shokupan – 26:

“You think it's just going to appear under Jay Wilbur's pillow overnight or something? Even if the demo level already exists as part of the game, creating and testing a demo designed to run out of context with the rest of the game takes man-hours. Simple.”

Develop the demo during game development. Simple.

Some Dude – 27:

“And while doing a demo before the game is done certainly won't cause months worth of delay, it will cause some amount of delay, because you're making a demo instead of making a game.”

Ok, I admit. I should have stated that demos delay games only slightly. It is still no excuse to refuse development of a demo before the game ships.

shokupan - 34:

“Interesting to see that no one seems to put any faith in reviews these days.
Surely this is the best recourse when no demo is available...?”

Hah! Reviewers are not very good these days. If a reviewer’s bias is not bad enough, then what do you think of relying on one man’s opinion of a game? Just take other people’s word for it, then.

j-Bru – 36:

“On a side note, what other type of media/entertainment do you generally get to sample something of the finished product for free thats as robust as demos from games?”

Movies cost only $7, not $50. Music can be downloaded. Books can be read in the bookstore.

Scottish Martial Arts – 38:

“(AVP1/2 doesn't count, no squad mates)”

It’s called multi-player, something this game lacks

Creston – 47:

“First off, I don't need a demo to tell me if the game is good or not, that's why there are reviews. Find a reviewer who seems to like the same games you do for the same reasons you do, and you've got a fairly good chance that any game he/she recommends is something you'll like. “

There are very few reviewers that differ. Most reviewers are the same, and the only reliable ones are found at http://videogamereviews.com (or something rather), a place of user-reviews.

“Second, if you absolutely NEED to try a game before deciding to buy it, what's wrong with buying the game, playing it, and if you don't like it, return it to the store? If they give you any shit about that, tell them it won't install, I've never had any problem returning any games (even though I return VERY few).”

There are people who also live in areas where there are only stores like Best Buy, a store known for its horrible return policy. Not only that, but people like me have better things to do than drive 5 miles to the store, slap $50 down and drive home when I could be doing other things like watching CNN or downloading other game demos to make sure that what I’m interested in is worth it. It surely would have helped on UT2 if I downloaded a demo just to see how shitty of a game it is.

“However, it is strange that they aren't releasing a demo. Everybody and their uncle releases a demo for their games these days, so NOT releasing one for Unreal 2 makes you wonder.”

Yeah, it does. Let the conspiracy theories begin!

“I doubt it's because 'they know their game sucks' and they are afraid to show it. While the hype machine would support such a theory, I just can't imagine the Unreal franchise releasing a game that sucked.”

You cannot believe that it is possible for Unreal 2 to be a bad game because it is the successor of Unreal? Bravo!

“Furthermore, this game will probably sell VERY well even if they DID release a demo that put some people off, simply on it's name.”

Marketing’s a bitch. But that’s what the gaming industry is: business.

“It might be that they feel a demo would do the game injustice. They have put a lot of emphasis on the storyline and the interaction with the crewmates, and other such things. Trying to get something like that to show in a demo is probably a futile effort.”

Yeah, they wouldn’t want to scare customers away with horrible voice acting or cheesy lines such as shown in the teaser video.

“Hence, they might be afraid that a demo would give a bad opinion of the game that's unwarranted.”

Like so.

“This is something that happens often with demos, I feel. How often have you played a demo, only to go ho-hum, then to be told by others you know who actually have the full game that "the demo sucks, the game is much better".
It seems that almost EVERY game suffers from that problem.”

Yeah, with games like Wolf 3D, Doom, Quake, Duke 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, hmm give me time to think of more… Age of Empires, C&C. Too many to list, but you get the point. Oh, Soldier of Fortune, Heretic. Must I go on?

“Also, they might simply not want to reveal any of the surprises in the game with the demo. There aren't THAT many missions in the game (13, with 20-25 levels or so?), and they might not want to put their coolest stuff out for free.”

Yeah, all the cool stuff must happen in the beginning to trick the player into thinking that it’s a good game. Yeah.

I’m not being too critical of the game, hell I might get without the demo. But it’s not just the lack of a demo, it’s you guys.

_____

The possible pain, suffering and sacrifice of discovery are by no means an excuse to remain ignorant.