No more demos?

U

uzor

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
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I recently upgraded my computer, and started looking into the games that have interested me lately, as I haven't gotten anything new in a while. Let's see if we can spot a trend.

Mirror's Edge - No Demo Available
Far Cry 2 - No Demo Available
Left 4 Dead - No Demo Available
Fallout 3 - No Demo Available
Crysis Warhead - No Demo Available
STALKER Clear Sky - No Demo Available
Tomb Raider Underworld - Steam Demo Available

Now, from that whole list of AAA titles only one of them has a fucking demo available??!? With games costing $60 these days, and not being returnable, exchangeable, resellable, or hell, even give-away-able anymore once they leave the store, knowing whether my dollar is going to net me the enjoyment I expect from it is more important now more than ever. I am a bit disheartened that the only apparent way that I can "try before I buy" (because if it is good, I WILL buy it, if it sucks I'll delete it right away) pretty much anything that interests me these days is via assorted....."unscrupulous" means. Is the day of the demo over? Do developers REALLY expect us to shell out $60 after only a couple 3 minute gameplay videos? What do you guys do to fulfill your "try before you buy" needs? Anything good out along the lines of what I've mentioned above that DOES have a demo available?

 
uzor said:
I recently upgraded my computer, and started looking into the games that have interested me lately, as I haven't gotten anything new in a while. Let's see if we can spot a trend.

Mirror's Edge - No Demo Available
Far Cry 2 - No Demo Available
Left 4 Dead - No Demo Available
Fallout 3 - No Demo Available
Crysis Warhead - No Demo Available
STALKER Clear Sky - No Demo Available
Tomb Raider Underworld - Steam Demo Available

Now, from that whole list of AAA titles only one of them has a fucking demo available??!? With games costing $60 these days, and not being returnable, exchangeable, resellable, or hell, even give-away-able anymore once they leave the store, knowing whether my dollar is going to net me the enjoyment I expect from it is more important now more than ever. I am a bit disheartened that the only apparent way that I can "try before I buy" (because if it is good, I WILL buy it, if it sucks I'll delete it right away) pretty much anything that interests me these days is via assorted....."unscrupulous" means. Is the day of the demo over? Do developers REALLY expect us to shell out $60 after only a couple 3 minute gameplay videos? What do you guys do to fulfill your "try before you buy" needs? Anything good out along the lines of what I've mentioned above that DOES have a demo available?

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I've noticed this as well. The older I get it seems that the more discerning I become with my gaming dollar. Demos help me decide if its worth the money since there has been some nasty stinkers this year. For example, I wish I could have my money back from Far Cry 2 and Dead Space. That's almost $100 on crap software that I just lost.
 
What is Far Cry 2's authentication / activation scheme like? Standard offline serial number, or does it tie into some kind of online account that would prevent resale / transfer of ownership?

 
Well, Left 4 Dead did have a public demo, but only for a week or so. It was deactivated as soon as the full game was released.
 
A marketing research group did a study and found that games released without a demo generally do better than without. I guess people are more willing to take the plunge. I read about this late summer. Funny enough, almost every PC game I was interested in buying didn't have a demo. This is not the only thing that bothers me. EB no longer takes trade-ins for PC games. So once you bought it, theres no turning back. At least with a console game you could trade it in for bout $40cdn. No big loss. What to do? Pirate I guess. JJ.

In answer to the second post, Far Cry 2 has a securom that resets over the internet when you uninstall the game. Apparently there are unlimited installs as long as yuou reset over the net when uninstalling. As for transfer of ownership, not quite sure. I assume it allows hardware changes.
 
I think the problem is that 95% of games suck. Why clue people in on your shitty game by programming a shitty demo? For the games that don't suck, most of them have multiplayer betas that only a limited number of people get into (COD4+5 come to mind).

However, half your list had Xbox 360 demos, and L4D had the beta.
 
See kids, this is why you own/play PC's AND consoles. ;) Like Newtons law states, for every ass reaming you get on one end, you get a wonderful surprise at the other end.
 
Freezebyte said:
See kids, this is why you own/play PC's AND consoles. ;) Like Newtons law states, for every ass reaming you get on one end, you get a wonderful surprise at the other end.
Click to expand...
so is it PC's or consoles that are the reach-around you're describing?
 
uzor said:
I recently upgraded my computer, and started looking into the games that have interested me lately, as I haven't gotten anything new in a while. Let's see if we can spot a trend.

Mirror's Edge - No Demo Available
Far Cry 2 - No Demo Available
Left 4 Dead - No Demo Available
Fallout 3 - No Demo Available
Crysis Warhead - No Demo Available
STALKER Clear Sky - No Demo Available
Tomb Raider Underworld - Steam Demo Available

Now, from that whole list of AAA titles only one of them has a fucking demo available??!? With games costing $60 these days, and not being returnable, exchangeable, resellable, or hell, even give-away-able anymore once they leave the store, knowing whether my dollar is going to net me the enjoyment I expect from it is more important now more than ever. I am a bit disheartened that the only apparent way that I can "try before I buy" (because if it is good, I WILL buy it, if it sucks I'll delete it right away) pretty much anything that interests me these days is via assorted....."unscrupulous" means. Is the day of the demo over? Do developers REALLY expect us to shell out $60 after only a couple 3 minute gameplay videos? What do you guys do to fulfill your "try before you buy" needs? Anything good out along the lines of what I've mentioned above that DOES have a demo available?

Click to expand...

AAA titles don't need a demo to sell. Seems stupid to me, because it increases the "I'll try it first via torrent" logic from people like...well me, who need to see if my comp will handle it well.
 
I have Tombraider Underworld demo that I didn't get from Steam. Another problem with demos is, if places have 'em for download they want you to be some kind of freakin' member to their site. And if you don't you have to wait in line to download or deal with slow speeds.

I like how Team Fortress 2 will do free weekends occasionally. You can play as much as you want just like the real game until the weekend is over.
 
You pay $60 for your computer games?

Demos while nice have rarely sold me on a game. Unless I feel it's a must have I wait a few days after its released and read the online reviews. Then decide from that if I want to buy it. Like someone else said a hyped game really doesn't need a demo. If its good the hype/word of mouth will sell it not a demo.

Its the diamond in the ruff titles that need a demo. Like Strong Bad from telltale games. I never heard of it but tried the demo and I'm downloading it tonight.
 
Katalysis said:
However, half your list had Xbox 360 demos, and L4D had the beta.
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Well, unfortunately I don't have a 360, as I don't enjoy playing these types of games on a controller/gamepad. Frankly I don't think that I should HAVE to own a console just to be able to try out a game. Hadn't realized that L4D had a beta released at some point. Maybe I can find an offline install for that somewhere.

 
Games like that really dont need demos, they are confident they are gonna sell anyway with all marketing and good reviews anyway.
 
uzor said:
Hadn't realized that L4D had a beta released at some point. Maybe I can find an offline install for that somewhere.
Click to expand...

It's easier finding the *ahem* full pirate releases than an offline install of the beta. The beta was removed and disabled when the full game came out.
 
some of them complain that it takes to much work to make a demo or its not fair for a demo, as you always see on a demo , this disclaimer states the real game may not be like this, wtf is that, its demo of the game of course it reflects the experience. so dont make a half ass demo, and excuse is and excuse, its almost like the old days when they put pictures from the cut scenes for screenshots. I refuse to buy almost any of them on the intial price. I want a demo or usually anyway ill wait for the game to go on sale or just wait till its in the budget bin, something that happens for pc games a bit faster than the console counterpart. Some games dont drop like call of duty 4, it goes on sale but its not cheap like it should be, a year later and its still full price and no new content besides 4 maps and slow patch issues. Still a good game, but its a rarity. I have tons of games i paid full price for and they suck or are duds. So ebay, amazon and this forum help me get many for nothing.
 
like we use to say.. no demo no sale... shoot, now days I wait till ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ has it for 15.00 then if it sucks no real horror. I never buy a game on first day any more. Seems games you think will be fantastic in reality suck ie: UT3 got it for like 12.00 it sucks.. but no biggie.
 
VorpalBFG said:
A marketing research group did a study and found that games released without a demo generally do better than without.
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without a demo better than without a demo.. stunning observation there :rolleyes: i know you screwed up your sentence but couldnt help but make a smart ass comment :)
 
There are plenty of demos around for different games - just not A-grade titles. Demos are more of a marketing tool than anything else. It's true that those games didn't have demos (other than L4D, and Mirror's Edge has demos for the console versions), but big-name games don't tend to need them anymore. If you look on the marketplaces on the consoles, you'll see the overwhelming majority of demos are for B-grade titles. They use the demos to get their product out in a playable form so they have a better chance of standing out from the Fallouts, GTAs and CoDs.
 
Alot of people just use a demo and thats that. I play only the Quake 4 demo, I played Quake 3 the demo since 99, etc. So it keeps some people from leaping to the full game. I've noticed this as well. The demo is dead imho.
 
Bioshock had a demo, i think it helped the game, i know thats why i bought it. now everyone saying how cool it was did not hurt either, but ive bought some based off hype and reviews and they were kinda bleh. I played the witcher demo and grid, dont have either yet but they are on my list to try. I tell you this if dead rising had a demo i would not have bought it, not because i dont like the game, but because they released it for HD support only, yeah it will play on generic tv but you cannot read the text at all, how hard would it have been to increase the font size? then they decided not to patch it. I think console and pc demos are great. With a console you can rent the game if their is no demo, no luck with a PC. I could see why some of the market research points to it being harmful, too many games are rushed or just suck and word of mouth gets around but you can try it. I plyed the quake 3 and 4 demo and i still bought them both. q3 got countless hours of playtime, q4 not much since they destroyed the multiplayer aspect to little maps with a couple players. snore fest. I think the demo is more critical if the game is single player only. Many of the games that suck are sold on name alone, either its a movie or comic game and its lacking or they are banking on the creator or past games to sell the new one. Im not asking to play 4 levels, or even a entire level, but i want a solid 5 minutes at least of fun with the demo to buy the game. thats not asking too much by any means. I think the new james bond game had a timed demo.

The history channel games suck, no demo either, and they have tv commericials which you usually don't associate with a B game, however most of them seem to be epic fail. I know the Pacific one was utter garbage and the $10 i paid for it was way too much, i feel sorry for anyone who paid the $50 the consoles wanted for it. or $40 i think it launched for the pc.

if you make a good product it has a better chance of selling than a bad one, i know sometimes the creator has no say over the finished product other than get it done.
 
For someone with slightly outdated specs, a demo is a great way to determine if their system can adequately handle the game.
 
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