StrykerOfEnyo

The first 5 issues came out on-time on a bi-monthly schedule, but the next one, Issue #6 took eight months. Highlights From this Issue: There is a great interview with the man that nearly single-handedly created Retro City Rampage. There are a lot of screenshots and all 4 pages are filled with text, which is always nice to see. Little Big Planet 2 has 12-pages of coverage, and the layouts look great, but at least 6 of those pages have less than a half-column of text. If I played an early version of that game, I could probably fill 5 pages with text alone. I know it's hard deciding how much text goes on a page and how much do you let the layout designs speak for themselves, but I never liked having so many pages with barely any words on them. Maybe it's just me. The reviews look fantastic once again, the Epic Micky review has 6 pages with some great color and backgrounds. Majin & The Forsaken Kingdom has a beautiful backdrop, and the new Splatterhouse has some gorgeous looking carnage on the page. The Fable III review seems to use some original art concepts that I never saw before. Art Director Rob Duenas has really outdone himself -- its a shame we see him leave after Issue #7. I can totally recommend looking up some of his work outside the magazine. There's also a special, The Top 25 Games of 2010, an 11-page list that is a mix of triple-A titles and smaller indie games. I still love the new GameFan logo, and it often changes colors and design slightly for each issue.

I'm not mentioning all the text boxes at an angle in this issue (it's more like 20-degrees or less). It's still very distracting, especially when they completely change the page orientation. People don't like to hold a magazine vertically because it looks like you're checking out a centerfold. It's here, too, so be aware. Highlights From this Issue: We get a lot of great reviews, Castlevania Lord of Shadow, Dead Rising 2, Halo Reach, Mafia 2, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Ys Seven, Amnesia, Shank, Vanquish, and a little more. There's a 2-page section on comics, called Now Reading, which is what the fans wanted. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West has a huge amount of coverage, 16 pages, including the 4-page review. Another solid issue. The page layouts and colors (minus the 20-degree angled text) are very well done, especially for the reviews. Issue #5 is the last one made with a full team. The current art director left after Issue #6 so it would be interesting to see this magazine after that. Even if this site never sees them, thank you to those that donated or worked on these. dablais is a legend for the work done here. All these issues look great.

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.

I'm so glad to finally read some of these issues from the GameFan 2010 relaunch. I have been looking for them for a long time, but I could never find any on other sites. I left more of a history of this magazine on my Issue #1 comment, so go there for more info. This relaunch only saw 11 issues total be published over the course of 5 years (April 2010 to June 2015). The first 5 issues came out on-time on a bi-monthly schedule, but Issue #6 took eight months. Issue $7 was put together by three people; Dave Halverson, managing editor James Bacon, and art director Rob Duenas. I don't know if we will ever see all 11 issues here on RetroMags (two were digital-only), but I am thankful for those that took the time to donate and scan these. Join me as we look at each one that finds its way here, thanks dablais. Highlights From this Issue: Rob Duenas is the new art director and art designer, and I absolutely love the way these new issues look. It takes the idea of having several high-quality images like in the original magazine, and updates it to a more modern standard. You'll notice that there's a main screenshot or a background image that becomes the color palette for an entire 2-page spread. Like for Super Mario Galaxy 2, the green in Yoshi's nose shows up in some of the columns on other pages of the coverage. In Issue #1 you had the Viewpoint section, which had scores from two people each, but then you had the proper Review section with full-page content, but not every game had a score. I never understood this design -- isn't the Viewpoint the review? Why did some games not have a score? I like the full-page reviews better, but sometimes it was a different person, and sometimes it was the same as the viewpoint look at the game. I understood not every game needed a full page or two for a review, but some repeated. I'd rather see a game get reviewed once, in the same location. Apparently, many readers had comments on this as well, so changes were made. The MovieFan section was dropped early, with many readers preferring PC games and an Anime section. There are little things, like I wish the scores themselves were bigger, but they do fill the page out with words, which I'd rather see more written content on the page in the end anyway. It looks good, and there is a good emphasis on indie or the smaller arcade games found on XBLA or PSN.

In 2010 Fusion Publishing filed for bankruptcy which meant the closure of Play Magazine (US). Dave Halverson was the man behind the original GameFan, Gamers' Republic, and Play, and was the editor-in-chief on all of them. He began work on a rework of GameFan and this is the 2010 relaunch. Halverson brought a few key staffers from Play along with Rob Duenas as the new art director. Unfortunately, this mag was doomed from the start for a few reasons. One, would be problems with advertising revenue. The first five issues of the magazine were released on a consistent bi-monthly schedule. But the revenue problems occurred with the magazine's development after that. 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, and was willing to do covers or artwork, but just couldn't maintain those work hours. Issue 9 was made by two people, and issues 8 and 9 were released digitally only. Only 11 issues were created, over the course of 5 years! The Second problem was that Alexander Lucard had actually bought the rights to Diehard GameFan back in 2006. They started it back up in 2007 as a website with Halverson’s blessing and it lasted 10 years with some of the original staff joining in on occasion. Halverson never contacted Lucard about the rights, but he knew he had them from the beginning. Lucard said he was on good terms with Halverson, but he was one of the last to know about the relaunch. Lucard ran his Diehard GameFan 2.0 website as a not-for-profit, so nobody got paid for their work -- it was all volunteer work done for the love of games. He has stated that he would happily have given Halverson his blessing and not have asked for any percentage for himself, if only Dave would have contacted him. But he never did. Once Lucard mentioned that he was unaware of the situation, this started a "poop show" (in his words) and the new magazine died quickly after that. Dave Halverson opens the first issue with a comment on printed media, "The more we're told it's a dying medium the more driven we are to prove its more alive than ever." Apparently, they were having revenue problems way before Lucard got involved, which shows you really need money and some good connections to run a successful videogame magazine nowadays. This Issue #1 looks good -- nice layouts, colorful art, no more avatar names for reviews. It's a good read for those that want to go down memory lane for a little while. Here's hoping we see more of these issues come here:)

1995 to 2004 was such an awesome time for games. Going 3D for the first time for many franchises, but you still had many 2D games. On PS1 you could make a game for around $800,000US or less, and Sony would green-light so many ideas back then. It was a shame the Saturn died early, but then the Dreamcast was out and the PS2 was so amazing. And 1996/1997 was a great time... so many options. So much to play.

Electronic Gaming Monthly launched a spin-off magazine called EGM² in July 1994. There were no reviews, and the coverage leaned more toward codes and strategy guides, though there were sections that covered other aspects. This magazine would change names twice, and completely swap out its staff around once (though two writers would stay) before it was all said and done about 10 years later. The month this magazine was to hit issue number 50, in August 1998, they rebranded EGM² and became Expert Gamer, but continued the same numbering system. Issue #88 was their last, but then the staff renamed the magazine once again to GameNOW, and while they still would have strategy guides and codes, they focused more on news, reviews and previews. GameFAQs was growing big time, not to mention the internet in general, and I remember never needing to really buy strategy guides as we moved into PS2, GameCube, and Xbox games because you had passionate gamers making them for free on websites. It might seem like they were now just a copy of the original EGM, with the same focus, but they actually had a slightly younger audience that carried over from Expert Gamer. It was more 10-16 year olds, whereas EGM was mostly 15+. The staff had a great personality, and they brought some fun ideas to the mag to keep it going, like a HOT or NOT section. By November 2002 (issue #13) the GameNOW staff was almost completely replaced when Ziff-Davis moved its video game magazines from Chicago to California. Only two writers from the original staff moved to California. The mag had a complete redesign shortly after, which is expected since you now had new staff and new artists taking over. The magazine lasted until January 2004. Print magazines were hit hard as the early 2000s continued, with many of the big names ceasing production by 2009-2011 (like the original EGM and GamePro). GameNOW published 27 issues total. I've gone through a lot of videogame magazines, and I have always like the designs and fonts from EGM2, Expert Gamer, and GameNOW. Nice colorful page layouts with easy-to-read text and easy to understand sections. So many mags can use fonts and colors that hurt the eyes sometimes, or page layouts that look more plain and colorless like TIME or People Magazine than a reflection of a younger generation. For many, the Fan Club (or Letters) section in GameNOW was a highlight for regular readers, with new changes often and funny responses. You might like checking out all three magazines if you've only seen one of them.

Electronic Gaming Monthly launched a spin-off magazine called EGM² in July 1994. The month this magazine was to hit issue number 50, in August 1998, they rebranded EGM² and became Expert Gamer, but continued the same numbering system. Issue #88 was their last, but then the staff renamed the magazine once again to GameNOW, and while they still would have strategy guides and codes, they focused more on news, reviews and previews. GameFAQs was growing big time, not to mention the internet in general, and I remember never needing to really buy strategy guides as we moved into PS2, GameCube, and Xbox games because you had passionate gamers making them for free on websites. It might seem like they were now just a copy of the original EGM, with the same focus, but they actually had a slightly younger audience that carried over from Expert Gamer. It was more 10-16 year olds, whereas EGM was mostly 15+. The staff had a great personality, and they brought some fun ideas to the mag to keep it going, like a HOT or NOT section. By November 2002 (issue #13) the GameNOW staff was almost completely replaced when Ziff-Davis moved its video game magazines from Chicago to California. Only two writers from the original staff moved to California. The mag had a complete redesign shortly after, which is expected since you now had new staff and new artists taking over. The magazine lasted until January 2004. Print magazines were hit hard as the early 2000s continued, with many of the big names ceasing production by 2009-2011. GameNOW published 27 issues total. It's great to finally see issue #1. Nice colorful page layouts with easy-to-read text and easy to understand sections. For many, the Fan Club (or Letters) section was a highlight for regular readers, with new changes often and funny responses.

Highlights from this Issue: You have a cover story for South Park, and they have an Exclusive on Rayman 2. The previews look very exciting for the time. Castlevania 64, Nightmare Creatures, Loade Runner 64, Tonic Trouble, Roadsters 98, and an interesting game from Konami that I don't think came out, Survivor: Day One. The reviews are Buck Bumble, Glover, Twisted Edge Snowboarding, NBA Jam 99, NBA Live 99, WCW vs NWO Revenge, WipeOut 64, RUSH 2, Turok 2, and several more. Lots of reviews and previews, another big 116-page issue for this magazine. A great one to download.

Highlights from this Issue: You have a cover story for WWF Attitude, and they have an interview with a producer on Gex 3. Plus, an Exclusive on ShadowMan, Star War Racer Episode 1, and an article on "A Day in the Life of... A Motion Capture Athlete." Reviews are another great selection, with Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Air Boardin' USA, A Bug's Life and several sports titles. There's a HUGE section on Beetle Adventure Racing, 16 pages. A Bug's Life get 14 pages of strategy, but no maps. You get the usual 2 pages on GameBoy Color games, but I haven't always mentioned this. They read like a review, but there is no score.

Editor-in-Chief Eric Winding mentions that "this holiday season may mark the beginning of the end for the Nintendo 64." Considering this is the last issue we know of, there didn't seem to be a reason to come back. The PlayStation 2 had come out in the US by Oct 2000, and the Xbox and GameCube would release by Nov of the next year. Highlights From this Issue: We go out with a bang with 25 reviews -- BattleTankx: Global Assault, Earthworm Jim 3D, Winback, Ready to Rumble, Jet Force Gemini, Destruction Derby 64, Rayman 2 and more. 13 of them are 4-page reviews, with the rest being 2-page. The cover story is Toy Story 2, which is 4 pages with a review. A nice way to go out.

Highlights from this Issue: You have a cover story and review for Army Men Sarge's Heroes, 4 pages in length, and they have an interview with a producer on Resident Evil 2. Along with some exclusive coverage on Toy Story 2, Taz Express, Duck Dodgers, Armories, and BattleTanks Global Assault. They always use a unique background image for their cover story, exclusive game content and interviews. They did change up the page format for their previews, but I can't say it's much better. We have thin red letters for each game name, with a bad fire effect behind it. It's hard to read the name of the game, and the half-moon shape design for each preview box doesn't look good. The review section only changes in its look, it displays the same info. Now each text box is given a horrible border around it, which really hurts the flow of reding it naturally to the reader. The big color borders on the top and bottom of the pages are thankfully gone, and you still get the same amount of content -- mostly 4 pages for each review, which covers Quake II, Road Rash 64, Duke Nukem Zero Hour, Gauntlet Legends, Gex 3, Command & Conquer, an many more. Superman 64 scores a 1, in case you were wondering. I like these bigger 116-page issues, and there's very little ads as well. And they did start adding a name to the person doing each review a couple issues or so back. It's only a first name, but its something.

Highlights from this Issue: You have a cover story for Fighting Force 64 and a short interview. Along with an exclusive 2 pages on BattleTanks. They always use a unique background image for their cover story content, exclusive coverage, and interviews. I just wish they did this for the rest of the magazine. We have reviews for Mission Impossible, WWF War Zone, NGL Blitz, Iggy's Reckin' Balls, Gex: Enter the Gecko, Banjo-Kazooie, and several spots titles. This is a lot of content, and once again, each review is a whopping 4-pages. There are a lot of previews, and a strategy section for Quest 64 that is 20-pages long.

Highlights from this Issue: You have reviews for Quest 64, Forsaken, Mortal Kombat 4, All Star Baseball 99, BioFreaks, AreoGauge, Chopper Attack, several sports games, and a few more. I know I was more negative on the layouts and color choices of the pages in the first issue, and they don't improve until the Q64 1999 Volume 3 (Fall) issue. I do like the idea of only making a limited number of issues a year. The N64 was notorious with having big gaps in its release schedule. It would be hard to make a monthly N64 magazine back then -- the amount of content was very slim for the console. The big color pics look very nice for its time. I just don't like the big jumble of numbers when it comes to displaying a score for a review (see for yourself), where each category's score is displayed bigger than the score given to the game. It is nice having nearly every review being 4-pages long. You defiantly feel like the coverage is good.

Gregg Off starts his editorial with, "Hopefully, by now you have noticed that we do things a little differently around here at Dimension-3." Yep. And that's why this is the last issue... but it seems they didn't know this info at the time. He talks about how he rather see the cover with a game that has a full review in the same issue. I understand this, but sometimes you need to follow trends in order to get your magazine in people's hands. This is easy for me to say now -- I was like 15 yrs old when this issue came out, so it's not like I would know what it takes to sell a magazine back then. I'm glad they changed the name and found success on the PS1. I still think its worth throwing all these issues on a pad and take them with you to look at some time. Highlights from this Issue: You get reviews for StoneKeep, Crusader, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Destruction Derby, Tomcat Alley (pc), Lemmings 3D and more. 3DO sees reviews for Alone in the Dark 2, Cannon Fodder, BattleSport, and Killing Time. Several good reviews. On to Dimension PS-X.

Highlights from this Issue: You get the cover story review of a 3D racing game, Screamers (pc, 97%). I like these 4-page reviews, but I'm starting to get flashbacks of GameFan where several games have had a score of 97% these last several issues. Some games are known for their high scores overall, but some are fine games in their own right, but 97 it a tad high. Witchhaven from Capstone gets a 92%, I'm not as familiar with this game, but I know Capstone has developed a lot of crap back then. Even Magic Carpet 2 gets a 95%, see what I mean? An 85% for a game would mean, "you need to try this" but I always think of a 95-98 should be a game that still ranks among the best all these years later. Regardless, these still look like good games. I believe I bought the Magic Carpet series on GoG.com, but I haven't tried them yet. There's a review for a FMV game I never knew about, Wing Nuts (pc, 83%). We also have Burn Cycle and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, and Decent on Mac. 3DO has reviews for Mazer, Flying Nightmares, BladeForce and Wolfenstien 3D. All these issues are enjoyable. Each review really gets a good write up, with many issues having several 4-page reviews.

Highlights from this Issue: The big review is Fade to Black (97%), Primal Rage, MechWarrior II, and Terminal Velocity (97%), which just had a remastered version show up on consoles a little while back. Journeyman Project 2 on Mac has a review (85%), and Marathon 2 has a preview. 3DO only has three reviews, Space Hulk, Zhadnost, and Ballz. I was going to call this another short issue, but the last two issues also have 84 pages, and by this point, their new Dimension PS-X magazine should've launched. Gregg Off mentions in the editorial that the "3" in the magazine title was to represent how games were going into the 3rd-dimention now, or 3D.

This mag comes from about 5-6 people that help start and worked on GameFan up to the first 2.5 years, for some of them. All their names are in the comment section of Issue #2 from me. Thats why they have all the big high-quality screenshots -- because that's what they did in GameFan. Highlights from this Issue: You get the big 4-page Need For Speed (pc) review, along with FX Fighter (pc), Hi-Octane, and Full Throttle, all 4-pages. Ultimate Doom has a review, along with Doom II on Mac. And we see a preview of Willam Shatner's Tek War. Dark Forces gets a 97% on Mac, and the 3DO gets reviews of Wing Commander 3 and Syndicate, but they didn't score very high (79, 72%). Its a smaller mag at only 84-pages, but it has some good coverage.

Highlights from this Issue: You get to see a review for Mario's Game Gallery, a collection of card and board games featuring Mario. This was supposedly the first time Mario was voiced by Charles Martinet. Ever want to play Go Fish with Mario, this is the game. There's a decent Bioforge Strategy Guide that starts where the instruction manual leaves off, and goes to the end of the game. You still have several PC/Mac reviews, like New Horizons, Jagged Alliance, Virtual Pool, and a bad golf game, Nick Faldo's Golf (38%). There's a lot of praise for Need For Speed and Savage Warriors. We also see a 1-page ad for the future publication, "Play X Station Magazine" (well, that's how it looks on the page). This would become Dimension PS-X for two issues, but then change to PS Extreme after that.

I've been enjoying these GameNow issues, maybe it wouldn't be my first choice back in the day, but its great seeing them all now. I really didn't get into the sister publication, GameEventually, its release schedule was horrible. And the spin-off GameNever only had one issue, but I guess you can't call them liars, right? (sorry if the joke has already been done)

Highlights of this Issue: There are a lot of tips and codes, along with a few previews. But then you get to the main feature. Pokemon Stadium 2 (n64) gets 10 pages of content you can still use today, Mario Tennis (GBC) has 4 pages, and Conker's Bad Fur Day (n64) has 11 pages of strategies, up to chapter 8. There's a page that mentions all the movie parodies in the game, and I never realized they got away with making a reference to Eyes Wide Shut back then. The password to get into the Rock Solid Club is "fedalio," the same one used in the movie to get into the sex party. you also have a 4-page walkthrough of the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. The Dreamcast has 4 pages on games you may have missed. Sega had pulled the plug on the console by this point, only 18 months after its release. Sega was still going to support it with games for the next year, so they mention a handful coming up.

I paid my tribute. It's the least I can do for all the work it takes to edit these. I appreciate the time.

This is a much-improved scan. This issue had some hard-to-read text for me -- they used a serif font and they squeezed the letters together a bit too much for my taste in certain places. It's not always an issue, but sometimes the white lettering on a darker background is harder to read comfortably. I don't know if this problem exists when looking at the physical pages, but having a cleaner scan really helps. You can zoom in more now, making it much more legible. Some highlights from the issue: In the Addams Family Values they confirm that the baby's name is Pubert, something that gained some traction when Gavin Free of Achievement Hunter mentioned it during a Let's Play. You get a preview of Ogre Battle (6 pages) and Secret of Evermore (4 pages). You get custom-made maps for Brandish, covering 10 areas in the Ruins. There's 8 pages of sports, but the big highlight is "The Dream Team," 6-pages on an early look at the team behind the Ultra 64 with screenshots of the technology at the time, and developers that were working on projects. There is the Earthworm Jim "Wrong Cheat Code," I remember entering this myself and I thought it was a fun easter egg to add this to a game back then. This is back when the reviews (Now Playing) didn't use scores, every game had a plus and minus caption. They cover Home Improvement (snes), Air Calvary (snes), Ogre Battle (snes), Pac in Time (snes), Bubsy II (gb) and more. One of the BEST parts is 2-page coverage on GoldenEye for the SNES! It looks like it was going to use the same tech from Donkey Kong Country, pre-rendered models converted into 2D sprites. There's not much info, and any screenshots come from production on the movie set for GoldenEye, but I never knew this was how the game started.

So much content in a massive 336-page issue. On the CD they had a playable demo for a licensed game for Ripley's Belive it or Not -- The Riddle of Master Lu, an adventure game, plus a 2-page review later, and a 2-page ad for it. There are a number of small reviews for games and controllers. There's a 2-page ad for Supreme Warrior called "Standard Guide For Choking Victims" which is a humorous how-to cause the choking. I actually laminated a copy of this ad and hung it in my room for a few years. There's a nice big article on Sierra On-Line and their games. Once you get to the full page reviews, there are some nice reminders of the time. Silent Steel, an FMV game that never was seen on consoles. Werewolf vs Commanche, and no, it's NOT a Lycan fighting a Native-American (it's a helicopter flight sim). Primal Rage, Steel Panthers, Dust: A Tale of the Wired West, Magic Carpet 2, 3D Ultra Pinball, In The First Degree, and more. And yes, when you get an issue this big, you're gonna get a good 60-80 pages of ads, but that's expected. This is an issue that will take you 2-3 days to read through the whole thing, depending on how much you do in one sitting. Take a copy with you on your next car trip:)

We have a feature called, "15 Things Every Game Should Have," and damn -- it has NOT aged well. You have the expected stuff like Save Anywhere, and Split-Screen Co-Op. But then they pick things like Game Manuels, Sequel Introductions, and Credits With Benefits (extra pics or designs shown during the credits). Some aren't so bad, but #4 is Avatar Awards. Imagine beating Doom (2016) in order to unlock a t-shirt for your avatar! Makes sense. Crysis 3 has a lot of coverage, You got reviews of Armored Core V (8.5), Top Gun: Hard Lock (4.0), Devil May Cry HD Collection (7.5), Birds of Steel (8.5) and a few more. We have reviews and another bunch of XBLA games: Trials Evolution, Rayman 3 HD, Skullgirls, The Splatters, Awsomenauts, South Park Tenorman's Revenge, The Pinball Arcade, and Defenders of Ardania. You got some coverage on indie games, like the new movie Indie Game: The Movie, and a few games like EvilQuest and I,Zombie. You get a few recommended video game books like "Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto," and "Critical Path: How to Review Videogames For a Living." A good mag with a number of previews and reviews. 100 pages doesn't seem like much, but these don't have many ads, so you get some good content.