A Red Faction: Armageddon demo is already available on consoles, but if you want to try the game out on PC or don’t want to be bothered with any downloads, you can now try out the first 30 minutes of the game through OnLive. The games streaming service has a deal with THQ to exclusively host the PC version’s demo up until the game’s launch on June 7.
OnLive is making this out to be a big deal, as it’s the first time it’s had a big, exclusive, pre-release demo. The benefit for gamers is that the only hurdle to jump through is signing up for a free OnLive account. Once that’s done, the demo can be streamed right to your computer (or TV, if you’ve got an OnLive Game System hooked up) without any downloading or installing. There’s also no need for a fast computer since the game isn’t being run locally.
OnLive is encouraging people to check out the demo and then pre-order the game on whatever platform they please, OnLive or not. It seems as if the company wants to turn itself into a destination for sampling games (and, in the process, possibly convince some customers to buy games through it). The service already offers up free trials of games after they’ve been released which can be played for a limited amount of time.
