| Product: |
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine |
| Date: |
10/04/07 (241 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Geared towards casual gamer, plenty to do on the demo DVD
Disadvantages: Geared towards casual gamer, expensive, lacking features
Under my bed is a box full of magazines, mostly issues of the monthly Official PlayStation Magazine (OPSM), of which I have about over a years worth. It wasn't my preferred PlayStation publication; at a fiver it wasn't cheap - I felt the quality can be a mixed bag at times - but I liked to sample different games from the demo CD. At the time with news of the PlayStation 2 in it's early stages and the number of new PSOne releases being on the low side, attention was being shifted to the PS2 - however, I wasn't ready for such a change. Along with the odd content which I found questionable I soon stopped buying the magazine.
Since then the internet had become more widely and easily available, with magazines no longer being the only way of keeping up-to-date with some of the latest news. A look at the ABC stat - number of copies shifted throughout a period - for the PlayStation 2 Official Magazine-UK (OPS2) shows that they are down by about two thirds in comparison to OPSM, despite the popularity of the PS2. It would be about 7 years before I buy an Official PlayStation Magazine via OPS2. What made me consider buying that issue (#82, February 2007) was the playable demo for two football games, as well as a games directory - which I would find handy - put together from that very issue. At £5.99 it is pricey, and on 132 pages it is notably thinner than any of my issues of OPSM.
From the amusing pictures of the contributors found in the opening editorial, it is clear that this magazine does not take things too seriously. What follows is the contents then a brief look at the samples of games that can be found on the DVD. The instructions are left to the demo, and there is well enough to do here on this disk. The DVD is easy to navigate, although I did wish that the game demos were programmed for a quick restart. One demo would crash if I didn't skip the sequence but this is not entirely the fault of those responsible for the magazine.
Flicking over to the next couple of pages, "A great game is always a great game, no matter when it was released" - I never thought I would see this given that this is the kind of magazine which would be too happy to occasionally wheel out the tired old gameplay-over-graphics argument, only to proceed by marking down or having a moan at a game not being visually up-to-scratch. Anyway, in this Postal section where they deal with different types of mail - including those by text message which I loathe, I found the Score Bores to be a waste of space. This is where they highlight quotes from people of various sources who dare be disrespectful enough to question their game ratings.
What follows is the news and game previews regarding the PS2, PSP and PS3. Such is the level of graphical detail in most of today's games perhaps the size of the screenshots do not show them in the light they deserve, but there is enough to look at here. The pages are certainly not short of colour - something I found lacking in OPSM with page after page of white backgrounds, but I feel it is no match for the games magazines of the early 90s which were stylish as well as being colourful.
Onto the Review section (of PS2 and PSP games), backed by: "the only reviews section you can trust" - which I find, how would I put it? Optimistic? After-all, those quoted in the Score Bores surely have had something to say about that! I felt the way the reviews were written was good and the quality throughout was fairly consistant. Disappointingly, only the main featured game was given a full colour treatment.
Next, there is a glimpse at the game charts - no game voucher like they used to have in OPSM I'm afraid. Monthly challenges for the competitive, then cheats and a walkthrough - which might be of use in the future. What is nice about the games directory are the Top 5 lists and the OPS2 Time Test for a handful of games. Of worry is that one game being put through the test had a score dropped from 9 to 6 (out of ten), so just how much consideration they take when rating is questionable. To close there are plenty of advertisements for mobile-related stuff and even the Official Magazine has to host adverts for adult chat-up lines. Both the magazine and DVD case have a BBFC 15 certificate, though there is nothing dodgy with the magazine except those back pages.
Given the 'Official' tag this magazine gears itself towards the casual gamer - the Postal section is indication of this as I did not find anything raised by the readers that struck a point with me. I felt this way about OPSM, but when I think back to that magazine I realise how watered-down OPS2 is; gone are the columns and insightful features. I guess that's what you can do with 20-odd extra pages, but I would have been better off spending that £5.99 towards some games.
Summary: Official PlayStation 2 Magazine
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Last comment:
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freediveheaven - 10/04/07 Did wonder what you were about to review from that opening line. : ) |
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