PS3

Riff: Everyday Shooter (PS3)

Why is everything a twin stick shooter these days?

Anyway, this is Rez meets Geometry Wars, if you want a lazy comparison. Hampered slightly by only having eight-way shot control, but good fun.

Snakeball Demo (PS3)

Poo.

Devil May Cry 4 Demo (PS3)

Downloaded this on the PS3 rather than the 360 due to 360 users complaining about the controls. It’s okay to have to use R1 a lot on the PS3 pad, but having RB on the 360 pad as a main button sounds awful. It’s not often that the PS3 wins out in terms of controls, but here’s a rare case.

Anyway, there are two modes. The first is a big chunk of a level, which gives you ten minutes to run around killing things and solving basic puzzles. Actually, that’s a bit too kind. It’s less puzzle solving and more just pressing X when you reach a dead end. The combat, however, is great. You’ve got three different attack buttons and everything you do just looks and feels very cool indeed. (Except when you idiotically try to use melee attacks on enemies several yards away, as I was doing far too often.) Top stuff, even with the millions of tiny cut scenes taking control away from you before and after every encounter.

The second mode gives you a boss fight… apparently. I didn’t manage to make it past some underlings before I even got that far. They kept freezing me and doing far more damage than the pathetic enemies in other part of the demo. I’ll probably try again. Boss difficulty will make the difference between “budget buy” and “avoid forever” on this one.