Opinions on older magazines, MAXIMUM?

[phillai]

I only had this conversation the other day with a mate...
Maximum really was a very good magazine for it's time!
I, along with the guy above have every issue and I throughly enjoyed learning how to kick arse on Tekken 2 especially King's multi-throw combos!

I also like the fact that the magazine itself looked posh...
It was so glossy and really looked like it was gonna be a forever going class magazine. I was well pissed off when it ended so soon!

[Leon Retro]

That's a comment that appeared more than once in the magazine's lifetime, and I think it's a pretty good example of what was wrong with the journalism at Maximum (and certain other EMAP publications at the time). It's meaningless, the sort of rubbish you see in PR releases.

Plus, they had an editor who, without any trace of irony, refered to himself as "The Master". They didn't only aim at the self-confessed hardcore - in itself, that would have been fine - but they honestly believed themselves to be some kind of gaming gods. Every preview or guide had to include at least one mention of how amazing they were. "Only we can show you the PATH to TRUE GAMES MASTERY." It's difficult to read a mag objectively when you want to punch some self-awareness into the writing team.

Its failure was inevitable. It'd spend a good wedge of the available pages providing guides for games which hardly any of its readership would be able to play. Yes, it was good that they gave coverage to these releases, but they spent far too much time on them. They were also incapable of releasing it on a regular basis.

It was obviously supposed to be CVG for 20-somethings, but forgot that CVG was already bringing those readers in simply by having such an obvious love for games. That mag was fun, whereas the only jokes ever told in Maximum were of the "Gary tried to beat Warren at Tekken 2 the other day and failed miserably! Mind you, neither can match up to my ULTIMATE PLAYING SKILLZ!" variety. Totally up its own pipe.

It had its good points, but I'm trying to level out the positive feedback in the thread

Maximum was just a fun magazine with a tongue in cheek humour and lots of enthusiasm brimming from every page. The Editor and the staff behaved like any normal hardcore gamer would if they had a magazine all of their own and wanted others to join their party. The way they wrote and behaved really drew me into their world rather than made me feel like a freak for loving games like some mags try to do.

I think you are missing the point when it comes to the game guides. All the games were the latest and most loved titles. The guides proved invaluable to all the dedicated gamers that liked to hone their skills at home and then display their knowledge at the arcades.

At the end of the day the magazine was a serious gamers dream. The amount of work and dedication that went into it was phenomenal. I always thought it would never last though. It was just too niche, especially when the Offfical mags were so strong at the time. I doubt we will ever see a similar magazine again, the market is even more mainstream and casual these days.

[gizmo1990]

Maximum was just a fun magazine with a tongue in cheek humour and lots of enthusiasm brimming from every page. The Editor and the staff behaved like any normal hardcore gamer would if they had a magazine all of their own and wanted others to join their party. The way they wrote and behaved really drew me into their world rather than made me feel like a freak for loving games like some mags try to do.

I think you are missing the point when it comes to the game guides. All the games were the latest and most loved titles. The guides proved invaluable to all the dedicated gamers that liked to hone their skills at home and then display their knowledge at the arcades.

At the end of the day the magazine was a serious gamers dream. The amount of work and dedication that went into it was phenomenal. I always thought it would never last though. It was just too niche, especially when the Offfical mags were so strong at the time. I doubt we will ever see a similar magazine again, the market is even more mainstream and casual these days.

Thank you.
All these comments about the mag constantly blowing its own trumpet and being 'over the top' forced me to check an issue (4) out because I certainly didn't remember it being like that. I admit to only skim reading but I didn't find any such remarks. While I don't doubt they probably popped up from time to time, to make out that that was all the mag was is simply untrue.

Anyway what about other mags, anyone remember ACE!?