dogbert Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 To me, the best multiplatform games magazine available in the US is a British import called "GamesTM". It's heavily influenced by the better days of Edge, with lots of whitespace, lots of text, good writing, good articles dealing with not just previews & lists of upcoming games, and it has reviews that are fair, honest & balanced. Add in a nice big retrogame section themed around the classic Newsfield magazines, and you have a great mix of games journalism, news & features, completely unlike any of the major US mags, with the one exception being XBN in my opinion. As a British mag, it's a little more expensive than it should be, but it's available from most Barnes & Nobles. The last issue I picked up has a nice big Prince of Persia cover. It's well worth splurging on, and makes a superb alternative to the likes of EGM & GamePro. Read a couple of issues of this & Edge (which, sadly, isn't available on US shelves), and you'll better appreciate how poor the US game magazines are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnemaEms Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Thanks for the suggestion Brian, I'll have to check it out the next time I am at the Starbucks of bookstores. -Dean- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 It really is a good read, and well worth a pick up every once in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlucci Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 I'll check it out too. What are your thoughts on Game Informer? I found Game Informer's E3 coverage AND Football features comparison to be the best of the magazines I receive. Carlos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Monkey Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Brian, I'll check it out at the next opportunity. Could you describe what they do well a little more in depth with examples? It would help me with some writing I'm doing for lcvg. Feel free to move that to PM if it's off topic. -j Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy liquid Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Great magazine. The Brits have it good with both GamesTM and Edge. It's a lot of money, but I subscribe to both. I don't think any of our magazines here compares with their depth and level of writing. Edge's E3 coverage was great, and came with a DVD. It was PAL of course, but had no problem being played in my XBOX. Wasn't NextGen an offshoot of Edge? That was another great magazine that I still miss today. I think if it were to be brought back it could do well, with the average age of the gamer increasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 GamesTM you say? I've not spotted it, though it's been an eternity since I browsed the game magazine shelves. I shall try to grab a copy this weekend. Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Unfortunately I don't have a copy with me here at work, but I'll be happy to go into detail on features & stuff in the last issue later tonight or tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsappel Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Yep, a very good mag. As I recall, though, it's around $9. Also, with European release dates often much different from US, sometimes the info is dated. Still, it's one I always read when I'm in the Border's "library." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 Subscription is 53.00GBP which is about what? 84-85 bucks in yankee green? (ie american money. Mind you currency exchange is not one of Romiers strong points so feel free to correct my numbers). I'll see if I can head over to Barnes and Nobles. If I like I'll shell out for the sub. Need to good bathroom material:). Unfortunately I don't have a copy with me here at work, but I'll be happy to go into detail on features & stuff in the last issue later tonight or tomorrow. I look forward to it Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlot Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 I recieved a free subscription for GMR from EB. It's not a bad magazine, but it no Next Generation either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted September 10, 2003 Report Share Posted September 10, 2003 I recieved a free subscription for GMR from EB. Me too. I thought it was pretty good, but the only other games magazines I've been exposed to are "Official Xbox Magazine" and "Official Dreamcast Magazine" both of which are probably not shining examples of journalistic integrity. Of course, when GMR didn't agree with me that Silent Hill 3 is the be-all end-all of survival horror games, I downgraded my opinion of it, but still, it is free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camp Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 thanks for the heads up, Brian. I'll certainly keep an eye out for it. I've been disinchanted with every gaming magazine since the fall of NextGen. Even the last year of NextGen (it's generally agreed that NextGen's last year was sub-par) was better than any current mags I've read. The fact that a non-American mag is superior doesn't surprise me at all...I've grown tired of American media in most forms. The real stories are what isn't reported in American mainstream media. To think that disease has spread into the entertainment genre is really sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 What are your thoughts on Game Informer? In the issues I've seen (I didn't see its E3 coverage), it suffers from the EGM/GamePro issues of busy layout & not enough *good* text. Play's got the right idea in a lot of ways, and XBN's current layout is heavily inspired by Edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrik Draven Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 I miss NextGen... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChoiceStriker Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Thanks for the recommendation, dogbert, I'll keep my eye out for this one. I've been looking for something new for a while now... EGM just seems to keep getting worse and worse. Last night I was browsing through my friend's copy, and saw some writing that just made my stomach churn - e.g. in the preview for Rockstar Games' "Manhunt," the title: "Lice City." And in a snippet about the next Xenosaga: "Star Whores." Am I not getting the joke, because this type of idiotic and juvenile crap turns me off completely to their magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 I lived in England for 9 weeks while working on a project once, just about everything they do is better than the US media-wise. They have this hang up about not dumbing down anything for the masses, so the TV, newspapers, news programs (BBC nightly!), magazines, etc. always tended to be a cut above what I expected. It's probably one of the few things that keeps their national IQ from going down the tubes like ours seems to be, they just flat out refuse to dumb it down. Forces everyone to be a little smarter. Of course, the food there is terrible -- that rumor is true. Would love to live there, London is a great city. Kind of like Basil Fawlty though: England would the perfect place if it wasn't for all the Englishmen there :lmfao: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 "Star Whores." I believe that this is a reference to That 70's Show. It's what Fez thinks is the title for Star Wars. Needless to say, he was a little disappointed. And they do this kind of thing all the time. Lot's and lot's of Simpson's quotes. Sean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 they just flat out refuse to dumb it down. Unfortunately, that's changed dramatically in the past couple of years. But that's offtopic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChoiceStriker Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Eldorado: Thanks for the clarification, but can you see where I'm coming from with this? To someone who has no idea what they're talking about, it just seems so incredibly stupid. "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Originally posted by Snakefish@Sep 12 2003, 04:18 PM I lived in England for 9 weeks while working on a project once, just about everything they do is better than the US media-wise. They have this hang up about not dumbing down anything for the masses, so the TV, newspapers, news programs (BBC nightly!), magazines, etc. always tended to be a cut above what I expected. It's probably one of the few things that keeps their national IQ from going down the tubes like ours seems to be, they just flat out refuse to dumb it down. Forces everyone to be a little smarter. Of course, the food there is terrible -- that rumor is true. Would love to live there, London is a great city. Kind of like Basil Fawlty though: England would the perfect place if it wasn't for all the Englishmen there :lmfao: Absolutely. I'm a real car nut and Brit mags are exponentially better written, better presented, better thought-out than the crummy American rags. Same goes for their automotive TV programming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 13, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2003 Okay, here's a rundown of the last issue I have of GamesTM, sorry for the delay: Inside cover, big blowup of the classic "heart" level of Bubble Bobble adapted to mention GamesTM - this is something they're well known for, featuring two page blowups of retro screenshots. In their news, article on PSX, article on Realtime Games (the ex-DMA guys) with real quotes from Dave Jones, with a bunch of UK news that's old by now. One page interview with Bill Roper. Cellphone gaming roundup with some game reviews. Monthly 2 page "Letter From America" talking about overweight Americans & how gluttonly & the summer doldrums leads to stuff like Brute Force being overhyped. Monthly 2 page "Letter From Japan" talking about the reaction to "Enter The Matrix" & how it's good sales are bad for Western games in Japan in the longterm. Interview with Jordan Mechner about the new Prince of Persia. 4 page article/interview on Firefly Studios about their setup & current projects - every month they feature a different "small" developer like this. Two page UK release schedule with a "most played" & "on the horizon" bullet list. Anonymous "think tank" column along with some industry news/analysis on UK company results. Big "2d" article including a rather cool "Periodic Table of 2D History", followed by 4 pages of discussion on why 2D graphics were cool, why they faded away, and why/how they could still be relevant, along with some side columns about things that can't be done without 3D and one asking why SF in 3D sucks. This is followed by a 2 page Excitebike blowup to go with the article. Previews for: Prince of Persia, BOF5, B&W2, Armed & Dangerous, new 1080, Space Colony, Kameo, Onimusha3, Thief 3, Far Cry, Fallout:BOS, Amped 2, Freedom Fighters, Colin Macrae 4, Templar, Giftpia, Judge Dredd. Most of these are two pages long, with the rest one page. "Showcase" - 4 to a page previews, 4 pages long. 2 page blowup of Prince of Persia. 6 page "handheld gaming" article - current state of GBA, history, why it's got problems despite its sales, and what's up ahead for it - PSP etc. "Snapshots" of previous rivals like Lynx, gamegear etc. Reviews: 4 pages for Advance Wars 2 (9/10) 2 pages for Tomb Raider (5/10), Mega Man NT (7/10), Mace Griffin (4/10), Metal Slug3(8/10), Day of Defeat(8/10), Amplitude (8/10), Virtual On (6/10), Starsky & Hutch(3/10) 1 page each for RTX (3/10), Wario World (5/10), Chaos Legion (3/10), Hitman 2(8/10), Dynasty Warriors 4 (7/10), Tour De France (4/10), Sega Arcade (5/10), The HUlk (4/10) Note: their reviews are like Edge - 1 is crap, 5 is average, 7 is good, 10 is the best evar game!! 27 page retro section done in the style of the classic UK mags Zzap & Crash. This features things like "This MOnth in 1985", news on SvsC & the Intellivision handheld system, "Games That Time Forgot: Jumping Flash", this months' most played retro games: Powerstone 2, Psycho Fox, Monkey Island, "Great Game Bosses: Robotnik", two pages on Prince of Persia, 2 page "family tree" of the survival horror genre, Sensi Soccer & Romance of the Three Kingdom articles, classic adverts for Afterburner, BurgerTime & Star Wars, big six page retrospective of the Saturn along with "50 classic game screenshots" over two pages. interview/history with Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond who did some *classic* Spectrum games (4 pages), 2 page Ebay guide/price list. Then there's their "essential" section - the best games for the mainstream consoles along with extra "viewpoints" on unnoticed games etc, plus a quick set of peripheral reviews. 4 pages of letters/"from the forum" - way, WAY different to US mag letters, these are usually intelligent if not necessarily right in their views Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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