The EU, Aus and US stores might be catching up but the Japan store is so far ahead of us it's not even funny.

Also the EU store got a bunch of PS1 games today that the US didn't get :P

it takes awhile but with a little work the fighting becomes amazing, even with the limited demo. after playing 30 mins or so i didn't even notice that i couldn't jump, isn't necessary at all. the combos are spectacular when you start really getting them, and those finishing moves when you get them, WOW, badazz animations. i was hoping for 1080p though, but that's my only complaint, and not much of one at that.

Yeah. They uploaded some classic platformers - Crash 2, Spyro 2 and Medieval... I'm going to download Crash 1 and 2 for my PSP - game still looks nice, especially on such small screen.

That's the point. Game is pretty complex. No way to score it properly after 5 or 7 minutes. Personally I love counters the most. There is so much different moves it's just stunning... -  neck breaker with legs is one of the best as for me, also kill from behind is cool. I like to hear begging for mercy ! Game rocks.

Isn't the demo running from the hard drive rather than Blu-Ray?

I really like the counter system as well. The three stances I already knew about, but the counter system was a good surprise.

Also, I really want stance switching combos to be in the game and I'm hoping there is because of how they decided to make the stance selection (holding L1 or R1).

Yes it is, but I'm almost 100 percent that this effect is in the game and that's why they had it in the demo. The Darkness did it aleady, this game does it better.

Downloaded it Played it Very impressed with it.Combat system is complicated and hard to get used to if you havent played with that sought of system before i.e.Ninja Gaiden.
Not being able to jump was abit annoying for the first few minutes but you forget about that once you get used to it.Short demo for about an hour of downloading but well worth it.
Overall:7.8

Well, well... this should be interesting (puts flame resistant armour on...).

Shams (the apparant mortal enemy of Sony fans everywhere) has played the HS demo!

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My work has a PS3, and on my way out of work I realised that the demo was downloaded and running!! So I had to have a go - just to be able to participate in this thread if nothing else. 

Prelude - this is the 2nd PS3 I have ever played (first being a couple of games of Motorstorm). Although I can "use it", I generally dislike the controller (now used to being able to "separate" hands now).

I also don't play this style of game. Haven't played God of War I / II for instance. 

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Comments:

Graphics - quite nice. Frame rate seemed solid, backgrounds nice and colourful. I do seem to have a general issue with "detailed" objects that are too zoomed out - as if the filtering isn't as good as it should be. Whenever the game zoomed in, it looked really excellent - less excellent at a distance. Her hair seems a little "extreme" IMO.

Animations are above average - but only that. Its more of a engine/code issue, but the way the anims look is "last-gen" IMO. For instance, you can get her running on the spot, yet not moving - blocked by an enemy. Its not dynamic enough - not enough transfer of momentum, no pushing/charging enemies (based on position), etc. Look at Assassins Creed for a good example of how it could work.

Sound - unfortunately I was playing with the sound down, so no comments (it was a workplace, although no one was working).

Gameplay - this is where I must disagree with most people here. I only played it twice, but it definitely had the feel of a "button masher" to me. I got through it twice by (almost) bashing/randomly tapping. Tried all three stances/weapons as well. Reminds me a bit of Soul Calibre, where you get access to three characters/weapons at once. It might even play similiar to how "Legends" plays (minus the Wiimote controls of course).

All that said, I have no doubt that with practice - you can learn combos and moves, and better at executing your enemies with skill (just like any fighting game). The game also reminds me of Ninja Gaiden - although I haven't played that either, just watched people play it. 

Other comments:

 - presentation is excellent (as I "associate" with Sony games - very cinematic, like a movie)

 - AI seemed "wrong". I know its a demo - and a game - but I thought we were over the age of being surrounded by enemies that attack you one at a time. I haven't seen this sort of thing for a while now.

 - the only thing in the demo that seemed "buggy", to me was the objects/physics. Everything feels like it is made of balsawood - shattering, and with fragments flying everywhere at the slightest touch - regardless of what the object was. No weight. It looked nice, but it felt very unrealistic. There might have been a (gameplay) point to the objects, but I didn't see it.

 - the bit where you are riding ropes was ok - but felt devoid of "control". I dunno, maybe it was intentional (didn't seem to have a solid connection between my button presses, and what was happening). Still looked nice.

 - IMO, the "demo" shouldn't have been more than 100MB. The whole intro movie was unnecessary. Can't believe it was 1Gig!

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In the end, I am not going to give it a score. I only played it twice, and as I said above - its not really my sort of game. If I did like this sort of game (and had a PS3), I would almost certainly buy it - as its very pretty, and does what it sets out to do pretty well.

But a final comment as well. Friday afternoon is "game" afternoon at my work (after 5pm). No one was playing this (in fact, I picked up the game half though - someone had stopped and walked away). Also, I was surprised that no one came to watch me play. As nice as this was, it wasn't enough to distract any of the gamers at my work (including some PS fans) from doing whatever they were doing.

 No normally I'd agree with you but some of the people seemed to imply that it was common place to me, not because of server clutter. I can see it as far more feesable with server congestion though, can't say that hasn't affected me at least a few hundred times over the years.  FFXI comes to mind... 10 hour update  but that was a lot more then a million and the shell server just went boom lol