Edge Issue 136 *Official Thread*

[Ady]

Anyway, yeah I also agree with the columns. TrigHap has been bearable but slowly declining, but RedEye has totally lost it over the last year - they've all been a bit crap tbh. And I don't mind Nagoshi, although I loved the stuff he wrote about GTA, so I'd be well interested in more opinions from him on how Japanese developers view Western games.

Yeah, Poole's definitely losing it, imo. I usually enjoy his columns but he seems to be floundering a lot these days, his columns now being little more than highbrow hair-splitting (though last mont's was quite interesting).

RedEye is fast running out if interesting things to talk about. That column hasn't been the same singe the Ha-Ha-Very-Funny effort in 132.

Conversely, Biffo is really starting to come into his own, and Nagoshi is just Nagoshi. He's sort of like a CD you put on in the background; an intersting diversion, you're not really listening, but you'd notice if it stopped playing.

they try to deny their mild xbox fanboyism and ps2 dislike, but they just blatantly lie when doing so.

What are you talking about? If anything, they've been all over Sony like a rash for the last four issues.

[markgreyam]

They said that about Doom? If you can host a scan I'd like to see that with my own eyes, that comment seems completely out of character for Edge (or any other magazine pretending to have an ounce of intelligence).

I've taken your comments with a larger helping of salt after your comments about Halo, what do you mean no level design? Were you expecting a virtual corridor a la MOH: Rising Sun?

ill get my copy onto a scanner as soon as i can. its a pretty poor effort. and being ciritical of yourself after everyone gets worked up over it is a little late in the day in my opinion. for a magazine that prides themself on professionalism etc they dropped the ball pretty early on in the game. they also werent keen on gunstar heroes in their review, but now refuse to hear the opinion of anyone who doesnt think its an amazing game.

i expected a response somewhat like yours to my Halo opinion. even tho the definition of 'over-rated' is probably something like "i dont like it but lots of others do", ill still stand by my comment.

apart from a couple of decent outdoor settings, the level design is terrible. the alien ship where you have to save the captain or whoever it was, the library with its 7 levels, and the building where you have to work your way thru to destroy the three generators are just the same room and coridoor over and over in each case. people normally rip apart games that have crappy level design (again ill mention Breakdown), yet it was conviently ignored in Halo's case.

its probably wanky to say it, but im probably just too used to much faster paced FPS on the PC that have more varied levels with actual detail. i found Halo very slow and bland, and was quite suprised at it's popularity and review scores, especially when it reached the PC. but obviously no one has to agree with me, and while a lot do, most dont, and in the end it doesnt matter anyway, just so long as people enjoy their games.

[Concept]

ill never forget one of their early reviews, which was of Doom, and they only gave it a 6 and said that it would be more interesting "if you could talk to the enemies, create alliances etc".

i mean seriously, take your head out of your ass often at all?!?!? youre talking about a balls-out first person action game about a portal to hell being opened and all manner of demons spewing forth to rip humanity to shreds, and youre being harsh on the game because you cant talk to them?

but then, this is just part of the pretentiousness that i speak of. you cant review a game on what you think should be in it, you review it on what it contains. saying that about Doom is pretty much giving an action FPS game low marks because its not an RPG. bad, bad reviewing.

To be fair though, in their one-off 100 most important reviews issue, Edge clearly stated for the likes of Doom, Gunstar Heroes, Turok 2, Radiant Silvergun et al, that they were off the mark. So it's not as though the magazine hasn't admitted it's infallible to making a mistake, or delivering a bad review. And you have to take into consideration that the staff have changed continually as the years have progressed.

As for this current issue... I'll leave my impressions for each section later in the day. Or sometime this week.

[markgreyam]

So it's not as though the magazine hasn't admitted it's infallible to making a mistake, or delivering a bad review. And you have to take into consideration that the staff have changed continually as the years have progressed.

meh, that just doesnt cut as far as im concerned. dont they have editors to read their reviews before publishing? i honestly hope a couple of the staff did change after than effort.

reviewing a game badly because it doesnt contain things you would have liked to have seen or expected in it is just (i thought long and hard about what to put here and couldnt come up with anything better than) crap.

it reminds me a lot of 90% of the PN03 reviews around the place. everyone expected a third person action adventure, and as such rated it poorly because it was essentially a third person shoot em up, and as such not what people expected, and they managed to completely ignore the what it actually set out to do, it does quite well.

[marcus]

See our review of that, I think we pretty much hit the nail on the head there. Nice game

[markgreyam]

See our review of that, I think we pretty much hit the nail on the head there. Nice game

yeah, i thought the PN03 review was excellent. its was one that made me realise that this place was worth checking out for game reviews. another contributing factor was that you gave Ratchet and Clank 6/10 and told it like it is, one of the only places i can think of that was brave enough to do so. i know that game reviews are, at the end of the day, mainly opinion, but i suppose to secret is to find a website where more often than not their opinion agrees with yours.

[Crispin]

I'm really enjoying EDGE at the mo', top stuff.
They are making some silly mistakes though.
Moto GP UNREAL Racing Technology? It isn't a FPS...
And Resident Evil 2 came out for the N64, which they didn't mention in their Resident Evil 4 thing.

6 pages of XNA was a bit OTT. The recent rant in Game Central was very apt. Nor is it hardly surprising, given the .NET initiative Microsoft is working with others on.

But on the whole, good stuff, and keep up the work.

[Valiant]

I think the biggest positive reagarding Edge in the last few months has actually been the quantity and quality of what has been served up to the reader.

Beforehand the magazine was generally getting skimmed through, certain regular articles selcted, read then it was shelved for the month. The last few months I've actually digested the magazine pretty much from cover to cover.

Over the last few years Edge seemed to be vearing towards a more disticnctly "lifestyle" orientated magazine which didn't sit well with the readership in my opinion. I'm looking forward to the E3 issue.

[Crispin]

If they bundle it with the Gamer.tv disc again, all hell will break loose.

They interviewed some swedish chap from Climax, who dropped the spoiler to end all spoilers in Sudeki. Which isn't even out yet. And RPGs are defined by two things: Battle system and plot revelations.