The Official Xbox Magazine [1-year]

In a way the Official Xbox Magazine is representative of this confusion. While the coverage is good, writing tends to be lackluster. The layout is just busy enough to be distracting. And it's a tad on the thin side. Yet this is just about the only production Xbox magazine except for those that cover multiple platforms. One would think that the publishers would take advantage of this position, but they do not.

In direct contrast to this 'just enough' style of print publication, the accompanying DVD is the best I've seen. It has a few articles, downloads, saved games, trailers, and several playable demos on each DVD. This may sound trivial, but it is all so nicely packaged with a plastic case that was made for passing around or reuse. Unfortunately for magazine circulation, I can see a group of players getting together to buy the magazine and passing the DVD around. Hopefully, this is the intent. In any case, to get full value, you must by this with the demo disc. Anything else will be disappointing.

Frankly, you don't have much choice. As I've said, the effort is acceptable, just not brilliant. If you want a journal dedicated to developments for Xbox then this is what you get. If you are interested in a better grade of articles (and no DVD) then there are several multi-platform publications that I think you will find more useful.


...   February 5, 2002
AMM (New England, United States)
26 out of 32 found this review helpful

I have a subscription to this magazine which comes with the demo disc. The magazine itself is great. Typical of all Imagine publications, there is quite a bit of humor to be found in the mag. The screenshots are clear, the writers are knowledgeable about XBOX technology and the reviews are generally right on. When they rate a game, they aren't afraid to be honest and this has saved me some money from buying games that I THOUGHT looked good, but turned out to be pretty bad. Let's face it, new games are $50 and that's no small sum for anyone.

If you own an XBOX or are thinking of buying one, this should be required reading for you.


Great, But No Game Disc   December 2, 2001
21 out of 25 found this review helpful

My 3 star rating has less to do with the magazine itself than the fact that I ordered this subscription after reading that the magazines would include the XBox game disc. I was excited that I had found such a great deal, mainly because the price is about half what I saw it going for everywhere else. But days after my order, I got an email saying that the descriptions were wrong, and there would be no game disc included. I cancelled my subscription and I'll probably just end up paying the extra money to get the subscription that includes the demos.


make sure you get a subscription with a disc!   December 11, 2002
decompiler (Austin, Texas)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

If you've got a 'BOX (and why would you be subscribing to this mag if you didn't?) DON'T get the subscription without the disc. somebody got me the subscription from here as a gift, and i have to occaisionaly go out and buy a second copy of the mag just so i can get the disc! (hello, splinter cell demo!)

The magazine itself is a wicked great read; all of the editors have distinctly cool personalities and game preferences. In the year that i've been reading, i've gotten to know all of their gaming preferences and feel i can trust their reviews of the games i'm looking for advice on.

to sum up my feelings on the magazine: i'm always excited when i get a new one, i always read it from cover to cover, i'm always sad when i finish the last page, i'm always waiting for the next one, and i've never been disappointed.


NO DISK????!!!   December 3, 2001
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

WARNING!! I was just notified by Amazon that this subscription does not include the disc that usually comes with this magazine when you buy it at the newstand. Getting this disk and being able to play the upcoming game demos on it was one of my main reasons for subscribing. Needless to say, I have cancelled my subscripton here and will be finding this magazine elsewhere.