Alright, all that talk of crappy games has gotten me all antsy. Let’s talk about some good demos.
Now unlike the bad demos, there are a couple of really good demos that turned out to be sub-par games.
The Top 5 Demos on XBL
5. Shadowrun – I know that some people really didn’t like the retail version of Shadowrun, myself included, but the demo was pretty awesome. First off, it was free – and an online multiplayer match that costs you nothing more than some hard drive space is always worth it. Second, the gameplay was pretty fresh at the time, and whether you liked it or not, you have to admit that the controls and everything were extremely tight. My fondest memories of Shadowrun were running around with my friends in the demo. It made me buy the game, so it did its job.
4. Burnout Paradise – So the single player portion of the demo only had two events, out of the many that ended up in the retail version. That’s alright, I had plenty of fun in Stunt Run. What puts the Paradise demo on my list is the addition of the online multiplayer. I have friends on my list that I met in the Paradise demo, and it was good times all around, for absolutely no cost. Criterion hit the mark with this demo, giving people enough to have fun, but wanting more.
3. Dead Rising – The most fun you can have in Dead Rising is killing a countless number of zombies with anything and everything you can find around the shopping mall. Everything that’s wrong with the retail game is absent in the demo, and you’re left with mindless killing without having to worry about saving survivors or using the restroom. I remember going through the demo plenty of times just finding new ways to kill zombies. The novelty didn’t wear off until I purchased the full game and found out what a chore it was trying to save people.
2. Crackdown – Huge area, accelerated growth, and online co-op. Crackdown is known mostly for the addition of the Halo 3 beta, but I’m sure they got more than a few sales after releasing this demo to the masses. It was pure fun to jump around with a buddy just blowing crap up and seeing how far you could push your skills before the time limit ran out. Crackdown was definitely a demo that left you wanting more, yet felt satisfied at the same time.
1. Bioshock – No one was talking about Bioshock until the demo sneaked onto the Marketplace. There’s a very good reason that Bioshock won many awards in 2007, and the demo captured the game perfectly. I know quite a few people that went out and picked up the game because they were so excited after playing the demo. I was one of them. Any developer thatis wondering how to make a demo, should look at Bioshock.
So there you have it, my personal list of the best and worst Xbox Live demos so far. I could have added some of the recent ones like Ninja Gaiden 2 or Battlefield, but I decided to leave the last month or so out of the running.
I’m pretty sure some of you don’t agree with me, so you can head on over to our forums and let me know just how wrong I am.
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I thought the same of the Shadowrun demo. It was pretty fun gliding around. It almost worked on me.
The Ninja gaiden 2 demo didn’t do much for me and it was the main reason i didn’t get the game.
Totally agree about Dead Rising. I played that demo to death but when I actually bought the game I think I played it about 3 times before getting too frustrated and putting it away never to be touched again.
Interesting to think if in situations like that the demo did its job? I mean sure it got me to buy the game, but at the same time, if they’d released any DLC I was never going to buy it because the jump from demo to full game turned me off.
I’d actually suggest the Splinter Cell demo as being pretty bad as well. It just seemed to throw you into one of the levels with absolutely no context of what you’re supposed to be doing. I ended up buying the full game but even after completing the level that the demo was based on I still have no idea what it was meant to achieve.
I agree with Bioshock being number one (though not that nobody was talking about it before the demo, though it certainly built up more hype). With the exception of a Big Daddy battle it was a complete microcosm of the full game.
Agreed with the worst list, but on the best list I would swap Shadowrun for the skate demo. Nice list though.
I’d have to agree with pretty much all of this list.
But I would say that Rainbow Six Vegas and GRAW are two demos worth mentioning.
And let’s not forget The Bourne Conspiracy. =D
I agree with these choices, although I also liked the final version of Shadowrun despite all the hate it received.
What? No Battlestations Midway Demo love???
Hmm, I agree with your criteria, which means the Battlefield:Bad Company is definitely at the top of my list – full 20 player online matches with persistent unlocks, and even better a pay off in the retail game for having downloaded the demo.
@Lono: You want to edit a 6 page article? I could’ve done the top 10 of each easily >;)
yep i agree with pretty much all that, and i agree with ‘The Cod’ in that the bourne conspiracy demo was immense