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Gaming magazines still worth checking out as a adult


ocelot085

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That is a rather unique question I guess but might be still interesting for some guys.

 

As I   Austrian guy I grew up with  German gaming  mags. My favorite  gaming magazines were the Fun Generation, Video Games and Mega Fun.  The UK/US Magazines were quite unknown to me at t hat time. But  since recently I have become interested in gaming magazines of other countries, that's why I am here.   I am know wondering what US/UK gaming mags you would still consider  still worth checking out today, without the nostalgia Bonus.

 

Would be curious if some guys  could share me your thoughts.

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I grew up in the US, so that's mostly what I know.

If you want strictly video games, it's hard to recommend anything as the video game market in the US was aimed at kids during the heyday of magazine publications.  Minus the nostalgia factor, I don't think most of them have much to offer.  Some of it can still be fun to read in a zany immature-college-roommate kind of way, but there isn't typically a lot of hard-hitting journalism or excellent prose to be found.  Early issues of Next Generation are quite nice, though.  I've heard that it eventually degenerated later in its life, but I never read that far.🙂

If you like PC stuff, the 90s-era PC Gamer is nice (after that, not so much), as are its predecessor mags - Game Player's PC Strategy Guide and Game Players PC Entertainment.

As for the UK, I've personally found most of their video gaming mags I've read to be even more juvenile than their US counterparts, but Edge always seemed to be a class above the rest.

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Thanks for your reply. Then I will just check everything out I can get a scan to check out how the magazines were back then.  It is an interesting  thing to  do. Considering that there were even lots of German  magazines I have never heard off, it will be even more vast putting in the   English speaking magazines in the equation.

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21 minutes ago, kitsunebi77 said:

IEarly issues of Next Generation are quite nice, though.  I've heard that it eventually degenerated later in its life, but I never read that far.🙂

As for the UK, I've personally found most of their video gaming mags I've read to be even more juvenile than their US counterparts, but Edge always seemed to be a class above the rest.

HAHA.  I just clicked on the link that was auto-created when I typed "Next Generation" and discovered that it was basically the US edition of Edge during the good "early years" I spoke of.  No wonder.  So I guess what I should have said is...if you want video game journalism, just read Edge.  (Btw, if you really want to check out Edge, you'll have to become a member of KiwisWorld, where they have almost all of them available.)

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/13/2019 at 5:02 AM, kitsunebi77 said:

HAHA.  I just clicked on the link that was auto-created when I typed "Next Generation" and discovered that it was basically the US edition of Edge during the good "early years" I spoke of.  No wonder.  So I guess what I should have said is...if you want video game journalism, just read Edge.  (Btw, if you really want to check out Edge, you'll have to become a member of KiwisWorld, where they have almost all of them available.)

Ah! I have seen copies of Edge and thought they looked incredibly similar in style to the way that Next Generation magazine looked back in the day... now I know why! I was a huge fan of Next Generation back in the day, mid 90's to early 00's. They did incredibly good research, had good photographs, well-written and technical articles... it wasn't just opinions, they really cared about the quality of their content... I miss them immensely -- it's a shame that it's not around. I can read Edge, if as you say, it's actually the same magazine. Is there a US edition of Edge, or is it purely European?

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  • 1 year later...

I subscribe to Retro Gamer UK at the moment. They've had to drop down to 100 pages as a result of the covid situation, but it's still a worthwhile read.

Amiga Future continues to be published. This was a newsstand magazine sold in Germany during the 1990s, which switched to subscription only with the Amiga's decline. Nowadays, it's published in German and English language editions and sold as a PDF or print edition. The publisher make older issues freely available on their website on a regular basis https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/kb/index?c=65

 

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  • 2 years later...
On 2/13/2019 at 8:02 AM, kitsunebi said:

HAHA.  I just clicked on the link that was auto-created when I typed "Next Generation" and discovered that it was basically the US edition of Edge during the good "early years" I spoke of.  No wonder.  So I guess what I should have said is...if you want video game journalism, just read Edge.  (Btw, if you really want to check out Edge, you'll have to become a member of KiwisWorld, where they have almost all of them available.)

90s EDGE/Next Generation definitely fits the bill for video game industry and technology journalism -- I love going back and reading their features with the benefit of hindsight -- but their actual game criticism was every bit as superficial as the reviews you'd find in the adolescent-targeted mags (e.g., GamePro, EGM).  Of all the 90s gaming mags, EDGE/NextGen had by far the strongest bias toward games that pushed technological limits for graphics/presentation (as one would expect given their name), while appreciation of the more subtle aspects of game design was almost entirely absent.  The game reviews are hilarious, just the number of bona fide classics (usually 2D, sprite-based) that get middling to poor review scores for no other reason than they don't fit the EDGE/NextGen narrative of polygons-over-everything.  You also have to make it past the snarky, superior tone of the writing (typically anonymous) that, again, stems from the magazine's edict to be an authority on the future of gaming.

The features, particularly the interviews and 1000ft industry perspective stuff, are still pretty enjoyable to read.  Just steer clear of the reviews.

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