I still need to pick up Crackdown when I get another 360. I had sold my 360 previously when in a financial pinch, and I regret it all the time. Maybe I'll pick one up with my phat tax return...

Raidei

I dunno. The "first 15 minutes of the game" Bioshock demo was pretty awesome and successful. I don't think the interest in Bioshock really took off until the demo's cinematic operatic goodness.

GenericKen

crackdown and dead rising demos sold me on their games. dead rising i was already leaning towards but i spent more time in that demo than i did most of the games i owned at the time, just running around killing zombies and exploring.

crackdown is just greatness all over. the exact kind of game i wanted: gta minus the ridiculous missions and story plus super powers and complete and utter freedom.

billybastion

One of my favorite demos to date is Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords computer demo. They did it right and gave you a single-player tutorial map and a strategic map from later in the game and then gave us a single multiplayer map with basic units and online servers. The best part was playing online even after you owned the game because the demo servers were that much fun.

Hiero Glyph

Ratchet and Clank demo was a great example of a demo.

mishakoz

The Crackdown demo still sits on my drive to this day. My GTA starved friends won't let me delete it.

My favorite Demo last year was "Dirt" - that got plenty of play time.

J-Fro

I pre-ordered Crackdown the minute after I played the demo. I had so much fun playing it, I barely touched the beta.

I know a few people who bought Crackdown and didn't even play the beta at all.

mindinrewind

The advice he gives in the article is all solid. There have been a number of 360 games where the demo sold me on the final product, most recently Culdcept Saga. I had never even heard about the game until Fahey had posted about the demo going up and how much he liked the original game, so I downloaded it to check it out and I ended up loving it.

Stormrider900

@Len Bias Cocaine Surplus: But that doesn't mean it wasn't a kick-ass demo. I was planning on waiting until the beta and getting Crackdown used, but instead I ended up pre-ordering it on the basis of that demo. And didn't regret it.

@DaftDethMonkey: It did give away a lot. But in the case of an otherwise little known property like that, more is certainly going to be better than less.

The other notable demo from last year that comes to mind was Bioshock, which really was just the first hour of the game, but provided so many good moments.

4dSwissCheese

Even a good demo is like a movie trailer = incomplete, with the "boring" stuff left out.

at least this is what a producer will do when developing one.

Wyld

@TheIrishNinja (PSN), IrishNinja2099 (XBL): The Bioshock demo was great, very nice.

The Burnout demo for reasons stated caused me to stop playing it, and most likely give up on the full game.

Another demo that was terrible that comes to mind was Heavenly Sword, just what I think anyway, oh and the ace combat demo on XBL, that was horrible for me. Oh and Kameo demo was no no, just so many bad demos that have been made. Nr1 reason I think demos suck compared to the good ones is that the devs or publishers most likely are trying to be cheap, like if they would give us too much we would not want the game... It feels like they are trying to treat demos too much like movie trailers.

Irenicus-the one and only

@AlDim: Same principles apply. Don't be an ass.

Plunkett

@baked ham: The Bioshock demo hit that frustration factor he mentioned.
I was enjoying it quite a bit despite being convinced that I can't play FPS, but then I set off an alarm somehow, and these fucking drones started attacking, and I died before I could figure out what to do. On Easy mode at least, it would have been nice if they'd given you a god damn hint. As it is, I might borrow the game, but there's no chance of me buying it.

That cliffhanger trick mentioned was in the Cloning Clyde demo - they don't let you finish the last level you can play. I bought it immediately; sadly, the rest of the game was pretty much the same ideas in the demo levels over and over. Fun enough, but probably only worth half the price.

ZerozakiIshiki

I lost interest in Crackdown after playing the demo.. and Burnout: Paradise... I'm planning to purchase based on the demo (had no intrest before).

weasl

Hey, the demo got me to spend on Guitar Hero 3.

C'mon Rock Band, where's the love?

lgndk11r

This whole article is actually about downloadable game trials, not demos of retail games. Do you even read these things before you post them?

AlDim

@Sir_Crocidile: Rubbish. Crackdown was one of the best games of 2007.

Plunkett

I agree about Crackdown and you had to reach back a little bit for that one, after it mostly only got mentioned as "best game with a Halo key" when it was probably the best itself for me along with Ass Creed and Skate.

hewenttojareds

I kinda felt that the Crackdown demo gave too much away. It didn't just give you a taste, it contained damn near every enjoyable part of the game except the harpoon gun.

Oh how I miss that harpoon gun...

DaftDethMonkey

Just like to say that the 'fast tracking' doesn't always work.

I HATED the Blue Dragon demo, because they throw you in with mid level characters and no idea what the fuck to do with them. You learn how to play by talking to extremely long winded NPCs.

The Eternal Sonata demo was a great example of how an RPG demo should be, give us the start of the game and enough gameplay to get us hooked.

JimElNino

I think were all in agreement here, a boring demo or a bad demo can turn away potential customers.

BassForever

Its a shame because some of the best games have terrible demos. The demo for uncharted drakes fortune was the least exiting level in the game..it didn't show off the exploration, the graphics, the lighting, or anything that the game excelled at.

And about the burnout demo...I have loved the burnout series in the past but I am convinced after playing that demo that the game sucks.

Fenderfuel08

I definitely bought Crackdown because I had tons of fun with the demo. For some reason, I didn't like the Bioshock demo. But I loved the final game.

baked ham

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Honestly, I was only mildly interested in Dead Rising and Crackdown was not even on my radar. I played the demos for those two games and was instantly hooked. Went out and bought them and loved them. So yes, a good demo is a huge deal.

WarlockSoL

I agree Crackdown and the Bioshock demos were totally excellent.

Witzbold

Hmm that's odd. . .I remember the burnout demo was telling me to do things but I just kinda ignored them once I got my car started and went nuts ramming other cars off the road.

Oh and if the thousands of "Thanks for the useless game" threads that cropped up the day of the halo 3 beta when the crackdown download was delayed for a few hours is any indication, crack down was purchased for different reasons by the masses.

Sir_Crocidile

@Ess: Bioshock was an awesome demo for me, damn near sold me on the 360. Funny, considering it just picked up where the game started from, i dont see too many demo's doing that lately.

TheIrishNinja (PSN), IrishNinja2099 (XBL)

Yeah, its unfortunate when the demo paints a bad picture of the game.
My chick, and seemingly a lotta people on this site, got the impression from the mostly-solid Uncharted demo that it was just a pretty, action-heavy 3rd person shooter. Hell, the Folklore demo gave me nothing in way of plot/character to speak of, when compared to the japanese one. i understand marketing to what appears to be the largest crowd, it's just a shame when people miss out on good games as a result.

I think its funny when games like Prey have the most fun bits in the demo.

TheIrishNinja (PSN), IrishNinja2099 (XBL)

Three best xbox full-game demos IMO:

Bioshock
Crackdown
skate

I played all three of these multiple times.

Ess

halo 1 demo? silent cartographer, the best level in the game.

oh. yea.

homelessvagrant

I really don't think it was the demo that game Crackdown the buzz, but hey whatever :)

ssjmichael

Geez, I played the Burnout demo no less that five times for about five hours total. I thought the demo was great, just start it up and walk away for a minute while it loads. It's not that bad.

hansamurai

I agree, however this post just serves to remind me that I won't be getting Crackdown 2 anytime soon. so thanks Luke, thanks a bunch.

kromekoran

@Len Bias Cocaine Surplus: It had porn in it?!?!?

NotAZombie

I think that the worst demo I ever played was the FFXII demo packed with Dragon Quest VIII. The design of it was just abysmal. It gave you a choice of two fields to explore, and because you couldn't set gambits, fiddle with the garment grid, or otherwise customize the characters or playability, all it really consisted of was running up to an enemy, waiting for the enemy to die, and then running to the next enemy until the demo objective was completed. It left me utterly convinced that FFXII was going to suck.

Later that year, just after Christmas, I ended up buying the game after some friends gave it positive marks. Playing the full game, I ended up loving the hell out of it. If it weren't for my friends, I would have missed out on a fun game because the demo was absolute shit.

Lezard

Yeah. Burnout could have done with that. Full game, but 10 minutes max or something?

Counterpoint: Condemned. That was just the 1st level but was a completely selling demo.

Kai_

@Len Bias Cocaine Surplus: Yeah, I'm pretty sure if Alvin and the Chipmunks had a Super Smash Bros. Brawl demo on it, people would rush to the store too.

bangbangblah

I went to try out the online play on the Paradise demo, suffered through all that unskippable bullshit, and discovered that it had kicked me off Live and I had to sit through it all again after logging in a second time.
That is some crazy stupid shit.

ZerozakiIshiki

I like how they did the demos for Quake 4 and the FEAR games... Quake 4 was the first level, and FEAR just took different parts of level and pieced them together, but they both let you use a variety of guns instead of just the basic guns you start with...

AssassinXaero

I think Crackdown had something available for download within it that helped its sales.

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

I'd play the burnout demo more if not for those same fucking menus, yeah.

Maldron

ok, i´ll keep this in mind when i hopefully get to work on a live game later this year :)

tomsamson

You complain but the Crackdown demo was the same. It took like 5 minutes to get to the menu because of all the longass unskippable stuff at the beginning of it.

Samos42

JACKAL888: I love the Burnout Demo and do not understand all the hatred it is brining out of people.

The burnout paradise demo

1) Didn't show any multiplayer racing.

2) Didn't show any multiplayer crash mode (or showtime, as they call it now).

And those are the the two things fans of the series are going to be looking for.

So, we have no clue how multiplayer racing or setting waypoints works. And IMO, that's one of the most important things for a racing game.

I was worried when the announcement was made that they were going to an "open world" environment (I couldn't stand test drive, which also had an "open world" environment).

The demo, did nothing to alleviate my fears because it didn't show me the two features of the game that matter to me the most.

lordargent

skate., ea fight night, guitar hero3, lost planet etc. are just some of the demos I really liked although when I accidentally erased fight night 2 days ago I can't believe it's not downloadable anymore :S

JetPogi

There have been a number of demos that I've really enjoyed over the last year.

In particular, I've lost count of how many times I played the following demos:

Ratchet & Clank
Uncharted (played it on every difficulty, multiple times)
Folklore (English and Japanese)
GT5 Prologue
Burnout Paradise (countless hours online)

I purchased the first three and will purchase the remaining two when they're released.

Demos also led to me buying GRAW2, Snakeball, and F1:CE. I purchased Heavenly Sword and The Darkness despite not thinking a lot of either demo.

The pixel junk racers demo was crap, and convinced me to NOT buy that game.

Doshu

I love the Burnout Demo and do not understand all the hatred it is brining out of people.

jackal888

Bring back shareware. Split a game into three or more parts and distribute the first part free.

ShaggE

The Crysis demo was awesome, but I agree that unskippable cutscenes and promo vids suck. They're so EA. I beat it once, and would have played again but for what looked to be a 10 minute opening graphics masturbation session and I left the Gametraders booth to go look for lizard food.

Sabre_Justice

Best demo ever: Christmas Nights.

TechnoDestructo

I think I put more time into the skate. demo than I put in to most actual games. I was rabid for that game when it finally hit.

I also still keep the Call of Juarez and Timeshift demos around to remind that they both seem like a lot of fun and worth picking up. The BioShock demo didn't do much for me, though.

tk.

The Command and Conquer 3 demo was awesome. It had the first couple campaign missions, the entire tutorial and a bare-bones online mode. And since I had so much trouble finding the game anywhere, I made quite a bit of use of that demo's online play.

(I'm an RTS-holic but haven't had the money or patience to upgrade my PC in years, so C&C3, being the first ever good console RTS, is a godsend. Here's hoping Supreme Commander takes their lead and makes good controls for their console port, and maybe go the next mile and allow custom map downloads and stuff. You know, like how Halo 3 lets people put maps and stuff up on the web and you can download it to your "Live ID" so that your console downloads it next time it's online.

dowingba

"not simply the first 15 minutes of the game."

I generally agree, but two notable exceptions to the rule were BioShock and Ace Combat 6.

XbhaskarX

Dead Rising is the one demo that has made me immediately start trying to hunt down the game.

Turok is the one demo that made me immediately start trying to hunt down the designers (seriously, it's just such an utterly bland game)

Burnout Paradise Demo made me cancel my preorder and load up Burnout 3 again. It's had innumerous hours from me and my wife and what we love most is Crash Mode. The Burnout Paradise Demo didn't give me any taste of what that was going to be like, and after some reading around I realised it was probably pretty much gone and completely lost interest. Driving around for 5 minutes to restart a race I just failed is not fun.

Lu-Tze

That should go to Virtua Fighter 5... i smashed the demo with pp pp pp pp pp... Makes people think VF5 is button masher and easy and shallow in no time.

Ultrasinc

@mishakoz: No it wasn't, in the Ratchet and Clank demo, I was not able to configure inverted vertical control for my aiming. That made me wonder if the end product will add such an option. I just tested my friend's copy and thank goodness it does.

Same goes for Kane and Lynch demo.

Snappywave

god of war 2 demo anyone?
so good penny-arcade made a comic about it??

also jumping into the wayback machine there were some great demos for tribes and i remember playing the demos on the duke nukem 3d disc a ton.

scargums

Remember when demos were called shareware... and they game you 1/3 of the game?

I miss those days. All you needed was the 50 Shareware Games Gold cd, and the ability to not care about the last 66% of a game.

StartingAces

Demos have been one of my favorite things about the 360 and XBL. I remember when they dropped that Fight Night demo out of the blue and it blew everyone away. Also I played the hell out of the Dead Rising and Crackdown demos. I was one of those people who was only gonna get Crackdown for the Halo 3 beta but then I played the demo over and over and over again and ended up buying and enjoying the full game very much. Other great demos I can think of off the top of my head were the skate. demo, bioshock, Dirt...hell I even had fun with the Beautiful Katamari demo.

I agree with Luke about the Paradise demo. As much as I wanna explore and mess around in that demo I can not stand having to sit through the videos and tuturial BS EVERY time I want to play it.

gray665

I love demos. It allows me to find out about games that I had heard little about and more than a few times I have purchased a game on demo impressions alone.

Then again, I've also not purchased games I was interested in after playing the demo so it's a double-edged sword. Developers need to make sure that if they do release a demo that it is done well.

ビッグ ボス

Great post. I think Devs need to hear this. There have been may times a Demo has thrown me off of getting a game.

mahi

@StartingAces:

Hell yeah. That's how I first got Doom back in like '93 or whatever, from one of those 100 Shareware Games CDs. Most of the games were terrible but there were some good ones in there besides Doom.

gray665

i don't think he was talking about sales when talking about crackdown but just interest! crackdown was better than halo anyway!!!!

taomaster99

I can't download the Dead Rising demo at all.

CyberSkull

@TechnoDestructo: You are 100%. I remember that demo so well. It had so many unlockables it was almost like a full game. I still have it lying around somewhere. I remember being able to unlock Sonic in it and certain dates unlocked other things aswell, such a clever a demo.

Franriel

How about the god-damned The Simpsons demo?
Looks great. It offers gorgeous animation and a nice 3D recreation of Springfield. So much promise.
Shame then, that the boss battle (which is what the demo consisted solely of) was nearly impossible to beat. I might just be shite, but even with a few heads combined the boss was just unfairly difficult to beat.
So we didn't, and on the strength of the demo alone The Simpsons Game totally dropped off my radar.
What a shite demo.

AgentPolv

@CyberSkull: same problem here. i've been trying for a LONG while to get it but it seems to be missing or corrupted...

PGGB

@Doshu: I liked the darkness demo, that had me go out and buy it that night. HS and Uncharted demos did not excite me but I bought them anyway do to reviews and the other promotional videos.

To be fair to the HS demo a lot of the beauty in it is that while it's short you can try a bunch of different combat moves and styles, unfortunately they should have had some onscreen tutorials for them as I only realized this by talking to other people.

Ehardergardens

@Len Bias Cocaine Surplus: Yeah it helped Crackdown a great deal that they gave it away free with the Halo 3 MP Demo

Ehardergardens

Nice read. Im getting sick of the lackluster of quality demo releases (be it on any console/platform)

Xmaster

Dear Developers:

If you give us only 15 minutes of gameplay, we don't get hooked. Learn from crack dealers. Give 45 minutes in the demo and abruptly halt the game. Resolve no plot points, just give us the opportunity to decide if your game rocks, and we'll buy it if it does. If your game sucks, give us a 5 minute limit or we will discover you and out you HERE.

ChaoticLimbs