those of who hate "gamefan/gamersrepublic discussion

[unit003]

Ok, I've decided that after hearing how ALOT of posters are ripping on the mag, I'd like to see what their actual view on the whole thing in general is. To be fair, I'll at least point out the "flaws" I could pick out.

1) this mag had a great deal of missprints. From time to time, I would read a section that was almost messed up because somebody either forgot to use wordperfect or else didn't suck enough JOLT to get their gears working.

2) aside from going in-deph with many titles, there was more then a few columns that seemed to start going off in another direction rather then keeping on the focus of the subject matter of which was the point of discussion. Certain reviewer such as ECM were common to this.

3) there's at least 2 reviewers that I think were more full of themselves then anything. Dave halverson and ECM. from what I know about dave, he seemed to just about love every title he got his hands on and mainly gave more praise then some titles even deserved. ECM on the otherhand, was so much into his hardcore gig, that he's either a love-it/hate-it type and would likely trash a title if it's not up to his standards (which made me glad he wasn't the only person giving us a point of view).

Now some of you also mention you do/don't hate Dave, but I do see a few problems with him. You see he's able to get good people to work with him for any publication (play might be excluded), but if you ever read anything on what Shidoshi's viewpoint is on "the man", you would have seen some things you wouldn't like about this guy one bit. I mean it's not anything to be proud of when you have someone write up a review, and then put -your- sig on somebody's artical just to take the credit and make yourself look big to improve your moral image. Also, when dave left GR, many of the stories on how the publication collapsed wern't pretty. In fact, one of the rumors was that he and dave hodgeson (went to incite ) struck some kinda deal and "sold off" GR while everyone under these two were still stuck without their severance pay. If you look at the new homes and cars they bought following this, it appeared they made out like a pair of bandits and maybe they're willing to do this a second time should the PLAY publication become a failure. If you want details, either read shinobi's posts or try to dig out the info from the archives over at fatbabies.com (I guess they AIN'T lying, but don't bag me if they get the dirt). But personally, I don't think anyone should have dave as their employer, it only makes for a soft promise till he starts swinging the ax at your career-base.

I mainly wrote this post as something to do, but figured if everyone hates GF/GR so much, then why not just say it here and be done with it! (better then having a mag post with somebody popping up and stating "GF SUCKS!!" just becuase they got a hard-on or something)

[Captain Vegetable]

I posted my opinions and an explanation of why I hold them concerning GameFan in the "I love this issue of PLAY" thread. If you care to know how I feel about GF, you can read it there.

And I don't think Dave's, ECM's, or anyone's moral iniquities are pertinant to the issue. We're talking about gaming magazines and their quality as per the effort of certain individuals...not some kind of moral media forum.

[Werewolf]

My biggest problem with GameFan was I never got my subscription on time and most the times I had to call them other wise I wouldn't get a magazine at all, so basically out of a 2 year subscription I was lucky if I got 12 issues.

[Captain Vegetable]

I never had a subscription to it, but I felt the magazine itself was poorly organized and had a general "unfinished" feel to it.

Nice sig, Wolf. How's the game? I was considering importing it and would like some impressions. So as to not high-jack the thread, maybe you should PM your impressions to me?

[Tragic]

I subscribed to Gamefan as a birthday present way back when and I never received a single issuse. Called, all I got was an answering machine. E-mailed, never got a reply. Never received a single issue in the mail.

[Cheebs]

!!??

We're trashing Gamefan now? C'mon guys, that magazine was great! Who gives a damn about spelling if you can read the word. The art was great, and they had import coverage. A lot of import coverage. It was a hell of a lot better than any print magazine we have today, and it was the best there was back then. Yes, it had faults and overzealous reviews and staff members. Nothing's perfect. It was a great magazine.

[Werewolf]

Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
!!??

We're trashing Gamefan now? C'mon guys, that magazine was great! Who gives a damn about spelling if you can read the word. The art was great, and they had import coverage. A lot of import coverage. It was a hell of a lot better than any print magazine we have today, and it was the best there was back then. Yes, it had faults and overzealous reviews and staff members. Nothing's perfect. It was a great magazine.

I'm not trashing it, I loved it but I had a problem with thier subscription department... I even gave them a second chance by subscribing again hoping they would fix the subscriptions problems, but that didn't happen and GameFan died about midway through my subscription

[Captain Vegetable]

Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
!!??

We're trashing Gamefan now? C'mon guys, that magazine was great! Who gives a damn about spelling if you can read the word. The art was great, and they had import coverage. A lot of import coverage. It was a hell of a lot better than any print magazine we have today, and it was the best there was back then. Yes, it had faults and overzealous reviews and staff members. Nothing's perfect. It was a great magazine.

That's a bunch of crap, Chibi.

The reviews were aweful, the news coverage of domestic games was non existent, and the viuals and graphics of the mag were shoddy and unorganized.

The whole thing was just thrown together, often meaning the butchering of a very many pieces. Just go check your back-catalogue to see just how many reviews and news bits finish off with half sentences in the middle of a review.

Nothing better then or now?! Pah-leeze! NextGen was much better, and they weren't even an upper eshelon mag. EGM, easy to follow, complete reviews, excellent news. And now Play, which is also well organized and easy to follow with excellent news bits.

I'm not a "Dave humper." I have no love lost for the guy. And I'll say again that I don't read reviews. It's a waste of my time, so my comments reflect that.

[Cheebs]

Well, think what you will. The layouts and pictures looked fine to me, and as I said I love their orriginal art. You have your oppinion, I have mine.

[zidane747]

I have to agree with Cap'n here: GameFan wasn't all that great. The layouts and reviews were shoddy, unfinished, and poorly written. Some only like it because they focused more on the "hardcore" crowd, with extended coverage on shmups,etc. It was a mag that they could call their own, and no matter how bad it was(which it wasn't THAT bad), they would still like it. And saying there wasn't a better mag is not the right thing to say; Gamepro kills the mag........okay, I'm kidding. EGM is much, much better then GameFan ever was; they don't focus on being accepted by the "hardcore" crowd, they just do their jobs, enjoy playing and covering games, and have fun while giving us a great mag to read. I've had a subscription for over a year and a half, and each issue is much better than the last. EGM gave us the first look on a lot of things; Xbox, SNES, the first AND ONLY Kojima review,etc. PLAY kicks ass as well, blending anime and games into one coherent, great mag(I don't care about the other sections, but I read them anyway). They introduced me to a lot of anime in just one issue, gave me a new perspective on the outgoing system wars(and Xbox, which I now plan to buy). It also seems that I picked a great time to consider buying a Cube; all 3 of N's big prospects are coming out during this year(and beginning of next), and while all the other mags covered it, EGM and PLAY gave me the best insight. I can't imagine what GF would cover the games like; makes me shudder just thinking about it.

ECM: Metroid Prime, while good, doesn't hold a candle to Gunbird 2, the greatest game of all time. I think Nintendo should just give up and work for SNK; it's the only way they can succeed. And while they're at it, have them bring VO:OT over here too, and having Gunbird 3-14 wouldn't hurt either.