The demo of Blitz: The League is now available on Xbox Live as a rather large 1.35Gb download. As far as we know it’s only available in the US and as usual it’s exclusive to gold members for a couple of days. This demo comes as quite a surprise since it was released yesterday and Microsoft doesn’t normally release demos during the weekends right?

Blitz: The League is an unlicensed American Football game which means you won’t be seeing all the famous players like you see in EA’s Madden games. This is basically the same as the difference between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. The following description comes from a press release and it sounds quite violent!

Playing in The League is your dream but you’ve paid the price. Your arms ache from weight-room reps and painkillers are blurring your vision. The dirty hits you’ve laid on QBs are career-enders but they also keep you employed. Two more sacks and you get your bonus, paying for your fast cars and faster lifestyle. Its 4th and 3 and you are up by 7. Stuff the offense, beat your opponents bloody and win at any cost!

The full game was released over a year ago on the PS2 and Xbox so this game is actually a ‘cheap’ port and as you can see in the screenshots below it doesn’t really look that great at all. Midway must have felt the same but couldn’t care less and haven’t made many changes at all. The resolution bump did some good to the game but you’ll have to decide for yourself if that justifies spending 50 bucks.

• Realistic injuries - Gruesome on-field injuries/animations such as: bones snapping, skulls crushing and modest amounts of blood resulting; Severe and career ending injuries that might involve excessive amounts of blood.
• Story mode – For the first time in a sports game, Blitz: The League explores the on-field fury, off-field problems, and front office politics permeating professional football. From Peter Egan, writer of ESPN’s Playmakers; Take the helm of a downtrodden football franchise, retool the players and coaching staff, and guide them to the championship.
• Gameplay clashes –For the first time in a football game, “get in the zone” real-time! When this mode is triggered, the on-field action slows and the players can pull off amazing and game-changing moves. If enough moves are accomplished in succession a meter is filled unlocking theultimate Unleash move.
• Intense on-the-field atmosphere –This game isn’t glitzy and glamorous like the ready for primetime, licensed sports video game products. Leave the boring TV booth behind and get down on the field with revolutionary movie-style presentation.
• Head-to-head online play – Players can bash and bleed each other online, complete with headset support on both the PS2 and Xbox Live.

If you liked this demo you can pick up the full Xbox 360 version since it’s already available for quite some time now. If you don’t care about the ‘improvements’ you’re out of luck since the Xbox version isn’t backwards compatible.

Thanks to Colby for submitting this news.