This is yet another insanely packed issue.
From the 132 pages in total, I have over 60 of them that I'd like to post! 😅
So I'll try to pick some great stuff and save the rest for another day.
First up is the preview for Final Fantasy 8 on PSone from GamesMaster 80 - April 1999 (UK)
@Dr_Ubertrout
I have it on Switch myself, but I have to be honest. It's quite low on my priority list when I look at all the other RPGs I haven't started yet...
I really get the feeling that AAA games are dying.
Layoffs everywhere, huge budgets, too big to fail; indie devs are eating their lunch and ex-McKinsey MBAs are leading the Xbox division into their disaster. It was cool while it lasted… but maybe its a good thing.
I wonder why Valve is not laying off people. Maybe it's because they understand gamers and keep career-centric managers out?
@obrhoff Valve haven’t created much in terms of notable AAA games since Portal 2 in 2011. There’s Alyx and CS2, but compare that to what they did the in the 13 years before starting with Half-Life 1. Steam really has taken over. Kinda proves your point. It’s not layoffs but a change in focus, where resources go, and similar drop in output.
With the magazines that I bought from Mort, came issue 194 of CVG, of which I was missing the Freeplay supplement, which has now been scanned and added to the magazine.
So the completed CVG 194 - January 1998 (UK) has just been added to the preliminary magazine catalogue, which means that the full run of Paul Davies CVG issues (168-211) is now available in its complete form.
For the people not familiar with the Paul Davies era of CVG, this is one of my all-time favourite magazine runs and had a massive influence on me.
They are responsible for my buying a Sega Saturn after all, while US based magazines that I read at the time were doing their best to steer people away from Sega.
The Paul Davies era runs from issue 168 until issue 211 and I highly recommend you download these as they are truly brilliant.
The freeplay supplement is a retro inspired mini mag with a monthly retro feature, titled: Dave Keball's Retro Computer Cabin, readers drawings, sales charts, tips and a classified section.
The "cheap" paper it was printed on actually cost way more than the the regular pages the main magazine was printed on. 😅
I'm going off of memory here, but I believe it cost about 3 times as much to print these as a normal page.
I was so happy when I found this PS2 available at my local GameStop! I've recently been repurchasing some of my favorite games and consoles from when I was kid, and its been such a thrill hunting and searching for these items. #PlayStation#videogames
Lacrimosa of Dana is the perfect jumping in point for the Ys series.
It's certainly up there as one of, if not the best Ys game, going by the people who's opinions I hold in high regard.
I didn't quite finish it on Switch (huge surprise, me not finishing an RPG...), but got really far into it and fell in love with it.
One of my favourite.
I wan't to restart it on PS5 when I finally get one and complete it this time.
As I was working on that latest GamesMasters issue, I came across the article for Just Cause 2 and remembered just how much I enjoyed the chaos that game brought, so I decided to hunt down the complete edition of Just Cause 3.
@OutofPrintArchive Crackdown 1 and I think 2 were great. However, I think they were cheeky in boosting the sales of the second game (I think) because it included a demo of one of the many Halo games.)