NFL Tour ships this week for the PS3 and XBOX 360, and presumably it should be on retail shelves by today/tomorrow. Now if you’re a PS3 owner you’ve probably had the chance to play the NFL Tour demo, and I’m assuming 360 owners will get a chance to play the Tour demo this week. Since the demo was released I’ve been reading various impressions of the demo on our message boards and various other boards, and the impressions have been quite a bit more negative than positive.

That type of reaction isn’t the least bit surprising.

The above statement doesn’t mean I think the game itself is going to be terrible -- doesn’t mean I think the game will be good either though. However, by today’s standards this is a "budget" title ($40) of the pick-up and play variety that is supposed to resonate with the more old-school or casual football fan. It’s a game that is a spiritual successor to the NFL Street series, and is most fun when played with someone else.

But how many people know all of that by playing the demo?

Most people who downloaded the demo probably quick clicked through all of the simple tutorial type stuff, gazed upon some sub-par graphics, broke every tackle and deleted the demo in a span of five minutes. That is a completely acceptable response. Nevertheless once I raised the difficulty level, turned the slow motion off, and played with a friend the game was at least semi-enjoyable.

Furthermore, even before the demo went live Tour was a game that had a lot going against it. For example, the game is stuck somewhere between arcade and simulation: It’s strayed far enough away from the Street games and the old Blitz games where it may not please those gamers, but doesn’t have any sort of depth that Madden fans would be looking for in a simulation. In other words, NFL Tour is a game without a country. Not to mention the fans chose a steroid user to be the cover athlete, which I’m sure the NFL is thrilled about.

Did the NFL Tour demo do anything quell those issues? No, instead the demo has become another hulking lineman on top of a dog pile of problems -- just in time for the release of this game.

Look for DSM’s NFL Tour review some time next week.