The best demo I have played this year has to be Forza Horizon.

Going forward, I think demos should have a requirement to be at the beginning of the game, and not at a random spot, or a good part of the game.

I wish more demos gave you unlocks for the full game. I know that's a shady incentive of the game developer for you to buy the full game. But let's be honest - the game will go on offer at some point, or you could rent it. Unless your name is EA.

Er, hogwash, later.

I love full game trials, I just wish there was a streaming option because those are huge downloads for my middle-aged PS3.

The EU PSN here is very slow. Oddly enough, the US PSN is faster for downloads for me for some reason. What I don't like about those game trials on PSN is that it will add the game to your trophy list. There's no way to remove the game from the list if you decide not to purchase the full game.

Call me OCD, but having 0% on a game trial (or any other retail game) you didn't purchase/get no trophies in bugs me. I can remove games on the 360 with 0 Gamerscore. Why can't we do this on the PS3?

I love what they did with Forza Horizon. "Play the Demo and get the full game on release week to get a new car".

It may not sound as "great" as it may seem, and granted I was gonna get Forza Horizon anyways, but still it's a nice incentive and maybe other companies can do the same to get people to try out their game and if it's good enough buy or rent it.

I really wanted to listen live, even Skype in, but my kids were not behaving so I just caught snippets of the beginning.
While I can't agree with your overall statement that the demo sucks, I will say you are right on about it needing more guidance. I for one loved it, but thank goodness my wife was in the room to ask me why I was just standing there after I died the first two times. Moving around made all the difference in the world as the boss is very slow and can't hit you with anything other than his big special attack which, as you mentioned, is when the game starts telling you what to do.
My only regret is that I didn't pony up the cash to buy the collector's edition before it sold out back in August because as excited as I was for the game, I wanted to see it for myself first. Now I am beyond my original excitement, but those collector's editions are going for $250 on eBay ($100 more than before the demo hit) so that isn't going to happen.
Sorry the game wasted your time, but at least it provided you with a really entertaining start to your show on a slow news week.

I will say, my biggest criticism of Ni no Kuni is scrolling through all those menu options during combat. Like you said, it was a DS game in Japan first and part of me thinks this would have been a fantastic game for the Wii U with much more intuitive controls. Of course Nintendo would have just held onto it and only released it in North America following fan backlash and then made it a Gamestop exclusive, right?

At least the Not So Evil G (Gamefly) has Xenoblade Chronciles...Well, they did, until I rented their only copy!

Nice! I think that game, Last Story, Mario Galaxy 2 and maybe Skyward Sword were the only games I was sad I didn't get to play after we sold our Wii a few years ago.