Xbox Live's Worst Demos

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When a demo is done properly, it can create a lot of buzz around an unheralded title. The early days saw Fight Night Round 3 stun 360 owners with its sharp visuals and crunching slow-mo knockout replays.

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Later down the line Civilization Revolution, Lost Planet, Bioshock and Burnout Paradise all had stellar demos that did a great job of selling the game in question.

Sometimes it's too easy for developers to fall into a "here's the boss, now the demo ends" trap. Unfortunately, some developers tend to fall even further. Here are the five most disappointing demos, all notable for the fact that they've turned people off the game rather than onto it. They might be free but sometimes, you get what you pay for...

5. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

We're no experts in the field of games development but if you want players to try the online side of your game, then it's best make sure an online-only demo works online.

When Battlefield 2: Modern Combat's demo arrived in the early months of Xbox 360's life, it got off on the wrong foot as it was near impossible to connect to a game. Those who did connect, often after an hour of trying, would get one match in before being booted back to the same menu and forced to endure the same reconnecting ritual for hours and hours.

These problems didn't peter out until a week after the demo had hit Marketplace, by which time the curious had given up and the fans were furious. The game itself was surprisingly good fun but its unique mix of arcade scoring, team tactics and squad gameplay never really ignited in the way it should.

Regardless, it could be argued that the demo was indicative of the final game. Servers that would randomly crash, a clan feature that never worked properly, a health crate bug that drove players away in droves. Modern Combat 2 was a fun game but one that never felt like anything more than a half-hearted nod towards the 360's existence and that all started with the demo.


4. Sonic The Hedgehog

It was supposed to be a glorious rebirth of an old, wayward icon. Sonic has struggled to recapture the glory of his 2D heyday since leaving the Megadrive behind but that was all going to change with this game, promised Sega. A simple title, a new beginning, a new Sonic.

After the tepid Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes, Sega had carefully and meticulously crafted some momentum for this latest addition to the series. And then, with the arrival of one terrible demo, all that momentum was stopped.

Sonic The Hedgehog suffered from the same problems all 3D Sonic games had. Uncontrollable. Unplayable. Uneventful. The sensitive controls and linear level felt like you were trying to guide a marble down a hair, with the camera whizzing round doing as it pleases and the limited lives making it a frustrating demo to play through.

Sega went full speed ahead with its damage limitation plans, spreading word that the demo was based was an old build and the final game was much, much better. Yet when the game itself was released, it didn't take long for word to spread that it wasn't different. At all. Having had their fingers burnt on the demo, most Sonic fans decided to sit this one out.


3. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

What had happened if a road accident Winston Churchill had suffered while in New York had turned out to be fatal? That is the question Turning Point: Fall of Liberty asks before embarking on an alternative timeline where the Nazis are running rampant through World War II New York.

Good concept, then. Shame about the demo. Turning Point's demo managed to feel generic, uninspiring and bland, a real feat given the premise. Though it opened up with flaming air-blimps and Nazi parachuting from the skies, it found time to touch base with all the clichés we've sighed at over the years - an obstacle course that serves as a tutorial, grey corridor shooter, injured NPCs dying just as you reach them, ledges you can't jump over, invisible walls and so on.

Most players also complained about sensitivity problems with the aiming, unresponsive AI, as the criticism came flying thick and fast. It even prompted developers Spark to defend the game, using the same 'old build' excuse Sega did and then reel off a list of improvements.

In the end, it didn't matter. The wonky demo killed off any interest in Turning Point and when the reviews finally landed, it confirmed that those staying away because of the demo were right.


2. Too Human

With one-man PR machine Denis Dyack whipping up controversy storms wherever he goes, it's sometimes easy to forget his day job is acting as President of Silicon Knights. That's right, President.

As in, someone who should be far too busy to find time to attack the games journalism model, forums, Epic and E3, Dyack has turned his internet flamethrower on anyone who uttered so much as a 'meh' against Too Human's name. A game that's been cooking in development for a long, long time, expectations for Too Human have been driven through the roof by his relentless hyperbole and keyboard warrior antics.

When the demo did finally appear on Live, Dyack's tantrums had unwittingly brought it more attention than it would have otherwise warranted. Some might argue that was his intention all along, Yet for the majority of those downloading the demo looking to shoot down his lofty claims - and by God, there were a lot of them - Too Human provided plenty of fuel to pour on the fire.

Horrible controls, awful camera, lame combat, embarrassing dialogue, hideous character models, clunky menus, ugly HUD, pretentious storyline... they're the kind of flaws that can easily be overlooked in the grand scheme of these and often have been in the past. Especially when you consider that underneath the unappealing veneer beats the heart of an addictive loot game.

But after the bad press, the drama and the tantrums? Too Human needed to unite, not to polarise further. In that regard, the demo failed to do its job. Fingers crossed the game turns out to be better...


1. Hour Of Victory

Oh dear. A textbook example of how not to do a demo. Midway had the right idea with Hour of Victory. Cashing in on the World War II FPS crave brought about by the Call of Duty titles, it was coming just at the right time to get the attention of gamers and their wallets. Despite being a new title with a small developer behind it, Hour of Victory had gathered some momentum.

Then the demo hit Live and within minutes, everything came crashing down around Hour of Victory's head. The demo was shockingly bad, doing everything wrong that an FPS could do wrong from weapons that were near impossible to aim to enemies that won't shoot even when you stand right on their toes. The lasting image of Hour of Victory's demo would be the floaty tanks, that had no weight to them whatsoever.

The situation was bad enough but amazingly, the situation was exacerbated when Microsoft yanked the demo off Marketplace for 'technical reasons'. With word spreading over how bad the game was, Major Nelson's blog became the main outlet for curious players wanting to vent their anger at not being able to play through this car crash of a game. With a group of angry gamers all huddled together in the same place, it didn't take long for a new theory to catch fire - Microsoft had pulled the demo because it was so bad.

Eventually, the demo was put back up on Live and to all intents and purposes, was the same as what horrified gamers originally played. Never before has a demo killed off hype for a game as quickly as this did.

Ryan King