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It was a bit of a pain to get them, but I downloaded some demos from the European Playstation site.

MotoGP – Really didn’t get on with this. It looked nice enough and didn’t have any obvious problems, but it just didn’t grab me. No motorcycle game has since Super Hang On, though, so that might just be me. Or it might really be a slightly sludgy, rather dull experience.

Mercury Meltdown – I must never buy this game. It’s good and the demo has a generous selection of levels, but I can see myself being reduced to a boiling puddle of fury by the full game. One level in the demo annoyed me so much I had to skip it, which is never a good sign. It’s got something, though, and I could see myself picking it up in a moment of weakness.

Killzone Liberation – A very, very short demonstration level. Looks nice, plays okay, but has slightly clunky controls, annoyingly powerful enemies, some very dangerous checkpointing and hints that the full game might get very, very difficult. If I saw it for a tenner I might have to buy it, but no more than that. Oh, and whoever decided you should press Start to remove tutorial messages needs to go back to interface design school.

Medal of Honor Heroes – Not what I was expecting at all. Okay, it’s an FPS and, despite having Jump on the Select button, it controls pretty well with the sensitivity ramped up, but I thought it would be a standard single-player Nazi-killing trip through a French village, or something. But, no, it was just a three minute deathmatch against bots. No story or anything at all. Perfectly playable – I’ve played three matches so far and will probably keep the demo on my Memory Stick – but nothing special.

World Tour Soccer 2 – A big surprise. I wasn’t expecting anything and nearly didn’t download the demo. But this is an ace arcade footie game, with a twist. You gain and lose points for everything you do in the game and the idea is to reach points targets, rather than simply win matches. Sometimes that’s all, but in other events there are twists. In one of the demo events all eleven of your players have to have had possession before you can score. In another you have to score within ten seconds of gaining possession. It’s not a sim, but it’s great fun. I really want a full copy of the game now.

Toca Race Driver 3 Challenge – Bloody hell. I wasn’t expecting much, I must admit, but this is brilliant. There are three different challenges. The first is a cone challenge. Within seconds of starting I’d fallen in love. The handling felt perfect, even through the PSP’s infamously dodgy analogue nub. I played it until I got a gold medal, which didn’t take too long, then moved on. The next event, a duel against another car, wasn’t so much fun, mainly because the course layout was a pain. An s-bend and two incredibly tight hairpins, that was all. Once I got a silver I went on to the last event, a No Damage race. To get gold you have to win the race without damaging your car. Hence the name. Great fun and plugged away until I got a gold, which took a very long time. (I’m not very good.) And then I went back and got a gold on the Duel, which seemed a little bit more fun but it’s definitely the runt of the litter. This has now gone from being completely off my radar to being a must-buy. Also: it has instant restarts from the pause menu. Thank you, whoever made that happen.