threevue

Listen. I know that Microsoft charges $50/year for their Xbox Live Gold membership, allowing you access to their robust online system. But did you know that every new Xbox 360 comes with a free Silver membership, which allows you to interact with friends (just not in games) and access to the Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM), where you can download media for free?

What I’m getting at are the free demos you can download in XBLM. Currently, there are 158 to choose from. Here are my six favorite, in alphabetical order. Keep in mind that these are my favorite demos available, and are not reflections on the final games themselves:

Battlefield: Bad Company
The newest game on this list, I was pretty impressed with the single player demo. Mark was raving about the multiplayer demo (yes, they are in the same demo) and I tried it out. It has so much going on that I feel like I should be paying for all this. But by far my favorite thing about this demo, what makes it included on this list, is the fact that whatever upgrades and rank you earn in this demo will get transferred over to the full game if and when you choose to buy it. Pretty neat.
—

Bioshock
Many of last year’s best games didn’t have demos come out at all. I went away for a road trip last year and was Xbox-less for about a month, and the first thing I did when I came home was kiss my wife hello. And then I downloaded this demo, just to make sure that I definitely was going to go out and buy it. This demo is pretty much the unaltered beginning of the game, and that’s not a bad thing. Actually, its a very good thing.
—

Blacksite: Area 51
This is the one game on the list that I would tell you to play the demo but advise you against buying the actual game. The demo is short and sweet, and ends on a great cliffhanger. I haven’t played the full game, but it got 6’s across the board, whereas this demo is a solid 8.
—

Call of Duty 2
This is the same demo seen in those Xbox 360 kiosks all over the place a couple years ago. When it was hooked up to an HDTV, my jaw would drop - and though that doesn’t happen today, it’s still a fun, intense, and self-contained little demo.
—

Crackdown
The best part about this game is when your character levels up and acquires new abilities - and this demo accelerates that element to give players a good idea of what the full game is about. It’s a brilliant move, to show players a demo that’s actually MORE rewarding than the actual game. And this demo is HUGE, it’s ridiculous that all this content is free (but time-limited).
—

skate.
First off, it takes balls to not capitalize the title of a game. Secondly, presenting a demo for this game was probably not a very smart move. The controls of this game are really difficult to master, but everyone loves them after they’ve got it down. Problem is, most people aren’t going to put that much effort into a demo - now if they buy the full game, they’re stuck with it, and will eventually get the hang of it. But I wonder how many people ended up not buying this game because they had a hard time with the demo. Either way, it’s a solid game, and a breath of fresh air in a stagnant Tony Hawk world.
—
Honorable mention

The Orange Box
The only reason this demo didn’t make it onto the list is because I never played it. I bought this game the moment it came out, and haven’t had the need for the demo at all. I have no idea what the demo contains - Half Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2? Doesn’t really matter - it’s worth it regardless. If you haven’t bought The Orange Box, go buy it. If you live in the middle of nowhere and can’t get your hands on a copy (but somehow have high-speed internet), I guess you can download this demo first.