After last week's closure of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and the eBay offer for HardCore Gamer, talk has picked up that the print format is dead for magazines.

I do agree that Print Magazines of all forms have significantly suffered in recent years thanks in part to the explosion of web content available at the touch of your fingers, I do disagree that the format is dead. Console specific magazines are still successful thanks in part to their strong bond with the consoles they are about (not to mention that they usually offer bonus disc (eg. OXM) or online offers (OPM offering episodes of Qore)).

The problem is not that information is available online and for free. Take a look at North American magazines like Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Macleans, Sports Illustrated and others that still exist and still have the numbers to keep them a float. Yes, all are established and long running magazines, but so was EGM's 20 years.

If they are able to still run a successful magazine, then what is wrong with Videogame magazines? The answer is simple, but it's probably something that most companies like Ziff Davis would never adopt.

What do the magazines I mentioned above have in common...and Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu?

They're all weekly magazines.

In order for a Magazine to succeed in today's market it MUST be a weekly based magazine that can still compete with the internet. While the news that is available in the magazine will be relatively late in comparison to when it arrives on the 'net, people read magazines for the features and extra content put into each article. Your internet news gives you the basics, but when you want to read more about a specific topic, a magazine almost always offers more detail.

Here is an example of what I mean. Taking EGM's issue 233 (October 2008) and comparing it to Famitsu No. 1044 (from December 19th), let's compare the two magazines.

• EGM has 106 pages
• Famitsu has 264 pages

• EGM had roughly 42 pages of adverts (noting that ads were also located on inside covers and back page)
• Famitsu had roughly 42 pages of adverts (again, noting that ads were located on the inside front and back covers)

• EGM costs you 5.99 an issue (7.99 here in )
• Famitsu costs roughly 370 Yen which is about 4 dollars US and

• Both magazines offer the same type of content: previews, reviews, editorials, cheats and hints, essentially giving games plenty to work with.

I know comparing EGM to other North American magazines is a bit unfair. Time, Newsweek and Sports Illiustrated have more than 2 million readers each week, while Macleans (Canada's Neweek) and The New Yorker have between 500,000 and 1 million readers each week. EGM's numbers are still high enough that it could support an increase of issues.

EGM's problem in today's market was stated that even with 500,000 paid subscribers and 100,000 copies sent to stores, the ads were not there. But as shown above, in a 106 page magazine, nearly 40% of the magazine contains ads compared to Famitsu's 15%. So was the problem really about getting advertising dollars? Maybe, but I think it's not exactly the issue.

The problem lies in keeping gamers informed and the information fresh. With a monthly magazine, it becomes too difficult to please most gamers and give them something they don't already know.

Let's take reviews as the example here. If a monthly magazine offers reviews on games it has one of two options 1) review a game approximately 40 days before the game is released and hope that the publisher and/or developer do not delay the game. This problem has occurred a few times (eg. GMR Magazine releasing an early review of Ninja Gaiden only for the game to be delayed and GamePro reviewing Half Life for Dreamcast which was never publicly released). Because of this, most print magazines rely on 2) reviewing a game after it has already hit stores. This is a problem because the game has already been in stores and most consumers have already made their decision if they should buy the game. Since the review and the information given by the magazine doesn't help sales, why would a company offer exclusives or rely on a print magazine.

Now this would be completely different if Print Magazines were released weekly. Famitsu is often able to post their review a week prior or the week of a game's release and often this gives gamers the ability to determine if money should be spent on a game. The game and the content is fresh in the reader's mind and people are willing to spend the money. Also, because monthly magazines need their advertising dollars 1-2 months before the issue hits new-stands, often a game might change from the advertisement or reversely, a good enough ad for the magazine is not available.

I don't have any experience in print media so I am not too familiar with development process of a magazine, but you have to assume the following.

• Printing and publishing takes about 1-3 days
• Shipping to consumers and to stores takes 1-3 days
• Layout Setting takes about 1-2 days
• Submissions must be entered at least a week prior.
• The average article is written in a day
• It takes the average person approximately 0-3 days to develop enough of an opinion for a review
• It takes the average person approximately 1-5 days to gather and write up an Editorial or Preview of a game.

With this, it would seem that you could essentially create a magazine from cover to cover in about 2 weeks (so this week we'd be working on our Feb 1st issue).

But what about filling pages? Yes, it can be difficult to fill X amount of pages each month, so it must be just as difficult for a weekly magazine. Yes and no. if you don't have enough content, then of course, you're going to have a hard time filling in pages, but there is always something to write about. As shown above, Famitsu is a weekly magazine and has more than double the amount of pages as EGM and costs less.

EGM would still be around if it made some minor changes:

1) Become a weekly magazine
2) Kept or even reduced the number of pages BUT also reduced the cost.

Other weekly print magazines in contain fewer pages and are more affordable for that weekly purchase. Also, as stated before, developers and publishers would be more willing to pay for more ad space because they'd know that their product would be seen more often weekly rather than monthly. Since eyes would see their game four times as much as they already do, publishers can increase the cost for ad-space and in turn, recoup costs for staff, printing, etc...

The underlying issue in all this is 'are videogames viable' enough for a weekly magazine format? My answer is yes. There is more than enough information available each week that can be thrown into a weekly magazine. Take a look at the amount of posts on gaming news sites like Kotaku and Joystiq. Each day there are more than 20 decent articles published, so the news is there. If Famitsu can offer plenty of pages of reviews, previews, features, guides and even some extra stuff (pictorials of real people and comics) then EGM could have also accomplished the same thing.

Then what about costs and staff. Today's journalist is no longer a 'sit at a desk and work in an office' but rather a freelancer from around the world. Freelancers are cheap and there are a lot of people willing to work freelance if it could eventually lead to something bigger and better. Thanks to the ease of communication, a magazine can be based in a city like , or even a small town like (in ) and have people working around the world. The gaming market has only a small amount of cities where games are heavily produced: , , , and to a lesser extent and . Yes, games are made in other cities but travelling is easy (for example, if you have a writer based in Vancouver, he can drive the three hours south to Seattle to talk to people at Valve and/or Microsoft) or if you work in San Francisco, you can cover all the various companies in the area.

Plus, with Freelancers, reviewers can be located just about any where in the world. You ship the game to them and then have them submit to you electronically their review and you can have the review up in the next issue without any real problems.

We'll never know for sure if EGM had changed their format they would have succeed; there were too many outside issues involved with EGM and Ziff Davis that lead to its demise (we are all aware of the Bankruptcy from 2008). In my opinion, if there is a person or organization looking at creating a Gaming magazine in the same vein of EGM (writing quality), they should seriously consider having their format set-up as a weekly magazine.

I got to thinking last night about Print Magazines which led me to write a blog which I currently have posted on my BlogSpot site. While I've posted it, it is still a work in progress and I hope to get some feedback from some people before I show it off. Hopefully I get a response in the next day or so otherwise I'll just post it as is. Once it's up, I hope I can get some really good feedback on it.

I won't give away the details now, but is an editorial about Magazines and frequency...stay tuned!

It's has been pretty boring lately at my regular job and because of that I've been spending a lot more time fooling around the Web. I just spent the last hour or so fooling around my review blog which I call Tasty Games. While I've been posting my reader reviews of games (which you can also start reading here as well), I never bothered to actually see what BlogSpot had to offer. I finally started going through all the additional content you can add to your blog and I am actually quite surprised at what can be added. Yes, it is more or less just superficial additions, but more or less allows the user to create a Hub for all to see. I definitely plan on tweaking my page some more including posting RSS links of other blogs I follow (as they're all on my home laptop) and even my own other blogs (I used to post a lot on other gaming and non gaming sites and maybe someone out there is interested).

If you have a great blog outside of Giant Bomb and I find it interesting, I'd love to link it on my Tasty Games Blog, so please drop me a line.

Considering today is officially the last day of the year, I guess I can give my top 10 for the year. This was really tough considering I played a boat-load of games and at the same time, there were games I didn't get to play (eg. Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, Dead Space). Because I missed out on some key games, I just could not put them on a this list since I honestly didn't spend any reasonable time with them.

So here we go...

10. NHL 09

I love sports games. I enjoy them because of the fact that when it comes to value, you can't go wrong since every game is different regardless if you play against a friend, a random person or the computer. For me, NHL 09 was by far the best sports game of 2008 since it offered so much to gamers. The gameplay was top notch; the new Be A Pro mode is something that other sports games have already copied and will continue to mimic for years to come and the online was also a real blast to play. I think even if you are not a fan of Hockey, you can still appreciate what it has to offer.

9. Braid

It wasn't hard putting Braid on my Top 10 list. I heard absolutely nothing about this game until people started talking about its cost. A game very few people knew about costing so much, needed to be tried out. The second I laid my hands on the demo, I knew I found the first XBLA game I actually wanted to use MS Points on. While Braid is a relatively short game, it's not an easy game and one that requires some thought when playing. You can rush through this in a no time at all, but in order to get the story, you will need to play through the worlds a few times and see the secrets of each level. The solutions for the puzzles are always there and it just requires you to simply take a second and look carefully. This is a game that will either be loved or hated and in my opinion one of the most interesting endings that can be interpreted in various ways.

8. No More Heroes

I consider this year's Wii selection to be incredibly weak, but thankfully the only game I actually ended up paying for on my Wii was No More Heroes and I am glad that I did. If this game was released on any other system, it would have been just another GTA clone, but Suda-51 takes things to a whole-notha-level with this quirky action adventure game. Where have you played a game that has you one minute shaking trees to collect fruit then battling wave upon wave of crazy baseball players. The story is also really solid. If your an adult with a Wii, this is a game to definitely try out.

7. Professor Layton and the Curious Village

I love portable gaming and Professor Layton is exactly what a gamer on the go needs to play. The game takes the brain teasers you can find in various books and magazines and throws them into a murder mystery that is actually engaging. This is yet another title this year that most people probably did not play, but should have. It appeals to both kids who will learn from the game and adults who will be reminded of the games they played during their youths. The story is also not oriented solely for children, so anyone can pick it up and play. The puzzles were mixed quite well with a bit of everything, from your simple math questions, to trick questions and even bonus puzzles that were unlocked every week. Japan has already had two sequels to this game released and they are even planning an animated feature-film. I really hope to see those to games reach North America.

6. Fallout 3

I was a big fan of the original two Fallout games so this was always going to be a purchase for me. While this is very different from those two games, it is still a great experience filled with an interesting story, a solid collection of different characters and such an open-world experience. Western RPG fans won't find anything to hate here and even those who might not typically play that genre will still find something of interest here. I have yet to meet a person who has not enjoyed this game and you really need to play this game.

5. Burnout Paradise

Criterion Games got DLC right. Why release a game and forget about it when you can continue to add content to keep players playing? Yes, you have plenty of other games that offer you extra content, but do they offer it for absolutely no cost? Very few do and Burnout Paradise gives you so much more for such a small price ($0). The game itself is filled to the brim with content with a great amount of Races, Crashes, Stunts and a very enjoyable online game. Then six months after the release, they give you the ability to play the game with motorcycles. There are still plans for more content including a new Island and they've recently announced and released bonus cars. Yes, there are some content that will cost you, but considering you can buy this for 30 dollars, you are getting more than triple that amount of content. Racing fans were spoiled with this one.

4. Left 4 Dead

First impressions count for nothing. I can honestly say when I first heard and saw this game I could care less about it. I thought it was just another mindless action game that would only appeal Zombie fans. I apologize to Valve for doubting them. The moment I downloaded the PC demo just to try it out, I was already looking at the best way to buy it (Steam or Best Buy). The thing that sold me about Left 4 Dead is that every experience is different (similar to my love of Sports Games). One game you might decide to play with the computer. The next time you play, you'll be with three random people and then the next time you play, you're playing with friends. Because you're playing with different people you have to do things differently. If you're playing with run and gun people, your experience will be really different if you play with those who like to plan before heading forward. The game might seem short since there are only four movies, but thankfully the fact that each run through is different, you can end up spending a lot of time with this one.

3. Metal Gear Solid 4

What a way to 'finish' a series. I remember having played this game, I was at one point really disgusted. If you've played this game, there is a moment near the end where our hero makes a key decision and when it occurs, I was really upset. But to Hideo Kojima's credit, he threw a curve ball to us and surprises us. Those who have kept with the series have nothing to complain about this game. Fans of the series got exactly what they wanted and hoped for since the questionable release of MGS2. It's hard to talk about this game without ruining key points of the game but when you look at this from a far, you can really appreciate the effort put into the story and gameplay. I would recommend that those who have not played previous games in the series to either hit up YouTube and watch clips from previous games or pick up the affordable MGS 2 and 3 otherwise you are cheating yourself and not getting the full MGS experience.

2. Patapon

While people have complained that Sony did not do enough for the PSP this year, I beg to differ. This year had more than three solid, must-own games that should be in your PSP collection including  Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, God of War: Chains of Olympus and echochrome, which also was part of a slew of great downloadable PSP games that graced the system. But for me, the game that takes the cake as the best PSP game of 2008 is without a doubt Patapon. There is absolutely nothing available out there quite like this rythmn-based, real time strategy game. From the off-set, this game oozes with Japanese flavor and that's quite correct, but once you start playing, you see just how much depth is actually there. There is so much to do and your experience can be really different. This game looks beautiful, sounds incredible and is challenging in a great gradual pace that will never frustrate you. Sony took a chance to release this to North American gamers but I am glad they did. They went the right route in offering this game for only 20 dollars, which is a real bargain once you start playing it and something that Sony seems to be continuing with LocoRoco 2 rumored to also go the 20 dollar route. The sequel is already out in Japan and I bought it and they've done everything right yet again and offered even more content to fans of the series. While I have my doubts that Patapon2 Don Chaka will be released, so to change that I plead to PSP owners to pick up Patapon, you will not be disappointed.

1. Grand Theft Auto IV

There was not a single game this year that was talked about on so many levels like GTA IV. Economists looked at its sales potential, the Media followed it since of the history of the game and gamers watched the trailers over and over again to see if they could find secrets to the game. When it was finally released, I was completely surprised on just how well the game was done. Yes, there are some minor flaws, but on the whole, this was a great story, with fantastic characters and so many options. It actually gave gamers the role of a character that was learning as you played. Niko is not your normal character since he's a foreigner, with nothing and in the end, he's still viewed as a foreigner, but he and you have both learned a lot. There were some complaints from people who didn't like Niko because he didn't connect the same way as other characters but that was because he was an Eastern European, and there are only about 2-3 million of those in all of North America (estimated since he is Serbian and I know that there are only about a million Serbs living in North America). It was great how well RockStar had him trying to understand Western Culture all the while trying to fix a pivotal part of his past. The addition of choices and the fact that there were two significantly different endings really made this game stand apart from the rest of the series and it's now something fans will expect in the future. I am glad to say that GTA IV was in my opinion the best game of 2008.


Honorable Mentions go out to:

• Soul Calibur IV
• Prince of Persia
• Little Big Planet
• Rock Band 2
• Wipeout HD
• echochrome
• Castle Crashers

• Dead Space (Own but have not opened)
• Far Cry 2 (Own but have not opened)
• Battlefield: Bad Company (just bought it)
• Gears of War 2 (might buy it eventually)
• World of Goo (will be playing the demo soon and then maybe buying it through Steam's End of Year sale that ends on January 2nd)

Last night I finally finished reading the Watchmen Trade and the first thing that came to my head was: 'there is no way this is going to be a successful film!' Don't get me wrong, The Watchmen is a great Comic book series and definitely deserves all the credit it gets but after reading it, I find it hard to be able to:

a) translate that success into film

and

b) appeal to most people.

The reason I feel this way has to do solely with the ending of the book. Since I am going to assume most people have not actually read The Watchmen, I won't spoil the ending but rest assured, it's not exactly the best 'hollywood style' ending. The way things happen in the end seem too 'unrealistic' for most people to be convinced or to feel good. Yes, it does make sense in the grand scheme, but I really doubt most people will understand it.

I felt really weird after the resolution to everything. The whole plot makes sense but the way in which the characters act afterwords would probably cause most people to question the entire plot.

I really wish I could talk to someone about this in more detail, but since I can't spoil it, I guess I'll just have to wait.

I just spent a week in Japan (if you even have a remote interest in the country, you owe it to yourself to go) and when I came back I started looking at the list of games I have that I still need to complete.

Take a look for yourself:

PC

Left 4 Dead - I want to finish playing through all four movies, but I've only done one so far. I am loving this on Steam
Spore - I have to say this is my biggest disappointment this year. I had such high hopes for it but it did not grip me as much as The Sims did. I only got to the evolution phase and never bothered to evolve to the tribal stage. Maybe this Christmas, I'll play it some more.
Red Alert 3 - I just started playing it.

Technically I also have World of Warcraft but I'm still a Newbie so I play that at my own leisure. I also picked up WAR for 20 dollars (it was on discount at Best Buy). I haven't started it, but might give it a shot

Xbox 360

Fallout 3 - I really owe it to myself to finally get into this game. I was so anxious to play this so my delaying is really bad. I hope to spend a lot of time with this one

PS3

Resistance 2 - I have two stages left; should finish it if I just take the time to play it for 3-5 hours
Little Big Planet - I don't know how far I am exactly in the Single Player, but I hope to finish it soon and get creative to create my own level(s)
Dead Space - Still in Packaging
Far Cry 2 - Still in Packaging
Prince of Persia - Started playing this, love it - I plan on playing this on and off over the course of the next two weeks

PSN

Soldner-X - Playing this game for review at www.gamefocus.ca - Early impressions = Very European (made by a German company), Tough but does have some saving qualities
PixelJunk Eden - Have yet to play this - bought this on the Thanksgiving Sale before I left for Japan.
Street Fighter II HD Remix - It is just me or is this game really hard?! The AI is killing me! I spend over 2500 Yen in Japan playing SFIV so I do like my SF even if I seem to suck at it.

PSP

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - About a 1/3 of the way through, good game, but I just haven't played enough PSP games lately
Patapon 2 - I bought the Japanese game and so far it's really fun. If this game comes out in NA be sure to keep your save file from Patapon, you can transfer your characters (or least I think that is what it asked me when I started).

PS2

God of War II
Resident Evil 4
Final Fantasy XII

I guess my love for PS2 games has dropped recently. I really need to complete (or start in FFXII's case). Eventually I will

Wii

No More Heroes - My opinion, one of the best games no one played last in 2008. I haven't giving my Wii much love for good reason (where are the really captivating games?)

After I finish playing and reviewing Soldner-X I should be able to focus my time on everything else. I will probably start by completing Resistance 2, Little Big Planet and Prince of Persia then moving onto playing Fallout 3. I will sprinkle Left 4 Dead, WoW and Red Alert 3 in between. If anyone wants to play L4D via steam, hit me a PM (my steam account is finalkross).

Have fun gaming!

This is going to sound really stupid but I have a complaint I need to direct to Sony. My complaint is based solely on the lack of a Trophy Label on the back of Game Cases. Yes, a stupid complaint, 'who cares?!', chances are there are a lot of people. I am no Trophy Whore, but I'd love to know which games actually contain Trophy Support.

Just look at the back of any Xbox 360 game and you'll see it as plain as day 'Achievements'. Every 360 game contains Achievements, so there is no need to place the label on the box but they do it anyway. It's a nice touch and I believe Sony needs to follow suit. Sony needs to do this because they do have a lot of games that contain trophies but most people don't know about it. For example, were you aware that Far Cry 2 and Blitz: The League II both have Trophies? Chances are unless you played them, you had no idea.

Sony is placing labels for their Dual Shock 3 and Headset Support, but not for Trophies. I think they could easily place even a tiny one just to let people know about the fact that they can get trophies since it will be an implementation in their upcoming Home (something they should continue to be marketing).

What I've actually been surprised about Sony recently with their labeling on the Covers of their games is the recent inclusion of 'Only on PlayStation' (not direct quote). In the 10+ Years of Sony, this is the first time they've ever done this and I am a bit disapointed. In the past, Nintendo and Microsoft needed to signify that certain games were exclusive to their system, Sony never had to do that. It just goes to show that the times have certainly changed.

So that is all for my rant, please let gamers know that Trophies exist in a certain game, it doesn't hurt you and it certainly will help sales.

...this is my rant against EB Games/GameStop

So On Saturday afternoon I got the call most have been anxious to hear 'Little Big Planet is in'. So I headed over to the EB Games that I pre-ordered the game and was ready to pick it up. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, thanks in part to a mom with her 3 year old trying to buy a Dora game, my turn came. I gave them my pre-order receipt and they gave me Little Big Planet. As I was ready to leave, I asked
 'What about my Krato's Pre-Order Bonus content?'
- 'Yeah, we sold out of those.'

That's where I got angry and confused. You see, I pre-ordered Little Big Planet 2 months ago at EB Games only because I wanted that bonus content. I dropped 20 then additional 20 to ensure I got the copy when it came out. EB/GameStop love your money, so I thought that by giving them mine, they would repay me with some bonus content. They did not. I argued with the Manager who gave me the speil 'We only get a limited amount of copies' Which I countered 'I pre-ordered 2 months ago, so how could I not get it?' She followed it up with 'Well it's first come first serve.'

What ticked me off is that EB Games knows in advance how many copies a store needs when a game is released so they typically give an equal amount of additional items to fulfil this need. By her telling me that it was first come first serve, regardless of the money you give them, the fact that you pre-ordered a game is meaningless. It a horrible marketing ploy and I wonder how many others got shafted because of this. I had pre-ordered MGS4 and Fallout 3, which both came with Bonus material that they even called me to tell had arrived, I didn't preorder either too much in advance.

Since I wasn't going to get the content I was hoping to get, I felt that they didn't need my money. I asked for my money back and even took back my Pre-Order money that I had placed on Fallout 3. I was a waste of about 20 minutes of my day, but in the end, I felt like a winner.

Some might be thinking 'Man, it's just some bonus content that doesn't really make the game extra special'. That is completely true, but at the same time, EB Games uses the ploy of offering you something in order to buy the game from them. Since I wasn't getting the incentive to buy it from them, why should I give them the money.

So I pre-ordered another copy of Little Big Planet, this time from Amazon.ca, for 53.99 and free shipping. So while I might not get some bonus content, I have 6 dollars in my pocket and I won't have to wait in line. Also, it doesn't bother me about not having the game in my hands, since I leave in 12 hours for a Panama City, Florida and a week of working at a Triathalon Compettion (IronMan). Upon my return, I will have Little BIg Planet waiting for me and I will have still saved money in the long run. In fact, I also plan on Pre-ordering Fallout 3 since it too is being offered at a discounted price.

This is probably the last time I will ever pre-order a game from EB Games. I don't like their BS and I think they take advantage of everyone for nothing. Why pre-order a game with them when I can order it online or head to a Best Buy or Future Shop and purchase it with little hassle. I strongly suggest others do the same. Don't waste your time with EB Games or GameStop, think about saving money and hunt for those deals, they are everywhere.