Prey demo on Xbox 360

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 July, 2006

Game's out this month.

Microsoft has finally posted the Xbox 360 demo of 3D Realms' Prey on Marketplace.

Weighing in at around 1.17GB, it gives 360 owners a taste of the first-person shooter that Human Head and Venom Games have been developing for PC and 360 respectively.

A PC demo made it out last month, weighing in at a slightly more friendly 430MB.

Since then the game's been finished off and given a release date of July 14th on both PC and 360 - which is a few short days after the US release.

Those of you interested in the 360 version might also want to check out the list of achievements you can unlock in the game - although bear in mind you'll be faced with light spoilers.

Prey puts you in the role of Tommy Hawk, a Native American garage mechanic who's abducted by aliens - and it's up to you to traverse the alien spaceship, save your girlfriend and sort out this alien lot once and for all.

Look out for our review nearer release.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Mildew #1 6 years ago

    Played this last night - not bad and there's quite a lot in there to get your teeth into

  • skillian #2 6 years ago

    I wonder why the download is twice the size of the PC demo.

    Is the content the same?

  • Rambaldi #3 6 years ago

    I can't recall the last time I played a game that makes such a strong effort to bring so many new twists to an existing genre. I'm not saying it pulls them all off, but it's refreshing to see a determined effort to push the envelope, particulalry in such a well-worn genre.

    ..not to mention the fact that it's nice to see at least one worthy 360 purchase in between now and the end of the year. Way to go MS...
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/06 @ 10:18

  • Darkedge #4 6 years ago

    at last - like the PC demo, wonder if the 360 is any different

  • Xerx3s #5 6 years ago

    I wonder why the download is twice the size of the PC demo.

    Is the content the same?

    Dunno. Perhaps because the PC demo is compressed (better)?

  • n3rdh8r #6 6 years ago

    Cue bigger harddrives and an autoupdate for the 360 which allows for unzipping downloads:
    It'll save'm half the bandwidth.
    These sizes man, they're like medievel!

    (nice graphics though (game is: doom3 with wallwalking and a horribly recorded main character(was it recorded in the bathroom?)))

  • trevd72 #7 6 years ago

    looks like i will be buying this one. the opening scene where the "ufo" arrives was very good. the use of portals and those anti grav ramps seems good too. the multiplayer looks to be a straight run n gun though and i stopped playing that type of DM a while ago. Overall though its a purchase.

  • Eraysor #8 6 years ago

    Demo is very, very entertaining, and you get a lot of content for the download. About 5 levels or so. I'm quite looking forward to buying this as it's very fun.

  • captainrentboy #9 6 years ago

    Very very good,this along with Fight Night 3 are the only demos on the marketplace so far that have made me want to purchase the full game.This has quite a few tense/atmospheric sections,especially the abduction and following ''ride'' through the ufo.And all the wall walking and gravity switching seems well implemented and not like a tacked on afterthought.Ohhh that part where you shrink down and go on that mini world in a case was also darn clever.Then again i'm sure pc gamers have been seeing and playing games like this for yonks.

  • groovychainsaw #10 6 years ago

    Much much better than expected. Thought I'd hate this because of the doom 3 'gloomy' genes, but the story and innovation seems to be driving it past those limitations. Mucho impressed.

  • coojam #11 6 years ago

    @ captainrentboy

    Not really actually...it's new to PC and console gamers. It's cool though isn't it...when he goes "my God, he's a giant...oh shiiiit!"

  • Darren #12 6 years ago

    The Xbox 360 version of Prey is very good but it still has that same judderiness in the framerate that Quake 4 had on the 360 when running at 720p and the graphics are nowhere near as good as the PC version with much poorer textures and effects. It's a decent approximation though given the 360's limited memory.

    However, after playing through it a few times I've decided to go for the PC version simply because of the odd fish-eye camera angle the 360 demo has in widescreen, it just doesn't look right and it's offputting. Of course the PC version will be much cheaper as well...
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/06 @ 12:42

  • bloodflowers #13 6 years ago

    Took a huge 6 hours to download (on a 10mb line - they still haven't fixed that bottleneck - and no it's not NTL throttling).

    Anyway - my first impressions of the game were 'dark' and 'jerky'. The former was resolved with the brightness control in the options (all devs please take note and include). I'm still wondering why nothing runs smoothly though. Well, not really - I know why, what I'm really wondering is why nobody seems to be able to get it right except the COD2 team and Team Ninja.

  • #14 6 years ago

    Took sub-2 hours to download for me - I dunno what you guys are up to!? I only have 2mb connection.

    Quite liked the demo - haven't tried it on-line yet. Generally liked the design of the game, but it's true that the jaggedness can sometimes spoil it.

    Darren - are you sure it's the camera in the game and not your TV? My TV has a mode when it extends the outer two thirds of the picture in order to fill the 16:9 ratio. I think it was called "Widescreen" mode or summit (meant for 4:3 'conversion'), but on the 360 dashboard, for example, you can really see the difference (between that and the standard display mode). I only say this 'cos you get a fisheye sort of effect and I didn't notice this effect at all while playing the demo.

  • Bonus #15 6 years ago

    It took me almost no time at all to download that demo on my 10Mb Telewest line.

    I queued that and Chromehounds at half time of the Brazil vs France game, played Sensi for about half an hour and when I turned my tv back to my 360 they were both finished.

    I've a 10Mb Telewest connection and no download hassles from Live.

  • Darren #16 6 years ago

    @jamesphilp - I'm playing the game at 1360x768 using VGA and that mode is definitely widescreen on my Samsung HDTV as Panorama mode doesn't work in VGA, I've only got the option of 4:3 or 16:9. I think the camera angle is due to the viewpoint being set too far back. You can simulate the same effect on the PC by using the command line to tweak one of the variables (FOV), set it low and you get a fish-eye lens effect, set it too high and it looks squashed. 90 is usually the best setting but Prey looks like it's 80 or something to me.

    Of course, I've played the PC demo on a 4:3 monitor many times and that's probably why I've noticed the difference straight away on the 360 version. I suppose you could argue that the camera angle adds to the weird alien feel of the game but I find it a little distracting...

  • Rambaldi #17 6 years ago

    @Darren

    Err...well...so what...I'm going for the 360 version so then I can play it from the comfort of my 3-seater couch in glorious 37inch Philips Ambilight glory..and..becuase I can use my mouse..no...errr...I mean...doh!

  • gamesb*tch #18 6 years ago

    Just me who found the demo dull di dull dull dull then. The SpiritHawk bits were so obvious I was grinding my teeth - where's the spirit of adventure gone too?

    ho hum

  • captainrentboy #19 6 years ago

    Why does there always have to be the 360 to pc comparison thingy on games like this?Not many people expect the £280 xbox to beat an £800+ pc(graphics wise) on these type of multi format releases,it's still very early days after all,let's give the developers a chance to get used to the 360 architecture and squeeze the really impressive stuff from the 360.But saying that seeing as my home pc can barely run max payne 1 when I see things looking like Prey running on my hdtv I find it mightily groovy,and them dropping the odd texture here and there really couldn't bother me less.

  • skillian #20 6 years ago

    gamesb*tch: Just me who found the demo dull di dull dull dull then.

    No, not just you. For all this talk of originality and taking FPS in new directions it all seemed rather stale to me.

    To be fair, I haven't tried the MP options yet, so maybe that bit'll be fun.

  • Azazel #21 6 years ago

    Well I played this last night and it was pretty fun but there were no real OMG moments y'know... But it looks like a well enough executed fps.

    And the gravity/portal bits were quite cool. Will be keeping an eye out for the EG review of the full game.

    Anyway, back to quakeworld... :D