GameFan Issue 07 (December 2011)

Issue #7 was put entirely together by three people; Dave Halverson, James Bacon, and art director Rob Duenas. The lovely Areala mentioned in the comment section of the last issue that the rest of the team "who helped put the magazine together didn't get paid a cent for any of their work." And this also spilled over into the website, any staff that contributed regular content to the gamefanmag.com website (defunct now) also found out they were not getting paid, and when they were expected to continue to work for free, they all left. Issue 7 was assembled by only three people, and two of those left shortly after. Rob Duenas was working 20 hours a day for two weeks, and it was becoming way too much of a workload. He never had anything negative to say about Halverson or the magazine itself, and was willing to continue to do covers or artwork, but just couldn't keep maintaining those work hours. James Bacon would leave for unknown reason shortly after. Issue 9 was made by two people, and issues 8 and 9 were released digitally only. Dave Halverson has had long-time staff leave him during Gamers' Republic and Play magazine as well, but finding details and confirming them is difficult, that's way I tend to stay away from mentioning the reasons behind things during these comments. You can see the quality drop of Issue #7 too. Under the listed GF Staff, there are several "consulting editors," and now the GameFan mascot, the Monitaur, has been added. The "avatar names" are back, which is odd since articles still have the names of the people that wrote them, and once again Dave Halverson is using his trademark E. Storm handle. Let's jump in the issue itself. 

Highlights of This Issue: There's an interview with Final Form Games, and a look at developer Level-5. We see reviews of Xenoblade Chronicles, Adventures of TinTin, Sonic Generations, Skyward Sword, a colorful layout for Rayman Origins, Saints Row: The Third, Rock of Ages, Bastion and a few more, along with a short history of Disgaea and the review for Disgaea 4. The GameFan Retro section returns, using the colors and style of the old logo. We have a "25 Years of Zelda" special, the "Very Best of GameBoy Advanced," and looks at Silhouette Mirage, WonderDog, Skeleton Crew, Pilotwings and more. It's a good-sized mag, at 102-pages. It's amazing at the amount of work that went into this issue with such a small crew and a handful of contributors, but I am really curious at what the rest of the issues look like since the art director leaves after this issue. I hope there's more. It's so great to see these issues, thanks again, dablais.

Thanks always a pleasure reading your chronicles!