So…. How ’bout that DMC4 starring Shooty McStabby?The new demo (or old, if you had a peek at the E3 demo) is split into two sections: an adventure style, exploration level capped at 10 minutes and a mini and full-on boss fight capped at the point where the fire belching boss Berial murders you with a sword the size of lower-Manhattan.

The first thing that is very apparent, that wasn’t obvious from the thumbnail screenshots and youtubery video footage of DMC4, is that the now-gen Devil May Cry is very pretty. Environments are detailed and crisp, and the demo’s playable hero Nero (hey, that rhymes) is suitably nonchalant and hip looking in his American Eagle Summer Collection fleece hoodie. The second thing of note in the demo is that environments seem very sterile. In the last DMC, the environments were begging to be demolished in a shower of destruction and red gems. A few areas relive the destructible environment candy of DMC3, but for the most part, the background is hands-off.

Graphics aside, this is Devil May Cry gameplay through and through. Ludicrous combos are easier to pull off thanks to the ability to yank enemies off the ground or across the street, but core shooty/stabby is identical to previous titles. New guy Nero, from the small bits of cinematics in demo, behaves exactly like Dante, for better or worse. Permanently unimpressed and a one-liner for all occasions, if you put Dante on your birthday party invite list, you might as well mark him down for ‘plus one’.PSN network users will have to wait until this afternoon to snag the 640ish Mb demo, but 360 owners can get their shooty and/or stabby on currently (Unless you’re a Silver member, in which case: may God have mercy on your soul).Final verdict: Cautiously optimistic