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[ScOULaris]

As someone who grew up deeply enamored with the gaming magazines of the 90's and early 2000's, I have had to turn to subscribing to Edge Magazine from the UK to get my print fix every month along with Game Informer. American gaming magazines started dropping like flies a few years back, and now we're left with only Game Informer (which survives solely because of its unique position with GameStop), Official Xbox Magazine, and PC Gamer. For about a decade now, US gaming mags have struggled to afloat whilst sacrificing both quality and quantity in terms of paper stock and page count. Game Informer clocks in every month at 100 pages, and it's easily the most substantial of the remaining US mags.

But flip through an issue of Edge or GamesTM sometime if you haven't already, and notice the high level of quality there. In terms of presentation, the British magazines demolish ours with thick, high-quality paper stock and sturdy wrap-around covers that help the magazines keep their rigid shape even when standing side-by-side on a bookshelf for years. They make great collectors items because of the quality of their production.

The only magazines that I can remember matching the quality of UK mags back in the 90's were Next Generation and maybe GameFan, and that was the pinnacle of gaming mags' popularity in the States. I completely understand why American print mags have had such a hard time surviving and maintaining their quality presentation as time wears on in this Internet-dominated world, but how has the UK managed to sidestep this trend? Both multi-platform and console-specific mags over there come out on a monthly schedule and manage to provide 130-150 pages of quality content with great presentation every time. Not only that, but I see them frequently publishing one-off special issues in tandem with the monthly releases of the flagship magazines. It's like the 90's never ended over there!

Is print media just a lot more popular in England than it is in the States? They don't seem to have an abundance of ads accounting for their respectable pagecount every issue. The cover price is more than what we'd pay for an American magazine, even before conversion, but I'd imagine that hurts as much as it helps in terms of sales volume. Do they just have a more efficient distribution infrastructure there for magazines?

I'd love to hear from someone who has been involved in print at one point or another about this.

 

[Coconut]

Density of population clusters promotes higher distribution.

 

[Maxathon]

Would also love an answer to this. I have the same perception as OP: British mags seem to have higher production values and thus something about the economics of the UK vs. US industries is very different.

That said, this article summarizing market research suggests that things have been rough all over.

 

[ScOULaris]

They don't. A lot of them are crap. More and more of them are stoping print. I had a subscription to official PlayStation magazine for nearly 15 years and it got boring. Months and months of tiny updates on the same games, no point.

Compared to our magazines in the US, they are far from crap. In fact, they outclass most of our magazines across all subject matter in terms of production quality and even editorial content to some degree.

 

[kyser73]

TBH I don't know what financial chicanery goes on with Edge - I know it's the best place to advertise gaming jobs, so at a guess I'd say that's its golden egg and at a guess I'd say it recoups more of its costs from the cover price than most print - but from the start it's always presented itself as a serious/grown-up magazine about video games (when it launched it was about £1.50 more than the next most expensive mag), and the design & quality of the printing materials (and as someone who has worked in publishing that cover stock is gorgeous for look and feel - really tactile paper) always put if outside of its contemporaries.

It's also managed to have a pretty stable circulation - it's an 'industry' read, and from what I remember when I bothered with things like circulation figures, it was always consistent.

e2a - worth pointing out that they have economised on print stock over the years, especially on the inner pages where both paper weight and silk treatment went down a few years ago (early issues had some crazy weight like 90gsm on silkscreen)...

 

[DocSeuss]

British magazines (and sites) are more PC focused. The console audience tends to be more casual, so seeking out magazines with lengthy articles detailing games is not as desirable as simply getting it online. The PC audience--not the Facepunch crowd, the kids who grew up with and only play Valve/Blizzard/Mobas--but the kind of people who've been playing computer games since the 80s and 90s, are far more likely to purchase magazines. They skew older and like more detail.

That's my theory, anyways.

 

[Rich!]

Here in the UK, we were home to the greatest gaming magazine there ever was and ever will be:

glorious. brutally truthful - even to big third party and Nintendo games, first with the new news, and always always fucking hilarious

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Edge was created to be used as something to decorate the coffee tables in game development studios more than to be a mag for consumers. The mass market games mags that future publish have always been different. There was definitely an era in the 80s and 90s where that scene was vital in a way it just isn't now.

 

[Dimorphic]

For me it isn't the reviews or news that has me buying gaming mags but rather the features. GameInformer and GamesTM in particular have to think up new ideas for features and opinion pieces as they are competing with an online space that can publish on a whim.

It makes for interesting reading to say the least and the sub context of print vs digital helps as well.

At the end of the day I'll buy a gaming magazine if it has an article/s that interest me and I may even subscribe (GI sub here!) if they can maintain a high level of written features.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Don't forget Retro Gamer!

But yeah, I have a sub to it and GamesTM. The latter being great with regards articles and features.

 

[Rich!]

on my god that carmageddon 64 review always makes me laugh. N64 Magazine's verdict:

a shocking travesty. If you see carmageddon 64 in the shops, take it off the shelves, rip up the box and throw the cart repeatedly against the wall until it breaks

would you see that on a review nowadays? no, because no publication has the balls to do that anymore. N64 Magazine had fucking balls. Some more examples:

ClayFighter 63⅓ (N64) 24% - Was described as being "as painful as... having red hot needles shoved into your eyes"; the Top Tip section revealed that "Breaking the cart open reveals several chips of varying thickness. Stack them together to prop up wobbly chairs, etc."

Cruis'n USA (N64): 24% was described, simply, as "dump".

Rampage 2: Universal Tour (N64): 22% - Declared an "utterly rancid arcade yawn-fest".

Trump World (N64): 21% - To give it the full title, "Alice's Waku-Waku Trump World", an unfathomable Alice In Wonderland-themed card game, was deemed "nose-achingly pungent" and "a real Lennie Bennett of a game".

Wheel Of Fortune (N64): 17% - Another US quiz show port, this was found to be "worse than accidentally falling off a cliff. And surviving".

Castleween (GameCube): 16% - This platformer's attempt to attract the younger generation of gamers was described via "Although it's aimed squarely at the ultra young market, we can't imagine many small children having the patience to endure an 'entertainment' experience as arduous as this. Not when pushing lolly sticks into dog turds offers so much more long-term excitement, and is a good £40 cheaper".

Batman of the Future (N64): 16% - A "miserable excuse for a fighting game".

Batman: Dark Tomorrow (GameCube): 15% - Jes described as "Like having the skin flayed from your fingertips". Later when Batman Begins was mentioned on the cover the magazine asked the rhetorical question: "Can it beat Batman: Dark Tomorrow? Well, it wouldn't be hard..."

Superman (N64): 14% - was initially viewed as 'an utterly hopeless, consistently appalling leper of a 'game'...bordering on the illegal'. Superman became the butt of all jokes after it was reviewed, and described in Issue 100's hall of shame as 'A game of legendary-so-bad-it's-almost-goodness'. Features the legendary level where Lex Luthor asks Superman to 'solve my maze' which later was a small competition segment in the magazine, the last of which was named "Solve my murder" and had three ways in which Luthor was killed.

AeroGauge (N64): 10% - Was ridiculed severely, and a "Top Tip" provided with a quick-reference review in the magazine's "index" section read "If you handed over good money for Aero Gauge, 01*** ****** (number censored for privacy) is the number to ring to complain". Further, the sound was described as being "what your TV's mute button was designed for".

Beyblade (GameCube): 10% - Was referred to as being "scat-encrusted", in the Mastery section it was stated that "the only thing this game has mastered is total crapness" and Kittsy said: "It's rubbish. Really rubbish. Honest, it's crap". In later issues the game's summary within the magazine's review directory read "For £20, we will come to your house and cheesegrater your eyeballs. It's more fun and lasts longer than this frickin' spinning top sim".

Jeopardy! (N64): 9% A US Import only, was described as "less a game, more a vile disease". Apparently "so ugly that, if you look at it, you'll turn to stone".

Mortal Kombat Mythologies (N64): 9% - Possibly the most despised game of NGC Magazine's history; the price was stated as "£Too much", the mini-review stated that "This could only be less enjoyable if it squirted sulphuric acid into your face," and the staff's frustration with the game's mechanics was revealed in a tip section: "Creep along in that sideways spider fashion and then GET CRUSHED BY A PILLAR. Place your fist into TV screen".

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (N64): 9% - Described by Greener as "60 of the most bitterly tedious minutes" of his life. Was also described as "constipated puppet men jerking their way around Lego-built cities".

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Second Edition (GBA): 5% - The worst score in NGC's history. "You'd be better off staying as far away from this lazy slab of plastic as you can. So it's getting 5%. For 'existing'. And that is generous."

Lego Island 2 The Brickster's Revenge (N64): 3% - "And you think that Clayfighter was bad? Wait til you see this. It is THE worst game on the console, except for a game which actually throws up instantly without any further ado. Avoid like the plague." Top Tip Section: "Press all the directional pad buttons and then LOSE in the rocket ship test, then pull the cartridge out and play baseball with it in place of the ball." The magazine decided to cancel the port in anger.

 

[redcrayon]

As someone whose spent a career in publishing in the UK, I might be able to answer some of these.

Yes, there is a very efficient, ancient distribution model in the UK- even though print is dying, we have a lot of newsagents and the chain WHSMITHS pretty much has hundreds of outlets at stations and airports plus hundreds more on the high streets, almost all of whom can be reached overnight from a printers almost anywhere in the UK. The small country size makes postal subscriptions easier, too. On top of that, we have a few very large publishers who have swallowed up lots of the smaller ones and own lots of magazines, which makes it easier to cross-sell advertising and subscriptions between them.

For example, ads for computer games might also be relevant in one of the same companies many sci-fi or film or music or kids magazines, so ad teams are often centralised and sell across multiple titles. There are also more and more speciality mags launching- it's more cost-effective to have smaller print runs or print-on-demand than it used to be, which is why oddities like the 'bookazine' editions or the small-format variants of some consumer mags come from.

The single format games mags are really in trouble though (increasing audience age for print has killed console tribalism, in addition to most of the bigger games being multiformat), and even Edge and Games TM are finding that the uptake to tablet editions and international editions isn't enough to offset loss of the print sales.

Generally If you read two editions out of three it's cheaper to subscribe, they are so desperate for subscriptions you can usually find a special offer of 'first 3 issues for a pound' on just about anything. I rang up to cancel my Edge subscription and was offered three issues of three of Future's games mags for a quid. Still got a sub to GamesTM though, I generally prefer the tone to Edge, probably as it doesn't fill the back half of the mag with games industry stuff that isn't relevant to me.

 

[Daytonabot]

A more interesting question might be what the hell is wrong with the US that we can't get one decent magazine out the door anymore.

 

[Rikkun]

Here in Italy pretty much every mag died, we had some good productions and some good translations but they all got killed one way or another.

I found a RetroGamer UK with a 20th anniversary of Sonic special at a con, I bought it and it was good (We had a Retrogamer translation but only 4 issues came out, we had an Edge-like mag that turned into Edge and that lasted ~1 year)

 

[Tiktaalik]

Small island with lots of people results in lower costs for magazine companies, who have to ship out lots of product. Similarly Japan has a great magazine culture.

 

[RedSwirl]

For me it isn't the reviews or news that has me buying gaming mags but rather the features. GameInformer and GamesTM in particular have to think up new ideas for features and opinion pieces as they are competing with an online space that can publish on a whim.

It makes for interesting reading to say the least and the sub context of print vs digital helps as well.

At the end of the day I'll buy a gaming magazine if it has an article/s that interest me and I may even subscribe (GI sub here!) if they can maintain a high level of written features.

I'm the same way with magazines. I can get news and reviews online anywhere now, but the one advantage periodical publications still have is that their feature stories have more time to develop. If I could pay for just having those feature stories in a digital format, I would.

 

[Cassius]

I remember the first time I picked up and held a copy of Edge. It read, felt and looked like a work of art. They also have an interactive version of the mag for the iPad that is just gorgeous. Highly recommend checking that out.

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edge-future-interactive-entertainment/id451410596?mt=8

 

[Bucket-o-roadkill]

Teenage me bought official Sega Saturn Magazine. A lot.

Sega Saturn Magazine told teenage me that everything was going to be fine,

Sega Saturn Magazine told teenage me N64 and PS would burn out and Saturn would remain.

Pff.

However they did give me the first disc of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Christmas Nights, so I'll let them off.

 

[NekoFever]

Many of the ones I've worked on in the past were set up to be able to turn a small profit from sales alone, so they weren't completely reliant on advertising. Whether you think the reverse in American mags has an effect on editorial is another question, but there are plenty here who would suggest it does.

As has been stated above, logistics enters into it as well. The UK is smaller than many US states, so it's much cheaper to distribute nationwide.

But although Edge, TM, Retro Gamer and a handful of others are decent, I don't think US mags were necessarily worse in their prime. I used to pay to import EGM around 1997-2000 and apart from the ludicrous number of ads, I loved it.

The only magazines that I can remember matching the quality of UK mags back in the 90's were Next Generation and maybe GameFan, and that was the pinnacle of gaming mags' popularity in the States.

A lot of Next Generation's content was lifted from Edge, hence the similarity. It happened a lot with Future mags, like I remember buying a copy of the official US Dreamcast mag and finding much of the editorial was the same as DC-UK.

 

[Sorcerer]

British game mags always always focused on the actual writing. If you wanted depth British mags were always the way to go.

American game mags for the most part (they are exceptions of course) are made for those with ADD, and always focused on screen shots and less text.

As someone in the US I always respected the UK mags more, but by the time they reached this shore they were months behind and 10 dollars a shot.

 

[Saint of Killers]

on my god that carmageddon 64 review always makes me laugh. N64 Magazine's verdict:

...

would you see that on a review nowadays? no, because no publication has the balls to do that anymore. N64 Magazine had fucking balls. Some more examples:

They must had balls to pull off that Goldeneye II black bag bullshit! But yeah, I loved N64 magazine and it was the last mag I bought on a regular basis.

 

[EBreda]

Retrogamer and Edge are both incredibly put together.
It's all about quality. US magazines went downhill not a while ago.

 

[Huggers]

I live in the UK and hadn't appreciated we were lucky with these two mags. I buy both regularly. Despite the fact I've been reading Edge since the 90s I think these days I lean towards Games TM. More content overall. Have to say though review wise I prefer Edge

 

[tarzanpuyol]

To me it comes to content, I grew up in South America, so I always have to scavenge for anything so I learned to appreciate the ocassional Nintendo Mag in spanish; once I moved to the states I inmediately absorbed every single thing I could get my hands on (I still got my old EGMs, Gamepros, Next, Edge, Games) anyways I wont reminisce about the golden days of print, because even then you knew which mag was worth the asking price or which mag fell in line with what you were looking for.

There is a reason why I no longer suscribe to the new EGM, or PC Gamer, or Game Informer, it is because they have become too vanilla, not enough content outside of the norm, I dont want news anymore (specially news that I read a month in advance) I want analysis, retrospectives, interviews, thats why I love the later half of Edge and its industry coverage or the indepth long form articles of Retro; its because material like trascends the medium is published on, but news, well they are news and whereever you read them firts everything else becomes irrelevant even if its printed in glossy paper.

 

[w00twood]

Here in the UK, we were home to the greatest gaming magazine there ever was and ever will be:







glorious. brutally truthful - even to big third party and Nintendo games, first with the new news, and always always fucking hilarious

I loved these mags. I still remember the day when I saw the Game Boy Camera picture I sent in was printed (they did about 20 a month for three years or something). I'd feel a bit sorry for people who missed a few issues and never saw the source of some of the many in-jokes.

One night a grackler cam when I was slepin.
Paul's sense talk.
That amazing EndGC (joke on the last page) that documented Reggie Fils-Aime's Hulk-esque rampage through Los Angeles in response to poor Gamecube sales figures.

PCGamer UK was very good when I started reading it (2007) but lost a bit of what made it special after a few years when the staff writers were cut down and more work was done by freelancers instead. Not as many in-jokes and a big loss of personality. Now it seems like half of it comes from PCG US. There's still some good stuff but I just read it online now, a shame.

edit: Some of you who are familiar with a few mags here will be interested in a blog that stirred up all kinds of shit about Future Publishing. He's very harsh. http://ramraider.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[ScOULaris]

A more interesting question might be what the hell is wrong with the US that we can't get one decent magazine out the door anymore.

To be fair, Game Informer is pretty decent by US standards. Their reviews are completely worthless, but their features and cover stories are good.

I'm the same way with magazines. I can get news and reviews online anywhere now, but the one advantage periodical publications still have is that their feature stories have more time to develop. If I could pay for just having those feature stories in a digital format, I would.

Well, there's always the digital/tablet versions of magazines like Edge, GamesTM, and Game Informer.

 

[NekoFever]

They must had balls to pull off that Goldeneye II black bag bullshit! But yeah, I loved N64 magazine and it was the last mag I bought on a regular basis.

The ballsiest thing was the Ocarina of Time review where they held the score back until the next issue. That was over 15 years ago and I still remember how pissed off we were at school.

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

Hypothesis: Mountain Dew and Doritos have a comparatively smaller presence in Great Britain.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Here in the UK, we were home to the greatest gaming magazine there ever was and ever will be

I'm confused

that's not Paul Davies-era CVG

Nor is it the Official Sega Saturn magazine

Nor is it Super Play

 

[Google]

British game mags always always focused on the actual writing. If you wanted depth British mags were always the way to go.

Nope.

We had a huge amount of games magazines. I remember towards the end of the 90's and early 00's there must have been over a dozen magazines. Most of which mimicked the US version of SCREENSHOTS and HYPERBOLE.

Stuff like Gamesmaster, (late game) CVG, etc. They were fucking terrible magazines which catered to a very specific market (kids). They were unabashed about it - being more akin to comics than the much more serious and on-point EDGE, PC Gamer, et-all.

 

[ScOULaris]

Nope.

We had a huge amount of games magazines. I remember towards the end of the 90's and early 00's there must have been over a dozen magazines. Most of which mimicked the US version of SCREENSHOTS and HYPERBOLE.

Stuff like Gamesmaster, (late game) CVG, etc. They were fucking terrible magazines which catered to a very specific market (kids). They were unabashed about it - being more akin to comics than the much more serious and on-point EDGE, PC Gamer, et-all.

Yeah, I agree. The quality of writing in Edge and GamesTM today (and for a while now) far eclipse what both the UK and US got on average throughout all of the 80's and 90's. No contest.

 

[Google]

I'm confused

that's not Paul Davies-era CVG

Mate, I remember that issue so vividly.

I would keep all my magazines from that era. I'd take them on the bus with me to school and read them. Woking to Guildford was a good 90 minute commute in those days (with all the stops we made) and I'd read these with glee. I'd fill up my school bag with more copies of CVG than books.

 

[Google]

Yeah, I agree. The quality of writing in Edge and GamesTM today (and for a while now) far eclipse what both the UK and US got on average throughout all of the 80's and 90's. No contest.

You know, I'd actually argue that early 00's PC Gamer was the best magazine I've ever read.

Great reviews with (maybe?) the best review staff ever assembled along with some very good articles and a strong sense of humour throughout.

It's no coincidence that a number of staff-writers from that era of PCG have gone onto much more prominent roles in (and out - see Gillen) of the industry.

 

[Sorcerer]

Nope.

We had a huge amount of games magazines. I remember towards the end of the 90's and early 00's there must have been over a dozen magazines. Most of which mimicked the US version of SCREENSHOTS and HYPERBOLE.

Stuff like Gamesmaster, (late game) CVG, etc. They were fucking terrible magazines which catered to a very specific market (kids). They were unabashed about it - being more akin to comics than the much more serious and on-point EDGE, PC Gamer, et-all.

Never realized that.

I guess only the good stuff made it to US shores, or at least my section of NJ.

Still the quality of those few that made it to our newstands outrank the majority of US mags. Hence my reverence (even if not totally accurate.)

 

[entremet]

Density of population clusters promotes higher distribution.

Yep. That's what John Davison used to say. Also allows for better card stock.

Japan also loves it magazines as well. It's men's fashion magazines are bibles into themselves each issue. Beautiful card stock and photography.

I love paper magazines and lament's their death in the States.

 

[Google]

Never realized that.

I guess only the good stuff made it to US shores, or at least my section of NJ.

Still the quality of those few that made it to our newstands outrank the majority of US mags. Hence my reverence (even if not totally accurate.)

On the flip-side. Whenever I visited the US I would drool over the US mags. They were so much thicker, chock-full of content.

As a kid, I was less bothered about style, quality, etc. All I wanted was info on new games - which the US mags did better than most.

 

[ScOULaris]

On the flip-side. Whenever I visited the US I would drool over the US mags. They were so much thicker, chock-full of content.

As a kid, I was less bothered about style, quality, etc. All I wanted was info on new games - which the US mags did better than most.

Maybe in the early-to-mid 90's. That was when EGM was putting out monstrous 300+ page issues, but keep in mind that like 40-50% of those pages were ads at the time. Still, though. It was a great time for US gaming mags in terms of popularity.

 

[s_mirage]

Nope.

We had a huge amount of games magazines. I remember towards the end of the 90's and early 00's there must have been over a dozen magazines. Most of which mimicked the US version of SCREENSHOTS and HYPERBOLE.

Stuff like Gamesmaster, (late game) CVG, etc. They were fucking terrible magazines which catered to a very specific market (kids). They were unabashed about it - being more akin to comics than the much more serious and on-point EDGE, PC Gamer, et-all.

I also agree with this. From what I recall, even Sega Saturn Magazine, which is beloved by many, had a tendency to come off as quite childish in its Playstation bashing at times. What was quite sad as well was that some of the better magazines didn't last that long (Maximum, for example).

 

[Rich!]

Nor is it Super Play

Actually, N64 Magazine was Super Play. The successor, at least.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Actually, N64 Magazine was Super Play. The successor, at least.

Wasn't as good though. Staff changed a fair bit from memory

 

[peace]

I think Edge is the best. Growing up the game mags were better. I used to love A.C.E and Zero (I can't even remember now if that's the correct name, Zero.) As well as C.V.G, Games Master and Mean Machines.

 

[RibbedHero]

Britain has always had a very strong culture and history of quality journalism. See the FT, the Times/Sunday Times or the Economist for further examples.

 

[forknknife]

CVG was really good. Man, I miss those days going to this kiosk that had all the foreign magazines and I would stay there for hours reading them (and then buy just one lol)

 

[Lord British]

I'm confused

that's not Paul Davies-era CVG

Nor is it the Official Sega Saturn magazine

Nor is it Super Play

Dead on with this post. All fabulous mags.

At the risk of lowering the tone, I fondly remember very much enjoying that CVG cover in my adolescence.

Very much enjoying.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

You know, I'd actually argue that early 00's PC Gamer was the best magazine I've ever read.

Great reviews with (maybe?) the best review staff ever assembled along with some very good articles and a strong sense of humour throughout.

It's no coincidence that a number of staff-writers from that era of PCG have gone onto much more prominent roles in (and out - see Gillen) of the industry.

I think that PC gamer gained a lot from the experience of people working Your Sinclair and Amiga Power. Gillen started out writing reviews for Amiga Power where I guess that he handed out lots of sub 5/10 scores to games that are seen as classics.

 

[Syriel]

Density of population clusters promotes higher distribution.

This is the big one. Less shipping costs, easier to get to all sales locations and subs.

That said, we did have Next Generation here in the US, which was the sister magazine to Edge. Edge content would appear in Next Gen and Next Gen content would appear in Edge.

What set Edge/Next Gen apart was that they weren't written for gamers are the primary audience. They were written with people who were in the game development industry as the primary audience and consumer gamers as the secondary audience.

While most game mags (and game blogs like Kotaku, Polygon, etc.) today focus on the *games* Edge/Next Gen always focused on *how the games were made*.

When I wrote for Next Gen, the reviews were typically very short and were sandwiched in the back of the magazine. Yes, judgments were given and scores applied, but they were not prominent in the way the feature stories were. It was one of the few outlets which didn't rely on reviews to carry the publication. The fact that it had a print lead time also meant that any news had to be meaty. You wouldn't find stuff that was repeated from another outlet (like you do so often on the web today).

 

[admartian]

Density of population clusters promotes higher distribution.

Because places like NY with magazine stands everywhere aren't dense.

 

[entremet]

Because places like NY with magazine stands everywhere aren't dense.

Remember national magazines are distributed across all the mainland states, so it's costly still even though there are dense population centers. It's reason why magazines use cheaper paper. Cheaper paper weights less so shipping costs are less.

 

[HalfwayOrb]

Here in the UK, we were home to the greatest gaming magazine there ever was and ever will be:







glorious. brutally truthful - even to big third party and Nintendo games, first with the new news, and always always fucking hilarious

Doesn't beat GameFan, though.

 

[R_Deckard]

I'm confused

that's not Paul Davies-era CVG

Nor is it the Official Sega Saturn magazine

Nor is it Super Play

Wow nostalgic trip back to my childhood.

I use to cycle every week (sometimes 2 or 3 times a week) about 50 miles to leicester city centre as they used to game the main mags published a Day earlier than the village I lived in.

I would pretty much pick up every mag from CVG, Mean Machines, Saturn just classics like

My favourites for quality where these

and this was just a novel each month i used to read every part and page

But when edge launched I bought the first copy and it was just a real grown up magazine, at the time if felt professional and proper, less like a kids magazine and more like a real read with high quality that as the OP has picked up has lasted to this day.

Day 1 I was there

But my treasured and still mint copy now I have with my collection is this issue...

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mDxHaiz5-cW2JQ0mdcL2ZVA/s-l225.jpg

ahh memories.