I bought a 2003 PS2 demo disc containing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Silent Hill 3, and Burnout 2, and it's my best purchase on eBay.

It seemed like a pretty fun experiment at the time: buy the 2003 demo disc and try it for the sheer nostalgic joy of it. I get to do the weirdest little things in my job and discover some of the best PS2 games and other oddities on eBay are among them.

This particular collection of PS2 demos covers some pretty diverse bases. Silent Hill 3’s campy touch on the cover art is what initially compelled me to click “buy now,” but the games listed in smaller print below that main image surprised me even more. Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and Virtual Fighter 4 seem like a strange group of games to see grouped together, but this East the point of CDs like these, right? Accompanied by a detailed development diary for Enter the Matrix and a trailer for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, this treasure trove of PS2 game demos contained the most bizarre array of promises. Here’s why it was worth £10.

Play catch-up

The matrix — (Image credit: Warner Bros)

It’s hard to remember a time before Next Fest and the relative ease and accessibility of Steam demos, but in reality those memories aren’t that far away. My PS2 demo disc is a reminder of those days; game demos would be mailed, neatly pasted onto the cover of a magazine, or perhaps tucked into a goody bag if you were one of the lucky ones whose parents would let you spend your money on them.

Maybe it’s because I was 8 years old in 2003, but I don’t remember ever owning my own magazine demo discs. We just swapped CDs in the school playground, a secret mission that rarely escaped the watchful eyes of our teachers. That’s what makes this experience so fascinating to me: I can finally pretend that I was cool and old enough to play PS2 demos in the early 2000s.

I can see the call. The overzealous buzz of the PS2 coming to life still makes me feel like an excited little kid. Blurry, underexposed images appear on my TV screen, thanks to a flimsy AVI to HDMI converter that I also bought on eBay about five years ago. A suitably garish title screen reading GAME flickers on, and after watching a few mini-trailers, I’m ready to choose my demo poison.

Unusual suspects

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

(Image credit: Interplay)

I can finally pretend that I was cool and old enough to play PS2 demos in the early 2000s.

Black Isle’s 2001 Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance offering was the first on the chopping block. I’m learning the hard way that this particular CD (let me know if it was common to all demo discs) likes to make me go back to the title screen after 30 seconds of inactivity, so I know I have to do make my time count.

I appear in the cellar of the Elfsong tavern, a place I recognize from Baldur’s Gate 3 without a doubt, and I’m actually quite impressed with how easy it is to navigate. For the purposes of this demo, my level one elf wizard needs to smash a pile of crates and use magic or melee to fend off the rodents in his path. It’s kitschy and simple enough to be fun for about five minutes

Next, I turn my attention to what was supposed to be my piece de resistance. Scuzzy indie rock cues an Akira Yamoka special, highlighting a lengthy Silent Hill 3 trailer as the demo starts. We start at Lakeside Amusement Park, creepy and abandoned and decorated with lots of Robbie the Rabbit dolls. The puzzles here are sparse, feeling more like a walking simulator to get the player used to the game’s fixed camera angles and combat elements. First thing I do? Change the controls from 3D to 2D, otherwise I won’t be able to make it out alive.

I’m also pleased to find that I can immediately replace Heather’s useless knife with a fully charged SMG, which I happily present to the mad dogs in my path. Unfortunately, the demo only takes me as far as the cutscene after Heather is apparently crushed by a roller coaster – the professional hazard of walking on the tracks, I suppose. Still, this brief taster is full of the brooding, foreboding atmosphere that makes Konami’s survival horror franchise so iconic. Water is leaking from a pipe somewhere – or is it blood? – as the metallic whine of machinery yawns in the distance. I can only hope that Silent Hill 2 is able to capture that feeling of isolation and fear, but truth be told, it was amazing to experience the third installment in the series on its original material like this.

Silent Hill 3

(Image credit: Konami)

There’s always something very exciting about physical media when it comes to video games.

Feeling a little depressed by the brevity of my taste of Silent Hill 3, I decide to opt for one more demo. Somehow, Burnout 2: Point of Impact is exactly the tonic I need. Its bright colors and fast-paced rock soundtrack are a far cry from the brooding darkness of Silent Hill 3, and suddenly I remember why I loved playing Burnout Paradise so much. The aim of the game isn’t to beat your car here though. It’s a racing game, and every time you crash, you just restart. There’s a sense of insane, repetitive comfort generated here that compels me to play this demo for about thirty minutes longer than you’re probably supposed to. The only notes I took? “Great fun. I suck.”

If this demo CD has taught me anything, it’s that those who regularly got their hands on these discs back in the day are very lucky. There’s always something so exciting about physical media when it comes to video games, the feeling of opening a DVD case and spinning the disc with your fingertip for a moment, carefully checking its reflective underside to detect scuffs or scratches. I don’t experience it often, since almost all of my games are digital copies these days, but I already feel that revelatory mental push toward starting another arbitrary collection. If you need me, I’ll scour eBay for more forgotten PS2 demos.

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