Bethesda Says No Demo for Fallout 3

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Bethesda Softworks marketing VP Pete Hines revealed that no demo will be released for the studio's upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3, Eurogamer reports.

Hines said that a playable demo crafted around a portion of the game would prohibitively limit the experience, which is built around an open, explorable world.

"When you build it as one thing, there's no way to portion off a section and have it stand on its own without putting the whole game in the demo, which we're just not going to do," Hines said. "And it doesn't really capture the fun of a game like an Elder Scrolls or a Fallout, where you can go where you want and do what you want. So no demo, sorry."

Fallout 3 is slated to hit retailers this fall. For more on the title, be sure to check out our hands-on preview.

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  • reply
    April 21, 2008 11:37 AM

    I agree, however, let's consider some games with demos recently:

    Crackdown had a demo, limited time based, and it was so much fun because it felt like an arcade game, a friend of mine and I would "compete" to get the highest "score" in crackdown.

    Personally, I think crackdown is a rare game where the demo helped sell copies because it showed the game was better than expected.

    That said, fallout 3 strikes me as a more story driven game than score driven, therefore it wouldn't really work that way and show off the real game.

    The latest burnout game wasn't great, but its demo was even worse for this reason. The demo ruined their one selling point of this game, "free roaming". (which turned out to be bad from a gameplay perspective, because it made the game more tedious and confusing, compared to burnout revenge, but that's an aside anyways) The burnout demo was flawed because it made the game feel restrictive and blah.

    • reply
      April 21, 2008 11:38 AM

      I meant to say, of course "let's consider some free roaming games with demos"

    • reply
      April 21, 2008 12:00 PM

      there was nothing in the burnout demo that wasn't in the full game - it showed the game exactly for what it was - a waste of money in my case. Rented, enjoyed for a couple of days, and sent back for someone else to enjoy.

    • reply
      April 21, 2008 1:58 PM

      The Crackdown demo caused me to buy the game, it would have slipped completely under my radar otherwise. Probably the most effective demo on XBL for me yet - especially with the coop play enabled.

    • reply
      April 22, 2008 8:20 AM

      Agreed on the Crackdown demo. The only other demo I played more than Crackdown, was Carmageddon.

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