Most respected VG publication?

[mailman187666]

I've always bought the Playstation mag and the XBOX mag just to see what was comming soon and for the demo disks inside. I haven't bought either of those mags in a very long time. I don't even know if they have a Playstation mag anymore.

[spoon]

Of all time, older EGMs. Nowadays? Game Informer. I can't stand Play... I used to realize it until I realized that they gave glowing reviews to every underdog game, no matter how much it sucked. I remember buying Magna Carta wholly on their attention to it. Man was it a pile.

I was actually going to mention this game as play did a big cover on it and the game ended up blowing. What I was going to mention was how in a later issue they actually addressed why this game ended up sucking.

It was nice to see a VG mag explain why they did a cover on a game and also explain why the game ended up not being as good as they had thought it would.

[FlufflePuff]

My vote would be to Game Informer. I have a subscription to EGM, but I hardly read it anymore. GI does seem to be a bit biased from time to time, but for what's out there it is the best read IMO.

[Snapple]

I think magazines in general are way worse than they used to be. First of all, now we can get preview and review content quicker on the internet. Back in the day, magazines were the end-all, be-all, and I respected that. I loved my Nintendo Power for like the first 100 issues (except for the reviews, but they weren't the focus of the magazine). I had Game Pro and EGM subscriptions, too. And I have to say, Game Pro has fallen harder than anyone. They are just complete garbage now. I used to really, really like their reviews around the mid-90s. And some of those issues were freaking huge, like 150 pages. You got your money's worth. Now, it's just a flimsy little magazine with little content between all the ads.

EGM is still decent, and I also have a subscription to Game Informer. Neither are particularly important to me anymore, but they're toilet material. I think GI's strength is still what it has been for the last decade plus, which is previews. They are unmatched in preview content. I think EGM kind of wins for reviews, but only by default.

The thing that bugs me about EGM reviews, and other magazines who do this, is when they get multiple reviewers for the same game, but everyone gives roughly the same score. What's the point of giving a different perspective, if everyone has the same perspective? Nobody in the real world agrees on every single game, but you look at EGM, and every game has both scores within 0.5 of each other.

[MonoTekETeA]

I enjoy Hardcore Gamer and Computer Games Magazine. I don't know if Computer Games is still around, but there is something about that magazine that just clicked with me. As for Hardcore, the group that does it is cool, and I like Double Jump publications.

[Ed Oscuro]

DP! (I assume we mean "integrity" by respect; I swear by the online guide's rarity sections, although I usually mentally adjust the prices given a bit)

[sirhansirhan]

I agree with those who said that GI's previews are good, but the rest of the magazine is embarrassingly stupid, bad, generic, and just about everything else you can say that is bad about a video game magazine. The 11/07 issue was particularly offensive in its stupidity and closed-mindedness.

My favorite video game magazine (for now, at least) is Hardcore Gamer, by a long shot.

[cyberfluxor]

Strictly for the industry, there is a magazine called Game Developer that has a good reputation. But it's not very widely available, and way too technical for the average gamer.

I've been tempted to subscribe to their prints for over a year now but still have no true idea of how their magazine flows. How in depth are their reviews, information about the software or interviews with coders? I really wish there'd be a retailer around here with a few issues.

[Nick Goracke]

I wonder what the original editor (Ed Semrad?) thinks of the current incarnation ?

Here's a good quote from a former EGM staffer:

"During the time I worked at EGM, I never saw Ed Semrad pick up a controller, hold a joystick, or play a game. Not once."

http://homepage.mac.com/chris_johnst...604/index.html

I think it's safe to say he couldn't care less what direction it went after he cashed out.

[Fanboy]

While I saw mention of Edge, why is there no love for the award winning Games™? It's my pick for best current games magazine. It is nearly devoid of game advertisements (although they seem to make up the slack with phone sex ads every now and then), so they sidestep the whole advertising content vs. editorial independence morass that seems to tar all North American magazines.

Not afraid to look at the gaming scene in North America and Japan, interviews with people within the industry and multi-page looks at some of the issues within the industry, it's the clearest successor to Next Generation that I've found. And, yes, I know that NextGen was the NA version of Edge, I just find Games™ more NextGen-like than Edge.

In the past, Next Generation (obviously) and Electronic Games (the second incarnation) would be my favourites to look back upon.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

One magazine that I used to read and enjoy, while not entirely a gaming magazine, was PC Accelerator. That was one magazine that was not afraid to call a turd a turd. Unlike some magazines that have their token "bad" game each month. With them it was like, "we review whatever we get, good or bad." The complaint that some people had about the magazine was about their more "adult" content. In response to that, they ran an article comparing themselves to some "women's" magazines as far as the number of "butt", "cleavage", and "nipple" pictures. They came in last behind Cosmo, Vogue, and some other "women's" magazines.

JY

[tmc]

Just remembered Uk magazine 'ARCADE'anyone remember that one. It finished a few years ago now but it was a great publication.

[ROTS MKII]

Play Magazine.



Everybody else seems to be sapped out

[BydoEmpire]

1UP is EGM.

I've recently dropped my subscription to EGM for just the reasons listed above. And I had been a subscriber since issue #3.

I thought EGM really started its descent when, what was that guys name ?, John Davison ? took over editorial (and I use that term loosely) duties. He and the current staff, seem to think we're are more interested in them than we are about games. The "personality" of the staff really comes through and it seems these people are about 12.

In going for more of an "adult" market, why did they feel the need to act less mature ?

Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth. I wasn't a subscriber back in the day, but I did buy it pretty regularly (I still have the '89 and '90 Buyer's guide). I started subscribing in the mid 90s, and finally cancelled my subscription for pretty much the same reasons this year. And they (i.e. the gaming print punditry) wonder why games aren't taken seriously as a medium.

Nintendo Power is the only gaming mag I still get. They revamped it a few years ago, and it's a quality, fun read. Obviously I take any 1st party publication's reviews with a grain of salt, but I enjoy the style and writing of the magazine as a whole.

I've been tempted to subscribe to their prints for over a year now but still have no true idea of how their magazine flows. How in depth are their reviews, information about the software or interviews with coders? I really wish there'd be a retailer around here with a few issues.

They don't do reviews of games. They do have occasionally interesting post-mortems, editorials about various topics, and technical articles for programming, art and audio development. PM me and I'll send you a few back issues.

[diskoboy]

Wow.. No love for Electronic Games??

I think I'm gonna sit in the corner and cry for a while. Please excuse me....

:*(

This whole topic makes me feel old (no offense to the OP and to all who have replied..)

[DreamTR]

spoon wrote:
" T&T was turning into something awesome when the plug was pulled. I still can't believe how much was being crammed in there each month. It was gonna be awesome. I could feel it. "

I have to disagree with you about this one, it lost its identity a long time ago when they started going all scatterbrained in the last 6-8 months or so. The magazine never decided what it wanted to become: a niche magazine for kids under 16 with codes, previews, strategies, and other goodies, or geared towards the "Mature" gamer.

There was a way to do both, but advertisers are going to run screaming if they feel that you are indeed a kids' magazine, hence part of the changes in the first place.

Codes were what sold the magazine, plain and simple. You could stick 50 pages of toilet paper in there, and just 20 pages of codes, and it would still sell the same, which is exactly the Tips & Tricks Codebook is still published 6 times a year.

The internet really has changed the way everyone gets their news. There really is no point to game magazines these days because of the long leadtimes unless there is some sort of exclusive to print, which is rare in this day and age.

I still peruse Game Informer, EGM, Gamepro, and Nintendo Power randomly, but I don't really get excited about any of them. All the layouts are way to the extreme, and Play Magazine may be for gamers, it's still got too much stuff I don't want see/read about (anime), but I would rather take old Game Player's Magazines any days of the week (and Nintendo Power) over anything current.

[RCM]

I don't really like any publications/prosites. I read em just for the news. I do like N'Gai Croal's blog, probably the best game journo around right now. I got to speak with him a few weeks ago and have a few mutual friends, highly recommended.

[HYB]

I don't know that much about international mags but one mag that has always, since the early days of videogaming, been good here is pelit (games). I read some issues a while back from the 80's when it was still a small publication and I enjoyed those as much as I do the new ones, the quality has stayed the same ever since in my opinion. Too bad I don't have a subscription anymore. I think there was one mag called power play in the old days that was pretty good, and of course nintendo power. I used to subscribe to pelimestari (game master) before it was abruptly cancelled and it was mediocore. The other game mag thingamajings are just plain stupid here.

Oh, and I remember a mag in the N64 days. It was the official nintendo one I think and I ocassionally bought it (bejeebus it was expensive). It was good.

[DeputyMoniker]

Well, I can't speak for anyone but myself but I'm really into Game Informer these days. They seem to have a pretty independent opinion. That's the only one I really look forward to reading. I haven't been reading the others lately so I can't give much of an opinion on them.

[j_factor]

Has GI changed or something? I see all this praise for it, but... I remember it being the most biased mag out there. I haven't read it in years, but I always thought it was dumb. They would always talk about how PS2 was the already the greatest thing ever devised before the system was even out. I still have the PS2 launch issue somewhere. It smelled of semen from the writers creaming themselves about how much they loved PS2 and how amazing its launch lineup was (lol).