After a long drought, a whole bunch of demos came out at once, though in the end they were all pretty disappointing. “Chrome”:http://www.chromethegame.com/ is a FPS with an emphasis on stealth and a “gimmick” – implants that give your character super-powers but only for a limited time. Unfortunately, while it is undeniably pretty the demo was extremely repetitious (power up, go through door, shoot bad guys, repeat) and you got no chance to play with the vehicles promised.
“Silent Storm”:http://www.nival.com/eng/s2_info.html was even worse. It seemed promising – a Jagged Alliance-style turn-based squad combat game set in WWII, but it was totally unrealistic (your people could be peppered with bullets and still stagger around) and you could only see the terrain from limited camera angles which often made it difficult to judge where you were running to (for example).
“Warlords 4”:http://warlords4.ubi.com/index.php was the demo I probably spent the longest time playing but only through a stubborn desire to get through it. It is another turn-based game – this one set in the usual D & D style fantasy universe, but it too began to be tedious as the tactical combat system is really primitive (a common problem with turn-based games where a lot of combats are resolved automatically).
Command and Conquer: Generals may be a good game, but the 400Mb (!) demo doesn’t really give you much insight into it. It contains just three very short missions and no multiplayer or skirmish mode.
Lastly, I haven’t had much time to play “Medal of Honour Allied Assault Breakthrough”:http://www.eagames.com/official/moh_alliedassault/breakthrough_editorial.jsp?src=mohbtdownloads&src=11hmer2g1000gnonenone (EA has to come up with some shorter names!) but without a manual it is hard to get started on, and I have to ask – what kind of first person shooter these days doesn’t let you lie down?
