From: Fusion Publishing Average Rating: Binding: Magazine First Issue Lead Time: 6-10 weeks Format: Magazine Subscription Issues Per Year: 12 Label: Fusion Publishing Magazine Type: Trade magazine Number of Issues: 12 Subscription Length: 365 days
Product Description: Magazine that guides consumers to the best electronic gaming in the industry. Electronic gaming has merged with both TV and film, including compelling storylines, innovative new genres, and realistic simulations making electronic gaming a genuine form of mainstream entertainment.
Beware! This company is not dependable. I received 2 issues of my 12-month subscription, and have talked to the magazine twice and Amazon three times in the last month about a missing issue. Despite assurances to the contrary, the missing issue has never arrived and now the current issue is also missing. They don't care about the customer. I recommend you consider another magazine.
Grammar? Who needs it? Play magazine is great if: 1) You have no grasp of the English language 2) You own a next gen console that is not a Wii. 3) You have access to Japanese imports and a console on which you can play them.
Every issue of Play has several serious breaches of grammar and editing. While it is still understandable sometimes, it shows a lack of professional conduct. There, their, and they're are often misused, which drives me insane. Sometimes it is as serious as pages not matching up or an aritcle being cut off in the middle. They generally only review mostly Xbox360 games, a few PS3 games, and almost no PC or Wii games. As someone who mostly games on the PC or Wii this is a little disappointing. There is an entire section of ~20 pages in every issue dedicated to Japanese imports. What do I care about Japanese imports? I can't play them. Why are they in the magazine? Overall, I would not recommend Play magazine unless all the above conditions apply. If I owned a PS3 and a Xbox360 I would probably rate this magazine at a 3 star level, but since I don't it only gets a one-star rating.
Best gamer magazine out there. Best unbiased game magazine around. With a hint of Jap Anime, its a brilliantly vibrant magazine. Great reviews of games and previews of new games. I prefer this over EGM, PCG, all the big name magazines.
Meh Getting this magazine made me realize a few things. 1) It's nice to look at... and that's about it. 2) I wish I had my $20 back.
Beauty without substance Yes, this magazine is pretty. I got sucked into subscribing to it based on the sheer prettiness of it. The glossy pages are covered in color drenched screen shots and concept art. The actual content, however, is another matter entirely. The reviews are, to put it bluntly, the worst representation of a game's merit that I have ever seen. They overrate so many games (indeed, i think i would have trouble finding one that wasn't) and to such extreme degrees it is laughable. They throw out perfect 10s so often and on such mediocre games that it is impossible to give any credence to any of the reviews. The last issue I got had Sonic the Hedgehog on the cover. I will return to the cover status in a bit, but first the scoring must be examined. PLAY gave Sonice for the 360 a 9.5 out of 10. The review gushed about how wonderful the game was. Gamespot, on the other hand (who I consider to be a very reliable reviewer of games) gave Sonic a 4.4 out of 10 ("poor") and even describes the game as "broken". Similarly, Gamespy gave the game a 1.5 out of 5. Oh, I could go on, but i think you get the idea. As for Sonic being on the cover, one needs to consider the other games and events ocurring in the month covered by the magazine. Gears of War, arguably the biggest game so far for the 360, was released. Viva pinata hit store shelves. The PS3 and the Wii launch were rapidly approaching. Yet they had SONIC on the freakin cover??? The editor gave some lame excuse that the developers would not give them copies of the game. if this is true, I think it is testament to the fact that developers do not consider PLAY to be a serious gaming publication. Other magazines, after all, do not seem to have this chronic problem of not being able to cover the biggest games. The Wii saw absolutely no coverage. The PS3 did get a launch section, but get this: One of the pages was UNREADABLE. The print was all blurred together. The part I could read read like a Sony ad. There was no serious discussion about the pros and cons of the system, just plain gush gush gush. I recommend looking elsewhere for you gaming news. I highly recommend Game Informer, whnich is both beautiful and skillfully and professional written.
UPDATE:
I just recieved my latest issue of PLAY, in which the editor defends his review of Sonic as a 9.5 game. He claims that the errors in it that make it so frusterating and difficult to play give it a "charm", and that the media gave it bad reviews because no one likes difficult games anymore. He brags that he is more in tune with the general public than the other media outlets who reviewed the game, citing the positive player reviews. The problem with this is he ignores the fact that with a game like Sonic (that is, a large franchise game that has proven to have serious flaws) the vast majority of people who buy it are buying KNOWING about the flaws because they love the franchise so much that the same flaws that would ruin the game for anyone else are not an issue.
He likes the game. Fine, I have no problem with people loving different games, or even people loving fatally flawed games. The problem with the magazine is that the reviewers are unable to objectively review the quality of a game. When games like Sonic are given 9.5s based on the reviewers love of the franchise and of playing in that particular universe rather than on the game's independent merit, it prevents truly exceptional games from being recognized as such. Games like Zelda Twighlight Princess, which is being called one of the best games of all time, and Gears of War end up scoring the same as these mediocre games. That's the problem with throwing out 10s all over the place; there is no where higher to go. Reviewers should not give a game a 10 solely because it quenches their fanboy thirst, but because it truly stands out among all other games as one of quality that will appeal to not just fanboys.
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