique Synergy system, which “encourages co-operation and team tactics to achieve a maximum gameplay experience and rewards”. Anything that encourages actual team play in an online game is plus in my book. Other announced features include four distinct playable characters with a multitude of strengths and weaknesses,  a diverse level-up system letting you adapt your character to each game round as it unfolds and a multitude of different game modes and settings, all with a distinct feeling of the Old West.

Personally, I get a Old West version of Borderlands kind of vibe from this information, which is not a bad things at all.

Planned for a Q1 2010 launch, Lead and Gold could collide with Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, offering a choice of wild west gunslinging titles early in the new year. Oddly though, Paradox have not specificied exactly which consoles the game will be arriving on, though Xbox 360 and PS3 seem most likely.