Demos for Bulletstorm, Crysis 2 fire up XBL

First out of the gate today on Xbox Live are two demos for much-hyped Electronic Arts shooters. Gamers wishing to try their hand at the first-person shooter/kicker Bulletstorm can grab a demo for the game today.

In the demo, players will vault into the gritty boots of hero Grayson Hunt and get a glimpse at the game's Echo mode, a score-based experience featuring the game's campaign environments.

Further, the demo will give players a feel for the game's skill shot system, whereby players are rewarded for killing with skill. Gamers will have access to 45 skill shots in the demo and can wield an arsenal of deadly weaponry, including the peace maker carbine, the flail gun, and the screamer, which turns foes into fireworks.

The other new demo out now is for Crytek's futuristic shooter, Crysis 2. The multiplayer sampler--exclusive to Xbox Live Gold members--thrusts players into the boots of a nanosuit-enabled soldier in a ravaged New York City.

The multiplayer demo will offer the Skyline map, as well as two game modes: Team Instant Action and Crash Site. The former presents a standard deathmatch mode, where players compete to kill as many on the opposing side as they can, gaining ranks and prestige along the way. The latter is a capture-and-hold game type, in which players attempt to secure an alien drop pod and then defend it from the opposing team. The demo for Crysis 2 will end on February 4.

Switching to the Xbox Live Arcade hub, Microsoft will add Atomic Games' online military shooter Breach (1,200 Microsoft points or $15) to the download space tomorrow. From the developer of the controversial Six Days in Fallujah comes this shooter, which aims for battlefield realism.

More specifically, Breach concerns itself with the CIA's secretive Special Activities Division. The online multiplayer shooter offers players a number of classes to choose from, ranging from heavy gunner to recon. The first-person shooter also incorporates a cover system, destructible environments for nearly everything in the game, and a range of high-tech weaponry and other accoutrements.

Added to the Games on Demand hub today was The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena ($20). The title is an expanded version of the critically acclaimed The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, released on the original Xbox in 2004 and on the PC in 2005. The game includes the entire original game, which was a prequel to the 2004 film The Chronicles of Riddick starring Vin Diesel, as well as an all-new campaign.

Gamers looking for a deal this week can download an assortment of 2K and Rockstar Games content marked down 50 percent. Discounted wares included content for BioShock 2, Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II, GTA: IV, and others. For the full list of marked down items, check out Major Nelson's blog.