It's difficult to play games in a language you don't know. However, based on the nearly infinite well of RPG experience under our belts, we can make a few pretty obscure parallels to the recent demo of Agarest Senki that popped up on the Japanese PS Store this past week. If you're unaware of the title, it's a strategy RPG that harkens to the like of all those Nippon Ichi titles, except this one spans generations of characters that are born, fall in love, and breed according to your actions. It sounds fun on paper, but what happens in the demo is more confusing than biting into a donut to find it's filled with salad.
Continue reading PS3 Fanboy impressions: Agarest Senki demo
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Try your hand at an English Bladestorm demo tomorrow
Even though we've had a Japanese demo for Bladestorm for a while, some of us really need to play it in English before we can pass judgment on Koei's not-quite hack-n-slash title. So, Koei is doing just that, releasing a demo on the PSN and Xbox Live tomorrow, October 4th, so we can try to wrap our minds around the idea that you can only swing your sword every once in a while. No matter. The fact remains we're really starting to get some demos before the games are released. That's always a good thing!
Codemasters, the group behind the frightening/awesome looking FPS Jericho, have confirmed that a demo is due out on the PC, PS3, and 360 this week. We'll probably see it in the PS Store on Thursday, as is the usual update period we've grown accustomed to. The game looks to be incredibly violent, so if you've got children that like the bask in the warm glowing warming glow of the PS3, you may want to scurry them off to bed before mutilating some creepy critters. We're not sure what the demo actually entails, but we're willing to bet you get to try your hand at all the characters in the first level: the city of Al-Khali. In any case, try it out this Thursday!
Waiting for a demo on the PlayStation Store is like waiting for a bus. You know it's bound to come, but only vaguely know what time it should probably get there. The demo for skate seemed to hit a few more red lights than other demos -- a demo has been available on a certain other system for a week and we expected a demo for the PS3 this week. No dice! So, what gives? Patrick Seybold explains: "contrary to popular reports, I believe that the Skate demo was just officially submitted to us for test last week. Its obvious that many of you want it, and we'll do our best to get it up there as soon as we can. Hold tight."
We know it takes a little while to make sure a demo is solid enough to slap up on the PS Store, so holding tight is really our only option. It's kind of funny, though. EA claimed to have sent this demo several weeks ago for approval, but Sony says they only got it last week. EA has done very little to merit our trust, but why would they give one platform a demo faster than another? Conspiracy theorists, assemble! The rest of us, wait until this Thursday and we'll probably have the skate demo at last.
Sony's been really good about making downloadable demos for all of its first-party titles. However, both Warhawk and Lair have released, sans demo. Why is that? Considering Warhawk's incredible quality, we thought that Sony would want to give players a taste.
Well, it looks like a demo will never come out for this online-only game. SCEA responded to GameDaily BIZ: "Warhawk was designed to support up to 32-players online simultaneously. In a demo version of a multiplayer only game, there is little control over how many players will be on a dedicated server at a time, potentially leading to smaller online battles that do not fully do justice to the title's fast combat and frantic play. Additionally, Warhawk development underwent an extensive beta trial that included nearly 10,000 participants, which offered a wide audience ample opportunity to experience the game and provide valuable feedback to during Warhawk's development."
So, it looks like the beta was the only free chance you had at the game. You're just going to have to trust us: Warhawk is good, and you will like it (provided you can actually sign in on firmware 1.92 ... )
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Stranglehold demo on PSN this week? Forum mod says "Yes"
Sony set a dangerous precedent with last week's PSN update (and also, a tragic mistake). We'll be expecting similar amounts of content for the US PSN and a much greater amount for the EU PSN (alright, alright -- enough moaning about the EU PSN, but honestly: we're bitter). So far this week is shaping up quite nicely now that we have confirmation of Motorstorm's Coyote Revenge update and, now, a Stranglehold demo. That's right. A demo for a game that doesn't involve balls or wheels. We're excited!
The announcement was made on the official Midway forums by the moderator "Echo77." Where do we recognise that name from? Oh yeah, he's the same fellow that started the Strangleholdregion freenonsense a couple of months ago. Regardless, we're going to remain cautiously optimistic and hope for the best come Thursday.
Those still on the fence and waiting for a demo of Unreal Tournament 3 are unfortunately out of luck. Mark Rein has stated that there will be no PS3 demo before the game's release. If you have a decent PC, however, then you're in luck. The reason given is that Epic isn't a big enough company to work on a game and a demo at the same time.
Rein said it was the same when Microsoft asked Epic for a Gears of War demo. "What we told Microsoft last year - they wanted a demo for Gears of War and we said 'you've got a choice - you can have the demo this year or the game this year'." We know which we'd rather have. The game is a no-brainer for us anyway, we'll be picking this up as soon as it's available.
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Dark Sector demo hitting the PSN this fall
Posted Aug 22nd 2007 10:30PM by Colin Torretta
Filed under: Demos
In some ways, PlayStation 3 owners are like Tantalus. Forever desiring demos of upcoming titles and yet eternally denied by the cruel Sony gods. Sure, a GRAW 2 demo is nice, but what about Ratchet and Clank, Lair, Warhawk or a Heavenly Sword demo longer than 3.4 minutes? Well, if Sony isn't listening at the very least D3 Publishing and Digital Extremes are.
1Up is reporting that they received confirmation that both the PS3 and 360 will be getting a Dark Sector demo prior to launch, sometime between October and November. It's refreshing to hear that we'll be getting a demo around the same time as the 360 does, now if only more games would follow suit!
[Update: Koei issued a statement regarding this rumor and said it was blatantly false. Oh well, not like a lot of us were really losing sleep, right?]
Say what you will about Koei, but their upcoming futuristic racing title Fatal Inertia has been running laps for a long time -- first as a PS3 exclusive, then multiplatform, then canceled for PS3, then canceled altogether (a brief, easily squashed rumor), now back on track for both the 360 and PS3. Not only is the title back on track, but Fatal Inertia is hitting the PS Store tomorrow (or perhaps Thursday if the scheduled updates up to now mean anything at all)! All you'll need is a European account and downloading will be pretty easy. Once you check it out, you can finally complain about how the game does or doesn't hold up to our standards with the 360 folk, who've had a demo for a few days.
[Thanks, DolphGB!]
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Activision confirms Tony Hawk demo around Thanksgiving
If you can't read French, let us do the dirty work for you. According to PlayFrance, Activision has announced that the newest Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, will get a downloadable demo onto the PlayStation Store a little before Thanksgiving. If you've got a US account but aren't quite sure when those crazy Americans celebrate turkey day, this means to expect a demo around the third week of November.
This is all well and good, but we can't forget that it is another Tony Hawk game. A lot of people have been saying that his titles have grown more and more stale throughout the years, so putting a demo up is risky. On the other hand, perhaps there is a lot of promise in the title and placing a demo up proves it. We'll see if Proving Ground really lives up to its name, or proves that it sucks, in November.
Mere minutes after the European PlayStation Store was updated with the Heavenly Sword demo, American users of the PlayStation Network will be able to download the hotly anticipated demo, along with a few additional goodies. Here's this week's line-up:
Heavenly Sword playable demo
Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay demonstration
Resident Evil 5 game trailer
Haze "Origins" game trailer
"30 Days of Night" movie trailer
"Across the Universe" movie trailer
"August Rush" movie trailer
"Vacancy" Blu-Ray movie trailer
GripShift 2.0 full game - $9.99 {Update: "Previously available on the PLAYSTATION Store, this updated version includes faster load times and other minor fixes. If you've previously purchased GripShift from the PLAYSTATION Store, you can download this new version for free."]
This is quite possibly the most significant update the Store has ever received, providing a high profile game demo, hot game trailers, and a surprise new downloadable game. Log on to the Store now.
Codemasters want us to play their latest horror title, Jericho, in demo form. The demo is going to hit the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live, and PCs simultaneously this August. Looks like developers are finally recognizing that giving PS3 owners a demo alongside the other platforms might be worth their while!
Demos are starting to get announced left and right. Heavenly Sword, the rumored Lair demo that we still don't see, Bladestorm, Jericho, and others are all scheduled for demos in the near future. We're glad to see the revamped support for the PS Store and Sony gamers in general, so with that pleasant note, we're going to end this song and start ourselves on Persona 3.
[via N4G]
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Ratchet and Clank demo hitting PS Store shelves soon [Update]
Posted Jul 24th 2007 1:15PM by Nick Doerr
Filed under: Demos
[Update: The demo is not coming out this week. Karraker issued a clarification statement: "In my original interview that this is getting sourced from I was speaking about the Heavenly Sword demo. A bit of confusion between the editor and me has led to this story being mistakenly reported, which is now being corrected."]
We love furry animal critters and funky robots, so of course we're going to love the rumored Ratchet and Clank demo when it comes out. Game Informer had an interview with Dave Karraker about that very topic and he said the demo was, in fact, complete. He expects it to actually release this week, alongside the Heavenly Sword demo. We'd like this to be true, but we've heard nothing about it, so we remain skeptical.
With all the otherdemos getting announced, we're not surprised to hear of this one. We've just got to find an appropriate frame of time to slide the demo under the door, so to speak. If nothing else, give this demo a chance to get a better feeling for the game, if you didn't exactly agree with the hands-on impressions from E3.
[Via PSX Extreme]
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Bladestorm demo coming July 30th to Japanese PS Store
You've wanted it, we know. In fact, compared to all the releases headed our way this fall, you've seriously been considering dropping all your other desires to focus on Koei's hack-n-slash, map-traveling, awkward guitar-riffing Bladestorm. Our sarcasm may be dripping, but our mouths are only a bit wet. Sure, we'll be glad to see a demo of Bladestorm hit the Japanese PlayStation Store next week, but it's really not our highest priority.
These games truly are "love 'em or hate 'em" but we'll admit -- they are a guilty pleasure. Sometimes you don't want to face off against some twitch-gamer online, or think about a tactical move, or listen to some poorly executed dialogue in a cliched story about warring kingdoms. Sometimes you just want to plow the hell through several hundred troops. That's exactly what we'll be doing on July 30th. Bladestorm, we can't wait to shut our minds off and give you our attention. So long as we're done playing Heavenly Sword's demo.
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[Update] Heavenly Sword demo out in Europe this Thursday
It looks like we were completely correct with our post a couple of weeks ago when we laid out a sumptuous platter of downloadable content that would be available on the European PSN this month. ThreeSpeech has confirmed that everything that we listed will be available on the store this Thursday (looks like the EU updates will no longer be happening on Fridays after all). For those with lazy clicking fingers, here is the list of upcoming downloadable content for this week:
As well as all of this, there will be a couple more trailers from E3 going up. Namely, Ratchet and Clank and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Though chances are most of you will have downloaded them from the US Store already.
[Thanks Ian]
[Update]
IGN has confirmation that the demo *should* be arriving this week in America and Japan as well. Woot!
It looks like we were completely correct with our post a couple of weeks ago when we laid out a sumptuous platter of downloadable content that would be available on the European PSN this month. ThreeSpeech has confirmed that everything that we listed will be available on the store this Thursday (looks like the EU updates will no longer be happening on Fridays after all). For those with lazy clicking fingers, here is the list of upcoming downloadable content for this week:
