Summary

It has been interesting to see some recent news chatter in the gaming blogs about demos and incentives. Some of the more recent examples:

• Battlefield Bad Company's "Find all Five" program which included one goal of ranking up to level 4 in the demo in order to get a gun unlocked in retail game.
• Mirror's Edge has a pre-order promotion for the retail game that grants people access to the Time Trial mode in the demo, which comes out a little before the full game.
• If you bought an episode of Qore, Sony's PlayStation video magazine on the PSN Store, you got early access to a demo for Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. Strangely, in the EU early access was instead handed out via random givaway to PSN members.

I just posted the previous four reviews today, very late. I wrote them all today but back dated them to roughly when I played the demo. There isn't as much detail as I would normally write since I'm basing them on memories from a few weeks ago, unfortunately. I haven't been playing many other demos recently so I am pretty much up to date now. I hope to write up other reviews more promptly in future, but I have a feeling posts will be coming in much less frequently due to time constraints. I have been trying out other services such as Xfire and Raptr to compare them but that has taken the place of playing traditional game demos and I don't think those warrant a post here. I just wanted to mention that I am still out there looking for new gaming experiences, (new to me at least,) to try but I'm not always getting that recorded here.

Audiosurf

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Audiosurf
Dylan Fitterer
Valve
Rhythm
Not Rated
15th February 2008
15th February 2008
PC (Reviewed)
http://www.audio-surf.com
Unknown
4th September 2008

What did I think before playing?
I had heard a lot of hype about this and it is a bit of an Indie hit. It would be cool to take the music I already had into a game to play, but I didn't think it would really work, (e.g. match up to the beat.)

What is included?
Tutorial levels that show you how the game works, what you need to do and what affects different songs will make on the game. You can also create an online account to add yourself to leaderboards for the games you play. While online you can also search for the scores for pretty much any other song you can think of since someone will have used it in Audiosurf.

What did I think afterwards?
It turns out that this is really just a Columns style game of connect-tree-or-more with a little bit of decision making to be made while flying through the beats of your songs. I only have a couple of MP3s handy and I wasn't familiar with them so it is touch to judge how well the "notes" matched up to the songs, but it did feel like certain colors matched up to the beat. I'm not so sure about the rest of the notes that were flying at me, but that was usually because many more came at you during the busier sections of the music, so it seems like the processing is working.
It was quite impressive that my performance could be rated against other players that had played the same track as me through the use of leaderboards and stats, even though the chances of us having the exact same MP3 are probably very low.

Would I buy the full game?
This would be a fun time killer. I'd be much more inclined to purchase this on my iPod Touch to play on the go, especially since I can guarantee I have MP3s on the device whereas I have to periodically purge my PC's hard drive to make room for other stuff. While playing on a PC, (outside of a web browser,) I'm typically looking for a fuller game experience than Audiosurf is going to provide me.

Demo Pros
Learn the game and even play with your own tracks. Online leaderboards tease your competitive streak.

Demo Cons
The game did crash while I was searching the leaderboards for other tracks. As such, I'm not sure of the full limitations on playing the demo vs. what you get when purchasing the full title.

Demo Rating 8 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms

Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
LucasArts
LucasArts
Action
Teen
21st August 2008
16th September 2008 Buy Now
Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3, Wii*, PS2*, PSP*, Nintendo DS*, N-Gage*
http://www.lucasarts.com/games/theforceunleashed
905MB
27th August 2008

What did I think before playing?
I have been looking forward to this. I have some friends that worked on it plus the premise and promise of being a badass with the force sound cool.

What is included?
What feels like a mission early in the game, possibly contrived for the demo which lets you try out some of the early force powers. You can see in the menus that there would be more moves to pull off later in the full game after unlocking them.

What did I think afterwards?
Pretty good. The graphics are nice, the sound was as you would expect and there are some impressive moments in the action. What I didn't like was the tricky targeting system which meant facing your desired object and hoping it was selected. That becomes difficult when there are several enemies coming at you in a bunch whilst running past a stack of crates. Pin pointing the guy or box you want is hit and miss. Being able to cycle through targets may have helped. It made the game that much harder and I died several times during my two play-throughs, (more so the second time on Hard.) I also didn't like the use of quick-time events. I've never been a fan of them and one pops up right at the end of the demo when fighting a mini-boss. I understand why it is there, but I thought the encounter could have been better.

Would I buy the full game?
I kinda feel like I have too, but the demo didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I'm sure I would get used to it when playing the full game and perhaps the more impressive powers you unlock will make things a little easier.

Demo Pros
Good length, you get to mess around with the force including destroying Tie Fighters.

Demo Cons
The opening cut scene has a stutter near the beginning every time. That doesn't bode well.

Demo Rating 8 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.

The Wonderful End of the World

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

The Wonderful End of the World
Dejobaan Games
Dejobaan Games
Racing
Not Rated
25th January 2008
25th January 2008
PC (Reviewed)
http://www.dejobaan.com/wonderful
220MB
26th August 2008

What did I think before playing?
Never heard of it. Stumbled upon it within Steam because the great name, which conjured up memories of BioShock and other stories of failed dreams of ruling the world.

What is included?
The first two levels of the game.

What did I think afterwards?
Huge disappointment, but its because I judged a book by its cover, (or rather a game by its title.) Turns out this is a Katamari Damacy rip off in which you play a VectorMan-a-like running around trying to touch all of the objects in the scene within the time limit in order to get them to stick to you so that you grow bigger which means even larger objects will stick to you.

Would I buy the full game?
The second level contained some nice video game references, but this really just looks like a student project that they managed to put up on Steam to try and make a quick buck. More power to them, but no thanks.

Demo Pros
Colorful, humorous, good length.

Demo Cons
Not much wrong with the demo.

Demo Rating 8 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.

Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island
City Interactive
City Interactive
First Person Shooter
Mature
11th July 2008
29th July 2008 Buy Now
PC (Reviewed)
http://www.codeofhonor2game.com
515MB
22nd August 2008

What did I think before playing?
One I hadn't heard of and assumed was old.

What is included?
Initial section of the first level.

What did I think afterwards?
Turns out this is a new release and the latest in a series. It must be from a small developer because it looked like a game from 3 years ago, (the sea texture is what stood out the most to me!) Pretty generic first person shooter on an island. Think the beginning of Crysis, without the nano-suit, if you were playing it on a PSP.

Would I buy the full game?
Nope. Overly generic and nothing special. I would rather seek out a free mod for a game I already had.

Demo Pros
It worked.

Demo Cons
Nothing really wrong with the demo, just the game.

Demo Rating 5 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.