This thread seems a little quiet, but I thought I'd offer my opinion on the downloadable demos from the PS store. Besides the ridiculous inability to shift the downloads to the background, the store is pretty neat, and has added quite a bit of value to the PS3.
Gran Turismo 4 is a good tease. A massive visual improvement, but I have yet to sense a real improvment in gameplay. Yes, it's definitely different, but I'm undecided as to whether it's better all around. Drift mode is undriveable, but I've never been a real drift fan. Five minutes after unlocking all the cars, I wanted more cars & tracks. 👍
Ridge Racer 7 is a drift-fest. Even
I could drift the cars (which is all they seemed to be able to do; real driving was slower
). Graphics are neat, though, but maybe everything does in 1080p at a simulated 100MPH. God-awful music you couldn't disable didn't help either. In general, just not that fun. 👎
Resistance: Fall of Man was a cool game. I actually played it at a friend's house when he rented it. We didn't finish it, but the visuals are the best I've seen, in terms of detail and consistency. Very fun first-person shooter, and the fact that my friend will be buying it just to finish the last 2 or 3 levels kind of says it all. 👍
Full Auto 2 doesn't even deserve typing in the full name. Great concept, poor execution. Sure, the graphics are kind of neat, but the course is indecipherable, the rules are vague, and...well, I just didn't care to finish. 👎
Motorstorm is the best game available for download. Period. It's impossible to win a race, it's hard to stay on the course, and I crashed quite often. But I simply didn't care. The physics are the most fun I've seen in ages (regardless if they're accurate or not), the sound
and music is fantastic. It's just so fun to race around and smash things: other cars, road objects, or just into the wall just as the engine blows up. I spent 30 minutes trying to launch the bike into the video screen (never got it). I could (and did) spend hours playing what is essentially a 15-minute demo. 👍 👍 👍
I'll get around to the other demos, and hope to update this soon. (By the way, for the lucky few who can get to try it, GT5 and Motorstorm work great in 2.35:1.)