I know there's a lot of buzz both negative and positive about Shadowrun but the things you mention don't exactly entice me to even want to try the demo. If the purpose of the demo is to set the expectations for what the final product will play like then I would hope that the glaring bugs you have cited would have been fixed before the demo was even released.

Still, I'll give it a try...

I think the big problem will be that this game makes a bad first impression, and a lot of people will just drop it after a quick game or two of the demo.

It really does get good.

It's like the 360. You know how everyone bitches and moans that it fails, but they're really bitching and moaning because they love the machine so much?

That's Shadowrun. The problems aren't constant, but they do pop up. Despite this, people keeping saying how good the game is.

Going to make an effort to download and play also. Even though I did the beta; and have just thought about just buying - maybe one more shot at just getting good feel of the game.

Preliminary FAQ from GameFAQs. I'll leave it to the guys who have played to comment on its accuracy, but it explains in more depth the characteristics of each race, the different tech, magic, and how the gametypes work.

I'm willing to give the demo a whirl if I can pull myself away from forza for a bit.

Couple of things it missed:

"Attrition: Standard team death match. In both Raid and Extraction a team can win by eliminating the other team. In attrition that is the only way to win. There is no artifact to capture and control. Instead there is only the destruction of the enemy team. It's pretty simple. The last team standing wins."

There is an artifact. It allows the holder to see where all the enemies are. AFAIK if time runs out, the team holding the artifact wins.

"How many Weapons can you hold?

"Two main weapons, and grenades. "

All players have a pistol. If you buy main weapons, you need to drop one to use the pistol again.

Thanks for the clarifications. While you're all here, have any of you incorporated Gust into one of your builds? I started looking into abilities and builds and Rez and Tree of Life are strong choices early on, for good reason. Gust seems to be left out of most.

One trend, just from browsing the forums quickly, seems to be:
Round 1) Rez or Tree of Life (rely on pistols, grenades, and playing for attrition)
2) Usually a tech, sometimes a weapon. Wired Reflexes and Enhanced Vision look popular.
3) Buy a weapon if you haven't picked one up off a corpse yet.

Rounds 4 and 5 look dedicated to fleshing out/finishing your build. It almost seems like this becomes your movement ability - Glider, Teleport, and Smoke seem to be picked up around here.
The rounds after that spent buying ammo, better weapons, or novelty abilities.

Obviously Gust is the best counter to Smoke, so if you see a lot of enemies with Smoke it's a good pickup, but it seems like such a robust and flexible tool that it would be useful in nearly any situation. Is it more difficult to use than it's made out to be? Or is the effect not as pronounced as advertised? Being able to stun/force the enemy to move and lose aim should be a really powerful ability. In a 2v2 fight, Gust should allow you to turn that into a 2v1 for the first few, crucial seconds.

So my question is whether Gust isn't as useful/powerful as I'm imagining, is it more of a late round ability for reasons I don't see, or is it something people are still learning to use(a more advanced strategy)?

Legion,

I had a great attrition game today. The enemy was elf heavy - we had some elves, two or three trolls and a human.

The map we played on (RNA one, artifact on walkway in middle) is normally one where people pile into each other. My team stayed back, planted trees and the game turned into a rifle battle punctuated with the RNA elves rushing us.

Great fun. Chain resses, bleeding out and last-minute trees thrown down. Won with the artifact a couple times -- real 'seconds to spare' stuff.

Not attrition, but had a great moment on favela; was an elf with anti-magic and was on rooftops. Saw a troll below me, clearing bodies in the canal. Threw down two AM, dropped in and killed him with my pistol VS his chaingun.

Scaph,

I used to use gust a lot. I've been experimenting as a medic, but I might go back to it.

Gust will work on multiple people if they're close enough together. You can use it on grenades to launch them further. It also affect teammates, so be careful.

Gust is useful in the early rounds, especially if you're on defence; will keep the flag away from the flagpoint for a few seconds. (On maps where both teams rush the flag, it will knock their lead man back.)

It can turn a defensive act into an offensive one. You attack me, I gust. You go flying backwards and lose your aim a bit -- I keep firing.

Earlier today, gust saved my life. I was in a tunnel heavily wounded as an elf. I was being chased by a human. I knocked him back just before I turned a corner, giving me just enough time to start healing.

Incidentally it has quite a large range.

Gust is absolutely fantastic if you're using a SMG. You keep gusting them which totally screws their aim while you just rain ammo into them. I've scored many a kill like that.

I'm going to play Halo 3 Beta this weekend till it's over but I'm down to try a couple rounds. I'll buy it if enough goodjers pick it up and like it so we'll see.

Looking forward to trying the demo out this weekend!

I really want to pick up this game due to all the GWJ praise, but I must restrain and try the demo before so I don't throw away a ton of dough.

Count me in, if nothing stands in my way tonight.

Downloaded. Ready to rock.

Hey coffee grinders, please just send me a message tonight and I'll make sure you get an invite.