Remember how the Turok demo released last week on PS3, but the 360 owners were left without the feeling of dino blood on their hands? That has now been rectified with the release of the dinosaur hunter’s demo on Xbox LIVE in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The PAL version is still expected in early February.

First impressions of the game are that it’s a fairly adequate shooter. The mechanics of gun control respond well, but do not change up your standard FPS fare. Being powered by Unreal Engine 3, there are some nice looking pieces throughout the demo. The jungles are particularly nice to look at. I do wish the dinos had a bit more weight to them. They are rendered beautifully, but it often feels that they’re not part of the same environment you are. It’s all very half-hearted in feel. Even the knife kills, which are the highlight of the demo, appear to be a one-trick pony. If that’s all there is to dino dispatching, then you might get bored before the demo ends.

This is what it is though. The game releases in less than a month, so there’s no real time to polish any of the problems up. And the biggest issue is Turok is another entrant in the series that doesn’t appear to live up to its potential. I guess we’ll just have to continue trying to remember why anyone loved the series in the first place.