Game Informer

My school library keeps a good stock of fairly popular magazines, especially ones popular among it's students. One lunch I stopped in, and read a couple of these for a while. I found particular interest in is Game Informer.

In addition to pertaining to subject matter I am interested in, it boasts a number of high quality articles that I spent a couple hours reading. Their is a certain informative nature, along with occasional bouts of wit. For example one person wrote in asking why Sony and Microsoft didn't combine and create a super console. While the true answer is complicated (They are both large corporations, that have many other competing divisions, and would probably make less money if they combined [because of the people that buy both] than they do combined right now.) this is what they had to say  -
          "That's certainly a bold plan... There's only one problem: What would you call such a system? The Microsony XStation? The Sonysoft Playbox?"
 - Excerpt From the November 2013 Issue. Page 9. No author given.

This humor makes it very enjoyable to read, and with 100 page issues, there is a lot there. The November issue  I mentioned above contained four pages of response to the previous issue, three lengthy articles (four or more pages), 11 articles of trivia or small twenty page or two editorial style news articles about upcoming games, and 16 reviews of similar length. There were very few ads as well, which made for a nice read. All in all, I spent a good three hours reading this one magazine.

All of the articles were well written, and I found it a very nice way to get my gaming news, as opposed to stumbling around online. Additionally, it was nice to read other peoples opinions about things that I have thought about, like Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness. While I personally think I will love the game, the critic I read said it was significantly worse than Disgaea 4, and the story was not as good as Disgaea 1. Now that I now this, I can hope that when they make a portable version (as they inevitably will, as it's a Disgaea game) they may have fixed some of the errors, and made it a smoother experience.

Interested? I was. If you were interested, I found a pleasant surprise when I checked out the website. 12 issues - one year - is only twenty dollars, and two years is only five dollars more. Checking this out, and expecting at least a forty dollar price tag (I sold magazines in middle school, and they are not cheap at this frequency and size), this satisfies me. I plan on getting a print subscription soon, as personally, the act of reading a paper magazine is more satisfying than surfing online pages. Additionally, I can then archive my old copies, and refer to them later on. I'll probably even get a binder and keep them in it in mint condition, because I'm a nerd about that type of stuff. If that's not your way, the online issue provides tie in videos and some exclusive content.

The witty articles, as well as the rich content and news has convinced me I need to get this. The price tag will allow me to with my (very) meager resources. Readers of both this, and Game Informer can expect responses or tie-in posts later on, or at the very least posts inspired by the magazine.