I have been a subscriber to the OFFICIAL Dreamcast magazine since the issues started and I have to say that I have been fairly impressed by most of the magazines and the addition of a monthly guaranteed demo disc was obviously a great incentive for me to subscribe. I pay about £40 a year for 12 issues - which saves a good 33% and the magazines 'apparently' get to my house before they reach the shops - I say apparantly as they seem to arrive about the same time - and are occasionly late - but this doesn't matter too much.
I think the general content is of a godd standard - reliable reviews - and FAIR unbiased reviews - they do not give everything 10/10 and I actually agree with most of what they say. The layout of the magazine is very good - the pages are very glossy and full of relevant information about Dreamcast issues. In fact they actually have special designers to create some of the front covers - yes this is definitely the best looking magazine of all the Dreamcast magazines.
As for the reviews - welll they generally preview a game a couple of months before it is to be released so that in about 2 issues time they can review the game and give it a score out of ten - so far they have only awarded Soul Calibur full marks - I cannot believe that MSR only got 9/10! oh well, they have been known to change their scores at a later date!
So, what else is in the magazine? Well there are always competitions and the usual letters and Q&A pages - and also a whole inventory/ directory of all the Dreamcast games they have reviewed. The layout keeps the same from issue to issue - in that certain things are on certain pages - this helps the readers to become acostomed to the magazine - it's familiar to us.
As for the demo discs? Are they any good? Of course! In fact I think that in the last 3 months I've played some of the greatest games in my life - and they were on Demo! My favorite and arguably the best of these was the
Metropolis Street Racer time attack demo - brilliant demo - thanks Sega!
As for the competition? well i also subscribe to DC-UK which is also a very good magazine - although it is not as glossy - it is perhaps a 'friendlier' magazine as they offer more competitions and stuff.
The only bad aspect about ODM is the fact that the people that edit it and work on it ALWAYS put their faces on the pages - and quite frankly I do not want to have to look at them - for obvious reasons - it spoils my reading!