Community Discussions
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Recommended games with a Demo?
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I like every type of cozy game ,so everything will be welcome! But i don't buy games that don't have a demo ever. I'm playing on steam deck and on switch so if on those it would be nice.
Also: Why are demos on games so rarely?
Top Comment: I love Critter Cove and Locomoto. Critter Cove's demo is pretty much identical to actual game play. Locomoto saves all the fun for the real game.
Free games demos on Steam to test your computer's gaming power [2024 version]
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Everyone keeps asking: "Can my potato run this game?" Maybe these free Steam demos will help. I'll set up a tier system, to keep these organized. FYI: Steam has a GAMES > DEMOS section, which seems to be sorted based on "Relevance" or popularity.
NEWEST AAA ACTION GAMES
- Forspoken (Only 12 GB of RAM needed to run this demo, despite what the System Requirements claim. Still one of the most demanding demos on the market.)
- Tekken 8 (Ditto. 12 GB RAM will do.)
LAST GEN ACTION GAMES
- Attack on Titan 2 (Not laptop-friendly, but I can get 30+ fps with my Radeon 550.)
- Code Vein (Dark Souls with anime. Not laptop-friendly.)
- Destroy All Humans (Remaster of the PS2-era game.)
- Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed
- Doom 2016 (The demo includes CPU and GPU reporting options, if you want to see how well your rig is handling the game.)
- Dishonored 2 (Notoriously poor performance, when it was released. Not sure if the demo has the same problems.)
- Fate: Samurai Remnant
- Ghostrunner (Demo may still be available. The pre-release demo was originally taken down when the game launched.
- Jagged Alliance 3
- Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
- My Hero Ones Justice 2
- My Time At Portia (3D Stardew Valley thing)
- Project CARS 2
- Redout(Highspeed arcade racer that can be very demanding, but goes to 4K)
- Resident Evil 2/Biohazard RPD (contains some useful options, along with a metric that shows how much VRAM you can use for various visual features)
- Resident Evil 3: Racoon City
- Resident Evil 4
- Resident Evil Village (May be timed, and may require an Internet connection to run, like the PS4 demo)
- Roundguard
- Scarlet Nexus
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Star Ocean: Second Story R
- Sword Art Online: Last Recollection
- Tales of Arise
- Trials of Mana
- Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
- Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
- You Suck At Parking
- Ys IX
OLDER ACTION GAMES
- Batman: Arkham City (I already have the full game; I cannot confirm the content of this demo)
- Biohazard/Resident Evil: Revelations
- Blades of Time (The demo includes a 15-minute chunk of action from Stage 3. Runs on at 40 fps my entry-level laptop. The full game is fantastic, but it's hard for the demo to convey the game's progression.)
- Castle Crashers (Co-op brawler thingy)
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
- Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
- .hack//G.U. Last Recode(Remaster of some PS2 "Dot Hack" games)
- Just Cause 2 (Like Arkham City, I already own the full game, so I cannot confirm the content of this demo.)
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Runs on some laptops, and has an uncapped framerate.)
- Mafia 2 - benchmark included (Demo includes a built-in benchmark)
- Sleeping Dogs (Demo includes open-world crowd scenes, melee brawling, and shooting sequences)
FIRST PERSON SHOOTER
- Bioshock
- Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
- Payday 2
- Shadow Warrior (demanding FPS)
- Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter
- Slime Rancher
- Xotic (Runs surprisingly well on older laptops. Like Painkiller, only cuter)
- Zeno Clash
RACING
- Flatout
- Horizon Chase Turbo
- Skydrift (Plane racing thing)
FIRST-PERSON PUZZLE
REAL-TIME STRATEGY
TURN BASED
- Civilization V: Brave New World (The definitive Civ5 experience. Includes a Tactical Mode for low-end users who don't want the fancy visuals.)
- Civilization VI (Includes a Tactical Mode for low-end users who don't want the fancy visuals. I've played the full game for 80+ hours on my dual-core Windows 11 laptop.)
- Diofield Chronicle (You thought it was a demo, but it was me...)
- Phantom Brave (Yes, the PS2/Wii/PSP JRPG from Nippon Ichi. No excuses.)
TOP-DOWN BULLET HECK SHMUP
PLATFORMERS
- Freedom Planet (2D Sonic the Hedgehog homage)
- Octohedron (Mega Man homage)
RETRO REMAKES AND RERELEASES
- Ghost Trick Phantom Detective Nintendo DS game re-released for PC.
BENCHMARK TOOL
- Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker (Sort of a demanding benchmark that doesn't play well with budget laptops.)
- Resident Evil 6 (Apparently, not very well optimized, but it's free.)
Top Comment: I will add to this: Bronzebeard's Tavern. Fun free to play cooking game up to 8-player.
What do you think about game demos?
Main Post:
In my personal opinion, I believe that more expensive games should have a demo or a trial version or even an open beta period, for example. I would at least prefer it if it were like that. Watching gameplay on YouTube doesn't give you a real sense of whether you'll actually like a game. Spending $70-80 on a game only to find out after a few hours that you don't like it can be frustrating.
What do you think? Am I mistaken?
Top Comment: nah i want demos back on all triple A games, im with you fs
5 Must-Try Demos and 5 Recommended Discounted Games
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For Creature Collector Fest, I wanted to support 5 demos and highlight few of the games on largest discounts.
I'm taking the fest opportunity to self-promo for once as I'm 30 subcribers away from Youtube Partner (so help me get there)
There's a looot more demos I've been downloading and will be trying.
I'm really loving seeing indie devs post their games on this subreddit and will be dedicating my weekend to giving them a try and giving feedback as well.
Who knows? Might end up doing another video, cause there a lot of underrated gems in our community!
Top Comment: Great video! Sub'd!
What demos did you enjoy most in this Next Fest?
Main Post: What demos did you enjoy most in this Next Fest?
Top Comment: The Precinct for sure, so far. I love the 80's cop theme.
Do you think games having a demo should be more common?
Main Post:
I think that it needed to be, I hate buying a game and having only 2 hours to play before refund, and steam doesn't even like you refunding games to test them for free, so how do I know that a game will be worth my money (I am a very undecided person)?
Top Comment: To be honest with you, Steam’s refund policy of “less than 2 hours played, less than two weeks owned” is functionally used as a demo by me.
What steam demos got you to buy the full game?
Main Post: What steam demos got you to buy the full game?
Top Comment: Ultrakill
I've been thinking alot about game demos.
Main Post:
I've been thinking about game demos and what they've offered to a consumer. A way to blast through something in an afternoon, a demo to gauge whether or not you'll make a purchase, or a game that your just looking to play it to see if it veeres off or differs from the full product in any way. Would anyone know why they aren't as prevalent anymore or if there are any that are at all different in any way to the game its depicting? Ide love to know your guy's thoughts on the matter.
Top Comment: A study showed that game demos actually negatively impact sales , not increase them. The key now is to just get your game to go viral, which you can do by giving a handful of codes to the right streamers and getting lucky. Like any other business venture, success ultimately comes down to luck anyways, and this is a lot cheaper than developing a demo.
What game demo made you immediately glbuy the game?
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I feel like game demos have nearly become a thing of the past, but I used to love playing the demos at EB games and found a lot of interesting games I wouldn't have bought otherwise. I think the first game was Metal Gear Rising, found the demo in some game I bought and honestly can't even remember that game, but MGR was AWESOME. My other one was the Nier Automata demo, think I played through that 5 or 6 times.
Top Comment: Lies of P