[Archangel]

So, I got back to school after Christmas Break, and I had lots of demos to download and try out. Here's what I think about them --as if you care.

Sin Gold: can't get it running.
Oni: it's good, but --wtf!-- it skips from chapter 1 to chapter 4?! What's up with that? At first I wasn't too sure if I would get this game or not. Now I've decided to get it. Worth the download.
Rune: Boring. It's a different type of shooter I guess, but I wasn't impressed at all. I didn't even finish the demo.
Star Trek: Elite Force: Heck, yeah! This is an awesome game. However, because I've heard that the singleplayer is shockingly short, I will wait until I find a good deal on it. I thought it was frickin' cool to be gunning down some stupid Borg guys. I haven't downloaded the multiplayer demo yet. . .
Quake3: I didn't play the demo of this. I borrowed it from my friend. Okay, I'll admit that I mocked and dissed this game without fully playing it, so I decided I should get it a fair chance. 2 words: it blows. The maps all looked the same, the game play was cheesy, the weapons were boring (wtf! only one fire option?), the character models suck, there are only like 8 weapons, and it's all about the twitch factor (at least in UT there is some strategy and tactics especially in CTF and Assault). I guess Q3 is good for the not-so-serious gamer who just wants to kill time. Well, I know those are fighting words, but that's just my opinion. Please, let's not make this another UT vs Q3 thread. . .I would rather talk about demos.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I find your reviews a little short-sighted, to say the least.

Oni: Yeah, the demo skips from 1 to 4. SO???? What's yer point???? To me, that makes it better...I get to see the initial level and then some later moves and action, and a bit of a better challenge. I see no reason to complain over this...and you didn't give one, either....

Rune: Hardly sucks. I thought it was definitely one of the more original first-person game demos I've played in a while. There's a decent balance of enemies, you have to look around and use the scenery to finish the levels (or demo), and it's just very original, right down to the health lizards. Original and cool weapons, VERY nice and colourful graphics....

Elite Force: Now, this was a demo I disliked. In fact, I didn't finish THIS one. Why????? Unlike Rune, there was only one stupid enemy (at least as far as I got...which was almost to the end, I think), and it was this shambling, stupid creature who could be picked off without even aiming (or you could just run away...they were that slow). The graphics were definitely a Star Trek-ish so-so, with a drab, grey array of pipes and stuff, sprinkled with colourful "key lime pipes". Powerups were a standard console (blegh), and the puzzles required you to shoot other terminals. Ah. I dunno, but I thought this one was for the kids. When you get the IMOD it's just "zip zip (yawn) zip ("You will be assimilated") zip zip"....

QuakeIII Team Arena: I thought it was decent, but then again I've never been a fan of the QuakeIII game. Nice, big level and very sharp graphics, but again it falls short, at least to ME, when compared to UT. For one thing, I've always hated the sound set...no crashes or sharp staccatos like in UT...rather, they're sort of quiet and soft guns. Any of you ever used a rifle before? Believe me, it ain't quiet and soft.... As well, while QIII definitely has sharper graphics with the beautiful curves, id has always used that damn colour scheme. Team Arena, at least, is a little more colourful, but again I find UT stands out with its array of beautiful levels.
Again...the game was very good, but I just don't get the "fun factor" out of it like I do with UT......"shrugs"....I dunno....

Anyway, there's my loose change....

greg

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Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

I haven't played the Elite Force Demo myself, but I have played the entire full game. You're making it sound like the whole game is played in the Borg Cube -- which it's not. The full game takes you to a lot of varied and interesting locations including one pretty early in the game that you'll never see on the TV show. I, too, thought that the game was going to be a little drab early on as I kept facing the same enemy over and over. However, after getting through the early levels, more new enemies began appearing and it became laughable that I had even thought for a minute that this game was going to be repetitive.

Let me know which levels the single-player demo offers. It's clearly a tough situation for the developer/publisher when they have to decide which levels to show people in a demo while just teasing them with some gameplay while not giving them too much. Also, they have to try and keep the download size small enough for a reasonable download time on a modem or the interest dwindles a bit.

[Archangel]

Shortcut, the sudden jump in Oni levels only irked me because I felt like I wasn't really playing the game, but rather just skipping around in levels. I didn't think it lent itself to continuity of plot, how character develops, how moves are learned, etc. I don't think this is a fatal flaw in the game, I just wished that they had made it something like levels 1, 2, and then 4 or something like that. Like I said before, this demo has persuaded me to buy the game.
Rune: Well, maybe I'll try playing it again just for you, but when I was going through it I was bored. . .but hey, I believe in second chances.
Star Trek: I still think it was cool, but I definitely will not pay full price. It's like FAKK2, it's way cool, but you don't want to pay full price. It's too stinkin' short.
Q3: I haven't played Team Arena yet, and I probably won't. I'll take your word on it. I'll stick w/ UT, thank you very much.

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"Elvis has left the building!"

[Archangel]

Trevor, the demo offers 3 levels in 2 missions I think. The borg holodeck missions (where it ends up w/ you blowing everybody up) and then you have to save the warp core from exploding or something like that. That's all I can remember anyway.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Ya, I almost finished the Borg levels where you have to save all yer team members before I got bored.

I know it isn't all only one character, but hey....that's the demo.....

greg

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Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

[Archangel]

Sin Gold: Finally got the thing working. I guess I should have know I was suppose to drop that extension into the system folder and restart. I probably should start reading "read-me"'s too. . .Anyway, this game is okay. The demo is 2 short levels. One is perhaps the smallest, level I've ever played. Of course, the graphics in this game are not top notch because the game is at least a year old now, right? The guns puzzled me because I couldn't figure out if they always shot dead on like in UT or if they jumped around like in Counterstrike. Also, I couldn't get the mission objectives to ever display. It has fluid game play, but it isn't all that thrilling or original. I might buy this game if I find it cheap. The demo is already in my trash. . .

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"Elvis has left the building!"

You should have played the SiN demo on GameRanger before trashing it. The online play is what is really selling a lot of people; it's a ton of fun.

[Archangel]

Is it really that good online? I guess I can always redownload it. . .how many people are online? are the servers good?

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"Elvis has left the building!"

I just played it a few minutes ago on GameRanger, and even though I lost, it was a great experience. Yesterday I played a hoverbike level, and it offered new strategies and a whole new dimension to gameplay.

Since the game and demo's release, I've yet to notice a time when there hasn't been someone hosting a SiN or SiN Demo game on GameRanger. As I look right now, there's a SiN, Wages of SiN and SiN Demo being hosted.

[This message has been edited by Trevor Covert (edited 01-05-2001).]

Personally, I've found Rune to be an incredible game. It has the best graphics of ANY I have ever seen. Beautiful textures, colorful, distinctive locations.. I would have been impressed if the whole thing looked like that in cramped indoor locations! But instead, it's all wide open spaces. The gameplay gets a little repetitive after a while, but it's certainly worth playing.

I wasn't impressed by the Sin demo at all. I guess I should try the online play.

I'm intrigued by the debate about how the Oni demo skips levels. Can you name a single Bungie demo that hasn't? I remember in Marathon 1, specifically... The 3rd level of that demo skipped you forward to the point where Durandal kidnaps you. It definitely improved the quality of the demo and gave me an impression about the plot of the overall game. (Ok, I don't remember what levels were in the M2 or Infinity demos. So maybe I'm wrong when I say that they're all like that.)

I only played the Elite Force demo once, and I was pretty impressed. The demo doesn't quite convey the scope of the game, but I can believe it when people tell me that the story, pacing, environments, and pretty much everything else contribute to a game that feels like a real episode of Star Trek (without the bad qualities that that statement implies.)

I'm kind of disappointed by Team Arena. Yeah, I agree that Quake 3 is not as good overall at Unreal Tournament. But Q3 did have some advantages. I really enjoyed the cartoonish quality of the characters, and there were lots of subtle aspects that make you feel more like a badass in Q3 than in UT. But Team Arena replaces the characters with plainer, more "realistic" feeling ones. That disappointed me. The new gametypes are ok, but nothing better than what the mod community was already doing. And the extra description that the voiceover gives you when you get an award?!?! What the hell's up with that??? (Hearing "Excellent!" is a nice, non-distracting ego trip. But being told "Two frags in two seconds. Excellent!" is annoying, insulting to my intelligence, and more distracting. Please tell me I can turn that off.)

Anyway, I've gotta get back to playing those demos. I don't know enough about the Oni and Elite Force demos yet to talk about them much. It's a shame that all those great games came out to distract me from the great demos that were also released

Nevin