Demo’n: Left 4 Dead 2

Less than a year since I previewed the original, Left 4 Dead 2 has already become available in demonstration form. A lot has been made on whether or not the original needed a sequel so soon. Some say the new campaigns could have just been added as DLC, but after getting my hands on the new iteration in the series, it’s clear that more than just new characters,weapons, and maps were added. Don’t get me wrong, all that stuff is new too, but there’s clearly been an effort to add more detail to this zombie infested world, and now the game feels more fleshed out, and less like a mini-game, which is something I had a problem with in the first game.

The demo starts on a campaign called, “The Parish,” where you start on the docks of a presumably Louisiana town, and try to make your way through the hordes of infected. At first, the game will seem way too similar, but after a few run ins with infected, it becomes apparent that the A. I. has stepped it’s game up this time around. Playing Left 4 Dead 2 (or the original for that matter) on any difficulty under Advanced does the game a disservice, and anyone looking for a challenge with their zombie mayhem, should jump right into advanced. The Director is back to his old tricks, and will capitalize on the mistakes of the survivors, so the second your team breaks down, and starts arguing, or worse, firing on one another, the Director will systematically destroy everything you’ve worked towards. Last year the Director was certainly a factor, but it seems to be much more intuitive in the demo.

The music in the new game seems to add a little twang to the themes from the first game, as well as just adding some newer, more creepy tunes. There’s also a section where you can turn a jukebox on, and it will play a few different songs (most notably “Still Alive” from Portal). I feel like the music adds dread to an otherwise sunny landscape, which is also a nice change of pace. There’s very few “horror” games that take place in the day time (Resident Evil 5, and it’s lack of atmosphere comes to mind), but even in the day time, these zombies are creepy enough to keep players on their toes. The flashlight may seem useless, it being day and all, but it comes in handy in every alleyway you come across, of which, there are plenty. I feel, so far, that the new Left 4 Dead provides a less linear campaign than the last. There seems to be more options on routes to the safe house, as well as more side rooms filled with weapons and equipment. This should go a long way in the replay value department.

After playing through the demo a few times, I can see Left 4 Dead 2 will have a greater assortment of tools to disembowel the infected masses. Melee weapons add a clear change of pace, especially if you want each member of your team rocking different weapons, for different zombie killing roles. For instance, we had a member of our team leading the pack with his Machete, with two guys in the middle rocking silenced sub machine guns (which do not disturb zombies at the proper ranges), and a member in the back with a shotgun, making sure none of those pesky zombies would sneak up behind us. Feels like the assortment of equipment adds almost a class system to the game, which certainly adds depth to the squad aspect. For instance you can delve out equipment, such as boomer bile or adrenaline shots to the guy up front, so he doesn’t get bile on the rest of the group, or just so he will melee at a more rapid pace. Personal preference also comes into the mix, and everyone can play the game their own way now, with more than just 6 guns.

I believe I’ve seen 9 different types of guns, 4 different melee weapons, 3 different projectile weapons, and 4 different healing devices, and this is just the demo. That’s already more of everything that was provided in the first game. Another addition, which I prefer in a game about destroying thousands of zombies, is more blood. Blood on your screen when you melee monsters, or just squirting from the recently relinquished limbs of the infected, there’s just buckets and buckets more blood than in the last game. There also seems to be more zombies per square inch of map, which I’m all for, bring on the infinite horde!

The first game was a zombie fan’s wet dream, and the second one looks to be much improved. There’s new gameplay modes, although they aren’t accessible in the demo. This game is going to be the best co-op game on the system upon release, so you’re doing yourself a solid if you go preorder the game, and get the demo ASAP!

Rating: Go to Gamestop, get your preorder on, and download the demo now!

Demo’n: F.E.A.R. 2

F.E.A.R. 2: I have not played the original F.E.A.R. I will also not be typing F.E.A.R. every time I want to reference this game, so expect to see a lot of “fear,” being thrown about, perhaps with a capital f. The first thing you will notice about the Fear 2 demo, is that the menu is quite linear, and only one game mode can be selected (Launch Demo). The story isn’t what I’d call original, inspired, or even interesting. It starts out with a cliche’ little girl ghost leading you down a run down street, yawntastic. The game flashes “Interval 01, Premonition,” I walk through some gooey stuff, and come out to another cliche, fuzzy communications via radio. How many survival horror games have you trying to listen to scrambled speech on a radio? Too many.

A little more walking reveals a hole, and inside that hole is a man being executed at gun point. Pretty brutal, and was like the light at the end of the crap story tunnel. This game features a Slow Motion feature that aids you during gun fights, like Max Payne’s Bullet Time, if you’ve played it. Fear 2 doesn’t exactly have your everyday cover system, but you can pull things from the environment in front of you, and crouch for cover. This bit feels clever, and when you’re mid-gun fight, and you find a car door to pull open for cover, you get a feel for how deep the action can be. Another plus is how the weapons handle. The aiming is tight, the recoil is minimal, and the damage seems well balanced. I’d say that I may enjoy the gun play in this more than I did in the Call of Duty campaigns, especially since the environments are almost completely destructible.

In F.E.A.R. 2, you can look down, and see your character’s legs and feet, which is a small win in my eyes. There are multiple settings in the short demo, a school, avenue, and subway, so you get a feel for the kind of environments you’ll be seeing. The one thing about gameplay that I don’t enjoy, is constant jump cuts, that are supposed to add to the atmosphere. The setting jumping around, and ghosts popping up in front of you has been done to death (see: Bioshock, Fallout 3). This is the main reason I’ll never purchase this game, unlike the other two examples of this, F.E.A.R. 2 is broken because of it. While it is an improvement on the Condemned games, it also falls into a lot of the same traps while telling it’s outrageous story.

F.E.A.R. 2 has the gore ramped up to a high level, the gun play fine tuned, but the story, and atmosphere get in the way too much for my tastes. The music is forgettable, the settings have been done, and so has the little girl ghost thing. I don’t see myself going much further with this game, but may play through the demo one more time, since it only takes fifteen minutes.

Rating: Download, Play, Delete

Demo’n: Skate 2

Skate 2: The Skate 2 demo has been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Upon downloading it you will be able to try a bit of the single player story mode, and some of the versus modes. Sadly, you can’t try anything online, and you can’t make your own spots (well not entirely), yet. In this game you’re able to see some of the improvements from Skate 2, like the ability to get off your board, and being able to move certain objects anywhere your heart desires. There are minor tweaks in handling as well.

When you first start the story mode, you are asked to create your character. The depth in this feature is refreshing for an EA title, but I guess it’s not in the “EA Sports” category, so that’s probably why. After that you’re treated to a little cinema about your character getting a ride home from prison, and by treated I mean insulted. I’m not sure if this is a silly complaint, but it sort of annoys me that the game starts off with the whole Skateboarding is a crime thing. This isn’t Grand Theft Auto, and most kids who Skate don’t go to jail, so it’s a little over the top being greeted with a ride home from prison in this game. I guess I feel like a lot of people felt about the Sopranos and Italian stereotypes.

Once you finally enter the gameplay portion you either run through a tutorial, or just advance to the main game. After the basic tutorial, you are forced to try some things that weren’t in the first game. You are told to get off your board to climb a set of stairs, and also to move a dumpster out of your path. You can continue the story for a few bonus moments in the demo, but basically you’re working with around 10-15 minutes of just riding. You can try a bails competition known as the “Hall of Meat,” which is basically an award given by Thrasher magazine for crashing in a cool/disgusting way. After your time is up, you are shown a few clips of the story.

In the Party Mode you can play either Hall of Meat, or Spot Battle. Hall of Meat is the same concept from the career mode, but with a friend, or few. The Spot Battle is basically a best trick competition on one specific ramp, rail, piece of ground, etc. Sadly, like I mentioned earlier, the demo doesn’t allow for online play in these modes, but I can appreciate the fact that multiplayer was added at all to the demo.

Overall the demo doesn’t seem to be that deep, but for anyone with an imagination, there is tons that can be done with the allotted time. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate this demo, clearly didn’t play the original demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on PSX, we’ve come a long way.

Muska rips the 1st Tony Hawk

Rating: Download and shred!

Demo’n: The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest: To start off I went with the Single Player portion of the demo, but was glad to see I could chose to play online also, always a big plus in the demo department. In single player there is only one selection that can be made, “Tutorial.” After I made my selection, a video explaining the battle I was about to enter played. As soon as the video ended, I was thrust into a battle “3441 years ago.” I was prompted to choose a class, but could only select Warrior. A Warrior wields a sword, can throw daggers, and charge his sword up with fire to lay waste to the enemy. After taking the mission’s first capture point, I was told to select Archer, while in the capture point.

The Archer primarily fires arrows, but can also kick close range foes. The Archer has the special abilities of fire arrows, poison arrows, and shooting multiple arrows at one time. After romping through the next capture point, I went through the same drill, to select The Scout. With a Scout, you have the ability to use camouflage, much like the Predator would. The Scout seems heavily used in online play, most likely because it has a one hit kill move. Next in the tutorial, I was abl to select Mage. The Mage used electricity in a variety of ways, heals teammates, and wields a bow in ways Gandalf the White would be proud. Out of all these classes, I most enjoyed playing as the Warrior, so I switched back for the fourth capture point. After taking this point, Sauron attacked my team, and I was switched to a “Hero.”

The Hero seemed to be very similar to the Warrior in this scenario, but I do not recall the character’s name. I saw online that you can also be Gandalf, and Tree Beard as heroes, but I never acquired such an ability. Anyway, I went on to destroy Sauron, and finish the tutorial. Next I went online to try the two demo maps, Minas Tirith, a map that takes place around Mount Doom, and features a castle like setting, and the second map, The Shire, which is more of a farm setting. Both maps are fun, and with the A.I. characters being added in the full game, the online matches are going to be EPIC. After trying this demo, I’m excited to see what the full game looks like. There is no reason not to download this free demo, especially if you have an Xbox Live Gold account, and can try the Xbox Live Portion.

Rating: Download and War

Demo’n: Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5: Just got back from Tokyo where I had the chance to try out the Resident Evil 5 demo, which was released over XBox live there. Was the game everything I imagined? Not exactly, but it sure does seem to improve on the greatness that was Resident Evil 4 (all 27 times it was released). Of course there will be the usual haters with their “Resident Evil 4.5″ reviews, but this game is certainly looking to take the Biohazard series to the next level.

Capcom has brought the series a long way since it’s inception on the original Playstation. Albert Wesker has become the most popular character among the masses, the series has shifted from survival horror to campy 80’s action, and there have been cries of racism for months due to the game being set in Africa. Has the series improved over time? Gameplay-wise I’d have to say yes, but as far as atmosphere goes, the first two games in this series will probably never be topped by a mere sequel. Would I sacrifice the great atmosphere for clearer camera angles? Probably not, but Capcom did, so here we are.

The Resident Evil 5 demo starts you out with the option of choosing to play the demo singularly, with a friend offline, and with a friend online. If you play co-op you will have the chance to play as Chris Redfield, and a new character to the Resident Evil series, Sheva Alomar. Next you get to choose which of the two parts of the demo you’d like to play, “Public Assembly,” or “Shanty Town,” which each provide you with enough monster (human?) slaughter, a chainsawing boss battle, and a pretty decent difficulty level. You won’t see too many differences between controlling Chris and Sheva compared to controlling Leon S. Kennedy, but accessing the inventory can only be done in real time now, which is a son of a bitch when you’re fighting a horde of bad dudes.

Overall this demo lives up to expectations for the most part, although I am bummed to find that there is no cover system implemented, which I heard rumored. A player still cannot walk and shoot, and though it’s said to be scarier that way, it’s really just annoying that you can’t. The shotgun in this demo rules (just like all shotguns should). At this point, I’m really just excited to get into the full game, and see where this outrageous story leads us next. The waiting game starts now, and doesn’t end till March 13th for us Americans, unless you go to Tokyo after March 5th which is their release date.

Rating: Go all the way to Japan, and Download now!

Demo’n: Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead: Though this is a large download for an Xbox 360 demo (1.2 gb), it is very much worth the time and space it takes to download. From the very start of this demo, we are treated with a pretty atmospheric intro video. The video gives you a pretty solid idea of what to expect from the rest of your gaming experience. It shows you the cast of main characters, it gives you a look at more than one type of zombie, and it shows that without your teammates you’ll be an infected zombie in no time. That’s the one thing about this game that I didn’t entirely expect, the heavy importance on team play. I know a lot of games say team play is the key, but in this game if your teammates aren’t watching your back you will have no chance. The reason you have no chance is because the “Boss” zombies in this game have nearly unblockable moves that grab your character, and the only way to free yourself from the grasps of these moves is to have your teammate shot the zombie(s) that’s perpetrating the move.

In the demo you start out with two options; play the first two maps of campaign alone, or play the first two parts of campaign with some people online. I opted for the online play after convincing my friends to download it as I was. The first romp through the Apartments on No Mercy (The first chapter in the campaign) was on normal, and was practically as easy as you can ask for. We played through it twice (and the second part), but realized we needed the “A.I. Director” to step the intensity up, so we played our next round on Advanced difficulty. Here we found a bit more craziness, and a lot more zombies to shoot, but it still wasn’t a dying matter for anyone involved (Laparkea, GodhartsYankkes, and BreezeofAir), so we stepped it up to the Expert setting. On expert we got ripped for the most part, but half of that was due to team killing (which is a one shot deal with the shotty on expert). We reached the final room of expert on part two, but we couldn’t escape with our bodies intact.

Expert difficulty makes finding extra weapons and health packs a necessity, while playing on other modes you hardly even need reloads of ammo. If you’re looking for a terrifying challenge, I vote playing this baby on expert, but if you just want to go forth and slaughter hordes of zombies, Advanced will do. Another promise this demo delivers on, where many games have failed, is the randomness of each playthru. There have been matches where a horde of zombies will jump over certain fences, or bust through certain walls in buildings, but then there are playthrus where it seems a bit easier, and then come to find out the whole horde is guarding the safe house (which is the end of every map). There will be people who cite the lack of playable levels as a problem (20 maps will ship with the full game), but I see plenty of replayability in the “A.I. Director,” who basically sends the zombies at the pace that best suits your team’s gameplay style. Anyone who loves zombies, first person co-op games, or just interesting game engines, this is a demo you should d/l.

Rating: Download Now!

Demo’n: Mirror’s Edge

Mirror’s Edge: Just got done playing around with the Mirror’s Edge demo on the Xbox 360. After running through the story portion of the demo, I was feeling the groove a little bit, and was excited to try out the time trial portion of the demo. When I went to time trial I was rudely awakened by the fact that a pre-order code was needed to access this portion of the demo. I don’t know if this is the first time a demo has required a code for additional demo’n, but I’m certainly shocked to see it. If I wasn’t turned off by the story portion of this demo, I’m surely turned off by the fact that they want me to put money down to play their complete demo. If DLC was ever to be released by this company (Electronic Arts) for this game, I can pretty much guarantee it’d be costing gamers money (most likely a pretty penny). Thumbs down on the demo for this reason alone, but onto the gameplay.

The controls in Mirror’s Edge are pretty simple. LB jumps, LT slides, RT hits, RB does a 180 turn, and the sticks control the character’s vision and control, like most games. The demo starts out with a bit of back story. Apparently this game is about the Man taking over the world, and a bunch of rebels running around on the rooftops delivering packages. Why should anyone care about any of that? I don’t know, but I do know the art direction is pretty solid on this game, so if you’re a big fan of graphics/art design you should be checking it out just for that. The game then sends you to a little training area made up of a few rooftops, where you’re trained by some lady named Celeste. The training consists of you following her through all of the game’s main obstacles, and then sparring with her to learn a few moves to duel with out on the Edge. After the training is complete it’s time to make your first delivery.

During the delivery, which is basically five little parts, three of which you’re being shot at, and one of which you’re jumping onto a helicopter mid-flight. There’s not much different here from the training, besides the fact that you’re being shot at half the time. If you’re a smooth runner you won’t be hit much, as the A.I. in the demo doesn’t seem to have won any marksmanship awards. The demo is over as soon as you jump on to that helicopter I mentioned, and then you’re graced with a quick video showing highlights of the game. The highlight that stood out to me was the shotgun disarm from behind, which seems to be stolen straight off The Matrix’s Trinity. I can’t say that I’ll be buying this game, or perhaps ever even playing the full version, but if you’re interested in an FPS that doesn’t revolve around shooting, try this one out.

Rating: Download

Be back tomorrow with Wasting Away part 3. Plurk while you wait!