Edge Issue AU#3 Thread

[Sega Ages]

A makeover for the mag, and its scoring system.

Here's the scores....

GTA San Andreas - 10
Halo 2 - 10
Half-Life 2 - 10
Metroid Prime 2 - 9
Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door - 9
Tribes Vengeance - 7
Jak 3 - 7
Monster Hunter - 8
Sid Meier's Pirates - 8
Killzone - 6
Blood Will Tell - 6
The Getaway Black Monday - 6
Need For Speed Underground 2 - 7
Sega Superstars - 7
Gametrak: Dark Wind - 5
Dawn Of War - 7
Final Fantasy XI - 8
Sly 2: Band of Thieves - 6
Eyetoy Play 2 - 8
Flatout - 7
X-Men Legends - 7
Super Mario Ball - 4
Guardian Heroes Advance - 6

[IcePak]

I can't believe they gave GTA:SA 10/10. Or Halo 2 and Half Life 2 for that matter...

[Sega Ages]

Under the updated Edge's new scoring system, 10/10 no longer means "revolutionary", it now just means a "ten" quality game.

Some quotes from the mag...

HALO 2: "Alongside Rockstar's GTA: San Andreas, Halo 2 is the pinnacle of this generation of gaming entertainment."

Half-Life 2: "Valve just hit the top note no other PC game developer could reach."

[mid]

I can't believe they gave GTA:SA 10/10. Or Halo 2 and Half Life 2 for that matter...

I think he's going for either comedy, or he's been lied to. Half-Life 2 actually did get 10/10 two months back, but San Andreas was 9, Halo 2 was 8. Elsewhere, Black Monday only got 3, for instance. In any case, apart from HL2 the rest of those games were reviewed last month, and the correct scores can be found in other threads.

[marcus]

Whats with the AU#3? Is this the same Edge?

[Ang?l21]

I think the giveaway is the AU in the thread title - all those scores are from Austrailian Edge magazine, which on the basis of those scores look to be far more of a 'casual gamer' friendly magazine than the edge we have here in UK.

[Ady]

...nah!

[Chadruharazzeb]

Woot de do, Edge here have given what four or five 10/10's in their 10+ year history, these easily pleased Aussies give three in one f-ing issue

[Ady]

Why do the Australians get their own Edge anyway?

[mid]

Curious that so many of those scores are the same as 'normal' Edge, then. Its just a few glaring differences (the good score for Black Monday, and the extra 10s) that stand out.

[IcePak]

We get our own Edge because when we get the UK one it's usually three or four months out of date, making it virtually redundant to buy. So less sales over here means less money for Future publishing. The Aussie edition is published by someone else over here, but I think that they are either part-owned by Future, or Future get some money through them.

I only own the first issue (mostly for collectors sake), and from comparing it with the UK edition of the same month, most of the content is the same. Some however is scrapped for stuff that is more relevant to the Aussie gaming industry. Red Eye and Biffo are the only continuing columnists, and there's another one called local call which is basically a call put out to a different developer each month. The review scores were much the same as the UK edition.

The second issues looked much the same from browsing through it.

The third and current issue has implemented the new design look of Edge (at least from what I've read the UK one looks like - we still haven't got that one over here). The scoring system has been completely changed so that none of the numbers actually have a definition as to what they roughly correspond to. Which makes the scoring system pretty much redundant. We've got Steven Poole's column now, and there were two others that didn't look familiar. I didn't see Mr Biffo's column.

As for the three ten-out-of-ten scores in the one issue, it appalls me, and they are obviously not using the same reviewing system as the UK team does. In fact from just looking at issue three, it's pretty obvious that this version of Edge is aimed at a totally different market of people. Which kinda sucks in my eyes - yes I want the team working on it to be able to produce their own content, but I would like them to stick to the same style that Edge has had for most of it's life-time.

[MikeRox]

so it's Edge but only in name.

[Mr Ono]

so it's Edge but only in name.

... and Gamesmaster Magazine by nature :P

[Sega Ages]

so it's Edge but only in name.

No... It's Edge UK with some significant Aussie modifications.

A comparison of the staff of the two magazines, shows key members like Tony Mott, Darren Philips, Margaret Robertson, Ian Evendon, Andrew Hind, Ben Schroder, Chirstophe Kagotani, Steven Poole, Steven Bailey, Jon Jordan, Oliver Welsh, on the staff of both magazines.

Although Tony is delegated to Associate Editor for Edge AU

Since it's been a not uncommon complaint in past to hear "great articles, shame about the reviews" regarding Edge among some readers, the Australian affiliate publisher has done the obvious money thing and is using much of the great article content from the UK Edge but changing the review content whenever they think it needs fixing.

[mid]

Since it's been a not uncommon complaint in past to hear "great articles, shame about the reviews" regarding Edge among some readers, the Australian affiliate publisher has done the obvious money thing and is using much of the great article content from the UK Edge but changing the review content whenever they think it needs fixing.

Except that "needs fixing" seems to translate as "Doesn't give high enough scores to our advertisers". I certainly didn't notice anything being revised downwards, and that Black Monday score of Six looks bizarre.