Writing About Games

When reviewing games for magazines, games journalists will often be facing very tight deadlines. As well as writing the review itself they also need to complete a game in a very short period of time. With this in mind it is easy to understand why they may prefer to review the games based on their characteristics eg. graphics, gameplay, lifespan, controls.

After looking at a few examples of new games journalism it seems that the writers have adopted a more personal style of writing rather than the objective writing usually found in magazine reviews. They tend to give thought-provoking opinions on particular aspects of a game or gaming culture as a whole. NGJ writers can provide an interesting second look at games by a journalist who is un-biased and under less pressure to write the article before a deadline. They are not obliged to review the game or pick out its good or bad points, they simply give their own opinions on the game or what interests them about the game.

In EDGE examples of NGJ can be found in the guest columns at the back of the magazine, these are written by games designers and game journalists. In their columns they discuss their personal views on a wide variety of topics within the video games industry as well as their views on individual games. I usually find the reviews in EDGE magazine helpful but a while back I was slightly discouraged when they gave GTA San Andreas an impressive 9 out of ten when I felt the game as actually pretty average. What was interesting is that a few issues later one of the writers in the guest columns seemed to share my feelings towards the game and wrote an article about the game that conflicted with EDGE's review. Had I read this article sooner it may have affected my decision to buy the game.

although I do find that some reviews in games magazines can be helpful, nowadays I would never be persuaded to buy a game from reading just one review in a magazine nor would I be convinced that a game is worth buying by reading an NGJ article. I prefer to use my own judgment based on my personal preferences in games and genres as well as my knowledge of certain developers/publishers. However I'm definitely a fan of NGJ, its great to be able to read other peoples opinions on games and the industry as a whole and I hope it is used more in future.