Game Informer

I know that there is a dislike/distrust of Game Stop on this forum, but I still like reading Game Informer and it often brings up things not always discussed online (not to mention the reviews).

So here is a thread to discuss everything/anything to do with the latest issue of Game Informer. Here are the highlights of the January issue (it has the releases/calendar for the next month so they are always one month ahead):

1. Cover image/feature story: South Park: The Game
2. Editor-in-chief letter: discussing "changing the stereotype" of fat gamers by including one of the exercise/dance games in each gamer's library
3. Article about the Move and Kinect
4. LONG interview with Rockstar's VP Dan Houser (Max Payne 3 and Game Writing)
5. Interview with the creative director of Infinity Blade 2 (Donald Mustard)
6. Capcom's declining present and hopes for the future
7. Center page article(?): Advanced Tactics ("The search for a smarter military shooter")
8. Impulse (Indie games): Guacamelee ; Shank 2 ; Warp
9. The Good (more good games coming up, Xbox360 sales), The Bad (removal of Battlefield 1943, delayed XCOM reboot), and The Ugly (Lego Universe closed because of $ issues, Silicon Knights cut over half its workforce)
10. Afterwards: Interview with Skyward Sword's producer (Eiji Aonuma) and sound group manager (Koji Kondo)
11. Afterwards: Battlefield 3 interview (DICE VP and general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson)
12. Massive: Wakfu <—New MMO that, while having Square Enix backing, is primarily made by the French studio Ankama Games. Looks quite different/interesting.
13. Top 10 Assassins (no points for guessing who is #1, though #10 being Mega Man is a little weird...)
14. Interview with Ken Rolston (no game specifically)
15. Gear (Sony Bravia 46HX729 got a 9 while the PS 3D Display got a 6)
16. Opinion: In defense of Japanese Games
17. Feature: The Witnes *
    ^{by the creators of Braid... you draw lines/paths on blue squares to open doors and has an Adventure Game feel. The catches are figuring out what those paths are and being able to leave one area and go to another if you are stuck on those puzzles. AKA: gameplay branches and there are no items to pick up. Also brought actual landscape/building designers in to make it feel more "real." PC and iOS with maybe a console}
18. Feature: GTA V
19. Previews: SSX ; A Game of Thrones (includes interview with the project manager) ; Resident Evil: Revelations ; Spec Ops: The Line ; Aliens: Colonial Marines ; Devil May Cry ; Lollipop Chainsaw *
    ^{Think Blond Cheerleader - The Ditz (maybe) + Chainsaw Good + Zombies + Buffy The Vanpire Slayer. Yes, the chainsaw has pink hearts on it.}
    ; Gotham City Imposters ; Sniper Elite V2 ; Dirt Showdown
20. Reviews *
    ^{score of 1 is described as "Renesmee." Have no idea what the reference is}
    : Skyrim (9.5 + Game of the Month), Modern Warfare 3 (9), AC Revelations (8.75, second opinion 9.5) *
    ^{they don't like the new minigames (the Tower defense) ether.}
    , MGS HD Collection (9), Jurassic Park: The Game (5.5), WWE 12 (5.5), GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (7), Ultamate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (8), Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (8.5), Minecraft (9.25 + Game of the Month PC), Fortune Street (8.5), Mario Kart 7 (8.5)
21. Classic: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

I would prefer to discuss the non-review portion, but there is the issue in a nutshell.

I love the Opinion section of the magazine. It's the only page that ends up being collected by me.

The rest of the pages eventually end up on fire one way or another.

Renesme is a Twilight reference iirc.

Also what did they say about South Park the Game?

Not sure. I'm not that interested in it and did not look through the...

• 2.5-3pages worth of text
• 2 page interview with the creators of South Park
• 7 pages of images

...in any detail.

What's number 16 about? Sounds interesting.

Let's see... how to summarize it...

• he starts with the assumption that gamers think there have been no good Japanese games lately
  • Gamers think that "Japanese Developers [are] stuck in the past, embrace archaic design, and aren't putting out interesting games"
• "I think that the most intellectually and artistically interesting non-indie games on the market today are being developed in Japan."
• Examples are Dark Souls and Catherine (a whole paragraph dedicated to describing each)
• There are Western games that "are equally artistically adept"
• The difference "is the end goal - bringing a careful, exact idea to fruition versus trying to create something that everyone can play and appreciate." (AKA: "narrow, specific... style or theme" vs "a shotgun blast of accessible gameplay")
• Yearly releases/re-iteration (which worked for Mass Effect, but not Dragon Age) verses a couple of high quality games per console (Zelda, Final Fantasy *
  ^{though I think the Final Fantasy franchise is a bit closer to the yearly release scedual at this point...}
  , the Team ICO game that we are still waiting for). "Outside Blizzard and Valve, how many U.S. and European developers are willing or able to give that much time to focus on a single game?"
• Capcom also has "severely iterated games" from trying to Westernize, "...but the top ranked Japanese releases are consistently more intellectually engaging to me than the biggest Western releases." (With the exception of some indie games)
• "So why is it increasingly common for a wide swath of gamers to be dismissive toward games with Japanese sensibilities? .... Is making the most amount of money from the widest audience possible the only thing games should aspire to?"
• "...glad that there are still developers... who are willing to stick to their vision for a game regardless of whether that closes it off to a potion of the audience." *
  ^{could have been worded better}

edited 9th Dec '11 11:01:29 AM by Belian

While I kind of agree to him to some extent(most of my favorites are Japanese games), they(the gamers) do the SAME exact thing over there. In fact, they're even worse.

Oh, and here is a gripe refering to a back issue from 2008. When they were talking to a guy who was becoming a Sonic fan, they said that avoid any games that have characters that send Sonic into a suck-spiral. These include Shadow, Amy, Cream, Blaze, Silver, and basically anyone who isn't Tails or Knuckles. But they praised Sonic Rush and it's sequel, and the Advance games were praised by them too. And also, Amy is classic.

edited 9th Dec '11 2:38:30 PM by miru

What's wrong with the Advance games?

They actually liked the Advance games.

I loved the Advance games, especially the first one.

Well, one thing's for certain, Game Informer is pretty much the last place you'd want to go to for any news concerning the Sonic series.

Past experience has taught me that Game Informer DOES NOT LIKE SONIC.

They do say the liked the older games, Colors, and the handhelds, but then they contradict themselves and say Colors and the handhelds suck too.

Game Informer is like the kid in class who will say he didn't like something(regardless of whether he did or not) so he can fit in with the other "cool" kids who didn't like it either.

edited 9th Dec '11 7:53:32 PM by VertigoHigh

I'm not all that familiar with the Sonic series, but couldn't they have been talking about different "Colors and handheld games?" I mean, they liked some and didn't like others? If so, what is the problem with that?

Anyway, does anyone have something to discuss about Game Informer other than past Sonic reviews?

Didn't they used to do "Retro Reviews"? Like they bring out a game the reviewed a long time ago, summarize their previous opinion on it then compare how the game handles nowadays?

They did. Now they do "Classic" which is an in-depth look at one old game instead of just re-scoring up to three old games.

This magazine has great cover art. Also, I am thinking of doing a rant video With Sonic comforting Blaze.

I mostly read it for game news, and for when games come out; I don't care that much for the rest.

Indeed. Generations doesn't deserve a 6, in my opinion. Their reaction in the latest issue to letters sent in regarding that makes it even worse. Whoever wrote that is acting childish.

There is only one game named "Sonic Colors". It's on Wii and DS. But if they said Colors and handheld games, then that presumably means they were referring to the Wii version there.

They've got a bit of an antagonistic vibe going on in their reader response. Notice how they typically have a small section in the top right corner mocking some of the dumb or horribly misspelled letters they get? One really funny oletter they had was some dumb Dragonball Z fan going on a rant about how innovative the cartoon was, and that the Dragon Quest series was ripping them off and deserved to be sued. Instead of pointing out the serious logic fail about who the art designer was, they just played along in their response, and even stated that all the old myths based on the character Monkey should be sued as well!

Yeah, they are a magazine. When they get reader's responses/letters they respond in kind to it (serious, well thought out letters get serious replies or are just shown to the reader without a response at all) while getting their point across because that is entertaining to the readers. It is just good business to have some silly mixed in with the serious.

Not that you have to personally like it. It is a game magazine. A lot of readers don't think all that much about the topics discussed.

I still think that it is a "better magazine than most" because it is not sponsored by any particular publisher/game station. I admit to not having read much of Playstation World (I think that is the name), but I would be willing to bet that PS games in it get rather... slanted reviews.

@Videogamer 07 What was their reaction to the letters about Generations and Dimpsercraptions?

edited 11th Jan '12 7:18:53 PM by miru

There were 2 emails (one anonymous) regarding the 6.75 rating, but they only responded to one. The anonymous one accused them of being biased (which I'm sure they are, to some degree at least), because they (apparently) give bad scores to Sonic, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill games, while giving "crappy" games that have no changes to them (s/he used Skyward Sword and Modern Warfare 3 as examples) perfect scores.

S/he may have a point, but I wouldn't say that those games are bad just because they're "the same".

The second one (which they responded to) said that it should've gotten a 9 just for being a Sonic game. He hadn't played the game, only the demo; nor has he played any other Sonic game. Their response (which I'm sure was sarcastic) was:

Although both email senders were wrong in some way, I don't think it technically counts as a bad game, since at 6.75, it's close to a 7, which is average according to their scoring system. So slightly below average = bad?

edited 11th Jan '12 7:45:43 PM by Videogamer07