[Update 1: Updated to note correct release date for Rockstar's The
Warriors.]
Edge is easily the best games magazine on magazine stands right now (we know it's a low bar, but someone's got to be at the top of the pile). The glossy, high-quality paper and well-designed layout feel reminiscent of Wired Magazine back in 1996. Here's what's in the October issue (130 pages), which just arrived:
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On the cover the magazine plays up Quake 4, due in the fall for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms. Quote: "[The first person shooter] is, after all, the most tangible realization of virtual reality we've seen; it removes the avatar and places us nearer to the inside of the experience than is possible in any other style of game."
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Edge provides a detailed blow-by-blow account of the Sony and Microsoft press events held in Japan in July. Quote: "Crucially, a sentiment among many was that 360 is more 'PS2.5' than a fully fledged upgrade to Xbox…."
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?This year?s Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival was make or break? but for some reason one of the speakers failed to ?address the reasons why pornography?which has fueled the spread of photography, cinema, home video and Internet technologies?had failed to penetrate [emphasis ours] the video games industry.? Booyakasha.
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Game Republic founder Yoshiko Okamoto on the fundamental challenge in creating games today: ?The difficult part is not creating a game that people can finish: that just means making it simple. What?s difficult is creating a game that people can finish but they also want to finish?.?
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Development studio Rising Star?s president Yasuhiro Wada and producer Tony Byus opine on their company?s plans to issue DS and PSP updates to classics Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands.
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Surreal Software?s Richard Rouse says that his job as creative director for The Suffering is to make sure that ?it?s disturbing even if it?s not startling you at every turn.?
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The 2005 Golden Joystick awards are the UK?s largest gaming awards. What?s funny is that many of the handheld games up for nomination hadn?t even been released in the UK at the time when the votes were cast.
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Yet another piece on the PlayStation and Xbox events held in Japan in July. It manages to say almost nothing at all while bouncing from topic to topic.
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One article posits that Grand Theft Auto just might be the perfect PSP game and concludes, ?The PSP: a handheld for people who know what they want. The DS: a handheld for people who want what they don?t know.?
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Updated 2005.09.15: Rockstar?s The Warriors gets a spread. The game will be released on the 18th in the US and on the 21st in the UK. Other games getting the treatment: Pursuit Force, Taito Revolution and Evolution, Tony Hawk?s American Wasteland, Conflict: Global Storm, Ultimate Spider-Man, Total Overdose, Far Cry: Instincts, Darkwatch, SLAI: Steel Lancer Arena International, Auto Assault, Gunstar Super Heroes.
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Edge asks if the Doom3 Engine is good enough to help Quake 4 retake the FPS crown. The answer? Signs point to no, but Edge kind of pussyfoots around the issue in many more words. The first-person shooter community will need to decide on their own.
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What elements would go into the perfect game? The mag names 70-something elements some of them redundant, some of them plentiful (Er: Bugs), some of them rare (Nd: Nudity). A different game exemplifies each element.
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Oops. The six-page article on Cyan clearly went to print before Cyan ran out of green. Edge asks, ?So what does life after Myst hold for Cyan?? Rand Miller answers by talking about some of the concepts the company had been working on.
And that?s just over half the magazine. Should we bother continuing with these sorts of summaries? Do you want us to subscribe to all of the magazines and read ?em for you, alerting you to what?s worth your time? Are you a publisher looking for a monthly review of your games magazine? Let us know!
