At this point, it's almost cliche to point out that past Superman titles haven't been all that great. And when the concept trailers and target renders for EA's Superman Returns hit, they didn't exactly inspire confidence. Well Superman fans, it's time to breathe a sign of relief: At only 40% completion, the playable 360 demo EA has available on the showfloor looks to be shaping up nicely.

Walking us through two missions, EA representative Jeremy Townsend made sure to highlight the various features of the game. First up was Warworld Arena, which highlights the combat. First, players fight the alien Overcast using melee combat. Upon defeat, Overcast swells to a huge energy form, and this form isn't so vulnerable to those punches. Instead, players must use the environment, lifting huge blocks from buildings, grabbing whole sections of towers, and throw them in Overcast's direction. This also calls attention to the importance of physics: remove the corner from a tower and watch the whole structure comes crumbling down.

Back in Metropolis, Townsend demonstrated the scope of the city. At over 80 square miles, with over 8,000 buildings, Metropolis is a huge place. The city is split up into 9 unique districts, each with their own distinctive architecture and cars. Cars and pedestrians behave in accordance with traffic laws, obeying street lights instead of haphazardly wandering about.

With Superman being Superman, he's got a wide array of powers available to him, chiefly super-strength, heat vision, flying, not to mention a powerful breath attack that sends cars and pedestrians flying. And therein lies the challenge of Superman, it's not to defeat enemies, but rather, to do so in the least disruptive method possible. Sure, a charged up heat ray may sound like a good idea, but in hindsight, the flaming car chassis and fleeing pedestrians littering suggest it wasn't the best course of action. Likewise, Superman's powers can be used to help people as well, the potential disaster of blimp being consumed by fire averted by Superman blowing the fire out.

Even though it's only 40% complete, Superman Returns is looking pretty solid, both from a gameplay and graphical standpoint. Watch for it to be released this fall alongside the Superman Returns DVD.