FunEffect.com

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

What's the most scathing video-game review you ever read? I don't mean Angry Video Game Nerd-type stuff; that's meant to be comedy. I'm talking about the sort of review that rips the game completely apart from end to stinking end, one where you can feel the seething resentment from every letter of every word on the page. Roger Ebert's good at writing movie reviews like that, but surely we've got someone like that for us in our industry, don't we?

I'd argue that the closest we ever got was Scorpia. I'm not going to call her the best game critic ever, but when she didn't like a game, she really didn't like it.

I bring this up because I was thumbing through some old Computer Gaming World magazines and came across her review of Ultima VIII, released by Origin in early 1994. She wrote about...ahh, how about I just let you read it for yourself? It starts on full blast and didn't stop until three pages later. (Despite her opinions, she still wrote three more pages of strategy coverage for Ultima VIII in the same issue. It must've been a hard month for her.)

CGW, as I've written about before, was an extremely well-written magazine...or, at least, a very densely-written one. Reviews of big games would often go into the thousands of words, analyzing every little detail of the RPGs, adventures and simulations of the day. In the very early issues -- back when Scorpia was still writing under her real name -- you would have these incredibly complex rundowns of strategy and computer intelligence in games that were literally written in Applesoft BASIC. No American magazine gives a more intimate view of what the industry was like in the '80s, and no writer does a better job than Scorpia in representing how the hardcores saw computer RPGs back then.

That's probably why her review of Ultima VIII wound up the way it did. In a way, U8 is symbolic of what happened to the computer game biz in the early '90s. After technology began to get cheaper Wolf3D and Doom made the industry semi-mainstream, games beefed up their visual displays to dizzying heights in the course of only a few years, going from staid EGA Sierra adventures to the dazzling 3D showcase of The 7th Guest. Ultima was an RPG series that built its name over many, many years with a small but dedicated fanbase; when Origin took on a movie-like approach to game design with titles like Wing Commander and Strike Commander, Ultima tried and failed to play along.

U8 is really not that terrible a game, in my opinion. Buggy and unfinished upon release, yes, but lots of PC games are. I'm not alone with that take, either -- among others, PC Format gave U8 a pretty stellar review. It just shouldn't have been called Ultima. To Ultima fans, the idea of an RPG where the Avatar had to jump from tiny platform to tiny platform was sacrilege -- and I think you can see that shine through in Scorpia's review all too well.

Do you have a past review you remember for its nastiness? Why not share it with me in the comments? I'd like to read some more like this one.

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

What is it about pandemics? We've had a rash of them recently, and here's another. In this one, though, the pandemic is the zombie apocalypse.

Most games with zombies are horror apocalypse; in this one, you are, by implication, a mad scientist unleashing the zombie apocalypse on the world. It's played in a series of stages, each one set in a "city"; you trigger a zombie infection, then watch as your zombies eat the brains of citizens, sweeping your pointer about to collect coins when they die. Then, you upgrade your zombie capabilities in the "Lab." At higher levels, the humans fight back with mercs, secret agents, Spiderman, Santa Claus and other such things who are harder to infect and who fight your zombies, possibly stopping the infection before you collect lots of coins. Luckily, you get bombs and such to blow them up as an upgrade.

Each stage lasts a very brief time, and there really isn't a lot of gameplay here, since you're basically just choosing where to trigger the infection and then watching it spread. But the graphics are retro pixel art and the music infectious chiptune techno, so it has a nice 80s videogame feel to it.

Not deep, but fun, and clever in bits.

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

It's January! And, largely, that means the game industry is still recovering from Christmas and hasn't built up the steam to start beating the E3 drums quite yet.

I'm taking advantage of this lull to go on vacation. By the time you read this, I'll be the guy depicted above, dodging trees and scoring all kinds of 1000-point bonuses over in the Sierras. Until I return, magazines will be the furthest thing from my mind!

That's then, however. This is now, of course, and I have a big stack of magazines to recap:

Game Informer January 2010

Cover: Halo: Reach

A very solid issue that goes a further distance toward making GI into the Edge-ish "industry journal" it seems to be angling to become. There's a very good interview with Activision's Bobby Kotick that successfully makes him seem like a decent, intelligent executive instead of the evil overlord some parts of game-dom see him as. The Halo: Reach piece is standard for GI cover pieces, but the bit that follows it -- an overview of Irrational Games -- is straight-on challenging Edge at their own game, and I think they made a decent success of it.

A best-of-'09 roundup isn't quite as enthralling as the 200th-issue spectacular two issues ago, but the vast amount of space given to The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (5 pages out of 100!) is extremely well-used.

It seems to me that GI has changed their paper stock to something a bit flimsier and less glossy starting with this issue. If it's true (and not my imagination playing tricks on me), they likely did it to lighten the mag and thus save on postage. They wouldn't be the first publisher to do this, either -- Future prints the subscriber editions of the mags in lighter stock than the newsstand versions, and I remember there being all sorts of pressure along similar lines back during my GamePro days. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I hallucinating?

Edge January 2010

Cover: The best of 2000-2009

The cover was washed out a fair bit by my scanner; apologies about that. It touts an internal feature that should've been just another boring game roundup, but shines a fair bit thanks to its choices (World of Warcraft winning "game of the decade") and to the industry folks they tapped for their opinions.

The other main features, including a preview of Metro 2033 (a bit more in-depth over GamePro's last month) and a look at motion-capture tech that's basically a slightly friendlier take on a Game Developer article, are solid if not blockbuster.

It being January, this month's Edge comes with a massive 2010 calendar poster, this year themed around Zelda: Spirit Tracks -- timely, because there's a long interview with Eiji Aonuma between the pages too.

Nintendo Power February 2010

Cover: NBA Jam

64 pages of this issue are devoted to previews of 2010's Wii and DS games. Is NBA Jam the hottest game to lead with? Well, I think so, but then again I was squarely in the target audience for the original arcade game, so nostalgia's undoubtedly having an effect on me there. The coverage is all great in the feature, remarkably enough, and even includes a cameo visit from Ken as portrayed in the NES title Street Fighter 2010 (timely!).

Folks who can't stand preview roundups like this one may be a bit disappointed by the issue, but don't blame NP -- they've got only four non-downloadable games in the review well this month, requiring them to do stuff like give a full page to The Glory of Heracles.

Official Xbox Magazine February 2010

Cover: Mass Effect 2

It's a slow review month in Xbox-land, too, and OXM makes up for it by devoting 13 pages to coverage of Mass Effect 2 and BioWare -- stuff you'll eat up if you're a fan. The following piece, a speculative article on what Halo 4 may be like, reminds me quite a bit (in a good way) of the way, way early Halo 2 cover EGM did a long time ago.

Otherwise, much of the mag is previews, along with a "2009 game awards" piece that doesn't jump out at me quite as much as Edge's similar feature.

Play January 2010

Cover: Mass Effect 2

Best part of the issue, bar none, is the three-page art spread of old video-game platform mascots, further expanded from what they did in the November edition. In my opinion, anyway. Apologies to Doug Perry, who wrote 10 pages on Mass Effect 2 that goes into a great deal more depth on the machinations of the game than OXM did (although it's not a review).

Retro Gamer Issue 72

Cover: Gradius

I did not realize that the ZX Spectrum port of Gradius was "infamous" -- I thought "bad" would've been a more appropriate term for it. However, Gradius's flyer art makes for a pretty awesome cover, and the full-on look at the arcade game inside is pretty well worth reading. (To answer my question: Among other things, the coders based their port on the MSX version for some reason.)

Beckett Massive Online Gamer March/April 2010

Cover: World of Warcraft

MOG has more pages than Play this month, as much as that fills me with chagrin. I can't argue with success, however (or survival anyway), and this issue has all the usual in-depth coverage of what seems like a million MMOs. And a poster!

Game Developer January 2010

Cover: Aion

Speaking of which, here's a postmortem on an MMO now! The Aion piece is up to GD's usual level of enthrallment, filled with neat details and tales of woe ("development was part soap opera, part meatgrinder").

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

Video games collector site Digital Press has started posting downloadable PDF issues from Ion International's early 80s magazine Videogaming Illustrated. The bi-monthly publication debuted in August 1982 under several variations of its original title (Videogaming and Computer Gaming Illustrated, Video and Computer Gaming Illustrated) before that magazine was killed off in March 1984.

The selection of PDF images is still incomplete, but you can already grab seven different installments full of classic video game advertisements, previews, and feature articles like "Astronaut Defends Videogames" (April 1983) and "The Videogame Which Takes Six Months To Play" (Dec. 1982). You can download the Videogaming Illustrated issues here.

[Via Stonic]

A few interesting items showed up on eBay recently: Matt Hazard memorabilia from the action hero's decades old games like Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, Haz-Matt Karts, Choking Hazard: Candy Gram, You Only Live 1,317 Times, and Matt Hazard 3D. A total of four actions have popped up, each offering t-shirts, drink coasters, and friendship slap bracelets, all '80s artifacts from Marathon Software's heyday.

This would probably be believable if Marathon Software actually existed and if the Matt Hazard series made its debut some time before February of this year. Those of you familiar with the faux-retro Matt Hazard franchise, from its PS3/360 "revival Eat Lead to its upcoming PSN/XBLA downloadable Blood Bath and Beyond, likely already suspected something was amiss, though.

The fabricated collectibles are for a good cause, as the seller plans to donate all of the proceeds from the auctions to Child's Play, the gaming industry-supported charity dedicated to donating toys and games to sick children in more than 60 hospitals worldwide. You can find links to all four of the auctions here.

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

It's December, and an extremely unlikely bout of snow in Houston has made me yearn for some idyllic age when it was just me, my dog, some hot chocolate, and a stack of Nintendo Powers by a roaring fire. I have only a couple of those things handy (I'm too afraid to actually try using my fireplace, which has been empty for about a decade), but my attention is diverted right now anyway with all the big and important things going on with modern game mags.

For one, this week marks the debut of the John Davison-run GamePro, which released both its January '10 issue and a winter buyer's guide a few days back. Davison is quick to warn that the real changes to the print mag are reserved for next month, but already you can see some of his trademarks: features that put developers front and center; reviews that treat video games as forms of expression and rate them more seriously in realms outside twitch playability; that sort of thing. (That and, of course, the classic Euro-mag "sticker peeling off" cover graphic on the buyer's guide. I haven't seen that one lately.)

I like what I see in GP's BioShock feature, and if Tae Kim's MW2 review that Davison's touted both online and off is any indication, than the age when hardcore gamers finally read GamePro for non-ironic reasons may be pretty close at hand. Davison faces a pretty unique challenge among modern editors, though, since GP (at 94 pages this month) is the smallest of the U.S. print mags. If he can find a way to make GP's print side unique despite that disadvantage, I'd call him brilliant -- and I think he's up to it.

Click on for a look at the other game mags of the past fortnight.

Game Informer December 2009

Cover: 200th issue (8 covers)

The second issue of GI's big redesign is also the 200th overall, something they've been celebrating over on the website a fair bit as well.

They did not screw around with the cover feature. There are no game features and no retro section in the back of this edition; instead 48 out of the 140 pages are devoted to 200th-issue festivities. Most of it is a "best 200 games ever" roundup which is entertaining but a little predictable -- though I'm admittedly jaded 'cos lots of game mags have done features like these over the years (I helped with EGM's once). The second part, a collection of stats and famous quotes from GI's past, is far more interesting to me, a treasure trove of insightful quotes and hilarious excerpts. (Did you know that GI called the hero of Halo "super trooper Master Sergeant" in their 2001 review?)

Other neat bits include interviews with Penn Jillette and the folks behind Spike's Video Game Awards, both of which are on the site now.

PC Gamer January 2010

Cover: Star Wars: The Old Republic

I didn't get the Holiday '09 issue of PC Gamer in the mail for some reason, and I failed to notice until it was too late to buy a copy at the bookstore. Whoops!

But I didn't put PC Gamer near the top of this column just to whine. As officially announced on Saturday, EIC Gary Steinman is moving from PC Gamer back to his old stomping grounds at PlayStation: The Official Magazine, where he'll be EIC. I'm not enormously surprised by this -- it always seemed to me that his true passion lies with the consoles anyway. But he's really reinvented PCG during his tenure, showing how a computer mag can still be engaging and enthusiastic in an age when no computer gamer isn't on the Internet. I hope whoever takes over PCG continues that tradition, and I hope Gary's tenure at PTOM is long and fruitful -- as it should be, 'cos it seems like 2010's really going to be the year of the PS3 (finally).

Anyway, this issue is mainly a wrapup for '09 reviews, with two extensive features that both are pretty engaging, although (as even Gary admits) there isn't anything all that original about The Old Republic. The issue's also packed with an Old Republic poster that I'll be putting on my mag-room wall, like I always do with freebie calendars. (The wall's getting a bit cluttered now. It's probably time to pitch the old ones.)

Tips & Tricks Video Game Codebook February 2010

Cover: Halo 3: ODST

This is the first issue since T&T announced it was segueing to eight-times-per-year publication, and as promised, there are now three strategy guides per edition (ODST, Scribblenauts and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2) instead of two.

The mag also comes with a poster for Scribblenauts and one-half of Halo Legends. One-half? "You'll have to pick up our next Codebook to get the other half," says the editor letter. "It'll be worth the wait, though, because when you put them together, the result will be twice as big as the Scribblenauts poster...and there will be another complete poster on the front!" It's...an innvoative idea, I'll give them that.

Edge Christmas 2009

Cover: Dust 514

I had read a bit about this cover game in EON, the Eve Online-exclusive mag I mentioned last month, but Edge's approach is a lot more interesting, showing how CCP is going between Iceland and China with the dev team and how the game will connect meaningfully with Eve.

The feature dovetails with the Region Specific section in back devoted to game developers in Iceland, someplace you wouldn't really expect to have a lot of game action, and it's certainly a fascinating place.

An extra bit of trivia: The review section brings Edge's first 10/10 of the year, awarded to Bayonetta -- we've had a bit of a decline in scores after the mag gave 10's to three titles in 2007.

Play December 2009

Cover: Darksiders or Reflex: MX vs. ATV (2 covers)

Both cover features are review/interview packages written by Mr. Halverson. Both are classic Play. Not much else to say about this one.

Retro Gamer Issue 70

Cover: Monkey Island

A massive roundup for the series is the top offering this month, complete with a few words with co-creator Ron Gilbert.

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]

Having abandoned its episodic platformer Liferaft after working on the project for more than six months due to challenges with its development, indie developer Intuition Games is now showing off a smaller but still compelling Flash-based project: Eon.

Based on the trailer above, this puzzle game seems like a mix of Auditorium's stream-sculpting mechanics and Orbital/Orbient's atmosphere/lo-fi space setting. Here, you direct a current of colored bits, using markers that pull from the flow and minding nearby black holes, to different circles, filling them until everything explodes.

Intuition's Mike Boxleiter recently wrote an interesting post on the game industry focusing more and more on polishing gameplay, noting that while Eon's rules and mechanics were completed in 30 hours, he spent a month polishing the game:

"People want their experiences with their games to be smooth, easy to jump into and without any sharp corners, and I’m not standing on a pulpit looking down on the unwashed masses, I totally fall into this trap. ... The industry seems to be a lot more focused on releasing more and more polished games rather than innovating on gameplay, which makes sense from a business standpoint.

It’s easy to see where there was clunky UI or where bad wall-hugging hurt player experience in Gears, it’s not so easy to see how people will react to a totally new game mechanic, especially when you remember that it’ll have to be polished up to the level the consumer expects. The cost of creating something new is so high at this point that it’s very very hard to justify."

The Iowa-based studio is currently looking for a sponsor for Eon, which it describes as "a particley puzzle game set in the 80s, when space was still a mystery". While the game isn't available to the public yet, you can try out Intuition's other remarkable titles: Fig. 8, Gray, and Effing Hail.

[Via TIGF]