29th June 2005, 1:05 AM
That new design for NP isn't that bad, but it's like the twentieth time they have an iteration of Mario Kart on the cover.
I was subscribed from vol. 47 (some time in 1992, had the SNES Star Fox on the cover) until possibly 150-something. As far as I'm concerned it started going downhill around vol. 80 - about the time they took out the Manila-folder design for Classified Information :p Considering the amount of noise people made about it I'm surprised they didn't change it back, but IMO that wasn't their biggest error. The redesigns just made the mag way more confusing and less coherent. Originally you had columns that told you: 1) what the best games are, overall; 2) all the games that are coming out this month, in a list from the best to the worst; 3) all the games that are coming out in the future, in a list from most to least anticipated. After they lost all that and got into "objective" reviewing and gossiping, I just couldn't be bothered. I don't know that they're up to these days, but when I stopped getting the mag they were trying (and failing) to be like a game website or something.
I was subscribed from vol. 47 (some time in 1992, had the SNES Star Fox on the cover) until possibly 150-something. As far as I'm concerned it started going downhill around vol. 80 - about the time they took out the Manila-folder design for Classified Information :p Considering the amount of noise people made about it I'm surprised they didn't change it back, but IMO that wasn't their biggest error. The redesigns just made the mag way more confusing and less coherent. Originally you had columns that told you: 1) what the best games are, overall; 2) all the games that are coming out this month, in a list from the best to the worst; 3) all the games that are coming out in the future, in a list from most to least anticipated. After they lost all that and got into "objective" reviewing and gossiping, I just couldn't be bothered. I don't know that they're up to these days, but when I stopped getting the mag they were trying (and failing) to be like a game website or something.