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Message: [QUOTE="Gorse, post: 646, member: 73"] Before I was the internet-addicted monkey-man I am today, my key source of gaming culture and news was the diverse range of magazines my parents would occasionally buy for me. I never subscribed to these mags – they were typically purchased from airport bookstores or the local pharmacy in my horse-and-buggy town's shopping plaza – but I did collect several issues of them throughout the years, and they hold some very fond memories. THEY INCLUDED: [LIST] [*][B]Playstation The Official Magazine (PTOM): [/B]This publication doesn't seem to have had the fanbase of Nintendo Power, which is a real shame, because it was really quite good. The writing team laid out some very informative and entertaining previews of games (this is where I first learned about titles like Demon's Souls and Lollipop Chainsaw) with huge, gorgeous screenshots and plenty of well-thought-out gameplay descriptions. Developer, publisher, artist, and musician interviews were common and always worth my reading time. Unlike other first-party mags, there was never any pretense that the editors weren't allowed to say negative things about Sony, and they ragged on the company's games just as much as they praised them, which always made it seem like they really were on the consumers' side. I [I]loved [/I]the reviews, too – each reviewer had their own personality that came out well in their writing, so you really got to develop a good understanding of their tastes and preferences. (This also let you easily identify the reviewers who's opinions you shouldn't trust, like the dope who infamously gave Hyperdimension Neptunia a 2/10 because it had anime characters in it.) Every feature in this magazine was of a very high quality, and it's the one I think of most highly from this list. I also really liked the special editions they did, too – I had [URL='https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/magazinesfromthepast/images/b/bb/PSP_-_The_Official_Guide_Book_Issue_20.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1200?cb=20140310214138']this PSP one[/URL], which contained over 100 game reviews, and it permanently informed my taste in video games going forward. Plus, the graphic design on some of these covers was just effing killer: [IMG width="254px" size="441x544"]https://ia801408.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/20/items/official-u.-s.-playstation-magazine-issue-89-february-2005/Official%20U.S.%20Playstation%20Magazine%20Issue%2089%20%28February%202005%29_jp2.zip&file=Official%20U.S.%20Playstation%20Magazine%20Issue%2089%20%28February%202005%29_jp2/Official%20U.S.%20Playstation%20Magazine%20Issue%2089%20%28February%202005%29_0000.jp2&id=official-u.-s.-playstation-magazine-issue-89-february-2005&scale=4&rotate=0[/IMG] [IMG width="253px" size="360x447"]https://archive.org/services/img/official-us-playstation-magazine-issue-91-april-2005/full/pct:200/0/default.jpg[/IMG] [IMG width="244px" size="429x550"]https://ia802203.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/6/items/official-us-playstation-magazine-108-2006/Official%20US%20Playstation%20Magazine%20%23108%20%282006%29_jp2.zip&file=Official%20US%20Playstation%20Magazine%20%23108%20%282006%29_jp2/Official%20US%20Playstation%20Magazine%20%23108%20%282006%29_0000.jp2&id=official-us-playstation-magazine-108-2006&scale=4&rotate=0[/IMG] [/LIST] [LIST] [*][B]PC Gamer: [/B]Another one I picked up quite regularly, mostly because demo disks on the cover were common (and could be shared easily among my cadre of friends). What I remember most about this mag is how "adult" it seemed – they actually [I]swore [/I]in it, which to my ten-year-old head made it indistinguishable from Playboy. PC Gamer focused a lot on boring computer stuff which I didn't understand (my parents were lifelong Mac users and my first Windows machine was a laptop), but they also had some very detailed reviews and did quite a lot to highlight the burgeoning indie scene of the late 2000s. (They were very much behind games like Super Meat Boy and the PC release of Braid.) In those days, the PC was nowhere near as well-supported or as popular as it is today, so the writers instead focused on extensive editorial segments that examined the development and mechanics of certain games very deeply. I can remember a multi-page feature that broke down the pros and cons of each Team Fortress 2 class in detail, which led to several hours-long discussions (and arguments) between me and my friends. PC Gamer was a good magazine, and I respect it a lot more in my adulthood than I did at the time. Plus, hey – it got an [URL='https://minecraft.wiki/w/PC_Gamer_Demo']exclusive Minecraft demo[/URL]! SCORE!!!! [IMG width="226px" size="500x656"]https://external-preview.redd.it/HR5v-vTSdf0MUcl25_r-hDOlrivGK9TzxC1qNaF0O5U.jpg?auto=webp&s=6fd3ad393d9b6fab1fa0b3c7a303c82ab46c95a3[/IMG][IMG width="209px" size="320x453"]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DuhJLwLiCJZFNAyksdnYCV-320-80.jpeg[/IMG][IMG width="225px" size="1678x2200"]https://www.retromags.com/rmg_fs/downloads_screenshots/monthly_2023_10/PCGamerIssue214(June2011).jpg.99d0961fc422959768a9eb3691e7104b.jpg[/IMG] [/LIST] [LIST] [*][B]Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM): [/B]If you thought your old buddy Gorse was going to give each item on this list a ringing endorsement, you were mistaken, because I thought EGM was shit at the time and still do. Unlike the two examples listed above, this magazine felt[I] cheap[/I] – the actual printing was far thinner than its contemporaries, leading to much poorer image quality and a noticeably worse reading experience. There was no sense of professionalism from the editors, either – articles were riddled with crude references and in-jokes, and any sense of proofreading or structure was nil. They covered a very, very wide remit of game reviews across every platform, leading to a magazine that focused far more on numerical scores and buzzwords over legitimate journalism. [/LIST] [INDENT=2]The writers did have some sense of personality, but it was all that insufferable late-2000s dumb-guy meathead humour that I just couldn't stand. (Small wonder that many of the magazine's team transitioned directly to Cracked when the publication folded.) EGM has its fans – most of whom had stopped reading by the time I had access to it – and many of the people I knew did somewhat enjoy the magazine (it was nobody's favourite), but I'd only ever buy it when there was absolutely nothing else that interested me on the rack.[/INDENT] [INDENT=2][/INDENT] [INDENT=2][IMG width="222px" size="911x1200"]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MzAAAOSwc6ZjjniQ/s-l1200.jpg[/IMG] [IMG width="216px" size="891x1200"]https://www.retromags.com/gallery/?module=images&section=img_ctrl&img=4695[/IMG] [IMG width="210px" size="1594x2200"]https://www.retromags.com/rmg_fs/downloads_screenshots/monthly_2022_11/2053450126_ElectronicGamingMonthlyIssue255(May-June2011)-01.jpg.ffb5a94c4cf1dac15cba711978ad4e28.jpg[/IMG][/INDENT] [INDENT=2][/INDENT] [LIST] [*][B]Otaku USA: [/B]OK, I only ever had a few issues of this, but I remember really liking it at the time. In late 2000s/early 2010s Canada, seeing anything that mentioned or depicted anime [I][U]IN REAL LIFE[/U][/I] was a novelty, and I'd snap up any issues of this the second I saw them on shelves by collectors' instinct alone. This was a magazine that promoted new releases of anime, manga, and otaku-oriented video games, but remember: this was in the pre-streaming era, so they were highlighting [I]the friggin' DVDs! [/I]In those days, the selection of Japanese pop culture you'd get was far more limited than it is now, and they had a lot of space to fill, so you'd get really unique features like a full four-page spread of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Metal_City']Detroit Metal City[/URL] screengrabs or a novel-length analysis of the latest [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_Gata_H_Kei']B Gata H Kei[/URL] collection that had just been released by ADV Films. (If you recognize anything I mentioned in the previous sentence, we can be friends.) I particularly remember a full-page advertisement for the initial English release of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt that proudly declared, verbatim: [I]"They're angels... and they're foul-mouthed!"[/I] This item is only tangentially-related to video games, but Otaku USA is such a novelty that I couldn't help but include it. I think they only had one or two people in their game review section, and nothing was ever detailed to any significant degree, but if you were someone who bought video games from Sega or Capcom (and I sure was), you'd certainly find them covered here. I even remember a feature they did that focused on the heavily-hyped launch of Megaman Legends 3 – [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Man_Legends_3#Cancellation']HA!!![/URL] Unbelievably, Otaku USA is [I]still going[/I], with the Summer 2024 issue highlighting The Ancient Magus' Bride. Sometimes, this world is OK. [/LIST] [INDENT=2][IMG width="230px" size="600x725"]https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1287261.jpg[/IMG] [IMG width="229px" size="1050x1269"]https://www.previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STK340428[/IMG] [IMG width="224px" size="600x743"]https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1116479.jpg[/IMG][/INDENT] Anyhow! There's several trillion words about the video game magazines [I]I [/I]grew up with. Which ones did you read? I purposefully left out Nintendo Power (I had the very last issue with New Super Mario Bros U on the cover), so don't worry if that's the only one you can talk about. I look forward to hearing your thoughts! [/QUOTE]

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