MattKeil, why do you hate the Wii?
And freedom!
Wiis kill people.
A Wii killed grandma.
Not exactly a blog, but out of Eight reviews is quite good - nothing but the occasional well written review, and he covers a lot of out of the mainstream stuff.
edit: and I forgot to include the URL:
I stopped reading Play when they gave Sonic 2006 - easily one of the worst games I have ever played in my life - an 8.5 (it was originally a 9 but DH changed it when Sega did not fix the load times as promised). Nobody needs cheerleading like that.
I worked for Play for a long while, and I know there was some game-savaging afoot. I did some of it myself.
The thing was, Play picked and chose its spots. We only reviewed games we wanted to cover – not ones we had to cover out of obligation as console-specific magazines often do, or because we wanted to stab at being comprehensive. As a result – go figure – the majority of the game critiques issued by Play were positive.
Anyway, I’m sorry to see Play go. It was staffed by some good people. I wish all of those people luck.
I really don’t see how he plans to get the money to start such an endeavor after crashing and burning his last magazine. And he plans it to be a media/video game hybrid magazine, which has been the path of a number of unsuccessful magazines like PiQ and Halverson’s own Geek Monthly.
Really, so reviews of games like Golden Axe: Beast Rider were honest when Dave Halverson gave it a 9 out of 10?
Either way, picking to review only the games you liked still gives off the insanely over zealous cheerleader vibe. Critics should also be reviewing things they don’t like and writing about them, it’s their job. It gives them credibility, as critics, if they’re able to express what they do and don’t like with reasoned arguments. Play, whether by cherry picked “honest but positive” reviews or total saccharin about everything resulted in nothing but trite content. People can’t take a critic seriously if it appears they like absolutely everything.
Having had a subscription and read nearly every magazine issued for a year there were a great number of highly questionable reviews and previews giving overly positive praise for entirely unworthy games.
Let me tell you something about Dave Halverson: His taste in games is not my own. And let me tell you something else: I am being 100 percent honest when I say Dave was being 100 percent honest with all of his reviews. Dave loves games, and he loves his Golden Axe.
Anyway, I have no desire to get into a pissing match over a defunct magazine’s policies. The magazine was not for you, and I am content to leave it at that.
True I suppose. The subscription was a gift and not something I would have gotten for myself.
Speaking of magazines I just got my renewal notice for Edge and they want $99 this year. Prior years have been $70… I really like Edge, but I don’t know if I $100 like it…
Or other rational, thinking humans.
(Mostly it was for Dave ‘Spellik’ Long.)
Rational, thinking humans wouldn’t be that dismissive.
If you’re doing it through the American reseller, the main Edge site has a link that knocks it down to $74.
Buggering ass. I guess I’ll have to look that up in two years when this subscription term ends. Do feel free to ask these guys to stop shipping the damn thing in an opaque plastic bag, though - I’m pretty sure that at least a few people in my neighborhood believe that I have a deviant pornography habit. Even if they’re right, I don’t like them being right for the wrong reasons.
Oooh, I like that one.
What makes you say that?
Thanks for the tip!
Dave adored any game that put him behind a pair of tits or tweaked his nostalgia glands, to the point that he was completely irrational about it. That made him useless. Brady, Heather, Casey and Eric were good folks, though – shame their voices were often drowned in a magazine that was 50%+ Halverson-penned incoherent spooge. There’s no way around it; the majority of the editorial content was dictated and determined by Halverson himself, aside from the occasional ace interview from Casey/Nick, and which often seemed wholly out of place.
That said, MC Safety is right: the magazine isn’t for us. It’s by Dave Halverson, for Dave Halverson.
Golden Axe was underrated as a beat’em up. It was challenging as hell and I loved the crap of the dodge system! The user reviews on Metacritic agree with me too.