Warflight's Demo-Lition Presents "The Next Big Thing" and "Wings of Prey"

Okay, today’s two demos I’m going to review are both available on Steam, as free demos, and are quite different from each other.

The first one is called “The Next Big Thing” 

Remember the old “Adventure games” like “Maniac Mansion”, and the like? Remember how the gaming industry said there is no market for “Adventure Games” like that any more? Well, “The Next Big Thing” defies that. It’s a game by Pendulo, the creators of “Runaway”, and the best way to describe it, is a playable cartoon. There are a lot of cut scenes, and lots of clever dialogue, and the demo itself tells the beginning of a very compelling story. The interface is very much like the old school adventure games, where you point and click, and choose preselected dialogue as a part of the puzzle process, and has a very interactive feel to it, even if there are a LOT of cut scenes, that don’t force the story forward, but rather, it guides the story forward. If you’re into FPS games, this is probably not for you, and if you get annoyed by cut scenes, because you just wanna shoot something, well, look elsewhere. The demo itself is compelling enough that it makes me want to buy the game (ME! The guy who doesn’t play adventure games, because I wanna just shoot something!) The demo doesn’t seem to have a time limit on it, however, after the first play-through of the demo, I really don’t see a lot of point to a second play-through, but, one does want more, so as far as the demo doing it’s job at selling the game, I call it a win.


The second demo is a bit different, as it falls under the simulation category.

This would be “Wings of Prey” by Gaijan Entertainment.

They are a Russian company (a lot of the best games seem to be coming from Russia lately) so it gives you a choice between English and Russian (and the voice acting is spot on) The game is a WWII Flight Sim. Now, from a Demo perspective, the demo only gives you two missions (but they are GREAT missions, with the option to start in the air, or from the ground) and gives you the full scale of modes (simulation versions, as well as an “arcade” version, so one doesn’t have to be a hard core simmer to get enjoyment out of it) however, they do limit the graphics settings to low, medium, and high, and “ultra” is only available in the full version. Not to worry, because a: most computers today probably couldn’t handle the “ultra” settings (think Skyrim sort of taxation on a GPU) and b: the “high” setting is… wow… this is probably one of the most beautiful flight sims I’ve had the pleasure to have played. That’s including “Microsoft Flight” (the latest flight sim from Microsoft… duh) 

It can handle a large variety of flight sticks (I used the Thrustmaster TFlight HOTAS X, but it’s been tested with an old school Thrustmaster, and a really old MS Sidewinder… neither were in the list for the game, but it allowed me to customize the controls) plus it is defaulted to a mouse/keyboard setup. You do have to set up your controller if you’re going to use one.

Now, the important answers that flight simmers want to know, yes, it has cockpit view, yes, it has realistic physics, and yes, you can do complete missions, including take off, and landing. There is a chase view for you arcade flight enthusiasts, and as I said before, the demo itself, allows everything from hard core simmer play, to arcade style play. 

Now, does it do what a demo is supposed to do? Yes. It gives the feel of the actual game, makes you want to buy the game (it’s in my wish list on Steam as we speak, if anyone wants to give me a present!) and doesn’t complicate things like some demos have been known to do.

Now, for the specs:

“The Next Big Thing”:

PC System Requirements

OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Vista SP1 or 7
Processor: Intel/AMD 2.0GHZ equivalent, or higher
Memory: 1GB (XP)/2GB (Vista/7)
Hard Disk Space: 8GB
Video Card: : 256 MB 100% DirectX 9 compatible, ATI Radeon X800/Intel GMA 3000/Nvidia GeForce 6800 or Higher*
DirectX®: 9.0
Sound: DirectX 9 compatible
Additional: INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR GAME ACTIVATION. *SIS AND VIA/S3G Graphics Controllers Not Supported


Mac System Requirements
OS: MAC OS X 10.6.6 or higher
Processor: Intel/AMD, 2 GHz or better
Memory: 1GB
Hard Disk Space: 8GB
Video Card: : 256 MB ATI Radeon X800/Intel GMA 3000/NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or higher
Additional: INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR GAME ACTIVATION.

“Wings of Prey”:

System Requirements
(minimum)
OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP3
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3200MHz
Memory: 1 GB Ram
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 256 Mb
DirectX®: 9.0c or higher
Hard Drive: 10 Gb free disk space
Sound: DirectX compatible

(ideal)
OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2400 MHz
Memory: 2 GB Ram
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 512 Mb or higher
DirectX®: 9.0c or higher
Hard Drive: 10 Gb free disk space
Sound: DirectX compatible with support 5.1

Keep in mind, the System Requirements as far as HDD space, is for the full games, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the size of the demo on your hard drive.

So, that is your weekly “Demo-Lition”

Stay tuned for next week, where I’ll be doing a review of two games (both simulators) that have decided that the best demo, is to give away the game for free, and let you purchase add-ons as you see fit.

by

Richard “Warflight” Lantz