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Philosony: Gamers - natural born learners
Bear with me as I'm about to list all of the games I played for the first time in the past two weeks: Team Fortress 2, Puzzle Quest, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Linger in Shadows, Lego Batman, Warhawk, Supersonic Acrobatic Overly Superlative Adjective Cars, and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift. The last four of these are demos, but as inconstant readers of this column may remember I have a bit of a "thing" when it comes to demos, so I spent a fair bit of time with them. This list only includes PS3 and PSP games - there have also been a good half dozen little browser-based games vying for my attention. Why am I spilling out the sordid details of games I recently deflowered myself on to you? Because in learning how to play all of these games I made an interesting if obscenely obvious discovery - I learned how to play no less than 12 games in a mere 14 days! While that may not sound strange for an avid gamer it sounds odd put in other contexts: learning to play 12 musical instruments in two weeks, learning 12 new sports, learning the ins and outs of a baker's dozen worth of operating systems. Such feats are certainly doable, but rarely does anyone have the drive to add that many new wrinkles to their brain. What is it about games that makes us so willing to learn entirely new systems of play on a regular basis?
Dem-o-rama: Scene It? Box Office Smash! and World of Goo
We're actually leading with an apology this time on Dem-o-rama. We're sorry about the inclusion of Scene It? Box Office Smash! (now available in demo form on Xbox Live). We know that you probably couldn't care less, and even if you could, we imagine that you could wrap your mind around what the experience will be like without the aid of a demo.But we have a good excuse! We needed something to pair with the utterly charming World of Goo, which now has a downloadable demo (via BigDownload) that constitutes about one-fifth of the actual game. You should really be playing that now, instead of reading this. Go ahead, we don't mind.Source -- Demo: Scene It? Box Office Smash!Download -- World of Goo Demo
Dead Space includes Burnout & Bad Company demos
Being one of the biggest publishers in the world has its advantages. One of these advantages, particularly in EA's case, is being able to pull from their catalog of games for extra content. For example, the PS3 version of Dead Space comes with two demos for other EA titles: Burnout Paradise and Battlefield: Bad Company. These demos are accessible from the XMB, where two Blu-ray discs will appear once you insert the Dead Space disc. One for the game itself and the other titled "EA Demos."These demos need to be installed, but can be run without having the disc in the drive. In other words, it saves you having to download. Not exactly a selling point, but definitely a clever way for EA to leverage their other publishing properties.
Dem-o-rama: Brothers in Arms, Madagascar 2
Right, so we know the inclusion of the demo for Madagascar 2 hardly makes this a dem-o-rama, but we figured as long as we were letting you know that a demo for Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is now available on Xbox Live, we'd go ahead and mention Madagascar 2. Just ... you know ... in case.... Oh, OK, fine. We just wanted an excuse to make that photoshop. There, are you happy now? You guys are monsters, we tell you! Monsters!Read -- Demo: Madagascar 2Read -- Demo: Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Lock's Demo now available on Nintendo Channel
The DS demo section of the Nintendo Channel is usually swamped with bland Touch! Generations fare, but it now looks like Nintendo has abandoned that policy to bring us some potentially interesting games to try out. What a novel concept! Top of your "to download" list (if you haven't already bought it) should be Lock's Quest, 5th Cell's ace tower defense/real-time strategy, which reviewers have been throwing superlatives at from every direction (stay tuned for our review later this week). Spore Creatures is there also, and while it may not have attracted the same loving critical response as Lock's Quest, it still piques our curiosity, simply because it's not the Spore everybody else has been banging the drum for. There's a demo of MySims Kingdom as well, which looks adorable, and an anagrams demo for sdrsorsCwo SD. These all expire October 5th, so don't delay! %Gallery-19901%
Philosony: The demo cometh
It's Thursday as I write this, a day that most PS3 owners (and perhaps a small number of well-connected PSP owners) look forward to as PSN update day. I too love Thursdays but not without a small amount of anxiety. I'm a bit of a completist (yea really, a gamer that's a completist. . .) and much like my obsessive drive to own a mint package of every Kool-Aid flavor ever made, each week when new game demos and vids are uploaded I am preternaturally compelled to download them. The videos are no big commitment, generally a quarter hour of passive watching and they're sufficiently digested, but demos are a real time sink. You see, I don't just download the demos of games or genres that interest me. Nor do I spend a few minutes with each demo, just long enough to decide if the game has me hooked and I should commit myself to buying it or not. Ladies and gentlemen, fanboys and fangirls, I present for your toxonomic consideration the newest discovered species of gamer - homo sapeins completus demotaris.
Mercenaries 2 demo now on Xbox Live
So, are we posting about a demo for Mercenaries 2 (that just arrived on Xbox Live) solely so we can have an excuse to share "Oh No You Didn't," which somehow, mysteriously, has eluded our grasp for weeks? Possibly. We hope you can forgive us. If you came here for actual demo information rather than hilarious song stylings, you should know that it only pays out 20 minutes of fun before it shuts the whole operation down and kicks you to the dashboard. If you're looking for a really meaty taste, you may want to turn to renting.
Neo Angelique downloadable demo is shortest demo ever
Have a hankering for some bishonen to tend to your every need? Then, maybe a downloadable demo of Koei's upcoming Neo Angelique will satiate that urge. In this demo, you'll see a few anime guys try to win you over -- but after a few seconds of fanservice, the demo will abruptly end. It's not even a one night stand! Heck, it's barely a one minute stand! Pfft, these guys are so skeevy. To download the Japanese-only demo: 1. Download the demo zip file.2. Extract the contents of the zip file.3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.5. Copy NPJH90010 folder into the GAME directory. Make sure there are no sub-directories in this folder.
DS Daily: Demo dreaming
With the ability to download demos through the Nintendo Channel, we've definitely been hit with more lows than highs. Demos are often repeated and we haven't seen a lot of third party titles available in demo form. Nintendo has kept the same roster of demos available week after week, but where's the variety? Where are the new demos each week?What would you like to be able to test drive? A game already released? A new upcoming game? What demo are you dreaming of?
Dem-o-matic: Guitar Hero Aerosmith and NBA Live 09
The whole point of Guitar Hero Aerosmith is to give you a taste of what it would be like to be part of the seminal classic rock band. So, what would a taste of a taste of Aerosmith be (besides bitter with a hint of copper)? That's right: A demo for the game, now available on Xbox Live, including "Sweet Emotion," "Dream On," "Walk this Way" and others.Also on XBL is the demo for NBA Live 09, the taste of which we can't even begin to contemplate.
Take note: Pure demo coming tomorrow
We said in our "New Games This Month" post that Pure was the best racing you weren't anticipating, and believe us when we say we weren't, in the parlance of the hills, just whistling Dixie. It an incredibly smart take on ATV racing that intertwines your turbo and combo meter to create a risk/reward dynamic unlike anything else we've seen in the genre.Now, you'll get to see what all the fuss is about firsthand when demos for Pure land on Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow. Just don't come crying to us that you weren't warned before your face got rocked clean off.
Beijing 2008 demo goes for the (Xbox Live) Gold
We've been in Olympic withdrawal in recent weeks, wishing that we could just once more see Michael Phelps win America's heart through wild gesticulation or try to deduce which one of the Croatian swimming team members is actually a dude (spoiler alert: all of them). Now, you can recapture the glory with a new demo for Beijing 2008 that has just arrived on the 360, a sample of what has been called "the best Olympics game ever." Sure, that's a little like being the world's mightiest primordial dwarf, but it's also plenty endorsement for something that's completely free.
New Nintendo Channel DS demos feature Arkanoid
While it's likely to be the same demo featured before (meaning there's no paddle support), it doesn't deserve to be ignored. Those of you who didn't check out Taito's revival of the classic on the DS should be heading over to your Wii (or, if you fail to own one, a friend's house) to give the demo a download now. Seriously, we thought it was a pretty decent game.Head past the break for the details on all of the demos available this week.%Gallery-19376%
Republic Commando('s head) cameos in Force Unleashed demo
Here's a fun Star Wars nugget that you may not have noticed during your numerous play-throughs of the new Force Unleashed demo. Above a tunnel in the TIE fighter area of the demo you'll find -- the head of Republic Commando's Delta 1138! Eeegah! ... No, no, we're kidding, it's probably just his helmet. Tipster and head hunter SpikeDelight tells us "This is almost surely a hint towards a next-gen sequel to the game," but we're not sure we'd go that far. Still, it's cute, right?
Tiger Woods 09, SBK08 demos hit Xbox Live
So, we've got good news, and we've got potentially bad news. We're going to mix it up and give you the bad news first: There's a demo for SBK08 on Xbox Live right now, but if you live in Asia or North America, you can't play it. Maybe it's not that big a deal, but what if we told you that SBK stood ... for superbike? We thought regular bikes were cool, but these bikes ... wow, they're just so far beyond that. We feel bad for anyone (ourselves included) who's stuck with a last-gen non-super-bike. You've won this round, Europe.But, hey, dry those tears, rest of the world, because today you can also download a demo for Tiger Woods 09. Experience the thrill of Joystiq editor Ludwig Kietzmann's day-to-day life as you play three holes at the Gary Player Country Club in South Africa. Hey, just because Little Steven avoids it doesn't mean you can't play Sun City!(P.S. We're assuming that at least the Tiger Woods demo will show up on PSN today. We'll let you know when we see an update.)Source -- SBK08 DemoSource -- Tiger Woods 09 Demo
What we're expecting from BlizzCon
As we announced earlier, BlizzCon tickets are on sale. Sort of. Kind of. If you can fight past the store servers. I know I've been getting nothing but the fail murloc pretty much all day. Still, I and the rest of WoW Insider's crack live team will be there come hell or high water, and we'll bring you the news you need to know. In the meantime, we're stuck here refreshing the Blizzard Store. To pass the time, we did a bit of speculation about what we might see in Anaheim on October 10th and 11th. Here's what we decided: What we're sure to see The Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic: Though we still have no solid announcement, Blizzard's already stated that they want to get Wrath out before 2008 is up. Considering that, they must have the opening cinematic pretty close to done. I would be surprised if we don't see it open the opening ceremony, to be completely honest. I'm expecting Arthas and/or a "rebel" Human Death Knight to feature prominently, as well as our first cinematic Gnome shot.
Practice crashing planes in latest downloadable demos
DS demo updates on the Nintendo Channel often get a disappointed reaction from us, but this week's batch does contain at least one interesting addition: Sonic Powered's Air Traffic Chaos, as localized (complete with generic and terrible boxart) by Majesco. At the very least, we're hopeful that the game can replicate the frenzied, panicked pace of a Trauma Center game.The rest of this week's update is fairly humdrum, consisting of a Crosswords DS wordsearch, a Pictoimage demo, and a chance to try out Carnival Games, which has stuck around like a bad smell. The full list of both old and new demos is past the break!%Gallery-20691%
DS Download Service aims to improve your vocabulary
Another week means another dose of demos available on the Nintendo Channel. If you've got a Wii, you're in luck. If not, then we suggest you cruise past the break to see one of the many reasons why you should own one.
Dem-o-rama: Alone in the Dark, Wall???E samples on 360
We're rarely ever encouraged when we see a demo for a game come after it has already been released -- it always feels a touch like a last-ditch effort. But when, as is the case for both games today, the release date predates the demo by more than a month? That's not promotional material; that's a dead canary.But, as both Alone in the Dark and Wall•E will likely be headed to Bargainville soon, perhaps there's no better time to get a free sample. Just don't be surprised if there's a reason they kept these sludge-filled hors d'oeuvres out of your hands.
Madden 09, Facebreaker demos rush onto Xbox Live, PSN [update]
Electronic Arts has today released the one-two punch of both Madden 09 and Facebreaker demos on Xbox Live [update: and PlayStation Network] (via Major Nelson). Both downloads are approximately 1 GB apiece, and Facebreaker has the added benefit of a character creation feature that lets you transfer your created fighters to the full game. PlayStation 3 owners can expect the Madden 09 demo today, but face breaking will have to wait until August 7.[Update: A Sony rep called to let us know that both demos will be coming to PSN today, as well]
