The FUTURE of games mags (PSM 2 Magazine)

Member Name: nakedchoke

Product:	PSM 2 Magazine
Date:	06/03/02 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free DVD, great impartial reviews, brilliant presentation

Disadvantages: quite DVD speech, too many cheats

** Introduction **
For some reason I always look for the Future Publishing logo when buying my mags. I have found they have a high level of writers and use many descriptive words and all their publications go into depth. Nearly any subject they publish something on it seems their writers have a real passion for the subject matter.

** Free DVD action **
When you see this on the shelf you will ultimately notice the covermounted DVD. I have to say their promise about not showing just adverts of upcoming games isn’t always true but the overall quality of the disc is high.

It has the accelerator section that has all the latest news with footage included and quite often something exclusive such as insider secret filming of games. For example last issue they went to Codemasters and sneaked some footage of Colin McCrae 3.

There is always an upcoming games section that features around 15 clips of games that are worth a look. Most the time they try to include real in game clips but sometimes the odd advert gets in there.

You have the review section where the writers talk over the reviews whilst showing you some in game footage. The speech from the reviewers is often too quite but it can be turned on or off by pressing R3.

One of the most handy sections is the pro tips that obviously gives you some tips on the games but also shows you how to do things. This is far more useful than some screenshots in a magazine. Lately I found the short cut tips for SSX Tricky very useful.

Developer insight is an interesting section not found in any other free DVD’s I have purchased. What this provides is footage of an upcoming game along with one of the games developers explaining the various features and things to expect on release.

The sound is pretty good but the voices are usually not loud enough. The menus are easy to navigate and very smart and the overall production of the DVD is high. Normally there
is over an hours worth of gaming clips to sit through.

** The mag **
As is the norm for games mags you are given the contents page followed by the news. The news is always up to date and will often feature something not found in another magazine that was released during the same month. There is the usual most wanted lists of games and upcoming release dates coupled with sales tables for the past month.

Next up you will find the preview section where the writers get to test future releases before they come out but normally in an early form. Here you are given the expected features of the game as well as the hands on impression that isn’t always totally positive at this stage of a games development.

Normally they will get to interview a developer or take a trip to a studio and this will make a great feature including many behind the scenes and exclusive details as well as screen shots from upcoming projects. Lately they took a trip to Acclaim to get some exclusive info on the new Turok game being developed for the first time on a Sony console.

Reviews are always important and this magazines takes the readers wallets into consideration. You will never find them giving high scores for games that suck just to please developers or Sony in general. This is one of the main worries with magazines but this one doesn’t seem to be influenced at all. Normally a reviewer with no bias is chosen to review a game and they go into great depth and have some of the best screenshots. You can tell they play the games to death and try to help your decision as much as possible because they know that £40 is a lot to waste on some rushed out piece of crap.

As with most similar mags there is a section dedicated to the readers, here you can enter comps to win prizes, send in your letters and try to get them printed. Each month the star letter gets a game of their choice. Letters are found at the front of the mag but the rest come to
ward the end.

One of the biggest sections is the pro tips part. This has many cheats and tips for lots of games and covers many pages. So far I have only used the game guides which are excellent always and really help when you get stuck. I try not to be tempted by the cheats but do feel they take up far to many pages. There are around 4 or 5 pages just on cheats and most are the same each issue.

Toward the end they have a section giving a brief summary of all their game reviews that include information on games and a short description of each. This is really helpful and so far I have got 5 from the six recommended games and am very happy with them. This does use up quite a lot of pages but its always useful. One thing I would liked to have seen is a reader review section and re-reviews of old games as the second generation of titles are now being released.

You can also find the overload section that’s basically more great previews of upcoming games. There's a small two page part named the bog read that is basically a rant about something topical in videogame news at the time. This normally makes for an interesting read, the last was about games being released in Europe last when we are such a large market.

** Overall **
This is far better in terms of layout and ease of use than any other magazine for PS2. Even though the DVD isn't playable the videos give you a good idea of what the game plays like and they make good use of the DVD with other features. All the reviews seem to be fair and the scores never to high unlike some mags that like to please Sony and other developers. Really the only other magazine worth trying is the official one but only if the demo has something on you really would like to try before you buy.

Summary: