Demos that did more harm than good?

[Jiefu]

The DA2 demo was poorly placed. The first area was so ugly that I decided not to buy the game. After seeing all the crap they pulled in the full version, I'm glad I didn't.

 

[Deathninja19]

A shitty demo to a shitty game is just honest advertising, if unintentional.

I can't think of a single demo that poorly represented a genuinely good game.

Vanquish was brilliant game that had an underwhelming demo. It was made to look like a bland knock off of Gears and humourless when it was a truly unique, fluid and sometimes very funny game.

Seriously everyone should try Vanquish, you can find it cheap everywhere so take a chance on it you'd be suprised at how good it is.

 

[Doclector]

The demo for killzone on the ps2.

It was frustrating as hell. You see, at the time, to most console gamers, the concept of absolutely needing to take cover was alien. If only it just had a bit of text with gameplay tips, and it wouldn't of took me three tries due to curiosity over it's hype to actually enjoy it. I'm damn sure there's plenty of others who didn't find reason to bother with it any more than once.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Too Human. It showed people exactly what the game was going to be, a piece of shit, and thankfully kept me from buying it.

 

[baddude1337]

WRC 2010 demo. The demo was pretty poor representation for the game and put many people off it. Which was a shame as all things considered it is a fairly decent rally game.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

There are many games what I wanted to get and tried the demo for, only to find out I don't actually want the game anymore. My apologies for not being able to provide any specific games, as I'm not able to think of any at this time.

 

[Fidelias]

Republic Commando. I played the demo for it. It just seemed like a crappy Star Wars game that was trying unsuccessfully to branch into FPS. I finally picked it up after my friend kept praising it, and now I LOVE it! I must've played through RepCom at least 100 times!

 

[SonicKaos]

Don't get the hate for Mirror's Edge. I thought it was brilliant.

Me too, but that's a discussion for another thread, I think.

I understand that the demo for Uncharted 1 is cursed or some such, but I have not played it myself.

I agree with both of these. I really enjoyed Mirror's Edge.

I played the Uncharted demo a while back and thought the game was pretty crappy. I couldn't see why everyone was so excited about it, but many months later I think I borrowed it from someone or bought it very cheaply. Absolutely loved the game.

 

[Total LOLige]

The Fable 3 demo was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring. I still want to play it, because I enjoyed Fable 2, so I guess I'm lucky that I'm getting it off a friend for £10.

You may be disappointed it's got nothing on fable 2. You don't even get horns for being evil or a halo for being good.

OT: Haven't really played any demos that did more damage than good.

 

[Dexiro]

The Monster Hunter Freedom Unite demo. It pits you against a selection of the strongest enemies in the game for reasons unknown, the only purpose this demo would have is to give existing fans something to chew on before the full release. But trying that demo as a newcomer will do no favours to anyone.

Oh and having recently played Assassins Creed 2, I must say the first game just feels like a bad demo in comparison.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Crackdown 2, the first one was great, the second one was the same but crap because of the day/night system with the zombies and the constant firefight on the streets.

I was so disappointed when I got that game and realised they'd gotten rid of the awesome large scale gang-boss take-downs. It took all the sense of progression and achievement out of the game.

It sure was fun with buddies though.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

In before Brütal Legend, hopefully. That would certainly be my choice were it not for the fact that I actually quite enjoyed the stage battles and the multiplayer.

That lying bastard of a demo told me the game was going to be a set-piece driven hack'n'slash, not a sub-par RTS.

 

[Tim_Buoy]

The Fable 3 demo was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring. I still want to play it, because I enjoyed Fable 2, so I guess I'm lucky that I'm getting it off a friend for £10.

try to negotiate down to half that and your still overpaying for that game i loved the first fable game the second wasnt as good but it was ok this one was just painful
OT: the only demo that killed my enthusiasm for a game was bullet storm loved the demo but ried the game and didnt seem as fun

 

[Kapol]

I've heard that the Red Faction Guerrilla demo sucked and didn't do a good job showing off the game due to not having an open world. Other then that though, I can't think of anything. I don't play many demos anymore to be honest.

 

[WorldCritic]

Must not talk about Too Human, must not talk about Too Human.

The Too Human demo made me hate the idea of playing the actual game, but even when I did play the actual game it still was crap.