So I thought I'd give the Demo to last Remnant a try just to see what it was like (i.e. if square had produced an even slightly different game to what they have been producing since they started making games) and was greeted by possibly one of the most appalling attempts at a demo ever. The actual game aside I don't understand how they thought this demo would encourage anyone to buy the game.
You are dumped in a random part of the game presumably somewhere near the beggining, no tutorial, no intro, no context really at all. not only that but it was incredibly short. i finished it in a few minutes just about. Also it was a pretty lazy console port. I dont have an (A) button so stop telling me to bloody press it! Its also the ugliest game to use the unreal 3 engine, how they managed to make it look somewhat like a PS2 game I dont understand.
Anyway I was just kind of wondering how much you guys rely on demos to influence whether or not you buy games. Any particularly well made demos you have played? good game but terrible demo? etc. It strikes me that film trailers are for the most part better at selling films than alot of demos are at selling games. anyone agree?

I've actually never tried a demo. I've not heard very much positive about them anyway.
As for movie trailers, I'm a wee bit jaded on them. Too many times it seems the trailer shows the best scenes in the movie and you wonder why you bothered going to see it after all.

Every demo I have tried has made me say "I don't want this game" and on the few occasions where I have actually got the game despite that, I have said "This game is nothing like the demo". I actually find that user reviews (not pro reviews) are better for judging a game. I don't ever take the word of a single review, though.
I do agree that film trailers do a much better job for movies than demos do for games. On many an occasion I have been tricked into seeing a bad movie because of a good trailer.

I tend to try out demos when they're available, but only after multiple user reviews have already piqued my interest in a game. Most of the time the demo solidifies my decision to then buy the game (and there have only been a few times I then regretted the purchase). Overall I typically look to a demo give me an idea of what gameplay is like, while relying on user reviews get an idea of things like story, balancing, and presence/lack of bugs.

http://www.firstpersonshouter.com/?p=199
about the demo by author of conerned: Half-life and death of Gordon Frohman

i've seen worse demos than that. i actually kind of liked the last remnant demo.

I remember playing the Daggerfall demo, and thinking why I'd ever play this game.
Now, after giving it a chance, I've been hooked for a year.

After recently playing the RE5 demo I was unimpressed and I was expecting to buy the game, but after the change of pace in the parts i played it seemed less horror and more action FPS. I still have not played the full game and until a friend gets it and changes my mind I am not planning to buy it. Demos tend to do this for me, unless they have online play. An online demo tends to make me want to get it because I know I will spend more time playing online than single player and it is good to know what it is like.

Yeah, that demo really doesn't make me want to fork out $59.99 for the game. And it certainly didn't help to sell the game.
But there are certainly far worse demos -- ones that don't even work correctly, for example. But I can understand why they didn't give the very start of the game as the demo seeing how Japanese RPGs usually drag on with annoying text for far longer than they should at the start of games -- the time when most players really just want to dive in and get used to the controls.
But they certainly could have done better at explaining what was going on and how you should do it.

I feel like the Ico demo was incredible and completely sold me on it when I first played it. Demos are a not a bad thing. And I agree with what you said about trailers, they are sometimes (more than I'd like) used to flat out lie to the audience. I just saw the trailer for The Proposition last night and it made that movie look like a straight action western film, when in reality I have seen few slower films in my life (it's still a great film though, slow != bad).

most of the time demos are good, good in that they convionce me to spend my money on important things rather than crap. I've saved SO much cash from trying demos ovr the years.
I was planning to buy Turning Point: Fall Of Liberty because I love alternate history stories but then I played a demo that would have embarassed a PS2 with its shittiness
I was going to buy Halo Wars because of its revolutionary designed for console from the ground up controls that happened to be near identical to every other shitty console RTS
I was going to buy EndWar because of its revolutionary designed for console from the ground up controls that actually managed to be different and interesting which is more than you can say for the game itself sadly.

I usually rely on demos. They've saved me lot of money ^___^

Vivisector demo and game terrible.

Lies and deceit.

heh, yeah, Last Remnant demo is terrible. But then again, did anyone see a good Japanese port? Ever?