Demos that convinced you to buy a game

[jimbo118]

Fear - Really well made demo, the ladder bit with Alma was pants-wettingly scary. Played it a bunch too with Godmode on, gibbage ftw.

Moh:Allied Assault - Downloaded the demo over a day and a half on my old 56k. Was worth it. The amount of custom edits made for it was incredible too. One of the best levels in the actual game.

Battlefield 2 - epic.

Condemned - Monolith just do sweet demos.

Siren - Scary as fook demo, nailed the atmosphere.

[TollBooth Willie]

BLACK - KAKAKAKAKAKAK KASGHN',L KABOOOOOOOOOOM KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKUVJ,MNHJHNJHBNBGB *reload* POOPY DOOKIE KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA

Psi-Ops - ****ing awesome use of physics and just plain EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEME.

[Reginald]

I played so much of the BF2 demo back in the day. It was amazing. But I couldn't afford it when the game came out. And I just never bought it. One of my biggest gaming regrets.

[Escape]

Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead Demo---Even though i was totally oblivious that i played about 6 months of the game with horrible fps lag i enjoyed it lots. Eventually persuaded my mom to buy me the whole collectors edition.

Battlefield 2---Loved it

[PaoloM]

Penumbra Overture - Scary, atmospheric.

X3: Reunion - loved the music, the free-roaming in space and, yes, the gorgeous graphics.

[Fishlore]

XCom UFO Defense
Far Cry
Battle Field 1942

Those are the only demos where I actually ended up buying the game. Every other demo I've tried, did nothing more than convince me NOT to buy the game. As a consumer demos are great. The game makers probably regret letting me play their demos because 99 times out of 100 I find a reason not to get it.

[Gray Fox]

Qwak III
Battelfield 2
Trackmania Sunrise
Psychonauts
Etherlords II
Abe's Oddysee

Though in all fairness most of the times pirated copies convince me to buy a game,
and you could view those as demos of sorts.

[Cornerstone]

Half Life 1
Diablo

I guess that is it.

[stemot]

Star Trek Voyager:- Elite Force - A really well made shooter that was respectful to the source material.
Soldier Of Fortune - Loved this demo, played it for weeks on end before the game was released.
Splinter Cell - Amazing game with an amazing demo.
Half Life - Played this in demo form on my mates PC before I had one, running in software mode it still looked lightyears ahead of any other games I had played.
Aliens Vs Predator - The reason I got a PC, saw the previews for it and it looked amazing, got a PC for my 18th birthday, had the demo from a magazine I had already bought, fired it up and was amazed how great it was.
First game I ever pre-ordered.

[Bad^Hat]

Hmm... Half-Life. Don't remember many others.

On the topic of demos so awesome they made me not want to buy a game, the Unreal Tournament demo was amazing. Had like half the maps, most of the weapons, all the options and unlimited play online and off with bots. Played it for like a year straight, by the time I got the full game off a friend I was bored of it. :P

Edit - Oh, almost the same deal with the Diablo shareware. Played it for aaaages, just creating warriors, getting them to level 12-15 and starting again. A friend of mine spent so long grinding away on the demo he had his magical warrior way up above level 20... which is difficult considering the enemies cut off at about level 12. Got the full game eventually though, and still got a character all the way to max level (much easier than doing it in Diablo 2, I should note).

[VictimOfScience]

Far Cry - best demo ever imho. Made me want that game like no other.

[Acepilotf14]

The Force Unleashed.

[Shamrock]

I played so much of the BF2 demo back in the day. It was amazing. But I couldn't afford it when the game came out. And I just never bought it. One of my biggest gaming regrets.

You.. didn't.. buy it? What..? You missed out so bad. That was one of the biggest games to hit HL2.net. I mean everyone here loved that game, and we played together soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. It was amazing. I'm sorry you missed out. I still sort of like you.

[Loke]

Black
Need for Speed 3
Project Eden
MGS2 (although it was certain I'd buy it, but the demo blew me away anyways)
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 2
Duke Nukem 3D (or shareware as it was called back in the days)

There were also demos I played that I liked but never bought due to lack of money, however that was mostly back in the PSX-era.

[Wanted Bob]

Half Life and Half Life 2
Splinter Cell
Flatout
Condemned
Mirror's Edge (yeah, it aint out but im still buying it)

[xombine]

skate. for the 360

It's the only game that I genuinely bought simply because of the blast I had with the demo.

[Gordon-Shepherd]

Half life 2, actually.

[Ridge]

Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 4
Crysis

[Asus]

Far Cry
Battle Field 1942
^ these

The beta's I've played on steam I don't count since I planned to buy them anyway.

[Reginald]

You.. didn't.. buy it? What..? You missed out so bad. That was one of the biggest games to hit HL2.net. I mean everyone here loved that game, and we played together soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. It was amazing. I'm sorry you missed out. I still sort of like you.

I know. I looked on in jealousy at all your talk of clans and stuff. And I kept thinking "Oh, the fun will blow over soon." And it didn't. And then 2142 came out and I thought "now's my chance!" But 2142 was awful. And brown. And no one seemed to play 2 any more.

I cried.

[Warbie]

RTCW multipayer demo, Beach map. One of the best maps of THE best teambased multiplayer fps to grace the PC.

Dead Rising - there was no question about getting the game after the fun the demo alone provided.

Mirror's Edge - better than I expected, and I expected quite a bit.

[Dog--]

To be honest, I've never bought a game based on the demo.. Although I haven't played a demo in like 4 years because of the size of them now-a-days is just stupid, a regular game demo now is like 2.5 gig.. Not even close to being worth a download.

[unozero]

bf2

fear
and nolf

[Dalamari]

Mafia, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

[Shakermaker]

FarCry is probably the only demo that made me buy the game. I played a couple of other great demos but I was already determined to buy those games. Played a couple of demos that made me did not buy the game though.

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

Condemned- I bought this as a bargain deal, actually in preperation for condemned 2, but apparently it's not coming for PC(?) which is gay...it doesn't matter though I'm not sure if I'd pick it up anyways. was somewhat disappointed with condemned considering all the praise it got here... for some reason I never really found it particularly scary...but the biggest flaw is that the story is very nonsensical and you get stuck with a bunch of clich? horror elements that unfortunately isn't fully realized.

Port Royale 2- I had gotten a bit fatigued with action games and needed to unwind with something a little more relaxing. I'm not sure how relaxing the game is though it's pretty hard.
also I un-installed it shortly after having bought it because I needed the disk space for something more entertaining(STALKER: SOC).

Baldur's Gate yeah got hooked on the game from that fairly small demo. hmmm maybe I should play thru it again(had a short try at it when my PC was undergoing repairs and I was stuck with my crappy laptop... the resolution is really hard getting used to.

Far cry - I bought it after the HL2 release got pushed back to tide me over.

Ground control 2 excellent RTS, love the artillery. unfortunately I got stuck in the second campaign and never finished it.

Homeworld good space strategy, but just like GC I got stuck halfway thru and never finished it.

Splinter cell 3 played the lighthouse demo till I could do it in my sleep. one of the best stealth games out there, just narrowly beaten by the thief series(though it has to do with setting and atmosphere more than game-play).

Prince of persia got the trio pack for the same price of the 3rd installment, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Carmageddon 2 bwhahaahah!

Company of heroes THE best strategy game ever IMO, ever since I've played COH I've had a real hard time enjoying other RTS titles.

Commandos 2

[Lobster]

Warcraft 2 and the RTCW MP demo are the ones I remember playing to death till release, most other games I watch prior to launch.

Most memorable demo though is the Half-Life Uplink demo, it was a self contained story with its own condensed story arc, gave you a small taste of everything.

[iZ94]

LOTRO, may not be a demo but I thoroughly enjoyed the trial and bought it a few months later (only played 1 month in the end then just sold it on to my brother)..

Other than that, not much else really :P

Mirrors Edge was fun and I think it's made me definetly consider a rental, but nothing more i'm afraid. I just cant imagine it keeping me interested for long.

[B_MAN]

Mirror's Edge

only because I can get it for $20 though :P

[PoeticRocker]

My Short List on the top of my head

Doom
Duke Nukem 3d
Fallout
Carmageddon
Interstate 76
BF2
Diablo
Mafia

[Krynn72]

Bioshock.


I think thats the only game ive ever played the demo of and thought "Yeah, i'll buy this."

[Kyorisu]

I know. I looked on in jealousy at all your talk of clans and stuff. And I kept thinking "Oh, the fun will blow over soon." And it didn't. And then 2142 came out and I thought "now's my chance!" But 2142 was awful. And brown. And no one seemed to play 2 any more.

I cried.

Which is a gigantic misconception. 2142 is just as fun as BF2, kids are just a bunch of whiny morons who don't like change.

[Darkside55]

BF2, Quake 3. Mirror's Edge when it comes out.

Which is a gigantic misconception. 2142 is just as fun as BF2, kids are just a bunch of whiny morons who don't like change.
You're full of it. Have fun happily gobbling up whatever DiCE shits out.

[Ennui]

the original Monster Truck Madness

[TheAntipop]

I'm very selective when it comes to buying games, and usually when a demo rolls around I'm already pretty sure I'm going to be buying the final product anyway. I think the one demo that really made an impact to me was the Bioshock demo, but again, I was already going to buy it anyway. I guess it made me want to buy it... more?

[Tarkus]

Half Life: Uplink without any doubt

Also, Soldier of Fortune

[Vegeta897]

Soldiers: Heroes of WW2
Battlefield Vietnam
Battlefield 2

[French Ninja]

Medieval 2: Total War

[soulslicer]

I really don't see the big deal with BF2.

[Agent.M]

Well right now I must admit that the CoD World at War demo is making it really really hard to not want to preorder immediately!!

[TwwIX]

(more recent games)
Half Life:Uplink
Jagged Alliance 2
Gangsters: Organized Crime
Battlefield 1942,Vietnam and 2
Company of Heroes
City of Heroes/Villains

There's a probably few more which i can't think of atm, but i have yet to be disappointed by these particular games.

[mgpetkos]

bf1942
thief: the dark project
far cry, oh yes
braid !
castle crashers

and of course, the original DOOM demo was like nothing else you could get over a modem from a bbs. i remember ordering the full version directly from id via an order form i mailed to them with a check! got the floppies in a padded envelope in the post soon after.

[Eejit]

HL Uplink
Civ4