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[Neifirst]

In-store gamestop demo of Resident Evil 4 for Gamecube. Beginning of the game up through the chain saw guy encounter at the village. Probably the most thrilling 15-20 minutes in the entire game!

 

[Novocaine]

Pocket Card Jockey has a great demo. It lasted for a long time.

 

[Ganzor]

The Stanley Parable.

It's wholly unique content. A demo about it being a demo and letting you demo the game ...or ... at least the attempt at letting you try a demo.

Brilliance.

Came to say this

 

[uceenk]

Destiny 2, it was so fun to the point i didn't care playing practically same contents over and over, love both story and PvE mode

 

[FelixTheSexranger]

Codename Eagle.

Lan hit at the time.

Edit: Also, Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Several versions.

 

[Zojirushi]

Bioshock just because the beginning of that game is so amazing.

 

[oddj0b]

MGS4's demo is the best imo because it lets you play a good portion of the game

https://youtu.be/yKt799IcqOY

 

[Fuchs]

I've played the demo for the first Splinter Cell a ton so that's my pick.
Additionally I'd choose the demo for Bioshock.

 

[Spukc]

WTF neogaf nobody mentioned tekken 3 demo ?
As a kid i wasted 100 plus hours on that demo.
It basically was the full game 😐

 

[Thebonehead]

Destiny.

I mean that was just a fraction of Earth and the game would be so much more. I pre-ordered on that demo.

Spoiler

Not falling for that again

 

[Jack cw]

 

[Ryuuga]

Kingdoms of Amalur, a demo so generous I started to feel guilty for progressing any further.

 

[JNT]

The two that come to mind are:

Doom.

A ton of content for a demo. It also helps that the game is one of the best shooters to this day.

Red Faction: Guerrilla.

This game was not even on my radar until I played the demo. Wrecking shit turned out to be much more fun than I could have ever imagined.

 

[down 2 orth]

The Warcraft 1 demo blew my brains, I doubt it aged well though.

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

Kula World

 

[Masterspeed]

I spent days in the Mercenaries demo and MechAssualt demo on the original Xbox.

 

[Izuna]

I imagine most people only played the Doom demo and didn't ever play the other episodes

 

[Deadpool_X]

I imagine most people only played the Doom demo and didn't ever play the other episodes

Doubtful. As iconic as the game is and as on as many platforms as it's on now, if say that anyone who played Doom Shareware back in the day has now had the opportunity to play the full game at some point in time.

 

[joolz]

Burnout paradise and the first carmageddon comes to mind.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

No question:

Spoiler

P.T.

 

[Gaenor]

Spent more time on that demo than on a lot of complete games.

 

[Peroroncino]

just cause 2 demo

good old times glitching the timer and derping arounds for hours

Yup. I've put in a lot of hours into that demo, it's a shame when I finally got around to playing full game it didn't really grip me, busywork got too boring too quickly.

 

[super-famicom]

Can't believe OP didn't mention the MGS 2 demo.

 

[realwords]

Battlefield 2 Multiplayer Demo -- Gulf of Oman is one of my favorite maps in anything ever, and playing it for weeks on end never got boring.

 

[redcrayon]

Bravely Second: Ballad of the Three Cavaliers is a relatively recent really good one in that it's effectively a prequel and demo at the same time, a 6 hour rpg campaign in its own right. You don't miss much if you jump straight to the main game but the camaraderie of the prequel team does mean that later events in the main game can feel a bit more interesting.

 

[forgeforsaken]

Crackdown was really good.
Unreal Tournament multiplayer demo was outstanding.

 

[Najaf]

The original skate demo probably got more hours from me than most full games. Definitely my most enjoyed demo of all time.

 

[NeoZeedeater]

Christmas NiGHTS.

 

[Zedox]

Tony Hawk's for PS1. Got a CD of the demo level with a magazine. Played it for days with my housemate, each taking turns to better the other's score.

This.

 

[Sony]

I miss the demo discs that game with game consoles

The PS1 demo discs were pure magic back in the day.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Do the Nioh Beta's count, because they were fucking insane.

If not, the first disc of Panzer Dragoon Saga in the UK's Sega Saturn Magazine was a crazy freebie.

 

[Izuna]

Do the Nioh Beta's count, because they were fucking insane.

Well, they were Betas, so. I don't think it counts. But yes, they fucking rocked.

Made me buy a PS4.

 

[HubbaBubba]

Fusion Frenzy. I believe it was included on the Halo disc (or maybe my memory is wrong)

Spent many of hours with friends playing the 3 games it had.

 

[MaLDo]

Doom shareware
Duke Nukem 3D shareware
Descent
Tomb Raider
Farcry
Just Cause 2
Crysis

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

The demo did Mercenaries 1 was pretty great. I think it even had cheat codes.

Glad somebody else remembers this. You got a good sized enemy base to screw around in and it did a fantastic job of showing off the game mechanics and destructibility. I played it repeatedly and the game went from being one I'd never heard of to a must buy.

There were some great ones for the Sega Saturn back in the day, including the entire first disc of Panzer Dragoon Saga and a Virtual On demo that let you use all the characters.

Yeah, it's hard to top the Panzer Saga demo. I remember in the letters section of the following issue, somebody actually wrote in to ask when they would be including the following discs.
Because it was the actual first disc of a four disc game, when you finally got the game, you could just carry on from where you left off. Thing is, I played the first disc so much just flying around the last area without triggering the Atolm fight I was hilariously over levelled and it made the rest of the game trivial.
I also agree on the Virtual On demo, it's the sort of game that sells itself when you see it in motion.

Other demos that stick out for me were two I played on friends PC, Diablo and Heroes of Might and Magic 3. So much fun to be had with both of those especially for two kids with no money for actual brand new, full games.

 

[SenkiDala]

The 2 that are still printed in my mind are Resident Evil 2 and MGS2!

At that time it was not very common to have demos of games, I didn't even have internet so I couldn't see videos of games before their release, and being able to play them was awesome! Especially on those 2 wonderful games.

 

[GeNoMe]

MGS 1 and 2 obviously. Also loved Medievil and Tomba.

 

[FaustusMD]

That Resident Evil 2 demo with Director's Cut. That was a long wait for the real game.

 

[NeoZeedeater]

If not, the first disc of Panzer Dragoon Saga in the UK's Sega Saturn Magazine was a crazy freebie.

It sucks that North America never got this. I remember seeing it at a specialty magazine store but since I couldn't play PAL games, I didn't buy it. I bought the full game anyway (and it's amazing) but it would have been cool to try that.

 

[Anon67]

I remember the single player demo for Battlefield Bad Company 1 being so amazing. Convinced me fully that Battlefield was the future for modern shooters.

 

[PleaseDontBanMe]

MGS Ground Zeros

 

[WingM@n]

Unreal tournament
Bad company 2
Worms

 

[DarkArterialGore]

I used to love playing the Lamborghini demo on the original Xbox, pity the developer went bankrupt and the full game never came out.

The Metropolis Street Racer demo on Dreamcast was awesome too, I put a ton of effort into improving my best lap time.

 

[Human Trashcan]

MGS Ground Zeros

pretty sure that didn't have a demo

 

[AaronMT86]

Doom Shareware.

 

[Pantz]

Three come to mind

Bioshock (Xbox 360) - The demo was one of the best parts of the game.

Battlestations: Midway (Xbox 360) - Unlimited multiplayer demo. I can't remember if it was 2v2 or 4v4, but you could invite your friends on your team. Played many a matches on it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II (Xbox 360) - Unlimited multiplayer demo. It was 1v1, Elves vs Goblins, I think. Got really good and had near 100 matches with 0 losses. Not that picking on demo players is that impressive.

 

[RecRoulette]

My siblings and I played the Gitaroo Man demo from an issue of OPM a TON before we could finally track down a copy of the full game.

The fight against Mojo King Bee was a great way to show off that game. Great music and really tough the first time you try to play it.

 

[Necronomikon]

Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver demo... 160MB of pure awesomeness of a demo. Afterwards I couldn't wait for the final release.

Metal Gear Solid PSX1 demo was amazing too. A disk with an unkwown franchise for me which ended up being one of my dearest sagas.

Half Life 2 - Lost Coast was another memorable demo which show a new level of graphical prowess.

P.T. is the best demo this past two generations to be honest...

 

[Grakl]

Unreal Tournament 2004. That demo was so good. Some of the best maps from the full game (ONS-Torlan, ohhhh so good), pretty much all the weapons and vehicles AND multiplayer included too! The perfect demo package.

Without question, played that demo for a good few years lmao

 

[N30RYU]

Puyo Puyo Teris Switch japanese demo is good enought to the point not needing to buy the actual full game letting you play a 4 player match first 3 rounds winner.

It's so great they released a worst demo in EU/USA with only one round matches then reseting to the menu.