Game Informer
Rating:  -
Having been a gamer for many, many, years, I can say that Game Informer is the best magazine out there now, and probably the most comprehensive and well made gamer mag ever.
Simply put, this magazine does a lot of things well...
1) The reviews are honest and thorough. I would say that I agree with them about 90% of the time. Many games will have two reviews so you can get different opinion.
2) Great layout. There are reviews, previews, editorials, reader letters, game news, event coverage, etc.. Overall, there is a lot in every issue.
3) Good construction. Nice size and great color on the pages. I remember old school GamePro where it was like a cheap comic. This is not the case.
Rating: -
Really great magazine that covers gaming on all of the systems that are out right now. They usually have previews and sneak peaks into games way before I've heard anything about them in any other source.
Rating:  -
Let me start by saying that Game Informer is a good magazine. It offers reliable, up to date, and helpful information on all the latest & upcoming video games.
However, Game Informer is far from being perfect...
A perfect gaming magazine would offer helpful unbiased information on games of all consoles, developers, and platforms. Game Informer does offer unbiased information, on anything that isn't made by Nintendo, that is...
I own all of the current gaming consoles. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PSP. And I like them all! Xbox 360 is my favorite, Wii comes 2nd, and PS3 comes 3rd, but that's my own personal opinion. My problem with game informer is that they don't look at the systems the way I do, as seperate systems, with different strengths and weaknesses, but still equally fun.
I don't know what it is, but they hardly ever have a nice thing to say about Nintendo when mentioned alongside Sony & Microsoft. GI tends to write alot of niche reviews on Nintendo products, complete with insults to their designs, downplay of any of their systems positve aspects, and over exaggeration of their game's faults.
The only times, infact, were GI gives a Nintendo-made product a worthy review, is when the product is so widely and undeniably acknowledged as good that GI has no choice but to give the product it's proper rating out of fear of losing all credibiliy.
It's the smaller, less hyped games for Wii & DS that Game Informer attacks. I can't tell you how many times I bought a game for my Wii or DS before GI reviewed it, greatly enjoyed the game, and find a niche review written on it in GI the very next month!
They have given bad reviews on No more Heroes, Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, all of which I own, and think are great! And I'm not the only one either... Check out some of the customer reviews on the games I listed above here on Amazon, then go to GI's website and look up the same games and you'll see a very different picture being painted.
The reviews here on Amazon on the games I listed above are prodominantly positive, but the ones written by GI mark them all as a 6 out of 10, when they all at least deserve a 7.
However, I just renewed my subscription to GI yesterday when I went to GameStop. And why is that, you ask? Because despite the fact that GI is undoubtably biased against Nintendo products, it's reviews on all products that are not made by Nintendo or aren't available on a Nintendo console are spot-on, unbiased reviews that are usually 100% accurate. Also, when you make a subscription at GameStop, you get a discount card for 10% everything in the store.
The Verdict: GI is great for owners of PS3, Xbox 360, or PSP. Plus a subscription made at GameStop gets you a 10% off discount card. However, if you exclusively own Nintendo products, then get another magazine like GamePro or EGM, because GI's biased reviews on all Nintendo products will stop you from buying any new games or software for your Wii or DS.
If it weren't for the inaccurate, biased, niche reviews that it's publishers write on all Nintedo products, then Game Informer would be the best gaming magazine out there, but because the strange seemingly hateful ways it portrays most Nintendo products, GI becomes just another gaming magazine...
Rating:  -
This magazine is what people like to call garbage.
As we all know, Game Informer is owned by Game Stop- which in turn only drives the people who make the magazine to reach and maintain a corporate agenda. The reviews, as terrible and short as they are, are incredibly biased, and the magazine basically gives off the feeling of a giant advertisement.
The reviewers are also, among other things, incredibly hypocritical- for example, they recently gave the Wii game No More Heroes a low 6, largely because they felt the violence in the game was meant to "shock" and "offend". How strange, then, that the same magazine names Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a game littered with more bloodshed, gore, sex, and drugs than No More Heroes, one of the best games of all time?
The magazine is a puzzling mess of hypocrisy and incompetence. The writers and editors seem only to cater to what the corporate aspect of gaming wants to hear, with little regard to the actual value of the software or providing the reader with legitimate information.
As one member on the GameFAQs forum puts it: "If Gameinformer says it's bad, buy buy buy, play play play." That's about how unreliable and wasteful this "magazine" is.
Rating: -
This thing is WONDEROUS. I can't say that enough!!
Very informative, and the advertisements aren't apparent on every other page like *cough coughGameProcough cough*
The reviews are enjoyable, and I really like the short reviews towards the end. Two people review it, and it gets straight to the point.
Seriously, I have never come across a better mag!
5.5 stars.
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