GameFan Issue 03 (August 2010)

Editor-in-Chief Dave Halverson filled his entire editorial section with a Matrix-style background, with several words readable that say, "Rumors of Prints Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated." Then he signs his name. Who is he talking to? Himself? We know magazines are still being published today, but to ignore the warning signs that print media is in a serious decline is a example of either ignorance or low intelligence. Remember, this is bi-monthly, so he took two months to tell us this one sentence. Good use of your printed page, bro.

Highlights From this Issue: In the grand tradition of GameFan, they gave a smaller arcade game the cover, DeathSpank. we got a 4-page preview, followed by a 1-page interview. I skipped by this series until recently, but I liked to think this issue would've made me check this game out earlier. The humor was great and now I want to get all three games before the Xbox 360 store closes. One game last issue had the text boxes put at a 20-degree angle (or close to that). It was different and I didn't mind it. Now in this issue, they do three different previews in a row like this. Plus, the third one they switch the page orientation -- yep, you need to hold the magazine vertically for two full 2-page layouts (and the text is still 20-degrees off). This is very annoying. Then later on, they have four boxes of text on a page and half of them are put at a 20-degree angle. You need to see this for yourself. This angle-thing gets WAY overused in this issue. (two more 2-page layout are done horizontal again) This could be the Battlefield Earth of videogame magazines. The Veiwpoint and Reviews sections have now joined, which basically means they call them both, but the old multi-box Viewpoints are now gone. We got some great-looking review pages, covering MGS Peace Walker, Metroid Other M, Joe Danger, Persona 3 Portable, Dragon Quest IX, and a few more. The Anime section is only 2-pages, but its great seeing it. On to the next issue.