With recent talk about magazines I thought I would add my 2 cents worth. Now I don?t know about what its like in England but here in Australia there seems to be a plethora of games magazines. Much like ?tricked out? car mags, but that?s another story! For many years I purchased the ?official? playstation magazine. Now we all no that in many instances it can be biased, Driver 3 anyone? But at least it came with the demo. But what ive noticed over the years especially since the release of current-gen consoles that quality has well and truly slipped in my once high regarded magazine. Its 1999, its selling for $9.95 (3.85p), it has heaps of articles, reviews and a ton of news. Its 2001, its goes for $12.95 (5p), im starting to notice the integrity of reviews starting to slip, magazines getting slimmer and demos have less games. Now its 2004, magazines now selling for $16.95 (6.55p)! Its now a shadow of its former self geared towards more of the casual gamer. The thing is as thin as Kmart catalogue and the demo isn?t worth spitting on. All while the price keeps going up, I don?t understand. Mind you the editor has change a dozen odd times over the past 5 years too. I suppose my question is that do we still need these games magazines, what with the internet and all these days, and I certainly cant justify the $16.95 price tag for a demo each month any more. Has this been the case with the games mags in the UK, or is Australia just getting the rough end of the stick?
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nope, same here. -
I can't think of a single game mag worth the purchase. I am very close to cancelling my sub to Edge (and I've been buying the thing since Issue 1), and Games TM isn't much better. Reading Edge's rant over my current favourite game (Doom 3) I was left feeling rather disgusted. They really are a bunch of complete morons.
I just have no need for some reviewer's opinion. I buy the games that interest me, simple as that. If it scores 1/10 or 10/10 I couldn't care less.Comment
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Here is an idea. If you dont like it, dont buy it. Your obviously enjoying Doom 3, great, keep playing it, does it really bother you so much that others dont? Will it really affect how you enjoy the title if no-one else does? No, so why get so worked up? If you dont like the mags dont buy them, no-one is forcing you to and its all opinion after all.Comment
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I think he's complaining about the lack of satisfaction after spending his money
Which is a perfectly valid complaint, to be honest.Comment
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Maybe, but he cites 2001 as a point he began to notice it going downhill. That means he has stuck with it for 3 years even though he has noticed a dip in quality. If it is only in the last month or two he was complaining about then fair enough, but its a catalogue of years he is talking about and as such I question why he kept buying if he was so disillusioned with it?Comment
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Edge has been slowly sliding for years now. Why do I stick with it? For the articles, the developer interviews. The only good bits in the mag.
Even those however are rarely of interest now, hence I am likely to cancel my sub. The recent Treasure feature is a good example. What a waste of space that was.Comment
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I'm a sucker for continuing to buy magazines loooong after their sell-by date. It took me ages accept the fact that NOM is crud, and that the days of ONM or whatever it was called are gone forever. Right now I still have NGC on subscription... mainly because it was great back as N64. Seeing as I can get news on the internet, magazines are now only for the entertainment value.
But I still rely on reviews. If I only bought the games that interested me, I would've missed out on some gems. Just as long as you take all reviews with a pinch of salt.
Anyway, did Edge really rant about D3? I thought it was a very positive review... "the Doom id wanted to make but couldn't", etc.Comment
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I havent bought the official magazine for least 18 months now but I will still glance through it down at the newsagent. I will tend to have a quick look through a magazine before I buy it and for quite some time now the official mag has not been worth it and with the internet now at what it is I dont think any games magazine is worth the purchase. The only games magazine I do buy is the Australian version of gamesTM, its cheap and they mention import gaming without putting in a negative light and saying that we are ruining the local games industry as the official magazine does.Originally posted by delb3kComment
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Welcome to ntsc-uk btw.Comment
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ThanksOriginally posted by charlesr
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The review sounded like they were trying to be positive about something they didn't really like. Perhaps unwilling to make the same gaff they did when they reviewed Doom 1.Originally posted by Tig
Read the column before the reviews though, it's a total Doom 3 rant. How the review probably would have read had the writer had his way.Comment
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