Company of Heroes 2 demo now available

Demos, eh? A lovely feature, if you're prepared to wait a couple of months in the hope a developer will maybe cut out a chuck of game and post it online. Of course, barring multiplayer betas and the occasional generous indie, you're not going to get to trial a game's singleplayer mode before its release. What do you think this is, the '90s? Wait, is it the '90s? I ask because Company of Heroes 2 has just released its E3 demo to the public.

The campaign snippet lets you try part of the mid-game mission "The Land Bridge to Leningrad". In it, you have to cross a frozen lake under heavy German fire. That sounds like a really bad idea. But then hey, I'm not a World War 2 general.

Before you take to the streets in celebration of Relic's resurrection of the demo; keep in mind that it's still tied to the currently running open beta. You'll need to grab that from Steam to try this singleplayer missionette, and it will disappear, along with the beta, this Tuesday, the 18th of June.

Company of Heroes 2 will be released the week after, on June 25th.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.