Just Cause 2 and Demos

Steam is good. Steam is great. Paypal is not because they take 4 days to clear funds without a credit card. So there I was during this wonderful sale, biding my time waiting with the Just Cause 2 demo.

Holy #$%^ this game is fun. I eventually bought it when it went on sale, beat it and continued playing, but that's beside the point.

How is the Just Cause 2 demo different from any other demo? It gave you a big portion of the map, a timer and a small, but tantalizing retinue of minigames and missions that are in the game proper. Plus, it's a game that gives you a magical hookshot, infinite parachutes and lets you ride a propane canister high into the sky like Elton John. This stuff is magic.

Now while not all games can do this, the key thing to take away is that game demos need to emphasize what makes them fun. Fun is the critical word here. If a game puts a smile on your face and keeps it there until the end, it's very likely you will buy it if it's within your budget. But while I was waiting, I tried some other demos and they didn't sell me as well as Just Cause 2.

I tried the Bioshock demo and the inability to skip the cutscenes is irritating. Yes, I watched them the first time. Very impactful, but it's a telling the same joke twice problem. Still wanna get it, but if I didn't know what I was gonna get and it wasn't cheap, I wouldn't.
I tried the Duke Nukem demo and it can go screw. As well, Gearbox did that bullshit exclusivity thing that only let you play it on preorder or the purchase of the GoTY edition of Borderlands.
I tried the Bulletstorm demo and while it was great fun, something told me that playing the demo 40 times would roughly equate to the whole game. I checked a Let's Play and I was right.
I also tried the Half Life 2 demo. I know it's old as dirt by this point, but it did the right thing by giving you the gravity gun and sticking you in zombie-infested Ravenholm. I just didn't like the game itself. It was somewhat frustrating to navigate, having to watch out for enemies that can one-two punch your screen red is not as exciting as you would imagine and the guns have such limited storage capacity that you get very limited combinations of weapon usage. I remember playing through RE4 like 4 times to get enough ammo to do a TMP run. It was a blast in any and all circumstances.


Now someone might argue that I need to get the full game to get the full experience. I say; that's crap. The purpose of the demo is to make me interested in the game. If it pisses me off in some way, I'm not going to be inclined to get it. This also pertains to E3 and GDC demonstrations, particularly the tech demonstration, particularly particularly Kinect. Jesus Chris, Microsoft. You're not gonna make that stupid thing novel. Its most interesting news was when it defused a bomb or performed surgery on someone. Beating Tim Schafer into making a Sesame Street tie-in game does not endear you to me, you cruel bastards.