Demo Overload!
In the past few weeks, publishers have gone demo crazy, releasing a flood of them to drown consumers in their best hopes for a big holiday this year. I haven't been keeping up, meaning I still have to take a look at the ones for Valkyria Chronicles, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Mirror's Edge, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Tom Clancy's Endwar. They're not all games I plan on buying, but you never know; I could end up loving the little taste, and decide I need to have more.
Most of the time, demos just confirm my feelings one way or another, but they rarely change my mind. The last time I bought a game I probably would have ignored based on the demo was Mega Man 9. I was a little concerned about the difficulty at first, but playing the demo made me realize while the game was tough, it was definitely doable for me. The game has ended up being one of my favorite surprises this year (although I seem to have stalled taking on the final boss). As for a turn the other way, I probably held out hope for too long that Haze would be a decent FPS, but the demo really confirmed every negative thing people had to say about the game in my eyes. I've even seen the game dropped to less than $10 in a few places, and I can't bring myself to care.
With that in mind, can you think of a time a demo did its job and convinced you to pick up a game? Maybe it was something you were on the fence about, and it pushed you over, or perhaps it was something you didn't expect to like at all, but playing the demo made you a believer. On the other side, have there been demos that did the opposite, convincing you that a title was junk, and turned you away from what would have otherwise been a sure purchase?
Of the batch I listed above, I hope the demo for Valkyria Chronicles helps me make up my mind. I've loved the look of this game since I first saw screens earlier this year, but I'm not sure how enamored I'll be of the gameplay. Wish me luck!
Dawdle
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 2 November 2008
· Comments (16)
Other stuff like this: demo, psn, question, xbox live
I actually just bought my first game based off the demo. It was Bio-Shock for PS3. Not a big fan of the "Thriller" or even first-person shooters. I thought Bio-shock looked cool, but to be honest, "scary" games - well - scare me. I don't like to walk down desolate hallways or kill people, but the demo showed me it was much more than shooting innocent bystanders and blowing things up - It was shooting splicers and blowing things up WITH YOUR MIND. The genetic modifications sold me and I had to buy it the day it came out. Been pretty happy with the game so far - all thanks to the demo :)
Valkyria Chronicles definitely made me into a believer. I love SRPGs but never ones on consoles. They've always felt like portable affairs. Valkyria opened things up. There's no endless grid of squares, but the strategy is still there AND it has that beautiful anime feel. I went out the same day I played the demo and put it on reserve.
I got the opposite effect from Too Human and that awful Operation Darkness. If not for the demos I would have been $120 in the hole.
Dawdle, I was also really anxious to see Valkyria Chronicles in action. I'm pretty psyched after playing the Demo. It is going to be hard to decide what to grab when I finish Fallout, but the Demo for Valkyria put it in close contention with Mirrors Edge for me. That demo was also pretty good, a tad too short though.
Sunnie, when you finish BioShock you'll love Fallout 3. It does an even more amazing job of providing great atmosphere and RPGing with the shooting. I loved BioShock, but Fallout 3 has stolen my heart.
The demo for VC defienetly made me want the game more.
Im excited
I'm horrible about demos. I really only download them if it's something I'm already planning on getting and just want to taste it before it comes out.
Consequently, I end up not getting some of them just like EnEs said, but I've never really picked up a game based on the demo.
Actually, demos sometimes are counter-productive to their purpose: In particular, the demos for Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon really killed my enthusiasm to purchase either. Were it not for my friends providing me with their copies, I would have discovered how good these two games are.
*never
It's kinda funny you mention Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon Bizuit.
Blue Dragon I was looking forward to until the demo, and I hated it so much I didn't look back, but Eternal Sonata was the complete opposite. I knew nothing about it, and downloaded when it came out and only played the demo recently and I love it, I just want to find it for $30 and I'm going to pick it up.
The Valkyrie demo made me a believer. It is exactly what I had always hoped the Fire Emblem series would be like when translated to a next-gen console.
Amazing. and that opening movie made me want to cry. I can't WAIT for it!
I immediately put Mirror's Edge on pre-order after I played the demo. I was having doubts after I started seeing a flood of those trailers that looked like they were made in flash.
Once I pry myself off of LBP, I'll be playing that VC demo.
hmmmmm, The demo for HAZE actually made me think that it might have been a cool game, mirros edge makes me feel lazy cuz you got to learn too many new button scenarios to quick, at least when your trying to play all 10 of the new games out one after another
The more I play through the Mirror's Edge demo, the more I'm convinced it could be a decent game. I remember reading one very positive review of the Iron Man game, and then being very pleased I tried the demo because I thought it was crap.
I don't know; I think there is something really ironic about demos for RPGs. A ten minute slice of gameplay is bereft of providing gamers with a sense of character development. Furthermore, these demos usually provide players with a good number of end game abilities which fail to astound because none of them were acquired through effort. I think the only angle an RPG demo (in particular, the Japanese variety) has of reaching consumers is via sheer aesthetics.
Even on this front, demos sometimes fall flat. The demo for FFXII seriously had me believing that the spell graphic for Blizzaga would now look identical to the one for Blizzard. Thankfully this was not the case when the game debuted.
The only demo I ever played that had me purchase a game I had no prior interest in was Burnout Paradise. Yet I recall in their review that Gamespot remarked that the demo left them underwhelmed.
The demo for Mirror's Edge has significantly decreased my anticipation to play it. While I was expecting a world as immersive as Assasin's Creed, what I got is level design that looks redundant after the first five minutes.
can anybody tell me who that guy in the pic is?
@Michael-sama,
That's Largo Potter, one of the supporting characters in Valkyria Chronicles.