The dog's b******s or not ? (PSM 2 Magazine)

Member Name: kasgaroth

Product:	PSM 2 Magazine
Date:	18/10/01 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Comps, Nice tips sections, Loads of reviews

Disadvantages: Cover disc just aint quite up to it yet

When you first look at the PSM2 mag in its shiny plastic wrapper, it looks just fine so you are tempted to buy a copy to take it home and see what it's like.

The magazine is of a high standard(but arn't all comp mags), averaging around 130 pages of literature, on reviews tips, upcoming releases etc. It has plenty of screenshots of the games and and includes those all important cover dvd's.

One of the things that caught my eye when reading this was the PRO-DOJO section. In this section they host tables for various games , where if you are fast and good enough to get a record time and send evidence in then you can win an Action Replay 2 V2 kit. Not bad. Just for the SSX league alone you have 12 chances to try and win , 6 for the highest scores and 6 for times, interesting, time to get those fingers tapping those buttons so see if i can get anywhere near.

The tips section has good help issues to let you know how to beat those games , but i thought it is a bit small, could do with a few more pages here, but to help around this they do have an alphabetical list of game cheats if you are really stuck. They also have a PSM2 Clinic which is quite good keeping you informed of those upcoming and already released extras for the PS2, here htey tell exactly what they do and can help you decide whether you want one or not.

Absolute PS2 is their listing of games that are currently available to buy in the UK, here they give you a brief description of the game itself and rate them, One of the things i liked about this section is the fact that the games are listed by genre not alphabetically so if you have a favourite type of game , it's a hell of a lot easyier to find the games to interest you.

Now onto the reviews and preview sections, here they go into some depth on some of the games with literally loads of screenshots so you can see what those lovely graphics look like, some
of the storys on the games cover more than anything that you waould want to know, they also supply you with those all important release dates and prices of the games and are on top of the news as it happens. All the games that are revieved that are available in shops have also got a small hands on review section , telling you about the important playability info as they put the games through the paces.
All in all there are around 100 pages in these sections.
There are also plenty of other smaller sections:-

Incoming - A list of all those important expected release dates

PSM2 Charts - Shows the UK top 20 games and the US top 5 and Jap top 5 games

Pro Tips - Another section where you can write in and ask for help or advice on games you are stuck on

Action Replay Codes - speaks for itself

Overload - Short reviews on games being made

Letters - Section where readers letters are posted that arn't requesting help, Here the star letter writer gets a free game courtsey from The Game

Coverdisc - This section tells you whats on the diosc and how to navigate but ill go more into that in a min

Accelerator - This is where they put the big news first, the section roughly 20 pages and generally has plenty of detail and pics.

Now heres the all important news on the dvd i was totally dissapointed with these as most of them contain nothing but commentary and videos , a playable demo is a total rareity and that is generally one of the most important things. A demo can give you a lot better look and feel of a game than anything else no matter how many pics and stories are written. There is a slight con with a lot of the pics used in the games mags almost all are taken from video scenes etc and these can show you a lot better image than what you can get in a game.

my overall summary is that although the mag itself is done to quite a high standard and contain some good i
nfo - unless they start improving those coverdiscs there are a lot better maga out there for you to spend your money on.


Price - £3.49
Publisher - Future Publishing

(strange how Future Publishing make a couple of PS and PS2 mags that they can all be so different)

Summary: