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For Famitsu, 428 equals 40
The Famitsu 40/40 has lost some of its lustre in recent times. Since 1998, the magazine has awarded nine perfect scores, but three have come in 2008, including one for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.However, even we found the latest game to receive the honor surprising. 428: The World Doesn't Change Even So is a "visual novel," a graphical text adventure from roguelike kings Chunsoft that keeps player interaction to a minimum. In other words, it's very unlike any other game to receive a flawless Famitsu grade. In fact, it's unlike most other games, period.We haven't posted a great deal about 428. That's not because we don't find it interesting -- we definitely do. It's because, as Alisha has noted, a game of its ilk is almost entirely impenetrable to our western eyes. Suffice to say, it has now been instantly promoted from "intriguing curio" to "must-own import." Not that a release outside Japan will ever happen.%Gallery-27138%
Official Nintendo Magazine launching down under
Cheer up, Aussies and Kiwis -- even though your local Club Nintendo appears to have gone completely AWOL (checking ... nope, still nothing), you'll shortly be getting your very own version of Official Nintendo Magazine, basically the UK equivalent of Nintendo Power. That's ... almost as good. Right?Like its Brit cousin, Official Nintendo Magazine - Australia and New Zealand will be assembled by the talented folks at Future, the same name behind such excellent time-wasting periodicals as N64 Magazine, Amiga Power, and Arcade, and who currently churn out Edge. The first issue, a special edition no less, should be hitting shelves in December for AU$8.95.[Via press release]
Popular Science names Wii Fit one of this year's best inventions
Popular Science is smitten with the Balance Board and Wii Fit. In their top 100 inventions of 2008 feature, they feature the bundle and talk about the components that comprise the Balance Board. Personally, we've always been big fans of the whole package, aside from the price of the thing, so we're glad to see it get some exposure in an interesting magazine.%Gallery-4745%
Massively interviews E-ON editor Zapatero
EVE Online is a deep and complex game, and even those who've played EVE for years find there are still facets of gameplay they've never mastered. This is compounded by the game's unique nature as a massive galaxy primed for exploration and domination by its players, whose actions and machinations affect one another in a single setting that's never quite the same from one day to the next.EVE is always evolving, both in terms of the dynamics between players and the game itself, seen as a whole. But unlike most MMOs, EVE Online has an official magazine, called E-ON, which has kept pace with how the game and its player efforts have changed over the years. To flip through the E-ON back issues is to see the documented evolution of EVE Online. In fact, E-ON manages to stay ahead of the curve due in part to its access to CCP Games, but mostly through the efforts of the players themselves whose writing talents make up the entirety of E-ON. The man behind E-ON is Richie Shoemaker, aka "Zapatero." He's the one who's been guiding the publication along since day one, and ensuring its content digs beneath the surface of the game. He's interviewed EVE's players and developers alike, but it occurred to us... Zapatero has an excellent perspective on the game yet is rarely interviewed, himself. Massively recently caught up with Zapatero in between his continent hopping, and got him to tell us a bit about his approach to covering EVE and what the player community is capable of creating.
Massively interviews E-ON editor Zapatero Part 2
I read E-ON so I know you've really got your finger on the pulse of EVE, but given the magazine's quarterly publishing schedule, how do you meet the challenges of covering a game that's always evolving? My finger isn't on the pulse at all. Never has been. I just know where to find the pulse when I need it.It's difficult to be topical and obviously the magazine could be seen to date quite quickly, but I don't feel that aspect detracts from the the magazine at all. If anything it enhances it. I've always likened E-ON to a snapshot of EVE. Each issue captures EVE in a moment that will never exists again. For example, in the first issue we published a profile of a much-loved EVE fansite called EVE-I. Soon after publication EVE-I went down and never returned. (It actually went down before publication, but the admins assured me it would be back.) At the time it was slightly embarrassing that the we had a glowing profile of the site and some people on the forums found that amusing, but as time has gone by and memory has faded, EVE-I has been forgotten by all but the oldest veterans. The point is that the site is no longer active, it no longer even exists.... except in E-ON. It's a similar story with the "Darwin's Contraption" movie, which we previewed in Issue #005, and maybe the EVE: Ascension mod (#009) will never see the light of day, but in E-ON all these great fan projects can be celebrated for their efforts, if not their achievements.As for the ever-changing nature of EVE, it's precisely because EVE never stands still that there are always deep seams of material to mine for content. I actually feel that we could do an issue of E-ON every six weeks, perhaps monthly, but I'm not sure my superiors share that view because it's a fair bit of work that goes into design and production and MMM are a very small outfit, but there certainly is never a problem filling an issue with words -- quite the opposite.
Take-Two's Zelnick flexes for Men's Fitness
On the surface, he has it all. A rad name. The chair of a powerful video game publisher. A chiseled bod cut from the blood, sweat and tears of a grueling 5-day workout week. (Dude has meetings while exercising -- confirmed!) But what harrowing skeletons are dangling in Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick's closet? ...We're pretty certain that's not the focus of the next issue of Men's Fitness (on newsstands November 20th), but we will be treated to such compelling insights as: "When someone asks me to have a drink, I suggest the gym instead." Plus: 896 tummy tightening, calorie counting, GET LAID NOW tips!
MacTribe goes to print magazine format
Making the leap from online-only to print format, MacTribe has announced that it will begin publishing a magazine version. The site, and now the dead-tree edition, will continue to feature a mix of reviews and news along with "cultural and aesthetic" items sure to appeal to the sophisticated taste of Apple fans everywhere.We wish the MacTribe team the best of luck with their launch and look forward to seeing the results of their efforts on newsstands this month.[via MacTech]
Star Trek Online is Game Informer's October cover story
Magazine Game Informer's October issue (due to appear on stands any day now) will feature a ten page report on Star Trek Online, with new information and artwork. The game even graces the cover of the issue, which can already be seen online (to the right here). It's not a screenshot, though. It's just some artwork depicting Sovereign and Galaxy class starships.Previously featured articles in Game Informer have generally been quite substantial; they have combined tons of new images with descriptions of gameplay and dozens of quotes from developers. We haven't seen the STO piece yet, but it's probably worth flipping through at your local newsstand.There has to be at least something new to fill up ten pages, right? There probably aren't ten pages worth of info on the game out there at this point!
Esquire's E Ink-infused magazine cover shown on video
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Sorry, but where else were we gonna use that line?) For those unaware, Esquire's October issue is on newsstands now, and for 100,000 99,999 lucky souls out there, they'll receive one with a flashing E Ink display. Just in case you aren't quite lucky enough to apprehend one of your own, however, The Dastardly Report's Ryan Joseph was kind enough to snap a few photographs and even host a video of the exclusive mag before tearing it down for hacking purposes. Head on past the break for the clip, and tap that read link to have a gander at the stills. Oh, and dart out right this instant to snag your own.
WinMo mag suspends publication; will publish iPhone Life
In a rather surprising move, the publishers of the top Windows Mobile monthly magazine, Smartphone & Pocket PC, have announced that they're suspending publication. What's even more interesting is that they will be publishing a quarterly iPhone-oriented magazine titled Smartphone magazine's iPhone Life. Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine publisher Hal Goldstein noted in a blog entry that the reason isn't that sales of Windows Mobile devices are plummeting -- on the contrary, almost 20 million Windows Mobile devices were sold during the last Microsoft fiscal year. It's just that advertising support from Windows Mobile manufacturers, cellular carriers, and developers has dropped significantly.It appears that they are expecting big things from the iPhone market and advertisers, as they will be publishing the quarterly iPhone mag in paper and online versions. My personal speculation is that they realize that with all the venture capital going into iPhone development, there will be a lot of developers who will want to buy ad space to flaunt their products.Do you think this move is indicative of a larger trend that may spell doom for Windows Mobile? Voice your opinion in the comments!
iPhone magazines big in Japan
The land of Hello Kitty is also the land of the iPhone.Here in the US, we only have 2 or 3 magazines that cover the Mac, and they usually throw in coverage about the iPhone. Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine is coming out with a special iPhone magazine called iPhone Life. But for our Japanese friends, many iPhone-specific magazines have been available for over a year.In the photo at right, you can see 4 of the mags that were found recently in a Tokyo camera shop. One commenter to a Macenstein post reported seeing 6 different iPhone magazines in a small "Kwik-E-Mart" on one of the tinier Japanese islands.Apparently the content of the magazines is quite similar, with articles about jailbreaking the 3G being popular. Would you buy an iPhone-specific magazine? Take our poll![via Amarinalameda and Macenstein] %Poll-18414%
DS Daily: Gaming zines
Obviously all you computer savvy folks like to check out gaming blogs and sites to get your fill of gaming news (you're reading this right now, after all), but do you subscribe to magazines as well? If so, which ones (Nintendo Power, perhaps)?More importantly, how do you feel about game magazines? Do you think print journalism still has a place in the video game industry? (Note: We do.)
E Ink responsible for Esquire's flashing magazine cover
Nary a month after an E Ink exec asserted that e-newspapers would be going commercial by 2009, in flies word that a forthcoming issue of Esquire will likely be the poster child for the change. According to David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief, rags have generally "looked the same for 150 years," but all that will change when 100,000 copies of the September issue arrive on newsstands with a flashing electronic cover. The E Ink technology used will be exclusively available to Esquire until 2009, and the blinking "The 21st Century Begins Now" text will sadly fade after the battery runs dry in 90 days. Still, there's at least some chance the issue will wind up in the Smithsonian, and an even bigger chance magazine racks everywhere will require Kanye-approved sunglasses to even look at in just a few years.
Next-gen.biz to become Edge Magazine Online
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Future's news portal Next-Gen.biz will be re-branded as the online version of the prestigious British magazine Edge on Monday, just in time for E3. There's no word on whether the change will affect the site's editorial focus, but Future spokesman Will Guyatt told GI.biz that the newly branded site will "do what Edge has done for year's in print, but online." Great news for those of us who love the magazine's thoughtful content but don't want to shell out the big bucks to import a subscription.Next-Gen has been reprinting selected Edge magazine articles online since last May, and the magazine's previous web address currently redirects to Next-Gen's site. The move represents the re-death of the Next Generation brand, which was originally put out to pasture with the closing of the well-respected American magazine in 2001. On the plus side, when someone says "next-gen" from now on, we won't have to parse whether they mean the adjective or the web site. That was getting confusing!
Promotional Consideration: Play to lose
As it did with My Word Coach, Ubisoft sees a lot of potential in My Weight Loss Coach (My Health Coach in Europe), putting enough money behind the nutrition and fitness trainer's marketing budget to support several print and television advertising campaigns worldwide. The publisher has timed the title's release and its promotional push perfectly, too, riding the exercise-game wave set in motion by Wii Fit.In this edition of Promotional Consideration, we look at several of those My Weight Loss Coach advertisements to pick out the goofy details and voice our trivial complaints. Eat a light lunch, run up a flight of steps, and meet us after the break for the ads!%Gallery-15787%
Empyrean Age factional warfare map included with newest E-ON issue
EVE Online's latest dev blog comes from Zapatero, one of the staff at E-ON, the quarterly magazine all about EVE. Our own Massively columnist Brendan Drain, aka Nyphur, has been a past contributor to E-ON, which should give you an idea of how in-depth some of the articles are. The magazine is a useful resource for any serious player of the game and the fiction is pretty solid as well, it's just a shame that there's a few-month gap between each issue's release. Maybe it was that wait that pushed him over the edge, but rumor has it one of the Massively writers snapped and bought every back issue of E-ON, but we think that he's unhealthily obsessed anyway. Zapatero writes that E-ON is about to celebrate its third year in operation with the release of issue 12, which will ship on July 4th. As a bonus to readers, it will include a free poster of the Empyrean Age New Eden star cluster, to aid players who have enlisted in factional warfare. The map was created by Council of Stellar Management (CSM) delegate Serenity Steele, who also brought EVE Strategic Maps (a book of star charts) to fans of the game. The free poster map will include region names and outposts. Faction warfare-enabled regions will be highlighted and the security status of each system will be color-coded. For those who actually have EVE Strategic Maps, the poster is cross-referenced with the book, although Zapatero states that the map will be useful on its own. He outlines what will be in issue 12 in his dev blog; if the content matches up to what the E-ON staff has put out in past issues, it should be worth checking out.
Nintendo UK mag promises Animal Crossing deets
Animal Crossing is coming. This is a fact. What form it will take when it does arrive is a deeper mystery. Somebody at the UK edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine knows the answer to this, damn them, and they aren't afraid to shout about it.The above image (art from Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS) appears on the "Coming Next Month" page in the latest issue of the mag, and was dutifully scanned and internetalized by a Go Nintendo reader for all of us to speculate about. "It's been a while," reads the accompanying caption, keeping us on tenterhooks. "It's time to revisit an old friend. How's your village doing these days?"All of which is very exciting, but by the time the next edition of Official Nintendo Magazine appears (August 1st), we may have already heard more from E3. Either way, we'll know something about this game soon. Prepare your Golden Shovels, everybody!
SOE runs first EverQuest magazine ad in years
Sony Online Entertainment reportedly bought a "three-page advertising spread" for EverQuest in this month's issue of PC Gamer magazine. The massive ad promotes the Living Legacy campaign -- an initiative that allows former EQ and EverQuest II subscribers to play for free until the end of July.In two interviews, reps from SOE told us that the Living Legacy initiative is intended to show lapsed and potential EQ and EQ2 players that both games have evolved over the years, and that they deserve a fresh look. A print ad is a bold statement, although new marketing pushes for old games are not unprecedented. Near Death Studios bought ad space for Meridian 59 on the Vault Network when the game relaunched in 2001 after a two year absence. Electronic Arts plastered the web with Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn ads in the wake its 3D graphics engine upgrade.But will it work? Should more old MMOs do it? Are advertizing blitzes and a couple of free months of play what MMOs of yore need, or does this industry move too fast for that to be sufficient? Commence pondering.
Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Special iPhone Edition
For quite a few years, I've enjoyed getting Windows Mobile news from a traditional print magazine called Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine that does a great job of covering the use of mobile tech in the enterprise. The magazine was called Pen Computing back in the old Newton MessagePad / Palm days, but Executive Editor and Publisher Hal Goldstein moved with the market and changed the title and focus of the mag. They're following another industry trend, as recent issues have had a number of iPhone articles. Many compare one Windows Mobile phone or another to the iPhone, wondering if a Sony Ericsson EXPERIA X1 or HTC Touch Diamond is going to be the "iPhone Killer".I was glad to see that the magazine is looking beyond the comparisons to a special iPhone edition ($14.95) to be published in August (cover mockup at right). A quick glance at their Web site showed that TUAW is one of the "Best Web Sites" for iPhone, so they're obviously doing their homework. ;-)The publication date in August ensures that many of the App Store products and iPhone 3G accessories to be announced will end up in the special edition. It should be a fun collectible to look at 10 years from now!In the interest of full disclosure, I've been on the Smartphone & Pocket PC Board of Experts for several years, evaluating software for the annual Best Software Awards issue.
Nintendo Power's moon reveals its secret
And we totally called it. That's right: the meaning of the much-discussed moon that featured prominently in Nintendo Power had nothing to do with Disgaea, Metroid, Earthbound, or a ... Balance Board-compatible sequel to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker? You people are strange.So it's Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, which may seem like a disappointment to some (compared to, y'know, Earthbound), but hey: at least we get oodles of new details. According to Nintendo Power, this IGAvania is set in the mid-1800s and stars the series' first ever female protagonist, Shanoa. The magazine that there are "no real weapons in this game," with glyphs that can change form (for example, into a sword) Shanoa's weapon of choice.There's a mass of other details waiting for you after the break -- don't forget your whip glyphs.%Gallery-22992%
