I got my issue in the mail today, and so far I just skimmed through it. It is easy to see the GF roots in this neat little mag (i.e. high quality stuff).
It's nice amd glossy, shines like a new car and keeps the finger prints off. As expected from "the editor of GameFan" it's full of great art, layout and writing. There is a lot of heart and soul in this mag...the intentions of this mag are quite clear and I think they can succeed. Although it should be noted that this mag is not for the casual gamer. 90% import/smaller title content wise. Point of interest: When you pick it up, it's really thin. I think it's like 60 something pages, but there has got to be less than 10 ads in the whole thing so it's basically all content.
When I read through the whole thing, I'll give final impressions.
--Nick
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--Life is full of tasks to be completed, but right now I am so far behind I will never die
With any luck, I'll be able to drop by Eric's place tonight after work and pick up a magazine, along with a copy of Fire Pro for Dreamcast...aww, yeah! I'm real interested to see how the final product turned out.
Yippee, mine came in the mail today! I'm about half way through it and I'm very impressed. The reviews are very fun to read and actually worth reading. It reminds me a lot of really really early gamefan, when it totally seemed like an enthusiast magazine because there were very few ads and every game covered seemed to mean something to the editors. If I have any gripes it would be that I'll probably only play 2 or 3 of the games covered in the entire mag, and the only ones that I haven't played that I have interest in so far are Record of the Lodoss War and Stretch Panic. I would consider myself a hardcore gamer too. They don't seem to cover mainstream games at all, except for the review of Gran Turismo 3. I'm ok with this and I'm very happy with the magazine, but I think that it would be hard to make a commercially viable magazine that covers uncommercially viable games. I really hope this one lasts though. I can honestly say it's by far more worth reading than any game magazine out there. I still miss gamefan though...
My guess is, it's not going to stay strictly niche for too long...they're probably going to try and cover the "big" games too. Anything destined for the US that's released in Japan - like Metal Gear Solid 2 or Silent Hill 2, for example - will easily get coverage.
The interesting thing is, if this magazine's readership expands (if they start covering more than the super-niche stuff) and the online contingent continues to contract (as it looks like it will, since from what I hear, IGN isn't in great shape), the US game publishers might be apt to provide support for domestic stuff. I don't expect that GameGO will ever make ANY attempt to be comprehensive with US games, but I would expect them to cover the big games.
I guess we'll see, though. I'm going by Eric's tonight to grab a copy and BS a little bit - I'll include my thoughts on it in my next column, among other things!
I read through the entire thing and its a really good publication, although I must say it is real niche title heavy. Like Wes, Stretch Panic and RoLW were the only things I would see myself buying. I guess I'm not used to seeingn a lot of import stuff. I almost passed out when I read ECM's note where they replaced Devil May Cry with a different never heard of title. Oh god I want info on that game.
It has a lot of progress to make, but there is something special there to be sure (love that centerfold!).
You liked the centerfold? While I did think it was well drawn, I'm not into boobs jutting out of futuristic mech suits. It kinda made me feel a little embarassed...if I'm caught reading porn, my bad. If I'm caught reading gameGo I might look like I'm reading toon porn and that would suck...hate being called a perv under false pretenses! Seriously though, that centerfold sorta detracted from the mag for me...made me think hardcore gamer= hard up lamer...
Dude, I've got nothing against boobs, but the centerfold and a feature on strip majohng seem to lean toward the simpson's comic book guy side of the gamer spectrum. I'm pretty hardcore, I think...I'll even play the fruity games you despise. Those two parts of the mag things just made a strange first impression is all...
Hahaha...it was Strip Mahjong?? That's hilarious - I remember talking to Eric when he first got started on the mag, and he said they were going to cover all of the ultra-niche Japanese imports. I go, "Even 'Super Mahjong XXI'?" He said yes...but to cover STRIP Mahjong? That's pretty crazy.
Didn't get a chance to hook up with him after work today, but hopefully before the weekend I can get a copy and check it out.
I thought the weakest part of the magazine was the Super Mario Graveya- oops I mean RetroFit (snicker). I just kept thinking that every hardcore gamer must have played Super Mario Bros, and rather than tell about how you jump on turtle's heads to kill them I would have liked to hear a more detailed anecdote of why he loves it or better yet, a different game that not everyone would have played, like Musha or Neo Nectaris. I also thought the centerfold was gratuitous. I liked the drawing, but I would have rather seen the Devil May Cry preview. Not that I haven't seen everything about this game and all the crappy screenshots in other magazines. I just would have liked to have read a gamefanesque preview to really get me psyched by some people that also are really excited about that game. Oh, and after finishing the magazine I would like to broaden my "interested in" games list to 3. The aforementioned 2 plus Klonoa 2. Mmmm Klonoa 2...
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