Probably The Best Video Game Mag Out There! (Gamer's Paradise WRITE-OFF)

The Gamer's Paradise Write-Off
I have been a gamer for a long time, and so I must have stumbled on to a Game Magazine somewhere along the way right? Well I also stumbled upon this write-off and I immediately joined. This write-off is hosted by Rock_On, for this write-off the participants could write about any video game magazine they wanted to, so naturally I chose the first one that I had ever read: Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Here are the other participants in the write-off, be sure to check out their submissions too!

Jeremy1456 (Me)
ChromeKiller
Pika312
Lobue
Gorocco
Gerper
LaughingTarget
LessThanNick1
Xeno3998
Jag2112
MrReEvolution
Rader6795
Fallenjesusboy
Horhay
Awoolcott

I was first introduced to Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM for Short) back in the 5th grade. You see, I had one of those anarchist like teachers that hated to follow orders from the prinicple, so when my class was required to take a test or something my teacher would tell us to bring our sleeping bags and some reading material so that we could relax and read all day instead of doing what was required. Well reading isn't my favorite thing to do, as I was always bored on these reading days, but then my best friend started bringing his small collection of EGM magazines to school. I was immediately hooked, instead of reading about something education I could sit back and gaze at the marvelous screens in the previews section, or even silently make fun of people in the letters section, EGM had it all, and still has it all.

The very first thing I saw was a huge guide to my favorite game at the time: Primal Rage. This guide was very comprehensive and contained everything I could only wish for. Next I saw a massive preview for Super Mario RPG, a game that I didn't even know was under development. So right after school got out I went to the nearby newsstand and picked up a copy of EGM for $4.99, it was worth every penny.

EGM is probably the best video game mag out there, and believe me there are a lot of them. I've purchased at least 2 issues of every one: Nintendo Power, Official PlayStation Magazine, Ultra GamePlayers, EGM2, and the worst one: Gamepro. EGM is better than most of the mags I've listed, with lose competition from Ninteno Power and EGM2 which is now known as Expert Gamer.

But EGM does have a few flaws, each issue contains far too many advertisements, sometimes 3 pages of advertisements in a row. Now this wouldn't be necessarily bad, except some of the adds don't even advertise anything video game related. Another bad thing about EGM is it's love for XBOX, I understand that it might be their favorite console, but sometimes it seems like they mention it more than the already released Gameboy Advance, and even the ever popular PS2.

The Breakdown:

Editorials
This section is exactly what the title says, it's an editorial. This section is in every issue (To my Knowledge) and gives you a good idea of what the issue you have will contain. This isn't the best of the sections, as I usually just skip it in my haste to get to the previews.

Letters
This section is a good read, it's pretty funny sometimes. This section contains letters sent in by readers of the mag, some of the letters are vulgar, funny, and even hilarious with the ever so often intelligent letter. This section also contains the letter art contest. For the letter art contest readers send in an envelope with a drawing on it, and the best drawings get displayed in this section, and the absolute best drawing wins the artist a brand new controller.

Press Start
This section contains page after page of news from the video game industry. EGM delivers the news in an easy to read fashion, with little tidbits strewn throughout the section, and their funny comments thrown beside screenshots and the like.

Previews
My favorite section in the whole magazine is the previews section. Basically the EGM staff throws in a whole lotta screens and writes up a sometimes brief block of info on each game. One thing I dislike is the fact that while some games get more than one page, other games get only half a page of info. The previews section covers everyones favorite systems, including: PlayStation 2, PlayStation one, DreamCast, Gameboy Advance, Game Boy color XBOX and a few other systems I failed to mention.

Features
Every issue has at least one feature, and the issue that I hold in my hands right now has a huge read on Final Fantasy X and a large Super Nintendo rundown. The content for the feature is usually reflected on by the cover, so usually whatever the cover has on it will be included in the magazine as a feature.

Reviews
Ah yes, the infamous EGM reviews section. Each game that falls into the hands of the EGM review crew is reviewed in this section, each game is usually reviewed by 3 members of the review crew, while other games are only reviewed by only one member. Some highly acclaimed titles even recieve a whole page or even 2 in this section, but most commonly 3 games fit on a page. A few years back the review crew was very picky with giving a game a perfect rating, but now it throws around 10s to sometimes undeserving titles. Also I disagree with a lot of the review crew's arguments, I mean how could they possibly have rated Legend of the Dragoon so low?

Tricks of the Trade
Odds are that if you bought an issue of EGM that you didn't purchase it for codes, sure it has a few pages of codes but it isn't anything to brag about. If you are simply looking for a magazine that has page after page after page of codes, and multiple walkthroughs then you should make your investment in another magazine, Tips and Tricks to be exact.

Final Word
No this isn't my final word, but this is a section of EGM. In this section a few of the EGM writers are given a topic to write about. This section is a pretty good read, as it's always good to see through someone elses point of view.

Well that's the end of my review, I would like to thank Rock_on for hosting the write-off, and I would like to thank you for reading!

Word of The Day: Section