batty game demo reviews

Been downloading a lot of game demos lately. Here is my own personal reviews of some of the more recent game demos that are available. Keep in mind that I prefer single player action shoot 'em uppers. Everyone has different preferences, so what I really like, you might think sucks big time. But hey, they are just free demos, it's not like you spent hard earned cash on them. The list is in no particular order, although my favs are listed first.

Far Cry: Big world with lots of detail and awesome graphics. After you get tired of the original Far Cry demo, try the add on level that was just released. I give it two thumbs up.

Call of Duty: Excellent WWII action that sucks you into the action. The full game is available on this one, so I rushed out and bought it after playing the demo. Two thumbs up on this one too.

Nitro Family: Brand new demo out that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet. This one is unique, strange, and a lot of fun. Looks to me like it might use the Serious Sam engine. Check out Lisa, the babe that sells weapons... woo hoo. You get to use a weapon in each hand and you run around with your wife on your back (told you it was strange). The action is intense and addictive... watch out for the bad guys riding the squealing hogs. Graphics are not the best, but maybe the actual game will be better. Shoot up boxes, barrels, and cars for power-ups. I give it 1-1/2 thumbs up.

Painkiller: Awesome demo, can't wait until the the full game is released. You are in limbo between heaven and hell and have to slay hordes of undead with cool weapons like a gun that fires sharpened wooden stakes. There are three levels including a boss level. The action gets extremely frantic at times. Don't forget to collect the souls of the slain. Graphics are dark and sinister, but very detailed. Another two thumbs up.

Sum Of All Fears: This has you in command of a special force who's mission is to rescue hostages from a band of thugs that have taken over an abandoned prison. In some ways, it's kind of neat, but you die very quickly. It's realistic in the fact that if you get shot a couple of times, you are dead. But, since there are three on your team, if one dies, you can continue as another. If you like Splinter Cell, you'll like this demo. I never could get into it. Maybe because it's too realistic and too hard. This one was difficult for me to rate, since I might give it another try. I'll give it no thumbs up, but no thumbs down either.

Deadly Dozen: I think this WWII squad based demo is trying to unsucessfully copy Operation Flashpoint. I thought it was rather lame. Just couldn't get into it and graphics were not that great. Trying to herd your squadmates around was a chore. I give it one thumb down.

Joan Of Arc: It started out kind of cool with lots of sword fighting and slashing, but the demo crashed on me everytime. That sucked. I give it one thumb down mainly because of that reason.

Conan: Another sword fighting demo. I was not impressed. To make matters worse, I quickly got to a point where I was unable to figure out how to continue. I quickly lost interest and uninstalled it. Two thumbs down.

Drake: A gothic cartoon style game demo that is definitely very different. Interesting story line and cool cartoonish graphics. This game has some potential, but you can't save it, so when you die (and I always die), you have to start all over again. Blah. I give it only 1/2 a thumb up because it frustrated me.

Nice review of demo games.
Unfortunatelly I can`t enjoy all of them, because of my hardware( Far Cry) and some of them only work at low resolution ( Painkiller ). I am downloading Nitro family now ( I assume it will work on my system ).
Batboy: buy Call of Duty as soon as you can ( nice in single and multiplayer mode ).

Yes, most of these games require a fairly decent system and a better than average video card, especially Far Cry and Painkiller. For those with aging gfx cards, better turn down the settings from quality to performance and lower the resolution a notch two. Far Cry even gives my 9700 Pro a work out with all the eye candy cranked up.

P.S. I do have the Call of Duty game now. I'm in the middle of playing it a second time. You must of missed where I said that I rushed right out and bought it. The demo only has one level, but the full game has you being an American airborne trooper, British commando, and Soviet soldier. If you ever saw the movie "Enemy at the Gates", that's how the Russian part starts out.

Ive been hearing of Far Cry for a while, is it a FPS? with large multiplayer capability? Has it been released too? Thx

( I could do a search on the net, but I like to get feedback from people on this forum instead)

Far Cry has not been released yet, but should be out fairly soon. As early as this month maybe? Yes, it's a FPS. I think they plan to have multplayer with it, but I'm not sure. There are a couple other threads about Far Cry here in this section if you want other opinions. Generally everyone likes it as near as I can see. Basically you are free to wonder around anywhere you want on the island. You can drive the buggy or hop in a boat if you want. If you have a good vid card with the graphics quality cranked up, you'll see fish swimming in the water and birds flying overhead. Lots of details... very pretty.

A couple more game demo reviews:

Pacific Warriors II: A WWII demo where you fly the unfriendly skies of the South Pacific against the Japanese. There are 3 easy missions starting out with a training level. This is not a true flight simulation, so if you want complicated and realistic airplane controls, then you are out of luck. This game is very simple to learn and fly, unlike many flight games. All you need is a joystick. So, if you want to jump right into a cockpit and start shooting down enemy Zeros without a steep learning curve, then this will suit you just fine. Graphics aren't bad, but not all that super impressive either. I give it 1/2 thumb up mainly because it wasn't much of a challenge. Guess it was too simple and easy.

Need For Speed Underground: A racing game demo with cool graphics and realistic scenery. The crashes are nothing short of spectacular. I crashed several times on purpose just to watch the effects. I loved the drag racing part, but didn't care much for the road racing part. Probably need one of those fancy steering wheel controllers, because my joystick was overly sensitive and I was too lazy to mess with the settings. I give it one thumb up, but driving game fanatics with better controllers will probably love it more than I did.

Need For Speed: U's crashes spectacular? There's no damage to the cars!!! other than that though, I'd say the game is really good, other than the fact that people cheat like crazy with trainers online and EA isn't lifting a finger to stop it. Eh, it was good for a few weeks.

Download the UT2004 demo if you haven't already. THAT is a killer game. They went back to more of the original UT feel with the same music and the graphics are reminicent of the original as well. Assault is really exhillarating, despite the fact that there's only one map on the Demo for each game type. Onslaught is really good as well. You have to connect a bunch of power nodes and then take out the opposing team's main power core. It's kind of hard to explain. Just go download it and see for youself.

Ok, true there is never any damage to your car in NFS when you wreck. I said it was spectacular, not realistic.

Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut demo: Wow, flash back, man. Sonic the hedgehog for the PC. I'd probably never buy the game, but the demo was worth downloading for some giggles. Cool arcade style mindless action. You get to play one level for each of 6 characters. Reminds me that I'm old and my hand-eye coordination is totally shot. I give it 1/2 a thumb up.

Syberia II: Beautiful hand-drawn graphics. Truly a work of art. Rather slow paced though. Also, it reminds me why I get bored of adventure games, I'm already stuck at one of the puzzles. If you have a g/f, download this demo and show it to her. She'll love it. I give it 1 thumb up for the awesome graphics and wonderful story line, but 1 thumb down for the lack of action and puzzles that take too long to work out.

bf1942 and Desert Combat rule the war genre hands down...

5 million players and I was one of the first...hehe..