100 Issues of 'The Official UK PlayStation Magazine' (The Official UK Playstation Magazine)

Name: tom1clare

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Product:	The Official UK Playstation Magazine
Date:	20/06/03 (506 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Last remaining PSOne magazine, 1,200 reviews, 100 issues, Demo Discs

Disadvantages: £5 an issue, even now!, Full of mistakes recently, Certain older games appear to often in the magazine

Way back in November 1995, a new magazine was launched alongside a new console. July 2003, next month, that same magazine will be printing it's 100th issue, covering all things concerned with the most succesful game system in history.
PlayStation and 'The Official UK PlayStation Magazine' (OPM) have pretty much gone hand-in-hand over the last few years as support for PlayStation software elsewhere has all but evaporated completely. Like the PlayStation, OPM have had their ups and downs, but have pulled through against all the odds when many thought they would be gone by their 80th issue.
The first issue of the magazine that I got hold of was #37 - August or September, I think, of 1998. I was intrigued by the fact that adorning the cover was a strange creature with vivid pink hair, diving on a pig (Tombi). I recall the my mum was none to pleased that I had spent a fiver on a magazine, but what can you do? It had a demo disc on the cover which (shock, horror) actually allowed you to play small portions of soon to be released games. Over time as I got a little older and a tiny bit wiser I began to read the reviews more closely, instead of rushing straight to the end to see a brief summary and a score. I have always respected OPM greatly for doing in-depth reviews that looked at both the postive and the negative sides of games thoroughly, and they were never (and still aren't) biased for or against a particular license or genre of game. Whilst many magazines were all to hastey in their judgement of certain titles with poor graphics or a naff opening few hours play, OPM had the guts to award games like Shadowman and Hydro Thunder the good scores they deserved.
Over the last couple of years, the magazine has understandabley been getting thinner because of the dimishing quantities of new games, and demo discs no longer deliver slices of new games, instead their are almost always a selection of older demos nowadays. This policy is a bit hit-and-m
iss really - new gamers to PlayStation can sample a variety of games from the PlayStation portfolio, but experienced gamers and loyal readers will find them a waste of money. The magazine has stubbornly stayed at £5 despite the occasional protest from readers.
Many magazines change their layouts and styles from time to time, but the only major shake-up in OPM's history was around issue #70, early-mid 2001. In place of the drab-and-muted but stylish-and-informative mag of old was a much more casual, humourous approach with odd features and garishly bright colours. It seemed a disaster at first, but in time became oddly endearing. With this era of OPM however came a number of niggles that were uncharacteristic of the quality production it was always considered to be. Reviews suddenly became a lot shorter and would often leave many questions about a game unanswered, some are now as short as half-a-page (including pictures!). The magazine, as mentinoed previously, is not as long as it used to be and it is easy to spot half a dozen text-based mistakes (often pointed out by readers) every issue. This means spelling errors, mis-information and sometimes even their quiz doesn't provide a correct answer! That's not to say its a bad publication but these mistakes are absolutely routine and frankly, shouldn't be their. I would have thought they would have a spelling/grammer checker on their computers or even hire a proof-reader to iron out text gaffs.
Despite it having been the most expensive video games magazine of its time, there are very few PlayStation gamers who haven't bought at least one copy. At it's height (from records i've seen, February 1999, Issue #42 is the highest-selling) it was shifting just short of half a million copies an issue, and is still selling tens of thousands now.
OPM has a very long, involved past - seven and a half years, several editors (a new one moved in this month, Issue#99!), more than 1,200 game review
s and have built a reputation wherby they are known for decent coverage.
By best memory of 'The Official UK PlayStation Magazine' was probably waiting to see how good Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 was to be partly because it was the first Ridge Racer game in ages and people had said their was no chance that the arcade racer could take back the racing crown from Gran Turismo. Speculation and anticipation had been building for what seemed like forever until OPM finally delivered their verdict on it in Issue #45. Other highlights were the truly excellent reviews of Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill which both recieved 10/10.
The legendary score of 10/10 has appeared only a handful of times in the past, and were mainly awarded to more than one game in a series: all FIVE 'Tomb Raider's, two Drivers, two Spyro's, two ISS/Pro Evo's, two Grand Turismo's, two Tekken's and three Final Fantasy's, among just a few others in what is considered a fairly exclusive club. Something in the region of 1 in 50 games would get a 10/10 - two or three a year.
The 100th issue may or may not be the last issue of the magazine I buy, but it shouldn't outstay its welcome - it should be able to adequately cover new software and not continually look to the past for new features, which it hasn't been able to do since the start of 2003.
It may not be as good as it used to be but lets face it, no other PlayStation-exclusive magazine could have lasted 100 issues, as the competiton all had to 'upgrade' to PS2. I salute you OPM!

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