General Gaming Have you ever had more fun with a demo/beta than a full game?

[Chris-]

It's happened to me a few times, mostly with multiplayer FPS...I played the shit out of Halo 3's demo/beta, as well as various DICE betas (Battlefield 2 on Xbox, Battlefront on PS4). Sunk a bunch of hours into one map or whatever was being featured, then proceeded to play the full game less.  

[Fizzzzle]

I remember that happening with Gran Turismo 5. It took them so long to release that thing that I was kind of already burnt on the demo by the time it came out

[Paperclyp]

They were just videos but I remember thinking SaGa Frontier and and Tomba looked incredible on a demo disk I had, then I was underwhelmed when I played them haha. Don’t know if that counts. 

[skillzdadirecta]

I remember loving the Lost Planet demo on the Xbox 360 to death... when the final game came out, I had to force myself to finish it.

[GameDadGrant]

I enjoyed the hell out of the Metal Gear Solid demo that my roommate and I got from Pizza Hut (I think?) back in 1997/1998. I loved the full game, make no mistake. But the demo was...I dunno. Something else. It was fantastic.

 

Same for the Dreamcast version of San Francisco Rush: 2049. Loved the demo, loved the full game...but something about the demo was...I dunno. MORE. Despite it being less. I can't explain why. 

[Bacon]

All the time with MMO betas but what that really proves is that those games was just doomed to fail. Never happened with a shooter of any kind. 

[Keyser_Soze]

37 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

I enjoyed the hell out of the Metal Gear Solid demo that my roommate and I got from Pizza Hut (I think?) back in 1997/1998. I loved the full game, make no mistake. But the demo was...I dunno. Something else. It was fantastic.

 

You could probably say the same thing about the MGS2 demo.

[DarkStar189]

I was like a year late to the original Half-Life game. Before I played it, PC Gamer had a demo disc with Half-Life Uplink and I played that soooo much. I was also subscribed to the Dreamcast magazine with the demo discs and I played the hell out of all of those. Probably more than the full games if I ended up renting them. 

[crispy4000]

There’s this hilarious QWOP like game called Pro Gymnast on Steam.  Absolutely worth turning on the demo for shits and giggles, especially with a crowd.  But I don’t think I’d ever bother to take it seriously enough to buy.

[best3444]

I'm assuming a lot of people are doing this very thing with Battlefield 

[GameDadGrant]

12 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

You could probably say the same thing about the MGS2 demo.

 

I probably would! If I had played it. 

[Mercury33]

Fusion Frenzy on the OG Xbox. There was a game in the demo my roommates and I played to death. Turned out it was the only fun game in the entire collection lol

[Xbob42]

3 hours ago, best3444 said:

I'm assuming a lot of people are doing this very thing with Battlefield 

I actually came in here to say the Wake Island demo for BF1942. We played the everloving shit out of that for hundreds of hours and had a blast. I don't remember too much from the real game aside from it having a lot of maps that were not Wake Island that never felt as good.

[HardAct]

14 hours ago, GameDadGrant said:

I enjoyed the hell out of the Metal Gear Solid demo that my roommate and I got from Pizza Hut (I think?) back in 1997/1998. I loved the full game, make no mistake. But the demo was...I dunno. Something else. It was fantastic.

 

Same for the Dreamcast version of San Francisco Rush: 2049. Loved the demo, loved the full game...but something about the demo was...I dunno. MORE. Despite it being less. I can't explain why. 

    The MGS demo in my opinion was the best ever. The game was fantastic too. I remember seeing / playing for the first time in EB games and I was hooked. The perfect amount of content and feel.

    Now to answer the post question, P.T. !! I loved the demo so much, can't say the same for the game itself....lol  

[GameDadGrant]

2 hours ago, HardAct said:

    The MGS demo in my opinion was the best ever. The game was fantastic too. I remember seeing / playing for the first time in EB games and I was hooked. The perfect amount of content and feel.

    Now to answer the post question, P.T. !! I loved the demo so much, can't say the same for the game itself....lol  

 

Totally agree. That MGS demo was awesome. I had a buddy of mine try to play it, but he was too action-oriented. Kept trying to bum-rush the nuclear disposal facility and kept getting gunned down over and over. LOL I told him he had to use STEALTH but he just...refused, haha. 

 

He never finished the demo, of course. 

[5timechamp]

Poster child of this:

Sniper Elite 2

[Dre801]

That Demo disc that came with the original PS1 contained a few examples.

[gamer.tv]

As primarily an N64 and GameCube owner growing up…never really came up.

[AshsToAshs]

On 11/13/2021 at 8:41 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

 

You could probably say the same thing about the MGS2 demo.

 

That's the first thing that came to my mind.

I played the MGS2 tanker demo a TON of times.

Then the full game came out and everything after the tanker was... different.

[Bloodporne]

I actually liked the Nioh demo more than the full game and the reason was probably that the best two levels were in that demo anyway. I still think Nioh is great but the level design took a massive shit quickly compared to the demo. 

[best3444]

7 hours ago, AshsToAshs said:

 

That's the first thing that came to my mind.

I played the MGS2 tanker demo a TON of times.

Then the full game came out and everything after the tanker was... different.

 

You mean everything after the tanker was trash, right?