Must Try FPS Demos

Without mentioning other games that have entered the market (such as Gears of War which I hear is also great) Halo has been around for years, and it is a staple of college campuses, dorms and game rooms. It’s a favorite of many a console player, Master Chief's armored shoulders having carried a lot of that market to Microsoft's Xbox, and for good reason. It is an exceptionally well-made, fun and great game.

Most of the fun stems from the fact that the multiplayer online matches unfold in ways that you can never predict, and you always get the unpredictability of actual human beings at the other end of the controls, which is always entertaining. The science fiction back story of the Covenant and sprawling maps combined with stunning graphics make for a jaw-droppingly immersive video game experience in the single player mission mode also. But this is just part of it—you add to this a variety of fully-equipped vehicles, jeeps with guns and the fun really starts happening, and I’m not even mentioning the freaky menace of aliens that you encounter along the way. I have logged hours and hours on this game—probably in the hundreds of hours, and it’s as fun as any game out there, and with the added benefit that you’re not stuck playing the against the computer and it’s AI. It’s no wonder the Halo multiplayer demo is still popular online even after all these years.

PC download available at: http://download.cnet.com/Halo-Combat-Evolved/3000-7441_4-10235611.html

Mac download at: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/demos_updates/halocombatevolved.html

Call of Duty is another classic award-winning game series, and also with good reason. It’s a different brand, a great brand, and you’ll quickly see why it has also won awards. People have called it “intense,” and you get a real taste of the weapons and language and uniforms, and the authentic maps based on actual epic WWII battles. I know it’s cliché — WWII had been done to death by film and novel before Pac-Man gobbled down his first quarter, but this game also delivers action and a very solid game experience that flows from battle to battle. Not as slick and smooth as Halo, but that’s not what you’d expect it to be. It probably should be a little clunky being WWII, and the 1940’s: there aren’t any plasma guns in this one and there don’t need to be.

MAC

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/demos_updates/callofduty.html

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/demos_updates/callofduty2.html

PC

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/callofdutyunitedoffensive/download_6107596.html

http://download.cnet.com/Call-of-Duty-2-demo/3000-7441_4-10440599.html

Battlefield 1942 is also worth a mention in the WWII FPS genre. You get the added benefit of vehicles with this one also, with the wonderful addition of flying planes, which is so much fun it defies description. Think spectacular Pacific theatre dogfights in authentic-looking and sounding WW2 fighter planes. They ended up making this demo unavailable online as multiplayer as many cash-hungry students ended up not buying the full game because the demo was so fun by itself. In fact many took it upon themselves to create their own mods of the demo, changing the planes, scenery and buildings for just the fun of it. The single player demo is still available here.

MAC

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/demos_updates/battlefield1942.html

PC

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield1942/download_2877617.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=files&tag=files;title;1

The last one worth mentioning is the Tom Clancy Ghost Recon series—people have also modded this one often—but this has a grittier more raw realistic flavor of FPS shooter than the WW2 games mentioned above. With all its intense moments of suspense and thrills, it has all the great elements of stealthy special ops missions, and you’ll find yourself bonding with your online mates from all over the world. You get to hear the enemy grumble in Russian as you sneak up to their hideout and lob grenades in their window. The realism is stunning right down to the sounds of bullets richocheting off of stone walls. I have also logged hours upon hours on this one during my college days (when I probably should have been working on a research paper or something).

Here's a good descriptive promo from the Ubisoft site with Videos.

http://ghostrecon.us.ubi.com/product_gr.php

Demo downloads:

MAC: http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=17400

PC: http://download.cnet.com/Tom-Clancy-s-Ghost-Recon-demo/3000-7441_4-10246070.html