Remember when we knew exactly what we were buying before launch? Me neither. Used to be every major game had a demo that went alongside it, either through magazine add-ons, bundles with games (Metal Gear Solid 2 with ZOE, for example) or even as one-offs in cardboard sleeves you could pick up in-store. Sure they came with the obligatory "Gameplay in the final version will differ"-type warnings, but you got a pretty solid idea what you were in for come release. Certain genres could hold back, as how could you segment off a decent chunk of an RPG, for example? But for the most part, demos were just a staple of the industry that we both expected, and delivered on reliably. Across this generation we've seen that go out the window, where even Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade - a service that only posted your game if a free trial version was available - no longer holds to this. Triple-A games get listed for pre-order with only the barest whiff of a screenshot, and although you can blame gamers/fans for buying these things out of blind adoration (something we've always done), the point stands that the lack of gameplay demos is directly to force you into purchasing the full version with less information on what that actually entails.
