Demos

[BlueInkAlchemist]

It can be difficult sometimes to determine if a demo of a game is really an indicator of the fun factor within the actual final product. Take Left 4 Dead. It shows a very visceral and immersive zombie horror game, but the scenery and situations might tend to be a bit repetitive. While I enjoyed the demo quite a bit, I wasn't sure if I'd really enjoy playing the final game.

On the flip side of the coin, the demo of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (Episode 1) left me craving more. I'm a Penny Arcade fan (then again, who isn't?) and I love the interactions between Gabe and Tycho given even more life and set in a steampunk backdrop with an actual story, even if the legion of FF robots veers a bit towards the ridiculous. That being said, I'm likely to scrape up the $20 to play the full game.

What have your experiences been with demos? Do you trust them, or do you avoid them because it might get to play something you eventually won't like?

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

 

[runtheplacered]

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

That doesn't really work too well with PC games, unfortunately.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

That doesn't really work too well with PC games, unfortunately.

Forgot about that.

 

[Novajam]

I've found that moist demos are helpful. If I'm playing the demo over and over that's usually a sign that I'll enjoy the full game. That's how the demos for Company of Heroes, Command and Conquer 3, Age of Empires 3, Crackdown and Colin McRae: DiRT all felt, and those are some of my favourite games ever (in recent memory.)

I find I have a little trouble deciding without a demo, because reviews and gameplay videos are sometimes a little hard to go on

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

I would do that more often if my local Blockbuster stocked more games.

 

[runtheplacered]

I've found that moist demos are helpful. If I'm playing the demo over and over that's usually a sign that I'll enjoy the full game. That's how the demos for Company of Heroes, Command and Conquer 3, Age of Empires 3, Crackdown and Colin McRae: DiRT all felt, and those are some of my favourite games ever (in recent memory.)

I find I have a little trouble deciding without a demo, because reviews and gameplay videos are sometimes a little hard to go on

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

I would do that more often if my local Blockbuster stocked more games.

Gamefly.com is the way to go. Particularly right now because you can try it for a month for $7. That might end in January.

 

[Novajam]

I've found that moist demos are helpful. If I'm playing the demo over and over that's usually a sign that I'll enjoy the full game. That's how the demos for Company of Heroes, Command and Conquer 3, Age of Empires 3, Crackdown and Colin McRae: DiRT all felt, and those are some of my favourite games ever (in recent memory.)

I find I have a little trouble deciding without a demo, because reviews and gameplay videos are sometimes a little hard to go on

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

I would do that more often if my local Blockbuster stocked more games.

Gamefly.com is the way to go. Particularly right now because you can try it for a month for $7. That might end in January.

I'd love to use Gamefly; it sounds like a great service, but:
1: I'm in Australia, and I don't think we have a similar service here
2: I don't have a credit card

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Off-topic. Does anyone else feel like Netflix and Gamefly will have a merger? I feel a disturbance in the force of that variety.

 

[Archereus]

honnestly i dont like demos, not only because i dont like trying a game i dont like but the fact that once you buy one you cant bring it back, most video game trade places refuses to take demos and it sucks. Demos are the leas played type of games and you cant even trade it in

 

[51gunner]

I like having demos of a game available. I find that they'll really quickly tell me a lot about whether or not I'm going to like the full product or not. The control scheme and mechanics are there in full force, and those are two of my biggest concerns when looking at a game.

Recently, I picked up demos of Castle Crashers, Red Alert 3, Sonic Unleashed, and Tom Clancy's Endwar. I bought Castle Crashers right off, decided that Endwar is certainly worth the look, realized that I'm going to skip Red Alert 3 without prejudice, and caught enough of a funk off of Sonic's demo to realized that it's not even rental worthy.

 

[Novajam]

Off-topic. Does anyone else feel like Netflix and Gamefly will have a merger? I feel a disturbance in the force of that variety.

With Netflix in partnership with the Microsoft (digitally distributing movies to 360 consoles), I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking to spread their roots to other gaming properties.

 

[shatnershaman]

I'm too conservative/poor to stray away from the tried and true. Although the few times I did go on a limb with demo-buying were hit and miss (DiRT bad Dead Rising Good).

 

[coldfrog]

I've found that moist demos are helpful.

Just so you know, I'm not some pretentious asshat who loves to point out spelling mistakes on forums when typing hundreds of words tends to lead to at least the occasional slip up. I just like pointing out the ones that lead to amusing intentional misinterpretations. This is one of those times.

Hee hee, moist.

Anyway. My experience, particularly of late, is that if you get excited about a game, unless word slips by that the actual gameplay is broken in some way, skip the demo. I will either be
a) Disappointed by the lack of depth I get from the demo as if I expected the full version for free instant download, or
b) Become so over-excited after it does exactly what I want, that, after my expectations double, it flops miserably and I am disappointed at every unshocking development.

For me, I find that if I hear something about a game and it excites me, it will take a decent amount of negative information to get me to not buy it (see Spore). This is true of movies as well; I hate watching trailers because they frequently seem to be an inadequate approximation of the full product. If I want to see Batman, I'll see Batman, and if I want to play Mirror's Edge, I'll play Mirror's Edge. The only games that are worth demoing to me are casual games like Braid or World of Goo where you can be assured that you will like the play style after seeing the first world or goo tower but also can be fairly assured that more uniqueness will follow, and even if it doesn't you've only lost 15 - 20 dollars.

So, for me, I say, if you are excited about the game before you know too much, buy it. If you aren't interested but a lot of people say it is good, rent it. If you are on the fence, read some educated reviews before renting. Skip the demo, it's never quite the same and you are given an arbitrary stopping point that makes you pay money if you want to go further anyway.

 

[vede]

honnestly i dont like demos, not only because i dont like trying a game i dont like but the fact that once you buy one you cant bring it back, most video game trade places refuses to take demos and it sucks. Demos are the leas played type of games and you cant even trade it in

I think we're talking about the demos you go and download off the internet, not the kind you buy. The concept of buying demos is just stupid, anyway. They're meant to be so you can get a feel for the game before you spend any money. Not for spending money, getting a feel for it, then buying the game. If you want to do that, rent it. If you're buying PC demos, you needn't be playing video games.

Anyway, I like demos. For some games, they're what I download to make sure I'm willing to wait for the full game to download. This is only more recently because of lack of funds. Usually I'm able to buy games. In that case, demos are what I download to make sure I want to buy the full game.

Like an above poster, if I find myself playing a demo multiple times, chances are I'll like the game.

 

[Good morning blues]

I have never in my life heard of buying demos. Are we talking about those versions of games that I've only ever seen in Radio Shack where there's fine print on the box somewhere saying that the box only actually includes the first four levels? That's not so much a "demo" as a "unscrupulous scam" in my opinion.

Demos are great, and I always play the demo before I buy when it's possible. If nothing else, it tells me whether or not my computer will be able to run the damn thing reasonably well. I don't think I've ever really enjoyed a demo and then not really enjoyed the actual game.

 

[xitel]

I'll actually normally play demos for games that I'm not even planning on buying, so I would say yes, I like demos. They allow me to stumble upon games I probably wouldn't have touched otherwise with a 10-foot pole.

 

[runtheplacered]

I've found that moist demos are helpful. If I'm playing the demo over and over that's usually a sign that I'll enjoy the full game. That's how the demos for Company of Heroes, Command and Conquer 3, Age of Empires 3, Crackdown and Colin McRae: DiRT all felt, and those are some of my favourite games ever (in recent memory.)

I find I have a little trouble deciding without a demo, because reviews and gameplay videos are sometimes a little hard to go on

What I do is if I get the demo, I rent the game. If I like it, I buy it.

I would do that more often if my local Blockbuster stocked more games.

Gamefly.com is the way to go. Particularly right now because you can try it for a month for $7. That might end in January.

I'd love to use Gamefly; it sounds like a great service, but:
1: I'm in Australia, and I don't think we have a similar service here
2: I don't have a credit card

You could try these guys: http://www.gameplay.com.au/

As for the credit card, I'd say use a debit card instead, but I'm sure you have your reasons for not having one if you don't already.

 

[Varchld]

I only really bother with demo's for mmo's when i'm shopping around for a new drug to try.
They generally don't help and I end up hooking up with the cheap whore for a month, but I know what i'm doing a little better when I first step into it.

The main reason I don't download most demos is because their size can get into the couple of gigabyte range, and like too many Australian internet services I have a download cap

 

[Snotnarok]

I never liked demos, they always seem to either not have enough, or have perhaps just not interesting stuff in it enough to pull you in, making the game less desirable, or they make the game look far better than it is and you wind up cursing yourself. The Left 4 Dead demo made me question if this rendition of the zombie apocalypse would be good, it felt weak with the zombies, even on expert and lame with numbers. When I actually got the game (Because I knew that it would better than the demo lead on) I was extremely happy with how fun it was. I wanted Mirrors Edge after the demo but after reading reviews and videos I'm glad I missed out.

Though there some accurate demos that do show how good the game is. Like the best Demo of all time God of War, that demo showed you what the game would have to offer very well, good graphics, great gameplay and ripping enemies in half. The real deal sealer was how it ended off, with a giant monster screaming in your face, leaving you drooling and stomping in anger screaming "I want to fight that thing!" or "Holy ...crap..."

 

[Antiparticle]

I know from experience that demos don't always give an accurate indication of how much fun the full game will be. I played the demo for Devil May Cry 4 and thought it was kind of meh. Then some time later I saw the full game for cheap so I decided to pick it up anyway, and I played through Normal mode and am now doing another playthrough on Hard! I don't really understand why I didn't like the demo, it was the same game, just one level instead of all twenty. Maybe some games just need time to 'ripen', and their true awesomeness won't be revealed until you play for a couple of hours.
There's also the fact that playing a demo spoils the full game experience a bit, since you already know some of the features / things that will happen. For that reason I never play the demo if I know for sure that a game will be great.