Gaming mags

[16bitter]

Are there any good ones left? EGM is probably the best domestically, but that's saying barely anything -- I mean what's the competition, Play?

Gaming magazines started dying in the late 90s on through the new millenium, and there hasn't been anything really good since GF died in 2000.

Next Generation? Not only is it dead now, but it started sucking around 99 and never recovered. The depth drained -- it was sad saying goodbye to the best monthly game industry interviews -- along with the page count and credibility (saying the PS2 was more powerful than the GC was the last straw). The reviews always sucked -- 2D games regularly getting trashed, yet something like the third tired iteration of Tomb Raider managed to get 5 stars -- but its features, interviews, layout and general writing were all outstanding from the beginning. Too bad there's nothing like it now, and too bad it betrayed itself and then sank to the level of average.

Game Players was a good magazine back in the days of "The Box" and all the other general monthly idiocy that arrived around late 94, but it died a horrible death with the move to "Ultra" -- no personaility -- and was literally done a couple years after that ill-advised change. Great job, Chris! They also weren't afraid to pan any games -- though it was sad how they sucked up to Shaq Fu just beause of some marketing tie-in which involved Shaq hanging around the office -- and they had the best sports game section of any magazine; then again, they panned games like SMW2 and Earthbound. :(

EGM was still a good enough magazine in this period as well -- though it seemed to peak with the SNES and Genesis era on through 1995.

I thought GF improved when Halverson left -- still hardcore and niche, but they were tougher on games. Reviews were better written and less hyperbolic. It was a blow when they went out.

But today print is dead. There were some great magazines ten years back -- GF, NG, GP, EGM -- but it's a vast wasteland today, probably because of the internet. Unlike other topics, video games can't seem to support print at any longer. Not in America, anyway.

[Joe Redifer]

EGM is now razor thin. I remember the days of the Genesis when I'd get an EGM and it would be gigantic! This most recent 200th issue of EGM is about 1/30th the size of one of those mags back then. I also miss Gamefan and even VG&CE, GamePro (for what it was worth) and Game Players (super crappy paper but still kind of fun).

[Dartagnan1083]

EGM is tettering on the edge of shits-ville.

Dan Hsu has turned it into a mag for the G4 generation of non-gaming.
Really. . .trashing Tales of Symphonia and Star Ocean wilst rhetorically jerking off to every last Final Fantasy title gets real transparent after awile.
It's not as jerky as Game Informer. . .which declined after the Barnes&Noble buyout, but I really think the magazine started to take a nosedive around 2003, when we suddenly started caring about celebrity gamers and got a layout that best resembles a TARGET catalouge.

[Joe Redifer]

Dan Hsu once said that games like Otogi 2 only get 1/4 page because nobody wants to read about it. Pisses me off. That's what I liked about Gamefan. They'd give a game nobody has ever heard of a 6,000-page blowout. Smaller games got more coverage that way and were more likely to get played. With Dan Hsu, he only cares about the mainstream. He's your typical snowboarding/blogging moron.

[David J.]

I quit reading mags in 2001, because they all suck. Why pay money for some jerkoff fanboy raving about the latest Final Fantasy or Grand Theft Auto, or Halo?! And some overrated piece of trash getting high scores while a perfectly good obscure game gets a low score.

In 2001 it was PC gamer, and that was only because I got it for free, I got another magazine suscription for free, but I forgot which one.

I only read magazines for the news, but now that there is the internet, I sure as hell don't bother.

[Drixxel]

EGM is now razor thin. I remember the days of the Genesis when I'd get an EGM and it would be gigantic! This most recent 200th issue of EGM is about 1/30th the size of one of those mags back then.

..of course, you can attribute the bloated splendor of those EGMs during the 16-bit heydey to the overbearing presence of full-page ads every other bloody page.

I've been meaning to look into Hardcore Gamer Magazine, but since losing interest in modern gaming mags with the demise of GameFan, it always slips my mind whenever I'm within buying distance of a magazine rack.

[Elusive]

Gaming magazines - you've either got 'Insane Fanboy Bonanza' or 'Pretentious Artistique games as a lifestyle are art holding a mirror to life Otaku Indie' or 'Confused Multiformat Middleman' trash.

No thanks.

[Obviously]

I stopped reading game mags when I was able to get all the reviews I wanted to on the internet.

[Joe Redifer]

..of course, you can attribute the bloated splendor of those EGMs during the 16-bit heydey to the overbearing presence of full-page ads every other bloody page.
EGM still has tons and tons and tons of ads. Tons. Insane amounts. Bad ones. It's always been 50% editorial - 50% ads.

[Obviously]

That's how they make money. You're not considered a successful publication unless at least one third of your rag is ads.

[j_factor]

Tips & Tricks is a pretty good magazine. I like how they cover everything in a balanced way, and I like how they're willing to devote an entire section to a game like Bust A Groove or Disaster Report. Cool Zone and Japan Report are great sections.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine is better than the likes of EGM, but it's not really impressive either. I dunno, I guess maybe I was expecting a bit much from it; I was rather excited for it when I first heard about it months before it came about.

GamesTM was pretty good. Whatever happened to it? I heard it became a UK-only mag.

In my opinion, by far the best videogame magazine out there is The Gamer's Quarter (http://www.gamersquarter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61). These guys are passionate gamers who have a lot to write about. They have substantive writing that really talks about stuff. They just write about whatever they want, and they end up having some pretty damn interesting things to say.

[Melf]

Being that they're online only, GQ doesn't have to cover printing and distribution costs. Once they do go print, I wouldn't be surprised if you see less material (to make room for ads) and a drop in quality due to deadlines. Writing a printed mag is a bitch, and there are way too many compromises that have to be made nowadays.

I hope they maintain their current level of quality though. We need all the good mags we can get! There's way too much clutter out there right now.

I'm particularly glad that Retro Gamer has returned. It's a shame that there aren't any U.S. mags devoted to classic gaming, and at least they fill that niche a bit (albeit with a buttload of European computer articles, but hey, it is European). Manci Games had heart but just couldn't get off the ground.

[j_factor]

Issue 3 was available in print form.. but only by ordering from their site. I hope they can get a distributor or something.

[16bitter]

EGM is tettering on the edge of shits-ville.

It's there, as evidenced by issue 200. Lamest anniversary issue I've seen from EGM. It was awful by the standards of a regular issue, let alone something advertised as special.

Best part was the cover -- Michael Jackson making Kid Icarus rightly uncomfortable.

The last issue I bought before this was from 2003. After encountering this latest issue, I'm not about to start making it a more regular read.

I picked up an issue of Edge for the first time. Not bad, and far better than anything in America. There were a couple of quality interviews and the hardware rundown on the 360 was decent. It reminded me of a poor man's Next Generation -- weren't they overseas cousins?

The review and preview sections are too bland, but that's true of every print mag I run into today. There's nothing distinct to a given platform, all of it bleeding together into something that catches the eye about as much as stereo instructions -- speaking of instructs, your average Japanese game manual looks ten times better.

Partial symptom of each platform looking too similar to all the rest -- including the 360 (which I hardly ever spot by screenshots alone) -- but it's only underlined more overtly by giving into the lack of differentiation instead of trying to create some sense of singularity for each platform.

[chewy]

I still buy Edge and GamesTM, GAmes TM mostly for the retro section at the back. If they aren't too expensive to import, they're definately worth the £$£$£!

[Elusive]

I still buy Edge and GamesTM, GAmes TM mostly for the retro section at the back. If they aren't too expensive to import, they're definately worth the £$£$£!

The last issue of GamesTM I picked up - two months ago? =/ - the 'retro section' was just another 'here is this oooolllld Sinclair Spectrum (or whatever), these were the games made for it, ooh aren't they interesting in a flashbacky sort of way, this is how much you need to pay to own one'. There's no real love for the games.

One twenty-odd page chapter of a fairly thick magazine isn't worth my pennies, I'm afraid.

[j_factor]

I haven't read Edge since they did that redesign. I really didn't like the design changes and stopped reading it after that happened.

[16bitter]

http://ugp.trenchman.com/

[Melf]

Lol, damn that's cool. I haven't thought of GP in years.