[Giligan]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Has anybody played the TimeShift demo?

And, if so, is it any good? It's a game that kind of interests me, but it could just be bad.

I finished it today, as it came on the December issue of OXM's demo disk. The game has a very unique feel to it, and visually, I was extremely impressed. I was skeptical, after I heard that the steampunk themes had been toned down with the overhaul, but it's still very steampunkish, thankfully. And the level I played, an urban decay-esque dump with bad weather, was absolutely gorgeous. I'm looking forward to playing the whole game.

Also played...

Call of Juarez

Here's a game that could use an overhaul. Crappy graphics, annoying music, and enemies that slid rather than walked. Stacking-boxes to-climb-on-roof puzzle gets a thumbs-up, though.

[kuze]

Hellgate: London

Mediocre graphics on SM2.0 videocards, "been there, done that, bought a t-shirt"-gameplay, non-spoken, boring dialog (I admit I skipped most of it), repeating bashing the same mobs over and over again - that's Hellgate demo. The Diablo-syndrome (the "collect every item you can find" and "just one more levelup") lasted for about 15 minutes for me. After half an hour I finished the demo, since it only consisted of five or so quests (half of them being "kill x mobs of type z"). One quest was mildly amusing though, when I had to find one kid's prosthetic leg. Also, since the demo's quests are probably taken from the very beginning of the full game, they are ridiculously easy.
Honestly, don't bother unless you are really really into Diablo (2) and want another WoW/Diablo clone.

Download link

EDIT: And I immediately got an invitation for the beta, what's up with that.

[samIamsad]

Anybody heard about Aquaria? Another indie game, and one that received critical aclaim at that. Demo's out too. It's not that easy to describe, you're a mermaid swimming through a beautifully drawn underwater world. Technically, there's quite a lot of stuff going on, scrolling is ultra-smooth, as are animations and parallax scrolling. It's one of these games that aim to create a certain mood first and foremost, and the music is best described as beautiful too. You can even sing along to it yourself causing certain fish to change colors accordingly to your tune of choice - better check this out for yourself to see what it's about

Quite relaxing, I don't know what to compare it to. Ikachan comes to mind, but also Knytt, or perhaps Shadow Of the Colossus. Can be played entirelly with the mouse. If you want to try, crank up the volume though, the sound is quite something in this game, as it the haunting narrator's voice. This something different for a change. Trailer.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - According the reviews there's a notable story at the center of this otherwise incredibly violent work. The demo offered hints of the story, while the violence certainly showed how spectacular guns and blood with a touch of Tarantino could be. You control four men and can issue individual orders to each of them to spray suppressing fire, guard your back, target a specific enemy, or go to a chosen location nearby. In the heat of the action this can get tricky but if you are downed any of your men can run over to revive you (unless they also get killed, in which case game over). Possibly worth a purchase when it goes down in price, otherwise you could rent it for the weekend.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

"This is the way I wash my clothes, wash my clothes, wash my clothes..."

The Bourne Conspiracy - One strength of this game will be the almost unforgivingly intense cinematic action sequences you'll be able to control, whether in the nearly balletic fisticuffs, gunfights, or acrobatic moving from point to point. Looks like High Moon Studios and Vivendi have faithfully recreated the breathless pace of the movie, throwing us into one challenge after another.

It's certainly not a perfect orchestration, however, as the pace itself causes problems in terms of orientation. You immediately finish a cutscene where Bourne is being chased down the halls of the upper levels of a European bank (pretty much like the opening scenes of the movie) and then you're given a few seconds to figure out where to go and who to confront. This problem is worsened by the currently trendy and stupidly designed Simon Says button mashing in key moments of both fighting and playable cinematics and, as in Indigo Prophecy, another game that uses this annoying contraption, you don't know whether to watch scene, fight, or pay attention to which button you should press.

From what I can glean in the demo Bourne must surmount obstructions mostly in the forms of highly visceral hand-to-hand combat, shooting, foot chases, and car chases, the last of which features in the demo as a bad quality mock-up, a noob's reconstruction of the amazing and suspenseful sequences in the Grand Theft Auto games but without the high caliber physics and nuances. The car chases feel like kiddie arcade.

I can see that the main flaw of this game is that they've made things too complicated for what is needed. There are too many things you need to keep track of gameplay-wise for all the visceral and visual intensity. I always thought that the more things you see happening on the screen, the simpler the controls should be so that you're freed of being distracted by trying to play the game properly. Expect to have to replay most of the action sequences a few times before you beat them to move on the next ones to replay. Otherwise it looks like a cool enough action suspense thriller told through selected filmic conventions.

This trailer showcases the three levels featured in the demo.

[kuze]

Race Driver: GRID

This demo is like -WHAT?- un-be-lievable, the "Gears of War" of current racing games. Amazing (and I mean photorealistic) graphics, crazy controls that are hard and fun at the same time, constant camera movement, car damage, speed and DID I MENTION THE GRAPHICS? Even the game menu looks like the DiRT menu on steroids, combining stats, announcements and the actual game graphics seamlessly. Also, the "instant replay" gameplay option that allows you to repeat the last few seconds of the race is the most useful thing I've seen in a racing game. I don't know if this has been done before (it probably has), but it certainly is a great addition to the game since it is pretty hard, especially if you are used to Colin McRae games (or the NFS series, although I skipped the last five games or so). Surely it is not GT4-hard hard, but still challenging.

Download GRID demo

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Wet (X360, PS3)

Official E3 trailer (heavy on the cheese, please!)

"Insane" is merely one of the words you'd likely use to describe this one. Her name is Rubi. Think of her as a cross between Beatrix Kiddo, Lara Croft, and Faith Connors. Then inject her into an action world of 1970s exploitation film ambitions. Except in this world you have no time at all to enjoy the popcorn along with the whiplash pace and often impossibly spectacular stunts and breakneck speed graphic novel visuals.

If you can forgive the last gen graphics (not even the faux vintage film scratches and slightly hiccuping frames can hide it) and less than finely polished animations the ride itself in the driver's seat is well worth it. Besides, the otherwise ballsy and cavalier over-the-top production and gratuitously cheesy writing soon take over.

The controls may take getting used to, hence you're forgiven a few initial deaths. Time your combination strikes and maneuvers well because one or two screwups could cost you.

And who needs cheerleaders when you got a headbanging rockabilly soundtrack to pump you along the three levels of bloody carnage? It feels like one big amusement park full of nothing but rollercoasters!

One last word of advice: Play it loud!

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

On the other hand I would love a sequel to Undying, beautiful game that was. I much prefer the gothic depth of that to Jericho.

A sequel to Undying would be wonderful. I really liked that game and since I'm a fan of Clive Barker I'd buy a sequel right away. Undying was one of the few FPS that I played from beginning to end and kept me mesmerized with its story.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

A sequel to Undying would be wonderful. I really liked that game and since I'm a fan of Clive Barker I'd buy a sequel right away. Undying was one of the few FPS that I played from beginning to end and kept me mesmerized with its story.

Thanks a lot! You just got me depressed. No sequel.

[Lucien21]

I played the demo of Wet and can't say i was impressed.

Apart from Eliza Dushku's voice there was nothing exciting about it. Very linear, last gen draphics, dull enemies. Kinda reminded me of the John Woo game a couple of years ago.

[AndreaDraco83]

A question about Race Driver: Grid...

... Was that supposed to be Piazza Duomo in Milan?

Please, tell me that I'm wrong

[D.C.]

I've been playing the Arkham Asylum demo on the 360, I've got to say... it's all kinds of awesome. Good times!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by D.C.

I've been playing the Arkham Asylum demo on the 360, I've got to say... it's all kinds of awesome. Good times!

I've lost count of how many times I did the demo myself. I'm getting it as a self pressie. My birthday's coming up.

[D.C.]

Oh, man. So atmospheric!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Split/Second

Official E3 trailer | Power play gameplay clip

Unfortunately it's just the single player demo. Not sure if they'll release a demo for multiplayer. But it plays awesomely. It's the airport track so at a certain point a spectacularly explosive crash landing of a large passenger jet literally comes at you on the landing strip. If you had built up your bar it would be you who had triggered this magnificent feat.

There are a ton of people comparing this title to Blur, another arcade style racer, and for obvious reasons. I had played the Blur demo and it's great. Split/Second, however, is not as immediately exciting the first couple of times (based on the demo). And I think it's because we expect it be instantly gratifying the moment the cars shoot from the starting line (after all, that's what all the trailers make it out to be). It isn't.

After playing the demo a few times I started to like it. I think this is because the more you play, the more the game opens up to you and you begin to notice the more subtle ways of experiencing the race. Unlike Blur there are no instant power-ups on the track to grab. You have to earn the power plays and destructive options by performing tactics like drifting, drafting, overtaking, and narrow escapes.

Being economical with building up your bar eventually rewards you with the option to drastically change the racing course, but it's at the expense of being able to destroy your competition mid-race.

The game overall looks beautiful in a life-like illustration kind of way. The destructible environments aren't just for show, they can drastically alter the race, in great part by changing large portions of the race track itself in the blink of an eye. Explosions caused by you or your competitors can instantly turn the cards in your favour, or against your favour if you're not fast enough.

I'm hoping they release a multiplayer only demo so we see how dramatically the game plays with live players instead of bots.

[Monolith]

I care to disagree about Split/Second. Immediately when the race started things started blowing up and getting intense. I have to say it was far more intense than Blur! Probably the most intense and immersion third person racer in a long time! By immersion, I mean in the same way dead Space was, with the HUD all within the game world.

[kuze]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Years

The demo for the XBox360 is out now, and while I'm yet to play it, judging by a couple of youtube videos this game is gonna kick some major ass. The art direction they took with it is superb in my opinion, fitting the image of a modern noir story perfectly - shaky cam, picture artifacts, bleak color palette and the youtube-style loading screen look convincing and add a lot to the atmosphere. The intro gave me the chills, the involving Cloverfield-direction with fast cuts and lots of off-picture action is a winner in my book.

As far as the story goes, I'm looking forward to everything that made the predecessor great - strong, believable characters and a well-told story with solid dialogues. They seem to have improved the actual gameplay, which was an issue in the first game, so there shouldn't be anything in the way of Kane & Lynch 2 becoming a great experience now. And I hope there won't be any more of that bullshit drama concerning the gamespot rating that surrounded the first game.

You can watch HD footage of the demo here; highly recommended.

[SamandMax]

I played the demo for Kane & Lynch 2 and I really enjoyed it, although I enjoyed the first one as well so I might be little kinder to the series than most. There are definitely huge improvements in the gameplay department - no more teammates you have to order around, a cover system that's a lot less finnicky, skippable cutscenes - but I still think there are still lingering problems with the A.I. and the controls which still feel a little more clunky than they should. That being said, the game does one thing right the first one didn't and that is it just feels finished. It was clear that the first game was rushed out the door and this one seems to have that final layer of polish you'd expect from a pretty big title like this. The new Youtube-inspired direction they've taken is fantastic as well and gives the game some much needed personality. While I loved the story and the characters from the first game, the general design and presentation of the art and graphics was incredibly bland and directionless, and the visceral and immersive way they present the visuals here is incredible and really helps to push that game a little further into the 'something special' category. Hopefully the full game will deliver on the promise the demo shows.