Blog - demo | bit-tech.net

XCOM's perfect demo

Posted on 30th Oct 2012 at 09:24 by David Hing with 17 comments

Demos are dangerous marketing moves for the games industry. It could be a misleading demo that misrepresents the game (it's ok, we forgive you Brutal Legend) or just a plain bad demo that doesn't show it off enough. Either way, it can seriously eat into a game's release sales figures.

Tags demo, firaxis, xcom

Games I Own: Nerf Arena Blast Demo

Posted on 30th Jun 2010 at 10:10 by Joe Martin with 19 comments

Yes, you read that correctly, the Nerf Arena Blast Demo – i.e. not the full game. It came on a coverdisk for a games magazine years and years ago and is one of three demos that I’ve hung on to without ever bothering to pick up the full game.

Released in 1999, Nerf Arena Blast was one of several forays that Nerf made into the games industry and is essentially just a brightly coloured FPS that swaps out the usual assault rifles and rocket launchers for Nerf blasters. I’ve never played the full game, but the demo featured two levels and gamemodes – one a straight deathmatch, the other a scavenger hunt variant, both against bots.

Nerf Arena wasn’t a fantastic game, at least if the demo is anything to go by, but it’s not as bad as you might expect. It was built on the original Unreal engine, which leant it some smoothness and graphical aplomb. It was also a lot faster and more fun than you’d think – mainly because the lurid neon levels were full of shortcuts, secrets and jump-pads to keep things interesting.

Still, it was by no means a spectacular game and the reason I’ve kept it around for so long isn’t anything to do with the game itself, not really. I’ve not even thought about actually playing it for a decade.

Games I Own: Codename: Eagle

Posted on 6th Apr 2010 at 11:55 by Joe Martin with 6 comments

The alternate-history WW2 FPS Codename: Eagle is another one of those games which I didn't actually buy, I just stole from my brother when I went to University and when he had long since moved past playing PC games. It's also one of the few games I have in my collection which I've never actually played, not really.

I have invested an awful amount of time in it though. I have a lot of fond memories of the game – or, rather, of the multiplayer demo that first hooked both me and my brother. It came on a PC Gamer demo disc and I only flicked it on out of boredom, jumping into what turned out to be one of the largest in-game levels I'd ever seen. I was awestruck and began a process of playing replaying the multiplayer demo for weeks.

The weird thing though is that I never actually played it with anyone. It was a multiplayer demo and all I ever did was play it solo, not even connected to a network.

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake

Posted on 25th Feb 2009 at 08:41 by Clive Webster with 2 comments

I’m not sure how I missed the Empire demo going on Steam last Friday, but somehow I did. I suspect Harry did too, as I’m sure we would’ve heard him saying "I’m leaving at six on the dot to go play Empire" last Friday. Cliff clearly didn’t miss the news but I only stumbled across it by accident when wondering whether to buy Dawn of War II through Steam or Play (why does it cost £11 more through Steam, by the way?). Anyhoo, I saw the ad for the Empire demo and started it downloading immediately.

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake <i>Empire: Total War</i> demo on Steam – it’s a slice of win-cake

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake <i>Empire: Total War</i> demo on Steam – it’s a slice of win-cake

The following are my initial thoughts on the two tutorials and the land battle that I had time to play before heading off for family funeral. (I’m not pitching for sympathy messages there btw, just explaining why I’ve only had time for a quick initial thoughts blog).

Episode 12 - 88GT, eeePC and tons of game demos

Posted on 8th Nov 2007 at 16:38 by Podcast

In this episode the panel discusses the new Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT, the tiny, super portable Asus eeePC and the deluge of new PC game demos that has resulted in a games chart that is only 10 per cent Sims. All this and Clive comes up with a new slogan for Intel.

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Tags 8800gt, asus, demo, eee pc, geforce, nvidia, tea

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Archive for the ‘demo’ tag

XCOM's perfect demo

Games I Own: Nerf Arena Blast Demo

Games I Own: Codename: Eagle

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake

Episode 12 - 88GT, eeePC and tons of game demos

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