Sempra Fi from The Man 661 was whining to me on Sunday about how awful the America’s Army: True Soldiers demo was. So, like a good car wreck, I just had to see for myself. Not going to make my usual capital case about this, but I think it’s worth mentioning, that for all the waiting we’ve done, America’s Army: True Soldiers is one of the least original things I’ve seen this fall for the 360. It’s like Ubisoft re-skinned GRAW 1, and stopped halfway through due to budget cuts.The characters lack features, the shadows look like they are rendered on an Atari 2600, and the gameplay is, at best, average.

As an avid AA player from the days where you had to sit through agonizing medical classes, I’m completely disappointed in this offering. Frankly, I think the franchise may have just hit its low point. I had more fun belly crawling (unarmed) for 40 minutes during Escape and Evade in the PC version, than I had playing this demo.

The Fall gaming season has seen some real humdingers, but in my personal opinion, AA:TS should have been delayed, finished, and released at a time when there weren’t so many visually incredible titles hitting the market. That, or they need to make it one of those direct-to-bargain-bin titles.

It kills me that the same folks who made my all-time favorite game for the 360 (Vegas) are ALSO responsible for this video game toe-jam.

I was planning on buying this game, until I downloaded the demo. Can you think of any other times when a demo actually talked you OUT of a game that you were planning to buy?