PC Gamer, July edition.

[Marilyn Manson]

Go to the 'Games Collection for £50' section.

Now, the cover photo they have for this section is distinctly homo-erotic and tasteless, in my opinion.

Oh, and the mag itself is getting shitter and shitter. If you don't have a broadband connection and don't play Half-Life or Counterstrike 24-7, (Yes, I know it's hard to understand, but there are some people who don't.) then you increasingly feel like a member of an unwanted underclass like the disabled or black people and that most people would basically just wish that you went away.

[MrL_JaKiri]

The 'Brand new style' is exactly what I expected. Some bad cosmetic changes, and 1/6 of the magazine vanishing.

The thief 3 review was exactly the same as the dx:iw review; 'There is some bad stuff about the game, but we're not going to tell you what it is, or we'll just gloss over it by saying it doesn't matter at all'. That, and it doesn't look as if they actually PLAYED the game, given that they said it was 'very polished'.

[Evergreen]

Games magazines got shite back in the snes/megadrive era with C&VG the last to fall imo.

Total used to be the best computer games magazine ever, that and Your sinclair.

Today's pieces of student degree/wannabe kiddie that never grew up reviewer shitebags well....

btw first series GamesMaster is the pinnacle of Channel 4 TV programming imo.

[Hicks]

I was very disappointed with their "redesign" I take it that it's not just me who thinks the reviews have lost about 50% of their words to be replaced by screen shots ? I doubt I'll be buying next months edition.

[Marilyn Manson]

Total was absolutely shit. It offered no depth whatsoever in the reviews, or anything else. Contemporary games reviews are hugely more sophisticated than that.

C&VG was quite good though.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Evergreen

Games magazines got shite back in the snes/megadrive era with C&VG the last to fall imo.

Total used to be the best computer games magazine ever, that and Your sinclair.

I completely agree with you. Only Edge might still have some class (although I didn't read one since over a year or so). When reading nowadays gamemagazines I always get the feeling that I've been around longer then the writers/reviewers. Back in the days you know these people love playing games at least as much as I do, now I tend to feel it's just another journalism job in the entertainment branche. Can be me, I am a cranky twat as well.

I soo do remember browsing through Your Sinclair and other old Speccy magazines when I was a kid, drooling over screenshots untill my dad bought us a speccy

good times

[Evergreen]

Total was class for it's first wee run when it was just two reviewers and still seemed rather independant.... then they sold out.

[SilverSmoke]

The One was a ****ing amazing amiga magazine

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Hicks

I was very disappointed with their "redesign" I take it that it's not just me who thinks the reviews have lost about 50% of their words to be replaced by screen shots ? I doubt I'll be buying next months edition.

The reviews have been murdered. Now it's basically become a PC Hardware/Software/free for all mag and it's lost any focus it had.

They need to decide what they want to primarily be; a games review mag, a hardware mag, or a net review mag. You can't be all things to everyone, because there simply isn't enough space for that in a single mag.

[Evergreen]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

I completely agree with you. Only Edge might still have some class (although I didn't read one since over a year or so). When reading nowadays gamemagazines I always get the feeling that I've been around longer then the writers/reviewers. Back in the days you know these people love playing games at least as much as I do, now I tend to feel it's just another journalism job in the entertainment branche. Can be me, I am a cranky twat as well.

I soo do remember browsing through Your Sinclair and other old Speccy magazines when I was a kid, drooling over screenshots untill my dad bought us a speccy

good times

I had the Spectrum ZX 128k the one with the cassette deck I think it was the second to last model (the last being the floppy version heading in that all familiar way that was conquered by amiga and atari, both platforms I never got to play so much but very very good for their time).

I had a light gun for my speccy too, good times were had playing Bullseye and Operation Wolf.

Also Advanced Soccer Simulator was prolly one of the best football management sims of that time (beating the bollocks off of tripe like match of the day).

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

because there simply isn't enough space.

Not if you cut 30 pages off an already slim magazine there isn't.

I felt the balance before was ok, now it's just all over the place. The sense of malcontinuity is reinforced by the loss of all 'simple' backgrounds.

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Evergreen

I had the Spectrum ZX 128k the one with the cassette deck I think it was the second to last model (the last being the floppy version heading in that all familiar way that was conquered by amiga and atari, both platforms I never got to play so much but very very good for their time).

I had a light gun for my speccy too, good times were had playing Bullseye and Operation Wolf.

Also Advanced Soccer Simulator was prolly one of the best football management sims of that time (beating the bollocks off of tripe like match of the day).

I Still have the ZX 48k here in front of me on a shelf, doesn't work anymore though. I never owned a diskdrive, did it with those cassettedecks heh. God I miss that crunching loading noise when loading up a game.

Never owned a c64 myself but my neightbours had one and we played on their c64 or on our speccy day in day out. I never had an ST, as I was a fanatic Amiga fanboy

I think my all time ZX favourite is Jetset willy, back then I didn't care much about football sims.

[Vaio]

I still have a Spectrun 48k somewhere, along with the 128 version (The Sinclair one, not the shite Amstrad one). They still worked last time I found them.

I've also found an Amiga 1200 in my mother's cupboard that no-one remembers whose it is and an Amstrad CPC464 in my mother's loft.

~Vaio~

[Deepflow]

PC zone was pretty good, especially when they only gave a game 90+ about once every 3 months, which was a nice change, they seemed pretty honest too, and funny.

i love pcz

or i did when i played PC games

[LHC]

I also liked PC Zone.

[Mushroom]

PCG has gone downhill in recent times, i've stopped bothering with it now.
Shame really, because it used to be rather good

[OneColourRed]

I didnt like the latest issue of PCG either. Similar feelings they have removed a great deal of thetext and tend to blether on a load of nonsense in thereviews and fail to tell you very much about the actual game. Think i might be swapping mags now.

[Dante Hicks]

I'd tend to agree with Sunday.

C&VG was pretty good, iirc. I think I also read Mean Machines though.

Yours Sinclair was my favourite. Always found Edge overly pretentious.

Digitiser was my favourite "magazine" but that's obviously slightly different.

The internet killed any reason I ever had for buying gaming magazines though.

[Evergreen]

Heh, Digitizer was aces, I don't know when I Stopped reading it though....

[Event_Horizon]

Why even bother reading/buying mags when you can all your information from the internet for free. You can also use multiple sources from the internet to get different views on things.

[Radical Edward]

dont buy magazines, go into WHSmith and you can read them for free. In my local Smiths, they had to move the computer section to the corner (it was right next to the till) because a huge crowd of kids would be stood there, reading but not buying and blocking all the room for the queue.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Deepflow

PC zone was pretty good, especially when they only gave a game 90+ about once every 3 months, which was a nice change

A nice change from what? Certainly a nice change from PC Zone's recent behavior, and their behavior 5 or 6 years ago. Did they magically improve in the interim?

[NEWSBOT3]

ot, civ2 is still shite, i even played it yesterday.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

ot, civ2 is still shite, i even played it yesterday.

No, you're shite. Civ 2 is excellent (although I prefer MOO2 and Alpha)

[NEWSBOT3]

i am correct.

civ2 is poor.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

i am correct.

civ2 is poor.

What's wrong with it, or will this stay the same as your 'I've got SUPERSECRET INFORMATION on why Evolution is wrong, but I'm not going to tell you even though I've talked about it and now have been found out when asked by people who actually know a bit about the subject!'?

[SilverSmoke]

Anyone saying Civ 2 is a bad game is a gigantic dickhead

[NEWSBOT3]

/me shrugs.

civ2 is poor

its not even interesting to play.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

its not even interesting to play.

All those people who think its one of the best games ever are deluding themselves, right?

[NEWSBOT3]

maybe they like boring games.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by NEWSBOT3

maybe they like boring games.

Lets take a popquiz.

Do you like:

Master of Orion 2
Ascendancy
Alpha Centauri

If not, then Civ 2 is probably not the game for you

[NEWSBOT3]

yes, in fact i possess all 3.

civ 2 is much less interesting to play than all of them.

[MrL_JaKiri]

That's odd; as it's simpler than some, more complicated than others. Similar with faster/slower. In fact, the only thing I think it's unique on in those is the nondistinct civilisations.

[Dante Hicks]

Civ 2 is great.

[LHC]

I must say I don't enjoy it, but then I don't enjoy any of the other games listed here, so that probably explains it.