Poll: Gaming Magazines?

[eternal-chaplain]

>Something to note going into the discussion, exclude The Escapist from this unless it is part of your argument, should you have one.

>I am not all to interested in which magazine is the best so much as I am the state of magazines (in a general sense) in the gaming community.

>I have subscribed to a couple magazines in the past and currently am begrudgingly subscribed to PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and have recently become very much displeased in it (namely in the sense that it has become quite corrupt by large, Triple A Studios telling them what to print).

>As an example, the most recent issue (#54, arrived at my house in December) praises Bioshock: Infinite in saying 'With so many generic brown shooters on the market, Infinite's wild originality demands our full attention.' and then praises Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as being '...far more than a mere expansion pack,' and stating that 'It's an incredible, well-rounded addition to the franchise...' The go on to assign it and other games numerical ratings as though their opinion was so bleak it could be summarized in one digit.

>I'd be preaching to the chorus if I quoted what they had to say about Battlefield 3, at this point.

>So what do the escapists think of the general state of Gaming Magazines?

 

[Lilani]

I'm afraid I am unable to properly reply to this topic due to being severely confused by the format of the first post. Please either explain why you've written it like that or put it into a normal format so I can think about what you've written without thinking I'm reading some sort of secret message or hidden curse.

 

[HerrBobo]

I used to read PcZone every month till they got shut down last year, don't bother with anything now.

 

[FunctionZ]

I have never had a interest with gaming magazine. I have always gotten my information, free from the internet. Back 10 years ago it wasn't as big but still, it was there. Now I really do not see much of a point especially when there are various sites to read from. Also having video blogs and watching game play tells a lot about a game then a picture on a magazine ever would.

 

[Joccaren]

With the exception of the Escapist and a couple of other gaming mags, there is little to actually read the magazines for. All that they will do is spit blatant propaganda for the company that pays them the most money, and give reviews based off what they think the general public will want to hear. Not the way it should be done, and leaving no reason at all to read the magazine.
Now, some TV shows do get it right... sometimes. There is a TV show here in Australia known as 'Good Game', and it does reasonably well all things considered. I do not find its reviews to be biased very often, and it is always the two hosts opinions of the game, rather than an straight up 'this game is'. Often they will discuss it with 'I felt' instead of 'The game did X right or Y wrong'. They will state some things as a fact, for example 'MW3 has not changed a lot from MW2', but I do not ever find their reviews unfair.
On top of that, there is usually something funny that they will have done, like in their Dragon Age Origins: Review, summon a dragon without meaning to.
Now, it certainly isn't perfect, and I feel that it needs a proper critiquing of games in it as well, instead of just reviewing, and other minor things could be improved too, but I trust them far more than I trust gaming magazines. They are a pointless waste of money, with the exception of the Escapist and a few others.

 

[dimensional]

I get a couple of multiformat ones a month and I find them usually quite good indicators of a titles quality (I dont always agree of course).I use the internet as well to get additional information about a game if I am interested but not yet sold on it. Although I dont read every review on the internet I tend to find purely online reviews more questionable than the (few good) magazines in a lot of cases.

As for single format and especially official magazines I always take what they say with a hefty dose of salt but then again I stopped reading them at the end of the PSX era due to this.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Wait, this is a magazine? I always thought it was a website that pretended to be a magazine. I used to read EGM mostly for Jeremy Parish, now the new EGM has a different crew so I'm uninterested. I find them unnecessary with the internet around, especially seeing as most of my more alternative video game critique is found online.

 

[Savagezion]

I read quite a bit myself and enjoy them. I think they do pretty amazing jobs. There is plenty of enjoyment to be had with them you just have to remember a couple things:

>I have subscribed to a couple magazines in the past and currently am begrudgingly subscribed to PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and have recently become very much displeased in it (namely in the sense that it has become quite corrupt by large, Triple A Studios telling them what to print).

Any magazine built around a platform is going to obviously hold a certain agenda towards that platform. That isn't corruption, it is marketing. Sony pretty much tells you in the title "This is OUR agenda." However, that doesn't mean you can't see through it if you try.

>As an example, the most recent issue (#54, arrived at my house in December) praises Bioshock: Infinite in saying 'With so many generic brown shooters on the market, Infinite's wild originality demands our full attention.' and then praises Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as being '...far more than a mere expansion pack,' and stating that 'It's an incredible, well-rounded addition to the franchise...' The go on to assign it and other games numerical ratings as though their opinion was so bleak it could be summarized in one digit.

I mostly browse reviews and don't read many unless it is a game that I care about personally. At any rate, this isn't a contradiction. I wouldn't call CoD or BF3 "generic" brown shooters, they are name brand ones. As well, pointing out the trend of brown shooters is not being derogatory to them in that statement but rather using that as a way to accentuate the vibrant style of Infinite. Otherwise, look at games individually rather than comparatively.
I personally don't see a problem with the number system. If my buddy tells me about a chick that he thinks is a "10", I know she is probably between an "8-10" on my scale as well. All of the magazines have rules of thumb based on my personal tastes that I can use to gauge how much I will like something. If Game Informer, for example, gives a game a 10, I know it is an 8-10 for me. If they give a game a 7, it is probably an 8 for me. Every comic book game they have given that is a 6-7 has been an 8-9 for me. But I don't compare Captain America to Skyrim or even Arkham Asylum.

>So what do the escapists think of the general state of Gaming Magazines?

I think Gaming magazines are great. I think the gaming community is a tad too paranoid though. As well, I don't get this rage on number systems. You could always ignore them and just read the article if you don't like them.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

even if a lot of them have good things to say i can only ever look in them after i have given money away for it makeing it a risk everytime and a lot of the time they cost way to much so i do not really

 

[weker]

No idea what your on about really, due to the mad way to lay out your OP, either way I'll comment in a general vague way about mags.

I use to read mags like Edge but their review just got awful (Im not just moaning about scores) such as their dragon age 2 review is one of the worst I have ever read (including user reviews)
I now only tend to read PC gamer as their the only ones that tend to bring interesting hard to find detail to my attention. Most Mags specifically platform exclusive ones tend to be fairly dull with the same information you can get off the net, with only the multi platform or PC ones offering more interesting insight into the gaming world.

 

[Kvaedi]

I used to read gaming magazines a lot, mostly for the xbox. They could do better. Mostly all they did was throw flowers at games everyone already knew were going to sell great. The first Splinter Cell was a great game? You don't say?

If they wrote more about Indie games I think it would be more interesting. We already know MW3 is going to be another MW game, for all that's good and bad about that. I'd much prefer to read reviews about games I haven't played or heard of, so I can check out something new.