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Magazines

Unread postby bullethell » 13 Feb 2007 00:18

Post your favorite video games magazines you have read so far in your video gaming career.
Ive read so many over my gaming years so I maybe forget three or two magazines.Anyway my favorites:

NEW/Current favorites
1.EDGE / UK - No comments.If you dont know this magazine please change hobby.
2.PLAY / US - Pretty pictures but empty words.Nice too look at it though.
3.PSM - Independent Playstation Magazine / US - Chris Slate and Bill Donohue still write about videogames!
4.Retro Gamer / UK

Old favorites
1.SUPER PLAY / UK - Who doesnt remember incredible Will Overton's cover art?Import japanese-culture and anime friendly this Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo magazine amazed us back in 1992.Maginificent magazine.Tony Mott wrote for that magazine too.
2.Computer and Video Games magazine / UK - The oldest video game magazine in Earth!A legend!Sadly what remain now is only a website.
3.GamesMaster / UK - No Comment.
4.Mean Machines / UK - No Comment.
5.USER / GR - Hellenic Computers and video games magazine, with the best known Chakan review ever!
6.Pixel / GR - Hellenic Computers and video games magazine

JP
1.Arcadia / JP - I cant understand it but I can enjoy it.
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Unread postby icycalm » 13 Feb 2007 04:34

I used to read Pixel and User too. Cool magazines.

Right now I don't read any magazines, unfortunately, because they all suck balls. Even your Edge, bullethell, sucks I am afraid. Half the time they don't know what they are talking about, and the other half they are too busy trying to impress you with long words, while failing to properly describe the game they are talking about.

If you don't see it now you'll see it one day, and you'll remember my words.


Anyways. My all-time favorite mag is C&VG. Super Play also rocked back in the day... man, so many good mags don't exist any more.

This thread is depressing me.
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Unread postby zapeipaa » 13 Feb 2007 11:48

I have to agree with icycalm here. I used the read the Swedish edition of Super Play (I don't think it has much relation to the UK version, as they've got their own writers) at the end of the nighties. Having no internet access, it was a good source to find out about new games, and which ones that were good or bad.

Today when I sometimes browse the magazines in the stores (usually read for about 10 minutes, then I just leave), I too often find texts trying to be like poetry, or things that I already knew about (things that I haven't even bothered looking up - just by browsing forums and stuff).

Secondly, I don't think today's magazines pricetags are worth it. About $10 for a magazine filled with ads, pics, poetry, and general knowledge (among gamers). I'd rather just go to sites like these to find stuff that you won't find anywhere else (even on the Internet, at least not in English).
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Unread postby bullethell » 13 Feb 2007 15:02

Nah, EDGE* magazine is not perfect.I didnt say that.I just wrote that is my favourite video game magazine the last years among all the rubbish that can be found in the shops lately (EGM hello?).The reason is simple, no other known-to-me magazine can come close to it.It covers Coin-ops and I really enjoy many articles and features.And it is not afraid to cover shmup titles.Ill continue reading it as much as i find it interesting.But of course internet>EDGE, no doubt here!

EDGE loves big robots and anime girls and thats a good reason for me to read it

EDGE January 07, issue 171,
Internet game of the month : Titanion, Kenta Cho's freebie shmup,
reason two to read it, I love seeing 2D shmups in big mags


Reason not to read it : EDGE's Border Down review , DC JP
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Unread postby Mr. Apol » 14 Feb 2007 01:21

i used to really enjoy game players magazine, back around the late nineties while it was still completely insane. i remember them posting a screenshot from the rings of power nude code with the writer telling kids not to tell their parents. those were the days. journalistic integrity ahoy!

god, nintendo power - i used to have a subscription to them. for several years, actually. for it's price i guess it wasn't a bad magazine. i only owned nintendo systems anyway. i wish magazines still printed out map layouts like that. that really made me enjoy NP, mainly because if i didn't have (or couldn't buy) a game, i could sort of half play it by imagining the level layouts. ah, imagination.
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Unread postby icycalm » 14 Feb 2007 19:32

bullethell wrote:Nah, EDGE* magazine is not perfect.I didnt say that.


bullethell, no one said that you said that EDGE is perfect. So there's no point refuting that.

But when you see them giving 7s to masterpieces like Espgaluda and Mushihime-sama, and when they obviously don't have the faintest clue how to play these games, much less how to appreciate them, doesn't that make you wonder whether everything else they write is also full of shit?
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Unread postby bullethell » 14 Feb 2007 21:44

Espgaluda doesn't deserve a score below 9!And Mushi below 8.But lets face it we are talking about a videogame age where every 2D title is a weird pornography b movie between superstar first class ala-hollywood stuff.All the lights of the industry are for them.But at least man they still mention them and try to make their News pages more friendly to them.I dont care about reviews, sure giving 7 to Espgaluda is a bad joke, but its not that bad.Spread the shmups in every possible way.EDGE?You wanna give this masterpiece seven only of your precious review points?Sure go on!In the end they help ESPgaluda in an age where every 2D title is a weird pornography b movie between superstar first class ala-hollywood stuff, by just mentioning it and showing to their readers pictures of 2D shmups treasures.

What I cannot understand is why 2D strategy titles like Disgaea get love and shmups not.
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Unread postby Mr. Apol » 14 Feb 2007 23:57

bullethell wrote:Espgaluda doesn't deserve a score below 9!And Mushi below 8.But lets face it we are talking about a videogame age where every 2D title is a weird pornography b movie between superstar first class ala-hollywood stuff.All the lights of the industry are for them.But at least man they still mention them and try to make their News pages more friendly to them.I dont care about reviews, sure giving 7 to Espgaluda is a bad joke, but its not that bad.Spread the shmups in every possible way.EDGE?You wanna give this masterpiece seven only of your precious review points?Sure go on!In the end they help ESPgaluda in an age where every 2D title is a weird pornography b movie between superstar first class ala-hollywood stuff, by just mentioning it and showing to their readers pictures of 2D shmups treasures.

What I cannot understand is why 2D strategy titles like Disgaea get love and shmups not.


because, whether you want to admit this to yourself or not, they're a dying breed. hell, they've been a dying breed since the late nineties and the design of new shmups is getting more and more inbred. shooter fans designing shooters that are not accessible to anyone but a hardcore audience (cough psyvariar cough) and all this does is back the niche market even more against the wall.

honestly, the last great hope for shooters that i've seen/played would be something like senko no ronde. something that's original and fun and not too hard to just pick up and play could do wonders for the genre.

the move to market games toward casual players will only worsen the situation for shmups, and this really can't be helped. what the masses want, the masses will get.
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Unread postby bullethell » 15 Feb 2007 01:37

I cant agree more, yeah shmups are slowly dying but I dont think they will ever disappear.Ikaruga is gonna appear on XBL Arcade later this year and senko no ronde, as you mention, is a big hope.And we cant forget Treasure X360 STG title.But yes apart from old compilations and a hope for future PS3/X360 Cave ports there wont be enough shmups around.As much as I love 2D hardcore bullet hell Cave stuff and Treasure puzzle-shmups or Border Down Hori spaggheti and Progear amazing art, I agree with you that the few shmups softhouses should invest time and energy creating more senko no rodish shmups more accesible to the non-shmup friendly audience out there to enjoy them.Make people learn shmups, make them love shmups and then welcome them to the deadly bees and the hell of bullets of hardcore old and future 2D titles.
Last edited by bullethell on 15 Feb 2007 15:51, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby Jedah » 15 Feb 2007 12:55

Very nice thread. Let's not stray away from the main subject which is video game magazines (bullethell start a new thread about 2D shmups and their future, I'll be very happy to write about it). Right now I'm reading 2 monthly mags, EDGE and Retro Gamer. Sometimes I buy some greek mags called Gamepro and CGMag. I'm reading EDGE every month since 2002 (thanks to reservations without prepayment made by a famous book store in Athens). I have to straight out some facts about things mentioned in this thread. Dai-ou-jou and ESPGaluda PS2 ports got an 8/10 score and a decent review trying to persuade EDGE readers to give them a try. Mushihime and Mushi Futari got a preview and news coverage respectively and never a review. I you don't believe me I'll try to scan the mags to prove it. That's for the sake of clarity. EDGE really has the problems icycalm mentioned. There are times where a review is wasted in great English and rich vocabulary, only to have you wondering what the game of interest is about for. I agree that in terms of detailed information, the right internet source can be unbeatable. BUT the Internet has one major flaw: the content posted is not filtered. For every good information source, there's an ocean of crap, misleading, filthy places that get way more click counts than everyone else. Everyone can go out and post their opinion, no matter how right and real it is.

As EDGE allready confessed in an article, magazines always write what their target audience like to read. I would really love to see more detailed information about Mushi Futari, EDGE has the obligation to consume its pages in hardware sales, industry future and plans, developer interviews and many dev houses advertisement. This magazine's main target is the late 20s early 30s year old seasoned English gamer / game industry professional. That's why they don't have the coverage people in this forum would like.
I'm still bying it for some great industry coverage, interesting inbox section and some monthly sections.
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Unread postby bullethell » 15 Feb 2007 19:18

Jedah wrote:(bullethell start a new thread about 2D shmups and their future, I'll be very happy to write about it).

If I hadnt to practice ESPgaluda tonight I would start it, I will maybe create a thread later when my eyes are red enough and able to see random bullet patterns in my bedroom's wall.

Jedah wrote: I'm reading EDGE every month since 2002 (thanks to reservations without prepayment made by a famous book store in Athens).

Papasotirioy?These bookstores sell the mag for 6,30 euro, great deal considering you can find EDGE in Omonoia for 10 euro.

Jedah wrote:Dai-ou-jou and ESPGaluda PS2 ports got an 8/10 score and a decent review trying to persuade EDGE readers to give them a try.

Exactly, thats why I continue buying EDGE in an age where every 2D title is a weird pornography B movie..Oh well this is getting old.I quit.

Jedah wrote:the Internet has one major flaw: the content posted is not filtered. For every good information source, there's an ocean of crap, misleading, filthy places that get way more click counts than everyone else. Everyone can go out and post their opinion, no matter how right and real it is.

I disagree.If you know where to look, which search bars to type your key words, internet is information-heaven.Spend some nights checking and reviewing forums and sites for yourself.Dont expect everything out there is correct and original.Of course they are not, but familiriazing yourself with portals for fast and good information is not that much difficult.If I want Castlevania news, opinions and stuff Ill check 3-4 forums and 2 sites, same can be told for my import needs.Shmups in the other hand is a different story and one or two sites can make me happy.When i want to find more information Im beeing more
open-minded browsing sites I do not trust.And yes thats risky but also a rewarding experience.

Jedah wrote:As EDGE allready confessed in an article, magazines always write what their target audience like to read. I would really love to see more detailed information about Mushi Futari, EDGE has the obligation to consume its pages in hardware sales, industry future and plans, developer interviews and many dev houses advertisement. This magazine's main target is the late 20s early 30s year old seasoned English gamer / game industry professional. That's why they don't have the coverage people in this forum would like. I'm still bying it for some great industry coverage, interesting inbox section and some monthly sections.

This is a good EDGE review, very accurate.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Feb 2007 16:28

The thing is that giving your readers what you THINK they want is only good practice up to a point. Sometimes your readers want stuff that they don't even know they want until you show it to them. Besides, they buy the magazine because they want to be educated about games -- if you are only telling them about things they already know then you are not doing your job right.

I stand corrected on the scores for Galuda and Mushi. Those are pretty good scores for a magazine to give to Cave shooters, so bravo to them.

Well, what I really used to enjoy about EDGE was the Toshihiro Nagoshi column, AV Out. If he hadn't stopped writing it I'd still be buying it.
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Unread postby Mike T. » 19 Oct 2018 13:20

UK magazines GamesMaster and GamesTM to close
https://www.resetera.com/threads/uk-mag ... ose.75765/
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