Anyone who visits Ubosoft.com or the official GRAW 2 website will notice some GRAW 2 flash ads appearing down the side of the page. Rather excitingly, the ads are there to promote the soon to be released single-player demo of the game for the Xbox 360.

The ad reads: " Xbox 360 singleplayer demo available soon on Marketplace" . That' s a pretty open and shut case that the demo should be available soon. Rumours suggest that it will arrive before the month is over, but I' m not sure if that' s true or not.

I may not own a 360 just yet but I' m sure my cousin wouldn' t mind me downloading the demo when it' s on the list. He did, afteral, allow me to download the Dead Rising demo.

PS. Sorry if there is any other thread like this. I used the " Search" engine and found nothing.

PSS. You could use this thread to discuss the demo when it' s out if you want. You know, to save having an extra thread about it.

Yeah there are a lot of threads on GRAW2. Maybe someone can merge them. I wouldn' t doubt by the end of Feb early March the demo could be out.

Good find dude!

Yeah there are a lot of threads on GRAW2.

Actually, I said there aren' t any threads about the demo.

I thought I' d make this thread so people can use it for that, like many did with the Dead Rising and, more recently, Crackdown demos. This would also save somebody the trouble of making one themselves(if this thread actually lasts until then, that is).

Easy peasy Marink, I' ll just break out teh bump stick. every so often.

Cheers Eddie_the_Hated.

(Damnit! I' m losing my Americanness already!!! )

Cheers Eddie_the_Hated.

(Damnit! I' m losing my Americanness already!!! )

Tell me about it dude. I' ve been here a year already & people stop me when I' m talking & ask me why I said rubbish.

Ok, it' s not up yet, probably not until Friday, but...

The menu' s and loading screens are almost a carbon copy of the original GRAW' s. Same style, layout and colour scheme.

The demo starts with a very short cutscene of a helicopter landing, early evening, industrial/urban area. It looks great and straight away you' ll notice the smoke and fire effects and how the downdraft from the choppers blades realistically effect how the smoke and fire move. Looks fantastic. The level is quite dark, with lots of smoke and shadows. The lighting is superb.

You exit aircraft and select team members, and notice that now you are limited to a number of med-kits. I guess this changes You can' t constantly revive team members, and obviously if you have a medic with you you get more med-kits to take with you.

The game moves and controls just like GRAW. It' s still kind of clunky but you seem to run faster. It' s just unfortunate the cover mechanic isn' t at as intuitive as the one in Vegas. Even more so when you still have to exit cover to throw a grenade whereas in Vegas you could grenade from cover, exposing yourself for only a second, or even throw grenades from cover blindly. I guess only " proper" special forces like Rainbow have those l33t skills :(

The physics are notably improved, as is the team AI. Multiple way-points can now be set although you still can' t move your men around individually like in the PC games. It sucks because while this is a more action orientated and less strategical game, the option to move your men to different points would have been nice to have.

You get to use the Mule, which i' m still not convinced is a good addition. Unlike vehicles in the first game you can actually control the Mule and put it just where you need it. Also, when commanding APC' s, like with team members, you can now go into a first person view and select targets for them from there.

Now in the original GRAW, when changing your weapon you couldn' t really do anything but change your primary weapon (in SP), but now you have different " packs" for grenades. Frag/Smoke is ' Defensive Pack' and you also get more of each than in the previous game.

Also, if you' ve played Half Life 2 and have used the rocket launcher then you' ll know how to use the player guided rockets in GRAW 2. In the demo you' ll need it to destroy a tank on a bridge. The explosion effects are great, especially those originating from enemy fire right next to your cover. Unfortunately cover doesn' t appear to be destructible and so sandbags will still keep you safe from tank shells

Fighting going on in the distance lights up the sky and smoke giving the impression of a much bigger battle. Distant gunfire and explosions push the point further. It reminds me of CNN footage of explosions going off in Baghdad at night, ...anti-aircraft fire, ...that kind of thing. It really adds to the atmosphere.

The original GRAW demo was kinda lame and didn' t give you a good impression of what the game was actually like. This isn' t, and does.


EDIT: Apparantly the Xbox Live demo may be a different level altogether. It could be a countryside level where players are tasked with taking out artillery placements along the border. Meh!


EDIT: Co-op like Vegas and Gears isn' t happening. Instead it' s an expansion of the original GRAW, with 6 new co-op campaign missions and 14 adversarial maps (up to 16 players), and a female player model.

Yay...

I' ll definitely be dling the demo. The dev diary was pretty cool to watch.

I found that GRAW 2 trailer hilariously funny though. First the main guy runs into the open and receives a rocket to the face behaving all stroppy afterwards. Then the black dude fires far too late at the helicopter and completely misses even with laser guidance. Then they finally shoot some other helicopter, but only so that it almosts crashes right on top of them!

Those ghosts were made to look like the most inept bunch of retards ever hehe. And then they' re asked to go all cross-com to save America from Mexicans, which creates the final few laughs.

ORIGINAL: f3hunter

Yay...

Yay!

Just thought you guys would like a look

The demo is up, and what did i say?

Apparantly the Xbox Live demo may be a different level altogether. It could be a countryside level where players are tasked with taking out artillery placements along the border. Meh!

And what is it?

...a countryside level where players are tasked with taking out artillery placements along the border.

And what else did i say?

Co-op like Vegas and Gears isn' t happening. Instead it' s an expansion of the original GRAW, with 6 new co-op campaign missions and 14 adversarial maps (up to 16 players), and a female player model.

And what does it say on the dash as far as co-op and multiplayer are concerned?

...14 multiplayer maps, and a 6 mission coop campaign...

Oh hum.

Just finished the demo, & I' m fairly disappointed myself. Not sure what it is, but something isn' t there. I' ll elaborate whn I have more time.

If that doesn' t feel like a full priced expansion pack, I dunno what does. Slightly prettier than GRAW1, slightly more responsive controls, and the 1st person cross-com thing works well.

Other than that you still get the feel that the game was aimed at your 6 year old kid brother than you.

The only draw to GRAW2 that I can see is the extra missions and mp maps... = expansion pack.

They chose a bad level for the Xbox Live demo.

I was hoping to play what was in your screenies Nitro, but no such luck. I was rather disappointed with the bland brown rocks we got instead.

The gameplay was also a little disappointing. Much more action oriented, which I didn' t like much. It seemed like you' d be better off taking a balls to the walls course of action than trying to master the controls, sneak & assault, method, which I am very fond of. Maybe I' ll rent it, but realistically, I' ll probably just mooch.

ORIGINAL: Eddie_the_Hated

I was hoping to play what was in your screenies Nitro, but no such luck. I was rather disappointed with the bland brown rocks we got instead.

The gameplay was also a little disappointing. Much more action oriented, which I didn' t like much. It seemed like you' d be better off taking a balls to the walls course of action than trying to master the controls, sneak & assault, method, which I am very fond of. Maybe I' ll rent it, but realistically, I' ll probably just mooch.

How much did you like the online in the original GRAW?! That alone will be worth buying the game for. But the map the provided over Xbox Live was pretty dull. I mean, i' m fine with the colour scheme, it' s not like a lot of the game is set in that kind of environment, but after the Vegas demo i expected more.

Timed demo' s are fine if they' re showing you a section from the most impressive part of the game. The one featured in the demo is the 2nd level in the game, and they did a decent job of introducing the new features, but i think the level i signified directly to above would have been a better choice.

But still, they got a nice set-piece in and you got to use the new M4.

I think graphically it' s much improved over GRAW, and that will become clearer in other less over-bright locales, but i think they' ve done a good job of making it more atmospheric. I liked the birds, ...that was a nice touch.

It' s a shame it won' t have Gears or Vegas-esque co-op, but i got a lot of enjoyment from the 4 co-op campaign missions in the original game, so the 6 new ones should be cool. And i think that the game length will be just right, and so while it' s not a fully fledged sequel i' ll be happy to buy the game upon it' s release an i won' t feel short-changed.

If i remember correctly though Summit Strike was released at a cut price so it' s a little shady that they' re calling it GRAW 2 and charging for it as though it was a brand new iteration, but meh, i adored GRAW and March can' t come soon enough for me.

Hahaha, i' m also interested to see how the PS3 version stacks up, as i see nothing in the demo that the console isn' t capable of.

Oh, and did anybody else notice that Mitchells face looks, erm, different?! Kinda bland y' know...

Mitchell always looked a bit...vacant, to me. Lights on nobody home type of thing!

" Faall back on meee"

How much did you like the online in the original GRAW?! That alone will be worth buying the game for. But the map the provided over Xbox Live was pretty dull. I mean, i' m fine with the colour scheme, it' s not like a lot of the game is set in that kind of environment, but after the Vegas demo i expected more.

Online in GRAW was phenominal, but it was a departure from the story mode. It was very overplayed in some ways, which was nice. However, if you got tired of going guns-blazing, you could always work the situation tactically.

I found it very hard to do that in the demo. I actually laughed when the helecopter swooped in and dropped off my homies. Right as I was stealthily setting up a good snipers hide. Then more antics, when the helecopter with the MG swooped down out of nowhere & opened fire. I know they had to end the demo somehow, but c' mon! This is Tom Clancy, not James Bond![:' (]

As for the mule? What a useless piece of junk. It reminded me of those plastic wagons you tote around at Disney World, so you never have to be far from your snackies. It seemed like a lazy alternative to ammo conservation, that only built on the " constant action" formula.

The visuals were really pushed to the limit this time, & that' s great, but it lacked personality IMO. I hate to compare the two, as I loved the original GRAW, but so far, it' s reminding me of my first impressions of Call of Duty: 3. Better graphics, but very mainstream, not much in the way of creativity.

Okay, I' ll stop b17ching now, but it bugs me when sequels dissapoint.