Devil May Cry 4 Demo

Yes, I know this post is outdated, the demo did come out on the 24th of January after all. However, I am a XBox Live Silver user, being too stingy to pay the AU$99.95 for a one-year Gold membership - so I couldn't get the demo until several days after 24th January. So how is the demo? It's short. Really short. It's like, maybe 20 minutes long. But what would we expect of a 613MB demo? Some demos are 1GB large and end up giving even less than 20 minutes.

Things I learned from the demo about the game I've been waiting for:

1. The game still feels the same. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or a good thing, but the game still feels the same to me. Besides Nero's EXCEED gauge (which is cool), and Nero's Devil Bringer arm (which is even cooler), it feels the same. Slashing, shooting, combos and even enemies feel positively Devil May Cry.

2. Nero kicks ass. The EXCEED gauge is brilliant if you are looking for some added strategy. Should I charge it while waiting? When should I fire off the first hit? Do I have time now to press that right trigger a few more times? (Yes, I suck horribly at charging the sword while slashing around.) The Devil Bringer abilities feel kind of broken sometimes. While in the demo, we're only shown two: the Buster and the Grim Grip. The Buster is well, quite honestly cool looking when you use it against Berial. The Grim Grip is well, kinda funny. To me, it serves as a way to continue a combo, since it's a pretty easy way to disable enemies, or grab one you hit too far away back to dish out another helping of damage.

3. The game looks awesome. The graphics are nice. The frame rate is nice. The fighting is nice. The cinematic scenes are nice.

4. Loading screens are crap. Why are there loading screens everywhere?! We're in next-gen and I'm still seeing loading screens everywhere. LOL. Of course, that could have something to do with me playing it from a CD instead of a DVD or HDD. (Hats off to Microsoft for delaying demos for us cheapskates. Buggers. I'll be sure to buy less XBox 360 games from now on, see how you like it. :P)

5. I still definitely want the game. Heh.

Japanese Anime I'm Currently Watching

Well, since I talked about US TV series I following, it is only fitting that I continue by blogging about Japanese anime I'm currently following too. 1. CLANNAD - Well, er, do you need a reason to follow it? KyoAni still pulls it off well. I've followed every series the company has put out since AIR.

2. kimikiss - I'm still following it closely.

3. Minami-ke Okawari - still hilarious, still funny.

4. Shakugan no Shana II - Well, the long first half was beginning to remind me why I didn't watch Zero no Tsukaima. I'm unsure when I'll give up on the series, but I think it might be soon.

5. Bleach - I have kind of stopped following it - but that being said I do intend to catch up eventually. Hopefully not too long later.

6. Zetsubou-sensei - The antics of the easily despaired teacher and his crazy group of students is always good entertainment. Or at least I think so. Does anybody else think this is strange?

I haven't picked up any new ones since I have considerably less time to follow anime now that I'm back in Malaysia. I suppose I'll follow Gundam 00 one fine day. One fine day.