[Intrepid Homoludens]

It's the companion thread to the Miscellaneous trailers for upcoming titles thread.

Simply put, just share whatever game demo you've just played - PC, PS3, Xbox360, whatever - include a screenshot and/or clip to show us how it looks and moves, and then a brief comment or two on how you feel about it.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Ridge Racer 6 (Xbox360) - According to the reviews it's pretty much a faithful continuation in the series. Do not expect a racing sim, it's more of an arcade fantasy racer with extreme emphasis on drifting and strategic nitrous boosts. Very pretty graphics leaning towards slick stylization and simplicity (rather than photorealism a la GT or Forza 2) but you know they could've done more with it for next gen. No multiplayer in the demo but it's in the full game. Great music to listen to while playing: Paul van Dyk - Buenaventura, Never Forget; Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea, We Have Explosives; Faithless - We Come One; Romeo Void - Never Say Never. Play it loud while gaming.



Preview video

Dirt (Xbox360) - Very polished for something down and dirty . Not a bad Xbox360/PC reply to the PS3's exclusive Motorstorm. Comes with 3 tracks and 3 cars (1 per track), 3 types of races (parallel, mountain climb time trial, buggy rally). I've been focusing on the buggy rally race 'cause it's the most fun. Vehicle handling seems generic on the the other two tracks but the buggy is challengingly very good, feels naturalistic, and the physics seem spot on. Beautiful graphics, typical rock soundtrack, clean straighforward menu. Great music for listening to for the Xbox360 version: Elastica - Elastica (album).

[SoccerDude28]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3) : This game looks breath taking, but it is still Ninja Gaiden (meaning, you must enjoy being sadistically tickled with a feather with your hands and legs bound) to enjoy the "challenge" of this game. Too bad because there seems to be a damn fine action-adventure to be uncovered for anyone who doesn't quit after encountering the first boss.

[insane_cobra]

Mmmm, ticklish ninjas...

So you're finding Ninja Gaiden Sigma too hard? Wuss, it's a game for housewives!

[Henke]

I finally took the time to do some gaming. I tried the demos for Penumbra and Puzzle Quest. Really good games and I will buy them both (probably the DS-version of PQ). I have really high hopes for Penumbra. When will they release the next episode?

[insane_cobra]

Did someone try out the Project: Sylpheed demo? How does it fare compared to old X-Wing/Tie Fighter games?

[SoccerDude28]

I tried overlord on the XBOX 360, and that game looks like lots of fun. I'm now really looking forward to wrecking some havoc with my minions.

[Bobske]

Originally Posted by SoccerDude28

I tried overlord on the XBOX 360, and that game looks like lots of fun. I'm now really looking forward to wrecking some havoc with my minions.

Sounds a lot like Dungeon Keeper and that ain't a bad thing

[TangentBlack]

I hope Overlord doesn't flop as I have been looking forward to it for about a year now. While playing the demo, I noticed that the game was slightly erroneous when it came to the control scheme; it was quite stiff and still needs some work. In terms of gameplay, however, it bore a strong resemblance to Pikmin. In fact, it WAS Pikmin with a reliance on fighting rather than collecting.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

PGR4 (Xbox360) - Weighing in at about 1.2MB, it feels fairly solid, otherwise don't expect anything earth shatteringly new; after all it is an established racing franchise and they don't want to deviate much from the successful formula. The demo comes with 2 tracks. Macau is a straightforward race with a mixture of exotic luxury sports cars and motorcycles. Nuremberg is wintry and silvery, with snow cascading and covering the track, making it pretty tricky to successfully maneuver your bike or car in the time trial. In fact, weather has a very serious presence and so needs to be considered in the speed of the moment. There's a replay option to help show off the beautiful graphics (they've managed to tone the jaggies since PGR3, thankfully) and new music to match the speed. Making your biker gesture at other racers is kinda charming.

[RLacey]

Surely you mean 1.2Gb rather than 1.2MB? Either that or they're doing something really clever to limit the file size .

Personally, I'm looking forward to the Unreal Tournament III demo that's due out in the next fortnight or so (allegedly).

[kuze]

Call of Duty 4 demo is supposed to come out tomorrow. And Crysis demo is due out in October as well. And Hellgate is being released on the 30th. And the Witcher on the 29th. My oh my, busy month.

[Henke]

Demo of the Witcher on the 29th? Well now I'm excited.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Henke

Demo of the Witcher on the 29th? Well now I'm excited.

No, no, the full version of Witcher is to be released on 26th (not 29th, sorry). And yeah, I can't wait, too.

EDIT/UPDATE: The relase date (for Germany at least) is now the 27th. The Russians get it even sooner, on the 24th, I believe. No idea about whether there will be a demo, though. Would be sweet.

[Kolzig]

I smell Christmas coming soon.

[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.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

"Hi. I'm Marilyn Manson on acid and I'm very beautiful. Aren't you just sooo green with envy?" | Click the pic for gameplay video

Clive Barker's Jericho (PS3, Xbox360)

It's quite a short taste of the full game but seems to give just enough information about gameplay and squad tactics. You're in charge of three (out of seven) characters at a time, each character having his/her own unique skills and powers. You may switch characters on the fly, unless s/he is downed, in which case you must race over to revive him/her. There looks to be sequences involving combat puzzles using the 'Simon' sequence of correct button mashing similar to Indigo Prophecy's, for better or worse. Personally I found it rather fun but ultimately stupid its distraction from the immediacy of everything else about the game and story, especially with the superimposed button sequences on the screen.

Otherwise the game feels solid enough to at least justify a hire, if not a purchase after the first markdown. I like squad dynamic and strategy through character switching in the heat of battle.

The graphics and art direction are serviceable enough but suffer from the typical "let's-put-all-the-characters-in-tight-fitting-black-leather-and-make-them swear-a-lot" mentality that runs rampant in the nerd's vernacular. These guys seriously need to get out more often.



Undying intro and gameplay clip


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.

[kuze]

CoD4 - Calling for air support

Call of Duty 4

Oh sweet Jesus, these were the best ten minutes of war I have ever experienced in a video game, only with Stalingrad missions from CoD1 coming close.

After finally being able to run it (installing WinXP, finding the suitable video drivers and renaming a file in the miles\ folder so the game won't crash - God I need an XBOX360) I was presented with absolutely gorgeous scene of war, with seemingly chaotic troop movements and commands being barked at me each second, going under in the firestorm around. The game seems to be heavily scripted, which doesn't bother me at all, it just adds intensity. I also welcome the new setting, since the WWII scenario is as old as the WWII itself. For me the franchise became boring with the addons for the first installment already, the original was however breathtaking. CoD2 was unplayable for me, the game would run like it was being rendered on a 486 with the turbo mode disabled.

This, however, blew me away. Intense combat, stunning visuals and smooth gameplay (even on my dated hardware) revived the Call of Duty franchise, and I have high expectations for the full release now.

[The Seed]

I just found out yesterday that an XBox 360 version of "The Simpsons Game" demo had been released, and got straight on to download it.

Was a bit sceptical because of some negative feedback I'd seen left by people who had tried it, and also because I'd heard the demo is centred around a boss battle - I usually tend to find bosses boring and annoying. However, I actually found it to be a lot of fun and not frustrating at all. The objective of the demo is to defeat a giant Lard Lap (holding a Doughnut) statue, but you also get plenty of freedom to roam around the level and try out different things, find the hidden jokes etc. All in all I was pretty impressed, may well consider buying it when it comes out...pending reviews.

[Kolzig]

I loooooooove CoD4.

The demo was amazing, I really like Infinity Ward's scripted and intense gaming experiences.
It felt like real war, stuff was happening all over and at times you had no damn idea what was going on, because so much stuff was flying around and bullets coming from every direction.

These guys know how to make war games.