Electronic Gaming Monthly

Now my review: EGM is a magazine that is dedicated to bring the readers and non-biased veiw on the gaming world today. They include many balenced features that other gaming magazines don't include. The reviews are 3 person based and provide much insite on to why the game reviewed is fun and well made. They also never review an import or incomplete game. They want the reader to feel like they can buy a game without hesitation or anger if the game is not up to their expectations.

The previews are also just as good. Most are shot paragraphs of what the upcomming game will be like, what it will feature, and how far along it is. These previews are never ahcking at why it will ... or not. They keep it upbeat and hope for the best out of "X" game.

The rest of the magazone is the usual flare. The top selling games of the month, game release dates, editors voice, pictures (oh the pictures!) codes, cheats, and so on. The two special articles are the gamers letters and the writers veiws.

The gamers letters are often a bread basket of the old and the young gamers alike. What they say are not often the majorities views, but are refreshing and worth a laugh or two none the less. The editors last word is probably the most different of any gaming magazine. This is where they talk about the gaming industry, the gamers, etc. It shows the reader that the writers are people too. They have views, opinions and feelings. Although they are not too serious, they are very insightful and summarize the magazines overall appeal.

Overall, EGM is a magazine for any gamer. Although adult in execution, the product is for anyone looking for a quality product. ...EGM is substance and style. ..


Fallen flat on it's face   August 3, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

There is so much wrong with the mag now and so many reasons why it's inferior than 2-5 years ago 1000 words couldn't do it justice. When EGM redesigned it's mag, I got a glimmer of hope, thinking they might try to get back to their roots. Nope instead of coming up with their own original design, they go ahead and copy the design of retailers EB's GMR. Somehow, I realized, the magazine has managed to sink even lower than before...lets get a list going of problems:

...my current biggest pet peeve...always use space excuses to justify tiny reviews for certain games, then they go on and dedicate FIVE PAGES to cell phone games. All those pages where quality console game review space is wasted. Secondly, they have more pics then text in half of their reviews which is useless as that is what the previews section is for.

- the reviews have been biased for a while now as mentioned before...games like moto gp 2 and advance wars 2 getting bashed for being the same, while games like madded 2004 get nothing but praise even though they state you can stick with the 2003 version. None of the reviewers know anything at all about the real life versions of sports games there reviewing either. They also waste plenty of space mentioning somebody elses review, using it as a personal blabber channel...and pointless comparisions to other games in the genre or prequels. In short, if you want to know if you want to buy a game or not, read elsewhere.

- Like reviews, they have 3 times the staff and yet they are unable to cover games anymore for previews. It really is quite ridicolous seeing the N64, DC, and PS1 gen had a comparable number of titles released. Again useless 5 sentence write-off's are getting more common. The editorial has shrunk to 1/6 of the page....and game over has been butchred as well. The letters section is filled with repetitive questions/stupidity instead of thought prevoking issues.
- The visuals are the worst I remember...plain ugly.
- Even if you subscribe, you still have to remove 10 loose papers when you get your mag.

In the end, with the internet slowly dimming the light of print media, you'd think they'd get more aggresive and improve there act. Far from it, in fact they are turning away people. Rarely have I read an EGM from this year for more than 2-3 days on and off. Back in the day they'd last you the whole month because they weren't filled with BS. In fact I'd say they are on par with gamepro, and game informer is ahead of them in every aspect besides the fact that game informer get's paid off for a few reviews every month.


On second thought...   March 5, 2004
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

They're not as bad as I said they were. Really, the only problems I have is the ink (which I said last time) and that's about it. The new format has grown on me, and I dont really have much problem with the reviews section. I actually like the 3 reviewers now taking full hold. The staff page in the front is always funny, and the letters are too. They have one of the best in terms of an EIC and even though his column seems to be shorter than it used to be in the old format, it's still great. Yes I cant complain, about what some have said about there being too much red ink, but say what u want, white text on red, makes it very easy to read and red on white is easy to read too, along with white on black and vice versa. I love the comic they have in the back of the mag, called Hsu and Chan, and Hsu probably has something to do with the EIc, cause his last name is Hsu. They have pretty good articles in Press Start sometimes. And I can truly say that this one of the game magazines that I really like when it gets here each month. I've never read Seanbaby's reviews. Only his column. Same with their tips and tricks editor. And their rumor mill guy, Quartermann, is cool too. Both the page of rumors and his columns. Well, as always, all I can say is to go buy a copy, but you will probably want to subscribe, cause then you wont have to deal with the bags on the issues and all the other junk inside the bag.


EGM vs. Nintendo Power   January 24, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

i currently own a gamecube and a ds, and my brother gets a subscription to NP. for a while i have just been borrowing NP when he's done, but a few days ago i decided to try EGM. i was very impressed and thinking about getting a subscription. here is EGM vs. Nintendo Power:

Reviews:
EGM: Pros: 3 reviewers for each game, 1-10 point system, games are reviewed on many different factors, if it's bad they come straight out and tell you.
Cons: the tiniest bit biased towards PS2, sometimes compare games to overly hyped games (well, halo 2 was better because...)
NP: Pros: 5 reviewers to a game, tons of games reviewed in each issue.
Cons: only 1-5 point system, always gives nintendo published games higher scores than third-party games, reviews are short (like 1/4-1/2 a page long).

Previews
EGM: Pros:lots of screenshots.
Cons:not very many per issue.
NP: Pros: an entire section devoted to previews as well as bigger previews spread throughout the issue, big game previews come with a poster of that game.
Cons: sometimes too long to hold your intrest.

Game Stratagies and Walk-throughs
EGM: Pros: always has a big list of cheats in the back.
Cons: walkthroughs are very short.
NP: Pros: very in-depth walkthroughs, section for cheats and hints.
Cons: walkthroughs take up way too much of the magazine (like a 15 page walkthrough for each game), sometimes the cheats section focuses just on one game.

Extras
EGM: Pros: rumors section, lots of unique and interesting stories (like a band that makes music out of old GameBoys), every once and a while it comes with a demo disk.
Cons: the Japanese Imports section is just a waste for people like me who wait and buy games when they arrive in the States.
NP: Pros: a contest in every issue (usually with a pretty cool prize).
Cons: not much to read unless you have every game that they give walkthroughs for.

Overall
EGM-for people who have multiple systems, this is the best magazine out there, or, if you only have one system, this is still very good because they give you honest reviews and they do comparisons (like xbox against gamecube)
NP-for people who only have nintendo systems, this is great. it has the most comprehensive coverage out there of nintendo games.






Simply OK....   July 13, 2005
Madisen (Fruita, CO United States)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

I bought a copy of this magazine for the Zelda coverage. After reading the wonderful Zelda article, I decided to explore the rest of the mag. What I discovered was a mixed bag. I'm a longtime subscriber to Game Informer, so most of my opinions are based on comparisons to that...

EGM had many articles of the kind that you wouldn't find in GI. GI focuses almost exclusively on the games themselves; EGM has more features on stuff like game-shopping venues, game development, etc. It was those parts that I enjoyed the most.

Unforgivably, EGM has no "preview" section. Unless they are doing a feature on a game, they barely touch on it, whereas GI gives extensive coverage on practically everything coming up.

The reviews...utterly confusing. I had to look all over the page just to find the freakin' scores. And yes, there are 3 scores for each game. This makes each review feel broken up, and in many cases, repetitive...

The "humor", however, was the deal-breaker. I like how GI keeps the jokes to snide industry commentary, with a touch of potty humor when it's unavoidable. This magazine seems to revel in being as filthy and nasty as possible. Throughout the magazine, I found so many references to various sexual things that it became impossible to count them all.

Overall, EGM is not as professional, well-formatted, or informative as GI. I would reccomend that magazine instead.