This demo was actually the inspiration for this series of videos I plan to make. It was just that dumb. Basic overview: The graphics suck, the dialog is sub-moronic, the friendly AI is dumber than a bag of rocks being beaten with a box of hammers, and the enemy AI is worse.
This is the first official review of the series, and it's over a week late, since the game launched at the end of February. (Here is one of many nasty reviews of the game as a whole.) Also, it's a bit rough around the edges because it's the first time I mixed video with my own audio, but I hope it's still enjoyable. Things will improve with practice. And now....Conflict: Denied Ops.
Hear ye, hear ye! This is the announcement of a new category on A Cappella Crossword: "Your Demo Sucks." For the introductory post, I have picked a demo that definitely does not suck. Specifically, the original God of War demo which I snagged from the junk-mail pile at my old workplace three years ago. This is merely an example of how a game demo should be done. (Warning: the video is fifteen minutes long.)
That's on a Playstation 2, folks, and it's from 2005. Keep that in mind. When I played this demo I knew that my career as a Spartan warrior was just around the corner if the whole academia thing didn't pan out. The demo is amazing. The graphics are awesome, the sound is awesome, the gore is fantastic, and the action is frenetic. I can practically smell that Hydra's breath when it roars.
Since I don't really feel like shelling out dollars to be a product tester, I have been downloading video game demos from Xbox Live for the past few weeks. I sometimes wonder why companies even bother putting these things out on the market. I don't think it's too much to ask that a demo at least gives me the second or third best content that I will find in the full version, and I certainly do judge a book by it's cover. Even after all of the bad reviews of Kane & Lynch, I still gave the demo a try, which was at least interesting enough to make me want to rent the thing. Yeah, the game kind of sucks, but the point is that the demo was actually sort of fun.
This little demo was so good that I went out like a robot to Best Buy and grabbed a copy without checking any reviews. I just knew it would be amazing. The funny thing is, the game could have completely sucked. The demo could have been the best part of the whole experience. That's not the point, though. The point is that a demo is usually a pretty good indicator of whether or not a game will be awesome, playable or total crap. I'm doing everyone a favor here. Seriously. Gamers: If the demo sucks, you might just want to stay away. Developers: If your game sucks, as a rule of thumb so will the demo (the opposite is not always true, but it's usually a safe bet.) Think of this as my minor contribution to the gaming community. I play crappy demos so you don't buy crappy games.
