| Product: |
Edge |
| Date: |
20/07/00 (218 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Excellent writing all round, in-depth analysis of the state of the industry, beautiful presentation, revolutionary scoring system
Disadvantages: Expensive without a subscription, can be a little pretentious
Note: this is an update of an opinion I wrote a while ago therefore some of the comments correspond to the earlier version.
Videogames magazines all fall into one of three categories: the profanity-filled single-format rag aimed at the twenty-something casual gamer; the thin, picture-filled, also single-format offering aimed at kids in which every game scores 80% or more; and the well-written, objective and informative multi-format publication aimed at the discerning and intelligent gamer. Oh sorry, hold on a minute, there's only one magazine that falls into the latter category and that's 'Edge'. 'Spose I better review it then.
In my eyes, there is no reason to buy a magazine that covers only one format. Being an owner of more than one console it would mean I would have to shell out lots of cash every month to keep up with all of them but, more importantly, the information I would be receiving would be wholly false. The problem with single-format magazines is that the writers seem to feel they have to validate the reader's purchase of whatever console the magazine is devoted to and therefore fill it with partisan rhetoric devoted to unfairly sullying the supposed 'enemy' console. As someone who takes a keen interest in what goes on within the games industry and knows that all this stuff is untrue, this grates immensely. Unfortunately, it seems that people like me are a dying race as more and more single-format magazines coming out while the multi-format market is increasingly marginalised. In fact, since the decline of 'Arcade', 'Edge' seems to be the only publication left which will give me an objective view of the world of videogames.
Your first impression of Future Publishing's gaming flagship is that it is a high quality publication. The cover is always uncluttered and is finished in a very sophisticated matt effect which I'm told doubles as an excellent mouse mat. The inside is e
qually classy. Everything's laid out nicely, the art work is of a high calibre and very few fonts are used to give the articles and features the same uncluttered quality as the cover.
Despite this, you could not argue that 'Edge' is a triumph of style over substance because, hard as it may seem, the quality of copy is just as high as that of the presentation.
The 'frontend' section offers news from every aspect of the gaming industry (including neglected sectors such as mobile phone and IDTV gaming) and views from the most influential people in the business. Whether you want to know about the latest games show (and we're not just talking E3, TGS or ECTS here), the corporate strategies of companies vying for your cash or the latest advances in interactivity it's all here.
'prescreen' and 'prescreen focus' are the preview sections ('prescreen focus' taking a more in-depth look at the most interesting games of the month including interviews with the team developing it) and are, refreshingly, mostly devoid of all that terrible, see-through hype that surrounds any imminent release. 'Edge' even suggested that 'Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty' mightn't be very original. Sadly, despite its accuracy, this would be a totally unheard of assertion in any of the PlayStation2-only press. It doesn't seem to occur to writers in lesser publications that they might question the press release.
'testscreen' is the reviews section, surely the main reason why people buy videogames magazines. Finally, a magazine has a scoring system where the numbers actually represent how good the game is. Whereas most publications will score as such: anything scoring 0-7/10 is a bad game; anything scoring 8/10 is a good game; and anything scoring 9/10 is an excellent game, 'Edge' takes the stance that a game scoring 5/10 is average and everything is worked around that. Ther
efore anything scoring 6/10 or over is worth consideration. I would rather a scoring system where a game is scored out of twenty (I feel that the 'out of ten' system is a little inaccurate and the percentage system is overly accurate to the point where there's no difference between 86% and 87%) but the excellently written reviews make up for this minor shortcoming. Again, hype is not a consideration in this section, as indicated by 'Edge''s recent review of 'Gran Turismo 3: A-spec'. It is heartening to know that the magazine will only rate a game on its relative merits and not on how good the publisher's marketing department is.
One small problem with 'testscreen' is the quantity of games covered. Obviously it would be hard to look at every game released for every platform each month (plus there's no point in reviewing the latest incarnation of 'FIFA' or 'Formula One' since no 'Edge' reader is so lacking in discernment they would buy them) but I occasionally find myself without a trusted review for a game I'm considering buying. Also, it would be nice if the readers were reminded of a score a game got when released in Japan or the US if the European launch is considerably later.
The periphery sections are just as good as the rest of the magazine. The editorials written by Tony Mott (the editor), RedEye (a veteran games journalist who, for reasons obvious when you read his column, prefers to remain anonymous), Steven Poole (author of 'Trigger Happy: The Inner Life Of Videogames') and Toshihiro Nagoshi (president of Sega's Amusement Vision) all offer a great insight into the world of games and are highly enjoyable to read (especially RedEye's), even if Nagoshi-san's English could be better. Additionally, every single feature that appears in 'Edge' has the amazing ability to make me think 'ooh, that sounds interesting' whenever I peruse the
contents page of a new issue.
'The making of...', 'Edge''s monthly look at the greatest games of yesteryear is very enjoyable too. It's nice to know that the people who made some of the best entertainment software ever were just as amateurish as me when it comes to programming and it reminds me of a time where people made games because they wanted to, not because a publisher had commissioned it.
Finally, there is 'inbox', the letters page; in most magazines the home of banal and prejudicial comment from the adolescent (or adolescently-minded) readership but in 'Edge' it just hosts more intelligent and interesting ideas.
And what is missing? A tips section! Yes, that twenty pages of unnecessary game spoilage you always skip has no home in 'Edge' and quite right too. What's the point of buying a game and then being told how to complete it? That's like being told what happens at the end of a film before you watch it. Also missing is the monumental amount of game adverts normally found in the more popular appendages of the gaming press. Perhaps advertisers consider 'Edge' readers too discerning to fall for their propaganda. There are a ton of adverts for jobs in the industry at the back of the magazine but these could actually be quite useful if you were looking to get a foot in the door and, if you're not, at least you know which pages you have to skip.
If you hadn't already guessed from the bulk of this review, I think 'Edge' is without doubt the best games magazine on the market. It's expensive for a magazine without a demo disc but I'd be prepared to pay double what I do for the best games writing available. Forget your single-formart and official magazines and your American websites which overuse the word 'dude' and seem to love every game they play, 'Edge' is all you need.
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