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| Publisher: Fusion Publishing
Category: Magazine
Buy New: $17.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 662
Format: Magazine Subscription
Type: Trade magazine
Subscription Issues: 12
Subscription Length: 12 Months
Issues Per Year: 12
First Issue Lead Time: 6-10 Weeks
ASIN: B0000AFQQY
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 months
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-10 of 10 | | « PREV | | |
Once a great magazine-Now its better then average July 16, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Ive been a reader of Play for three years or more. During this time Ive watched format changes, review changes, and content changes come and go. Ive watched them change their rating system a couple of times, partner with corporates to make it a more finacially viable magazine, and Ive watched them dish trash and heap compliments on other media.
Play magazine is still one of the better electronic entertainment media magazines out there. The only other I would put close to them is game informer (and Ill come back to that in a moment). They usually have a wide coverage of systems, the have an old school perspective (meaning that game play comes first in a lot of their reviews), and they get a lot of good insider comment, interviews, and news.
But like any thing great that seems to work well, they have to mix it up a bit. They shortened some sections (dvds, anime) and removed some (when did gadgets really get any play in play in a long time?) and added some that really you have to question (japan? Sure, some of us import, but why would we turn to play for the 6 page spread on life in japan?).
Additionally, in trying to figure out their review system, they decided to go with a 10 point scale, the problem is that every game gets a 4 or better, with the average being in the 7-8 range. Their justification for this is that it is similar to the percentile ranking used in school, 90/80/70/60... BUT it leads you to believe that any game ranked 7 is a good game, if the scale is on 1-10. IF you want to grade on a percentile, then use letter grades, Then we know that 7 means average, and a 10 is the impossible.
Aside from these issues, the magazine is a great magazine. Sure its turning corporate. You cant have a corporate sponser and give time for dell (oh, im sorry, alien ware) to do Q&A and not have some blind spots. IM not saying this is bad, Im saying that its a good magazine besides this. IN fact, after spending a year reading ALL (and I mean all) the trade magazines for electronic entertainment, this is still one of my favorites. Game informer gets a close second in that its news is a little more up to day on release.
I would highly recommend play for a subscription if you need an electronic entertainment magazine.
 the best gaming magazine ever created....period November 11, 2005
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
are you sick of those annoying game magazines that give only opinionated b.s instead of real reviews? are you sick and tired of having a game magazine latch on to one console and ignore all the others? are you sick of overrated games getting good reviews simply because they are hyped up? well so was I and I can honestly say that play delivers. you can tell when your reading a review that the reviewer actually played the game.I also applaud play for saying that grand theft auto is overrated (duh ive been saying that for 2 years) and I havent even gotten to the anime section..yes the people who write these reviews write them just as well as the game reviews. they treat anime as a serious form of art which is something I appreciate
all in all if you want a game zine that rates games based on how good they actually are...then here you go
For the love of the game October 23, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Play magazine is consistently one of the best, if not the best, in its field. Well produced and always well written, it covers gaming and Anime as serious art with the respect they deserve.
PLAYed out July 23, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
--Updated December 30, 2007--Almost three years ago, tired and frustrated with the standard of video game magazines, I picked up this magazine and was immediately floored.Finally, I thought, a magazine that is for gamers who love all types of games. A magazine that doesn't equate your mind to being a child for liking Nintendo games, or lightheartted content. Grand pages filled with reviews and previews were engorged beyond that of competitors--and were better looking and more well written than them. Yes, I thought, PLAY was for gamers, by gamers. I really thought the honeymoon would last... As time has passed, I have noticed more and more bad things coming to light. For one the incessant Wii/Nintendo bashing from the one person I never thought I would lose respect for: Dave Halverson. This mouthpiece of arrogance continues to make no sense in his lambasting of Nintendo and the Wii. Dave has no problem saying that NIntendo is abandoning true fans for the casual crowd, that the Wii is mostly owned by children and casual players--and that he wants third party devs to stop putting out trash. The problem with this is that he then says, when a promising game comes to the Wii, that the game belongs on another system, such as Soul Calibur Legends. He said he rethought this after Super Mario Galaxy showed the system was more capable, but then he does it again regarding the upcoming Wii game No More Heroes in an interview. The problem is that if you continue on the path of ridiculous and self absorbed rambling, you're gonna get a very different response and crowd than you wish. While you're up there on your soapbox, Dave, you might want to hang a sign around your neck saying the world is ending, as you just might get more believers than the ones you have now. I for one am now going to skip over anything written by him regarding Nintendo and the Wii (when the Wii is actually covered), as his rambling has become tired and, well, played out. I don't mind criticism, In fact I would like to see more of it--questioning and complaining with intelligence and clear thinking. I do believe there can be intelligent arguments against the Wii and what Nintendo is doing, but without the use of childish words like "dumchuck." (nunchuck) How about the reviews I once thought were great? Well, mostly they are, but with a few missteps. Childishness can also creep into reviews with the odd foul word and reference. When a supposed grown man, Greg Orlando, describes sex as: "taking the skin boat to tuna town" when regarding the game Mass Effect, it does make you question who the hell they are writing for. And while I do respect other people's opinions, the ones at PLAY I find can be beyond my own. I am not knocking them hard for this, as I use their reviews--all reviews really--as a comparison point, but the last level of Halo is trash? The newest Sonic game (for the DS) has a child plot? This game needs to be on another platform? Japanese game reviews can also be kind of jaded as in the one given for Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, where touch controls were lambasted (thankfully there was a counterpoint), but are they are somewhat informative of what we can expect if the game reviewed comes to the States. More and more, though, I'm finding that I have to read between the garbage fill to get to what I want to actually read, especially with Dave's reviews as of late. Another sour point comes in the interviews PLAY gives. While PLAY does manage to get a bountiful selection of devs to speak with, and some information is often given, it often turns out like this:"PLAY: You are so great, everything you do is so great. You can do no wrong and you are wonderful. Please, tell us of more greatness from you. Developer: Thanks! We are great, and you are great for pointing out we are great. PLAY: No problem! Now, tell us more about how you made this great game..." Obviously, not exactly, but you get the picture of what becomes standard and tiring to read. To be fair, this is indicative of the entire gaming community. No indepth reporting and hard questioning from supposed journalists means devs/corporate tools showing up with their propaganda to spew that their game/system is going to be the best game/system ever, mostly without criticism or question. Lovefests take the place of investigative journalism, seems like. PLAY still has great coverage of upcoming games though, and great E3 and Tokyo game show reports that blow the competition away (but with those interviews). Anime is also a favorite of theirs, taking up the back of the magazine if you wish as well (albeit with a lame Girls of Gaming promo somewhere within it). In the end, PLAY is still a magazine worth picking up, for what other magazine allows for cover stories of more niche games. The staff's fondness for retro games is really felt, and they do choose games that are not overly hyped to cover. If you want more coverage of truly mass market games and adoration of them get: EGM, GamePro, and Official Magazines, or go to IGN and GameSpot. For niche games, PLAY still is the one willing to give a games like Odin Sphere its proper perch. I will agree WITH Dave, however, that the staff at PLAY aren't fanboys; they really like games--and that comes through most of the time. Unfortunately, it's also that overt passion that can get the better of them a lot of the time.
Mature gamers rejoice! September 28, 2004
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
I've been playing video games since my Atari 2600 (and my lucky neighbors CalicoVision) and I'm happy to say that someone who grew up around the same time decided to start a magazine. At Play they go out of their way to show games that they think are great but that are never going to get any press anywhere else. Also, since the mid-1990's I've been into anime but have only been able to go by word of mouth or more recently by what I see on TV (thank you anime and cartoon network). Now I have play to read, as it has extensive, 20-30 pages of quality anime reviews.
The reviewers are more than competent and may actually posses brains, unlike the reviewers in most other game magazines. They realize that their reader is not only the thirteen year old Grand-Theft, Tony Hawk player but also people like me who need humor and intelligence in my reading material.
Finally, the quality of printing and lamination on the pages will make you want to keep each one forever and I have reread and consulted past issues over and over.
Thank you Play for giving me something other than Bills to pull out of my mail box.
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