GC '07: Devil May Cry 4 Xbox 360 Hands-On

LEIPZIG, Germany--It may not come as pleasant news to those PlayStation fans who once coveted their precious exclusive Devil May Cry, but Capcom's hyperkinetic action series is just as furious and fluid on the Xbox 360 as it is on the PlayStation 3. We know this because we played through an entire two-part demo on the Xbox 360 here at the Leipzig Games Convention. We were pleased to see that those who want to slash up a bunch of creepy marionettes and earn achievement points for doing so will get the same core experience as their Sony-based counterparts.

As far as content goes, the demo here in Leipzig is the same as the one we've been seeing periodically on the PlayStation 3 since May or so. One section gives you a 10-minute run through a cathedral, as well as a series of courtyards, in which you can use main character Nero's sword, gun, and demon arm to rip up hordes of the game's characteristically disturbing, shambling enemies. The other section of the demo sends you through a snowy mountain environment to Fortuna Castle, after which you'll take on the massive fire demon Berial in an epic battle in a small village. If you've been keeping up with Devil May Cry 4 in the slightest, you should be well acquainted with this material already.

For those wondering how this game compares to the PS3 original, the story here is that there is no story: They're identical to our eyes. Capcom had kiosks set up with Xbox 360 and PS3 demos running literally side by side; we couldn't note a difference in frame rate or image fidelity between them. Naturally, this owes entirely to the development efforts Capcom has invested in its new multiplatform next-generation engine, which works on the 360, PS3, and PC. We haven't seen the PC version of DMC4 yet, but a Capcom Europe rep told us that there's no appreciable difference in that version either (provided your hardware is beefy enough, of course).

We've got video of the entire DMC4 presentation on the 360, and we'll get that posted for you to check out with your own eyes as soon as possible. Then again, you'd be served just as well by checking out our previous PS3 footage of the demo. They're really just that similar.