Official Edge Issue 133 Thread

[superkully]

I don't like those two-page features. It's just a way for them to pad out the magazine. Don't mind the articles, but they need only be a page.

[Ady]

I didn't mind the mini articles at first, but they're annoying now. It's as if they end before they get going.

I wasn't too impressed with the PSX article either. They spend a good third of the article going on about Microsoft's convergence plans, some speculation about 'teh future of gaming' (not particularly informative, and not unlike anything you'll find on a gaming forum anywhere online), before getting to the point. That point being sometihng along the lines of "Oh yeah... the PSX... not all that good really... but we couldn't get all of it to work anyway because we couldn't understand it".

So we're meant to trust an article written by someone who couldn't even operate the damn thing.

I can appreciate if they had difficulties, but they should've got someone who knew what they were doing to look at the PSX and do a write up about it. The article's lack of depth is astounding, and certainly explains why it had to be padded out with puerile speculation on convergence.

Oh and some of those letters sound as though they've been made up...

[Sketcz]

What was the Redeye article about?

Sorry, but Ive developed a loathing for his writing that seems to be consuming me.


Then again, maybe its better if I dont know....

[Crispin]

An ill-informed rant including, but not limited to, ranting about technological developments that were first announced well over 6 months ago. Basically he hadn't a clue what he was talking about. If he doesn't mind pirates, why doesn't everyone scan his article in the sub issue and upload it? Then I wouldn't have to pay for it! Great!

[Ady]

His article was hardly a rant, and he didn't condone piracy either.

I thought he had a good point (that is, the current piracy methods are OTT and punish the innocent rather than the guilty).

It appears that (excluding Tony Mott) RedEye, Biffo and Poole are the only people left who can actually write, and they're only contributors.

[Crispin]

With the greatest respect to you, Ady, finding the 3rd word in the 5th sentence on the 17th page of the manual punished players. Especially since the game was Trolls, a really pants game. Games are multimillion affairs nowadays, you can't blame people for wanting to protect their investments. He also thinks that if games expand to include a wider group then piracy will drop. So like the music industry then?

I agree, Biffo can write. Nagoshi-san, why do they print the articles about drinking? I think the guy is a genius so I can't blame him for writing the articles (because you can't expect genii(?) to conform), but why EDGE prints them, I don't know.

[rjpageuk]

Nagoshi-san, why do they print the articles about drinking? I think the guy is a genius so I can't blame him for writing the articles (because you can't expect genii(?) to conform), but why EDGE prints them, I don't know.

They probably should put them in a seperate comic, "Drinking Monthly" or something.

I would buy that instead of Edge then.

His articles are the my favourite thing in the magazine

[Ady]

With the greatest respect to you, Ady, finding the 3rd word in the 5th sentence on the 17th page of the manual punished players. Especially since the game was Trolls, a really pants game. Games are multimillion affairs nowadays, you can't blame people for wanting to protect their investments. He also thinks that if games expand to include a wider group then piracy will drop. So like the music industry then?

If the entire article was about that one, specific anti-piracy method in that one particular game, then I'd be inclined to agree with you. However, it was about anti-piracy methods in general and how they CAN be alienating and offputting to Joe Average.

But yeah, I don't agree that the massmarket will end piracy either. That's just more mainstream arse-kissing on the part of Edge and co.

[srgbilco]

Games are multimillion affairs nowadays, you can't blame people for wanting to protect their investments. He also thinks that if games expand to include a wider group then piracy will drop. So like the music industry then?

But when some Hollywood film and music studios tried to stop their products being physically played on a PC there was mass derision and outcry amongst those in the know, especially as many of these same products wouldn't play on the conventional players they were designed for. RedEye is just doing the same thing, albeit a bit late.

And I welcome him doing so. I wouldn't consider myself extremely well versed on the music or film industries but I still heard about these new systems. The very fact that I post on this forum indicates I have a passionate interest in the games industry, albeit not so much PC gaming. Yet I had not heard of the anti-piracy methods employed in Rainbow Six and would not know of the similar technology in Operation Flashpoint if I didn't already own the game.

By the fact that Edge is so console-centric, it can be deduced that many of it's readers are in a similar position and so should be told about these companies OTT efforts, even if late, so sufficient people may complain that Ubi-Soft don't try this again.

[Moodmon]

The columns are always the first thing I read, which is always a good sign. Nagoshi-san is simply excellent. At least when he tries to be subtle he pulls it off (re-read the article, it gives in retrospect a blatant clue to the Nitendo DS).

[TheShend]

Red-eye completely misses the point of FADE

I welcome it. It certainly not as bad as he made it out to be.

[Ady]

Right, the more I read of this issue, the more I regret my first post in this thread. I take it back; this issue is not 'decent' at all.

Last night, I delved into the somewhat banal 'Predictions for 2004' article. The whole thing was peppered with constant references to the PSP, the next gen of consoles, and GTA and read like something from IGN.

I can't believe this is the same magazine responsible for such informative and entertaining articles such as those about girl gamers, the history of boxart and even that offbeat, but interesting (and daring) 'Minority Report' issue. This magazine has gone from intelligent, well written articles like the afforementioned to "TEH PSP IS GONNA ROCK!!!!11111". It's lovely to know they'll be there to "bring us the scoop" (as they put it), as things develop in 2004, though.

I'm seriously giving this mag a few more issues before giving up on it entirely. The Edge I'm reading now is clearly a dumbed down, lightweight shadow of its former self and I no longer feel it deserves any more of my money.

Oh and Manhunt, an 'arthouse game'? Please...

[martTM]

Without wanting to sound like I'm defending the opposition, but I'd hope that some people might realise just how difficult it can be to write a decent feature. I'm guessing that EDGE relies on freelance for features as much as we sometimes have to - seeing as the rest of the magazine has to be written as well, it's rare that a team (or even a single individual within it) will have the time to craft and research a feature as much as it needs to be. I'm betting that many of the recent quality features printed have been freelanced - an external person working just on the feature has far more time to send emails requesting information, make calls to get quotes and generally write something worth reading.

It's only a thought, but maybe EDGE has had its freelance budget cut and as such, an internal feature needed to be rushed out? Or maybe something fell through at the last minute, meaning a hasty replacement needed to be found? Readers don't ever think about things like this - they only choose to pick and moan. Take our current StreetFighter issue, for instance; there's been some comment about a lack of coverage for the cover game. But here's a thought - what if we'd managed to secure an interview with the producer of the game, only to find when his answers came back that there wasn't anywhere near enough content to fill a two-page interview piece and thus lost a vital piece for the mag? Didn't think about that, did you?

But I digress. EDGE might be EDGE, but the team's still human and **** happens to everyone sometimes... even them. Next time something doesn't take the fancy of a reader, you might want to consider the possibilities before slagging it off...

[JibberX]

martTM, I appriciate your angle, but end consumers don't give two giant donkey turds about the emotional or financial reprocussions, we are paying for an end product, and if that end product isn't what we want, we complain, and heads should roll. That's the way the world works. If you applied your argument to people making seat belts, where would we be? Through windscreens thats what, wait until the product is right before you sell it to the gullible masses.

[Papercut]

... wait until the product is right before you sell it to the gullible masses.

The difference being that Edge is a monthly magazine, they cannot 'wait until the product is right'.

Also, if heads rolled everytime someone screwed up nothing useful would get done, and nothing interesting would ever happen.

I'm suprised that Edge has maintained a reasonable level of continuity given that almost all the writing staff walked out. I think any dips in quality etc. for the next few issues is totally understandable, for the reasons martTM suggests.