NEWS: Demo Gamer Hiatus

Thanks for visiting my site! I've had a fun few months playing demos and writing about them, but family circumstances force me to abandon the Demo Gamer (for now). I hope to be able to return in a few months. In the meantime, keep playing and having fun. Thanks for your support.

--Demo Gamer

OPINION: The Demo Filter

Having read this great article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, I started thinking about my relationship with video/computer games in general and demos in particular. It was only recently that I started getting into demos, and only then because I was gaming-funds poor and did not have access to free video games like I did as a kid.

DEMO: Lead the Meerkats (Wii Ware)

Lead the Meerkats for Wii (Wii Ware)

Courtesy nintendo.com

Genre: Strategy/Adventure

Full Game Price: $10.00

No. of Players: 1

DEMO: LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for Xbox 360 (Xbox Live)

Courtesy xbox.com

Genre: Jedi Action Platformer

Full Game Price: MSRP $40

No. of Players: 1-2 (simultaneous co-op)

OPINION: My Journey to Dell Hell and Back

(A big hello to everyone visiting from The Consumerist! If you're unfamiliar with The Consumerist, it's a consumer advocacy blog that's both fun and informative. Check it out!)

Recently, I tweeted about my Dell Vostro 1400 laptop that had a defective NVIDIA 8400M graphics chip. I would like to share the story of my successful journey to Dell Hell and back, getting a 3.5-year-old out-of-warranty laptop fixed for free.

DEMO: BIT.TRIP CORE (Wii Ware)

BIT.TRIP CORE for Wii (Wii Ware)

Courtesy Nintendo.com

Genre: Musical Puzzler

Full Game Price: $6.00

No. of Players: 1-2 (simultaneous co-op)

DEMO: BIT.TRIP RUNNER (Wii Ware)

BIT.TRIP RUNNER for Wii (Wii Ware)

Courtesy Nintendo.com

Genre: Musical Platformer

Full Game Price: $8.00

No. of Players: 1

OPINION: Wii 2 Will Be More iPad Than Xbox

When I first heard about Project Revolution, I was very excited. With its combination of motion and infrared control, I really felt like Nintendo was onto something special. Many of my friends had different feelings, especially as the Wii’s 2007 launch date neared. They were either cautiously optimistic or outright derisive, but I felt from the get-go that Nintendo had a created a game changer.

I was right. With over 80 million consoles sold (and money made on each one, to boot), Nintendo’s Wii is the undisputed commercial success of the last generation of game consoles, and interestingly so. The Wii was not a direct frontal assault on the already-released Xbox 360 or the forthcoming PS3: sub-par graphics, no DVD or Blu-ray playback, and other lacking features made it pale in comparison to its technically heavyweight competition, and yet, Nintendo created and exploited a new market basically overnight by simplifying the way gamers interacted with their games. Nintendo, while leaving a presence in the hardcore-gamer sandbox that Mario built, began to focus on this entirely new sandbox it had created. What Nintendo didn’t know was that it was not alone.